AmbergrisCaye.com Home Forums Talk Belize Weather Tropical Storms & Hurricanes 1931 Hurricane Belize (British Honduras)

Lady Erica talks about the 1931 hurricane!
https://soundcloud.com/peter-wolffsohn/lady-erica-early-years-part-10

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An experience in the 1931 Hurricane through the eyes of a Scottish child in St George's Caye.









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I had a grand uncle Efrain Aguilar who was a teacher at the old SJC when the 1931 Hurricane hit and students were being washed away. He was pulling them out of the water and putting them up in trees. I understand from stories I heard that he saved quite a lot of boys until he himself could go no more and he disappeared under the water. His statue is at Avenida Heroes in Chetumal and a street is named after him. Yvonne Paulette Hunter Romero



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Associated Press account of the 1931 hurricane interesting and graphic: "Storm Victims Piled on Fires and Destroyed."





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Fort George (Cork Street) area after the hurricane, you can see the Barney Melhado's home. Off to the right you can see a small portion of a barge.



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An Aerial view of of Belize city after the 1931 hurricane, notice how the swing bridge is side ways.



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A photo showing the aftermath of the 1931 hurricane at Fort George, interesting photo, I see the old custom building and check out the passenger boats including the Afrikola on the left. The report was that five feet of water settled over the city during the 1931 hurricane, but it seems from this photo that the initial tidal surge would have had to be much higher than five feet to get these vessels on shore. If we look at the man walking on the right of the photo he is about five to six feet tall. The water would have had to be his height to get these boats on the land considering their drafts. The Fort Point area where these vessels rest is about four feet or more above sea level. So we can safely say that at the time the tidal surge came in the water level would have had to be at least 10 feet or more to get these vessels where they are



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A Detroit 1931 newspaper.



A different paper...



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This house was not anchored to its foundation. It seems to be intact even after rolling over. Most houses would have collapsed I believe but this one did not. This tells me the structure was built soundly except for the anchoring of the foundation. The house seems very salvageable. I am thinking what probably saved this house from destruction was the fact that it was able to roll over. Had it been anchored to its foundation it would have been open to projectiles flying into it at 150 miles an hour, and would have destroyed it. It has a hip roof as well.

The frames of the majorty of our Colonial Houses were fitted together usinf was is called Mortise and Tenon. It's the strongest method of joining wood. It looks like this method of construction was used on this house that's the reason why the house held together even after toppling over. Obviously, this a a foundation fail.



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Photo after the devastation of the hurricane in 1931 of North Front Street in Belize City.



Yabra area of Belize City after the 1931 Hurricane.



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A poster from the Jesuit archives research center telling the tragic death of 11 Jesuit priest in a 1931 Belize hurricane. Here is a link with details of the tragedy. So sad and touching. Several of the Fathers continued to give absolution to others as they, themselves, faced death.
https://www.jesuitscentralsouthern.org/stories/september-10-1931-a-day-of-remembrance/

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Sir John Adler Burdon's account of the 1931 Hurricane when he was living in the Government House.

September 10th 2021 marks the 90th Anniversary of the 1931 Hurricane which devastated the then Belize Town . Let us keep in our prayers always those who died during that time . We hope that no storms especially of that magnitude ever comes to our shore .



Diane Stewart
My grandmother's story sounded like something you'd see in a movie. She was swept out of a window, and the force of the 10-15 ft. water caused her to be jammed between a vat and the house. She was then pulled back into another window by someone who saw her. That person had to grab her by her hair first to pull her towards that window. She ended up with a huge gash in her leg, and the only thing handy for antiseptic was whisky-which supposedly did the job! Gran was 30 at the time. My grandmother said that during the eye of the storm when it was calm, people came out on the streets-but the calm was followed by a tsunami. She said the water by the Bird's Isle/Wesley College area retreated, then when it came rushing back, it pushed a lot of empty drums that were piled up at the shore, down Albert St. She said the drums made an incredible ruckus rolling ahead of the water down the street.

Micheal G Mastry
My Dad and family also told stories of the 31 Hurricane… people decapitated by flying corrugated iron roofs and bodies floating by second floor windows in the tidal wave.

Lesley Sullivan
Yes my grandfather told stories of that too. Back then they didn't get the kind of warnings we have today and so people didn't know to take shelter. Also they didn't realize that the worst part of the storm can be after the eye passes and so many went out side thinking it was over only to caught in the second half of the hurricane. From all the evidence looking back it probably was a Cat 4 or 5 hurricane.

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Dora Riverol
The 1931 destruction of Queen Charlotte Town also called Coolie Town inhabited by East Indians sometime in the 1870s and after...not to far from St John's College at Loyola that was totally flattened killing some 11 priests and foreign students including Dato Burns the first Belizean Jesuit priest...he was the brother of Andrew Burns long time owner of Angelus Press...Hon George Price as a 12 year old student narrowly escaped with his life...guess the good Lord had other plans for him.

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Burial of the students that perished at Loyola Park after the 1931 hurricane.

Andre Campbell
The area still exists but is now covered in the bush ang mangrove. The Rt. Hon. George Cadle Price recollected his experience in an interview of how he was washed away from Loyola Park at the southern end of the city and ended up clinging on for life on Albert Street at Wesley Methodist Church. All alumni s of SJC past to present should know about this history as we remember the souls of the Jesuit Missionaries, teachers staff and students who perished in this tragic natural disaster.

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George Villanueva
A view in a corner section of one of the residential sections in Belize, where boats, gasoline drums and other wreckage swept in by the sea was hurled against the already wrecked homes that were left in the wake of the recent tidal wave & hurricane in 1931 which left Belize in total ruin as well as taking an estimated toll of over 2,500 lives.

The aftermath of the tidal wave & hurricane that hit Belize in 1931. Besides the heavy destruction, there were also a death toll of over 2,500 people.







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It seems from the caption on theses photo, there were many cases of liquor strewn all over the place after the tidal wave hit.



Melhado Liquor Warehouse after Hurricane of 1931