San Eusebio

When Governor James Rumsey Beverley advocated birth control to check the fast-growing population of Puerto Rico he stirred up a wasp's nest of indignation. But Puerto Ricans regard Nature's population-reducing visits with fatalistic equanimity. Every few years a hurricane kills a few hundred of them, destroys their homes and crops. They name the hurricane for the saint on whose day it occurred, then forget about it. When on the day of San Eusebio last week the sea became still under a windless sky, natives were suddenly reminded of the hours preceding the hurricane of San Felipe four years ago (TIME, Sept. 24, 1928). They gathered in clusters, looking southeast. A few boarded up their windows. Others did 'nothing until police began herding them into their least flimsy churches and schoolhouses.

As usual the storm was quickly over. Spinning out of the Atlantic, it swiped at the Virgin Islands, killing 15 persons and leaving St. Thomas littered with wreckage. Then its full force struck Puerto Rico at the northeastern tip, moved across the northern part of the island and was gone to blow itself out against the mountains of Haiti. San Juan, the populous capital, was sharply ripped by the storm's 120-m. p. h. vortex. Lesser villages were torn from the hillsides. In all, 217 Puerto Ricans were killed, 2,219 injured, 75,000 left homeless. Next day Governor Beverley flew over the devastated areas, reported that the entire banana crop was destroyed, that coffee and tobacco had suffered a 50% loss, citrus fruits nearly 90%.

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