The Hurricane Priest

A Spanish Jesuit priest, Fr Benito Vies (1837-1893) was sent to Havana, Cuba to monitor the Metereological Observatory in El Colegio Belen. When he arrived, he was surprised by the loss of lives and property the people had suffered as a result of frequent hurricanes that hit the island. He was determined to do something to help the inhabitants of Cuba. So he would make observations of the weather between 4 AM until 10 PM daily. He would write in detail everything that happened on the hour, wind direction, cloud formation, especially when a hurricane was approaching. As the years went by, he became an expert in predicting hurricanes, and would warn the people to take shelter or somehow protect themselves from the wind and rain. In 1875, he predicted a major hurricane as people scrambled to take shelter or run away from the coast. In the following years he would give information about upcoming storms and hurricanes, so much so that the people would call him the ‘Hurricane priest.’ Fr Vies has become known as the founder of  tropical meteorology, creating in the process a network of weather stations along the entire Caribbean Sea.