Hurricanes don't have to strike the St. Augustine area to have consequences for its residents. In recent years we have faced changes with insurance policies and building codes in response to damages hundreds of miles away by 1992's Hurricane Andrew. But the effects of hurricanes that struck far from here have been felt for centuries. The research of Prof. Sherry Johnson of Florida International University reveals what faraway weather could mean for St. Augustine's folks.
An early July hurricane in 1784 interfered with the transfer of East Florida and its capital of St. Augustine from British ownership back to Spanish control.
Passing far out to sea, the tropical cyclone brought wave action that silted up the St. Augustine inlet. When Vicente Manuel de Zespedes arrived to begin his term as Florida's new Spanish governor, the inlet's decreased depth prevented his ship from entering the harbor. He had to board a shallow-draft launch in order to land in St. Augustine while his luggage and furniture went on to the mouth of the St. Mary's River for offloading.
Zespedes' already lean budget for governing Florida was immediately depleted when he had to feed and maintain Spanish army troops heading to Spain from Cuba refuged at the St. Mary's after their ships were damaged in the same storm. With fewer pesos, Zespedes fretted about how he would to feed his own troops. To offset the shortage of funds, Zespedes permitted local shipowners to bring in food from Savannah, Baltimore and Charleston in violation of Spanish trade restrictions. U.S. supplies were closer and cheaper than food purchased in Spanish cities such as Havana or Veracruz (Mexico).
St. Augustine residents hurried to take advantage of the loosened trading situation. They mortgaged homes to buy ships to import American items while they could. The town's community of Mediterraneans, who would become known as Minorcans, accumulated unexpected money, possessions and prominence in the late 1780s and early 1790s.
With their new financial status, members of the Segui, Ortega, Leonardy, Martinelly, and Costa families found themselves addressed as "Sir" or "Don," less than a decade after they arrived in St. Augustine with almost nothing after abandoning the failed New Smyrna plantation.
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