Hurricane Flora is one of the most famous hurricanes to affect the island of Tobago and is among the deadliest Atlantic hurricanes in recorded history. Flora began as a tropical depression in the Inter Tropical Convergent Zone on September 26. 1963 before developing into Tropical Storm Flora three days later on the 29th. The storm then quickly intensified with rapid convection, becoming the monster known as Hurricane Flora just the next day. With winds of 193 km/h (120mph), Flora was classified to be a category 3 hurricane and made landfall on Tobago on 30th September 1963.

This June hurricane which touched the north coast of Venezuela was the earliest known to that region and the only one to pass south of the island of Trinidad in 50 years of record. The system had an estimated speed of 120km/hr and stuck the south western part of Trinidad within the region of Cedros. There were 13 deaths and substantial property damage in Trinidad with 300 homes destroyed in Erin. 60 Derricks belonging to the Trinidad Petroleum Company had fallen and been destroyed. Oil was flowing over the countryside from 20 wells and storage tanks.

On the 10th October 1847 a disastrous hurricane over the island. Although the island was stuck by a hurricane in 1790, the perception of the occupants at the time was that the location that the location of the island was outside the range of storms that were frequent in the Northern Antilles at the time (Woodcock, 1867). Hence, the construction of buildings didn’t take into consideration the possible destructive impacts of high winds and heavy rainfall that comes along with storms and hurricanes (Schwartz, 2015).