A major hurricane strikes Martinique, leaving 700 dead.
1891 Martinique hurricane
The 1891 Martinique hurricane, also known as Hurricane San Magín, was an intense major hurricane that struck the island of Martinique and caused massive damage. The third known hurricane and only major hurricane of 1891 Atlantic hurricane season, This cyclone was first sighted east of the Lesser Antilles on August 18 as a Category 2 hurricane on the present-day Saffir–Simpson scale. Intensification occurred as the storm moved northwestward, striking Martinique later that day as a Category 3 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 125 mph (205 km/h). On August 20, the cyclone briefly turned northward over the Caribbean Sea and brushed the eastern Dominican Republic while re-emerging into the Atlantic Ocean. The storm then moved west-northwestward across the Bahamas before making landfall near Homestead, Florida, on August 24. Dissipation is estimated to have occurred on the following day after the cyclone reached the east-central Gulf of Mexico.
Martinique
Martinique is an island in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the eastern Caribbean Sea. It was previously known as Iguanacaera which translates to iguana island in Kariʼnja. A part of the French West Indies (Antilles), Martinique is an overseas department and region and a single territorial collectivity of France.