page_title: 1892 Mauritius cyclone
hierarchical_section_title: 1892 Mauritius cyclone
caption_attribution_description: 1892 photo of Port Louis, Mauritius, in the aftermath of the cyclone. The Cathedral of St James is still standing; the spire is visible in the background.
context_page_description: On April 29, 1892, a powerful tropical cyclone struck the island of Mauritius in the South-West Indian Ocean. At least 1,200 people died during the storm, and another 4,000 people were injured, with 50,000 people left homeless, making the cyclone the second-deadliest tropical cyclone recorded in the South-West Indian Ocean basin, behind Cyclone Idai in 2019. It is also the third-deadliest recorded in the Southern Hemisphere, behind the aforementioned Cyclone Idai and the 1973 Flores cyclone. The storm originated north of the island, and local meteorologists expected that the storm would remain away from the island. Consequentially, residents were unprepared until the arrival of the strong winds. For a span of 65 minutes, the calm of the storm's eye occurred on the island, before the winds again increased, reaching 195 km/h, with gusts to 216 km/h. During the storm, the barometric pressure dropped to 947 mbar, breaking the 74-year-old record for the lowest recorded pressure on the island.
  The damage on Mauritius was so severe that contemporaneous newspapers questioned whether the island would recover. Damage was estimated at £2,000,000.
context_section_description: On April 29, 1892, a powerful tropical cyclone struck the island of Mauritius in the South-West Indian Ocean. At least 1,200 people died during the storm, and another 4,000 people were injured, with 50,000 people left homeless, making the cyclone the second-deadliest tropical cyclone recorded in the South-West Indian Ocean basin, behind Cyclone Idai in 2019. It is also the third-deadliest recorded in the Southern Hemisphere, behind the aforementioned Cyclone Idai and the 1973 Flores cyclone. The storm originated north of the island, and local meteorologists expected that the storm would remain away from the island. Consequentially, residents were unprepared until the arrival of the strong winds. For a span of 65 minutes, the calm of the storm's eye occurred on the island, before the winds again increased, reaching 195 km/h (121 mph), with gusts to 216 km/h (134 mph). During the storm, the barometric pressure dropped to 947 mbar (27.96 inHg), breaking the 74-year-old record for the lowest recorded pressure on the island.
  The damage on Mauritius was so severe that contemporaneous newspapers questioned whether the island would recover. Damage was estimated at £2,000,000 (1892 GBP, $9.75 million USD).
caption: Damage in Port Louis from the storm
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