"Hurricane Thanksgiving" Marks End of Season in Virgin Islands

Willie Drye
for National Geographic News

November 23, 2005

Residents of the U.S. Virgin Islands know that if they haven't been hit
by a hurricane by mid-October, there's a good chance they're safe for
the rest of the Atlantic hurricane season.

Since 1726 the islanders have devoted a day in October to give thanks when the summer fury passes them by.

"You'll be thanking God for sparing you and taking care of you," said Myron Jackson, a historian who lives on St. Thomas.

"Traditionally it centered around church services," Jackson said. "They would have services of thanksgiving for either sparing their lives if a hurricane had struck or sparing them from a storm through the hurricane season."

Today the third Monday of October is still observed as Hurricane Thanksgiving Day.

Local interest in the holiday waned during the less active hurricane seasons several decades ago, but in 1989 powerful Hurricane Hugo struck the islands.

Several other powerful storms—including Hurricanes Luis and Marilyn in 1995—have prompted renewed interest in the observance, Jackson said.

"There's been a revival to go and observe it by going to church," he said. "It's up to the governor's discretion these days as to whether we get the day off."

Virgin Islands' Hurricane History

The hurricanes that do strike the Virgin Islands usually begin as summer thunderstorms that roll off the west coast of Africa near Cape Verde.

Some of the most powerful hurricanes on record have formed in this part of the Atlantic Ocean, which is at roughly the same latitude as the Virgin Islands.

These Cape Verde hurricanes are most likely to form between mid-August and late September. During those months islanders keep a close watch on the television weather reports.

"Ninety percent of the storms that strike here start in Africa," said Gary Metz, a spokesperson for the University of the Virgin Islands on St. Thomas.

"When we watch the Weather Channel, they look like Pac Man—big, red, glowing blobs lined up across the Atlantic."

Although the hurricane season extends until November 30, Cape Verde storms don't often form after September.

The hurricanes that do form late in the season usually begin west of the Virgin Islands and move away from them. So by mid-October, the worst of the season is usually over for the islanders.

The last time a powerful hurricane crossed the Virgin Islands was September 1998, when Hurricane Georges raked the islands with winds exceeding 120 miles an hour (190 kilometers an hour).

Some spectacular earlier storms also pounded the islands.

One of the best known hurricanes visited the islands on August 31, 1772. Alexander Hamilton, who later became the first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, was living in Christiansted on St. Croix when the storm struck.

Hamilton, who was about 15 years old at the time, wrote a dramatic letter to his father about the hurricane's fury.

"Good God! What horror and destruction," Hamilton wrote.

"It's impossible for me to describe—or you to form any idea of it. It seemed as if a total dissolution of nature was taking place. The roaring of the sea and wind—fiery meteors flying about in the air—the prodigious glare of almost perpetual lightning—the crash of falling houses—and the ear-piercing shrieks of the distressed were sufficient to strike astonishment into Angels."

Willie Drye is the author of Storm of the Century: The Labor Day hurricane of 1935, published by National Geographic.

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