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The 1899 San Ciriaco hurricane devastated Puerto Rico, as seen in this Library of Congress photo, then turned toward the Outer Banks of North Carolina, where it left a path of destruction. Photos donated to the Outer Banks History Center document the storm's aftermath from a North Carolina vantage point.

NC historians get century-old Outer Banks photos

Catherine Saunders-Watson
Catherine Saunders-Watson

The 1899 San Ciriaco hurricane devastated Puerto Rico, as seen in this Library of Congress photo, then turned toward the Outer Banks of North Carolina, where it left a path of destruction. Photos donated to the Outer Banks History Center document the storm's aftermath from a North Carolina vantage point.
The 1899 San Ciriaco hurricane devastated Puerto Rico, as seen in this Library of Congress photo, then turned toward the Outer Banks of North Carolina, where it left a path of destruction. Photos donated to the Outer Banks History Center document the storm’s aftermath from a North Carolina vantage point.
MANTEO, N.C. (AP) – A collection of photos more than a century old is giving historians a new view of North Carolina’s Outer Banks after one of the worst storms in the area’s history.

The Virginian-Pilot of Norfolk, Va., reported the Outer Banks History Center in Manteo has been given 20 photos taken by a weather bureau official in 1899.

Many of the photos handed down through the man’s family capture the damage from an August 1899 hurricane that killed more than 3,400 people from Puerto Rico to the East Coast.

The storm wrecked at least 13 ships along the North Carolina coast.

One photo shows a shipwreck’s cargo washed onto the sand while another beached and broken ship is in the distance. Another photo shows dozens of docked boats whose owners were attending an auction of shipwreck remains.

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