In late June 1898, U.S. troops were arriving in Cuba in preparation for the offensive during the Spanish-American War.
The Chief of the fledgling U.S. Weather Bureau was Willis Moore. He was very concerned about the threat of hurricanes against the U.S. forces in the Caribbean. A disastrous hurricane in 1896 had killed 114 people as it wreaked havoc from Florida to Pennsylvania.
Moore passed his concerns to the head of the Department of Agriculture, James Wilson, who got them an audience with President McKinley.
Armed with charts, maps and records, the pair presented their case to the President, warning that as many armadas had been sent to the bottom of the sea by storms as by enemy force.
Wilson proposed a hurricane warning service consisting of observers on Caribbean islands who would warn the American fleet.
McKinley concluded, “Wilson, I am more afraid of a West Indian Hurricane than the entire Spanish Navy. Get this service started at the earliest possible moment.”
Congress authorized funds for establishing observing stations throughout the central and eastern Caribbean. They included Kingston, Jamaica; Trinidad; Curacao; Santo Domingo and Santiago, Cuba.
The first stations would be operational in July, actually after the Spanish Fleet was defeated in Santiago on July 3rd, but the stations would become the backbone of the hurricane warning service that has continually improved over the years to become what it has today.
