Barely two weeks after Rafael Leonidas Trujillo Molina was “elected” president, the city of Santo Domingo was destroyed by a very strong hurricane, named for the saint’s day: San Zenon. The death and destruction caused by the hurricane, magnified by the fact that the eye passed over the city, leading thousands of people to take refuge elsewhere, only to be swept up in the storm. While San Zenon was not as large a storm as David (1979) or Georges (1998), the losses were phenomenal for the times. Santo Domingo was a city of wooden buildings with tin roofs, and if photographs of the era tell the truth, none survived the storm. Estimates put the death toll at 4,000 and the injured at 19,000, in a city of just 50,000. Because of the chaos and his swift actions, President Trujillo was able to rebuild Santo Domingo, gain enormous prestige and earned the title of “Father of the New Fatherland” as he rebuilt Santo Domingo. Historian Frank Moya Pons emphasized the role that the storm played in Trujillo’s ascent towards his 30-year dictatorship during a recent lecture called “Hurricane San Zenon and the New Fatherland.” With the special powers granted to Trujillo by Congress, the President created working committees, distributed foodstuffs, order a freeze on prices and salaries, and ordered the immediate construction of buildings, schools and hospitals.
For historic data on hurricanes in the DR, see http://www.dr1.com/weather/hurricanes.shtml