Remembering Hurricane David in the Dominican Republic

The roar of Hurricane David remains vivid for people in the Dominican Republic nearly five decades after the storm struck. For those who lived through it, the memory is more than a record of deaths and destruction. It is also the sound of violent winds, the search for shelter and the uncertainty that followed.

David, a Category 5 hurricane, made landfall around midday on Aug. 31, 1979, between Haina and San Cristóbal. Winds reached an estimated 240 kilometers per hour. The storm killed thousands, left hundreds of thousands of people homeless and caused heavy material losses.

Journalist Adalberto de la Rosa remembers David as the first hurricane he experienced. He recalls adults trying to keep younger family members inside while the wind produced what he described as a terrifying, thunderous noise. In the days afterward, bread became one of his family’s main foods, while the lack of electricity made conditions harder.

When de la Rosa eventually left home, he saw flooded streets and damaged houses in Santo Domingo Este. The destruction was compounded by Tropical Storm Federico, which brought more rain while the country was still recovering. “That was terrifying. I said, ‘What is this?’ A thunderous, powerful noise, and the older people, more worried than we were, trying to keep us in the room,” he recalled.

For Milcíades Ortiz, a newspaper driver from Palenque, the hurricane is remembered through the community where the eye passed. He was 21 and living with his parents, whose family home, though new, could not escape the force of the wind. The recollections collected by Diario Libre preserve how residents experienced the disaster beyond the figures recorded in official accounts.

“

That was terrifying. I said, ‘What is this?’ A thunderous, powerful noise, and the older people, more worried than we were, trying to keep us in the room.