The preliminaries of the catastrophe of Matanzas appeared almost one week before the event, as all over the occident of the country the state of the weather began to show signs of express deterioration since the early days of October.

At Havana, located about 80 km to the West of Matanzas, the direction of the wind fluctuated between the north-northeast and the south-southeast since the October 2^nd. The cloudy sky and the showers at intervals completed the picture previous to the pass of the hurricane. Next we insert a summary of the observations taken by the father Viñes at the Capital City:

Day	Mean Atmospheric pressure (mm)	Mean Temperature (ºC)	Wind			Rain
			Direction	Mean speed (m/s)	Max. speed (m/s)
2	756.59	30.0	E - S.O.	2.0	4.0
3	757.81	28.9	S.S.E. - N.N.E.	0.8	2.5	5.5
4	756.45	28.2	S.S.E. - S.E.	1.9	3.5	0,5
5	756.11	27.8	S.E. - O.S.O.	1.8	2.5
6	755.03	28.7	S.E. - E.S.E.	3.6	8.5	42,5
7	748.42	26.1	E.N.E. - N.E.	15.5	25.5	45,0
8	749.26	26.5	N.N.O. - N.O.	17.0	20.5	18,5

Chart 3. Meteorological Observations made at the School of Belén, Havana.  (2 at October 8 1870) (Source: Observatory of the School of Belén)

It is possible to affirm that the prevailing meteorological situation in Matanzas presented similar characteristics. According to chronicles published in the press and the analysis of the existent bibliography, the state of the weather had become menacing since the day 6 in the afternoon. In particular, the increase of rainfall in a gradual way should be pointed out, as it produced an increment of the flow of the rivers Yumurí and San Juan that cross the city of Matanzas, besides the saturation of the water table in the whole region.

Next we insert a description of the physical characteristics of the area where these rivers flow: The Yumurí, with 20 km of course through the beautiful valley that takes its name, passes through a haven and ends in the bay, separating the central nucleus of the city of Matanzas from the neighborhood of Versalles. It was navigable in an extension of 2,5 km starting from its outlet (Imberno, 1891).

The river San Juan was one of the biggest in the county and delivered a considerable flow. It separated downtown from the neighborhood of New Town (San Juan Bautista del Pueblo Nuevo), with which communicated by means of two big bridges. It was navigable along 4 km and had as flowing the river San Agustín, of bigger flow and numerous streams (ibidem).

The two mentioned rivers and the Canímar, located more to the East, all ended in the bay of Matanzas.

On the other hand, it is necessary to point out that that this bay enters deep into land with a longitudinal axis of about 11 km, and what is more important in this case: it is oriented in direction east-northeast - south-southwest. It has a width that fluctuates between 8 km at the entrance and 2 km at the end. Its depth varies notably, between 600 m near the center and 6 to 7 m close to the docks (Núñez, 1984). This last place is in fact where the San Juan's and the Yumurí’s outlets are.

Following the order in which the events took place, we may say that the day 7 in the morning, the showers and occasional cloudbursts were continued by a torrential, intense and continuous rain, impelled by more and more violent gusts. This situation remained during the whole day. On that phenomenon Viñes points out:

The quantity of rain that fell in the surrounds of Matanzas and other points where the vortex passed was so excessively big that those that witnessed it hardly found terms with which being able to express it: torrents of water poured of the clouds, whipping with violence the buildings, and flooding everything in brief moments... (Op. cit.).

The volume of water accumulated by the rivers was already notable the day 7 in the afternoon, when a second factor produced the climax of the situation: we refer to the wind.

The wind had stayed blowing with mean direction from the east-northeast since noon of the 7. But at 19 hours of that same day it was already over 33 m/s, without changing direction. At about 23 hours it modified something its direction, rotating to the East and east-southeast and increasing more and more its intensity until reaching and even surpassing 45 m/s.

Soon after midnight, the San Juan's and the Yumurí’s overflowing waters arrived to the city of Matanzas and began to flood the urban nucleus quickly.

At that time, the wind whose intensity continued increasing unceasingly, lifted powerful surges heading to the south-southwest, taking enormous masses of sea water toward the end of the bay: exactly in direction to the city and the outlet of the rivers.

The described phenomenon, consistent in the enormous accumulation of water as consequence of the persistence of the wind from a constant direction (defined in English by the term wave setup), blocked the discharge from the rivers to the sea through an area of little depth, with scarce submarine currents of discharge.

The fluvial waters, dammed by the impetuous sea surf, turned the city into an extensive and upset lake, uniting the liquid torrents from both rivers into one, speedy and rolling. The situation remained under those conditions, -with the water ascending more and more-, until more or less 3 hours 30 min. on day 8, when the arrival of the vortex took place.

A relative calm was observed toward 4 hours. On chart 5 it is observed with clarity the sudden change in the meteorological situation. According to father Viñes’s data, the vorticial calm took place between 3 hours 30 min. and 4 hours 30 min., when the minimum pressure of 969 hPa was annotated; but the observer's inaccuracy in Matanzas and the doubt margin that the barometric readings offer, prevent us from reaching greater accuracy.

The Moon, about to arrive to its full phase, could be seen momentarily in the sky. As it has happened in other many occasions, a great amount of people considered that the hurricane had already passed (Fernández de Castro, 1871) and tried to leave to the streets, looking for help amid the delicate lunar clarity.

Hour	Atmospheric pressure		Wind
	Inches	Hectopascals	Direction	Intensity
06:00	29.85	1010,8	E.N.E.	Strong
07:00	29.84	1010,5	E.N.E.	Strong
08:00	29.83	1010,2	E.N.E.	Strong
09:00	29.81	1009,5	E. ¼ N.E.	Strong
10:00	29.80	1009,1	E. ¼ N.E.	Stronger
11:00	29.78	1008,5	E.N.E.	Stronger
12:00	29.71	1005,8	E.N.E.	Strengthening
13:00	29.66	1004,4	E.N.E.	Strengthening
14:00	29.60	1002,4	E	Strengthening
15:00	29.58	1001,7	N.E. ¼ E.	Strengthening
16:00	29.50	999,0	N.E. ¼ E.	Strengthening
17:00	29.48	998,3	E. ¼ N.E.	Storm
18:00	29.45	997,3	E. ¼ N.E.	Storm
19:00	29.44	997,0	E. ¼ N.E.	Storm
20:00	29.44	997,0	E. ¼ N.E.	Storm
21:00	29.43	996,6	E. ¼ N.E.	Storm
22:00	29.42	996,3	E. ¼ N.E.	Storm
23:00	29.31	992,6	E.S.E.	Hurricane

Chart 4. Meteorological Observations made in the Captaincy of the Port of Matanzas (October 7 of 1870)

Hour	Atmospheric pressure		Wind
	Inches	Hectopascals	Direction	Intensity
00:00	29.31	992,6	E.S.E.	Hurricane
01:00	29.19	988,5	E.S.E.	Hurricane
02:00	29.01	985,4	E.S.E.	Hurricane
03:00	28.75	973,6	E.S.E.	Hurricane
04:00	28.64	969,9	E.S.E.	Mild
05:00	28.66	970,5	S.S.O.	Violent gusts
06:00	28.76	973,9	S.O.	Terrible
07:00	28.98	981,4	O.S.O.	Loosening
08:00	29.15	987,1	O.	Loosening
09:00	29.38	994,9	N.N.O.	Loosening
10:00	29.50	999,0	N.N.O.	Loosening
11:00	29.53	1000,0	N.O.	Storm
12:00	29.63	1003,4	N.O.	Storm

Chart 5. Meteorological Observations made in the Captaincy of the Port of Matanzas (October 8 of 1870)

At 4 hr 30 min. approximately, the wind began to blow again, in opposite direction to the previous one. At 5 hr, the observer wrote down S.S.O., violent gusts (Anonymous, 1870a); but one hour later, surely impressed for the magnitude of the catastrophe, forgot the official terminology and he wrote: S.O., awful (ibidem).

Awful it was, indeed, and even much worse; since after the wind changed direction in 180º, it didn't only liberate the pressure that retained the waters of the flood, but it rather impelled them in the opposite way, with growing push towards the bay. When the gigantic wave began to move, it crawled along every object that floated on it and it dragged up from its foundations a great number of wooden houses, driving them to the sea following the wind.

On the other hand, the water of the river San Juan and those that flooded the Valley of the Yumurí poured with more violence on the city, phenomenon also reinforced by the slope of the basin and the lower course of both rivers.

To it should be added the fact that it had being raining for more than 30 hours, the capacity of infiltration of the floor had diminished notably (Ferro, 1982). A similar phenomenon should have taken place in the City, since it has been well established that the diverse constructions related with the urbanization diminish or modify the natural drainage conditions.

Reports on the level reached by the flood in the city are few. Among the published data, one from the area of Pueblo Nuevo appears, where the level of the water reached more than two sticks (Castilian sticks); this is: 1,7 m approximately. While, in the area around San Luis' railroad station, it ended up ascending more than 6 m. Another report assures that ...at 3 and 5 minutes of the (day) 8, the river Yumurí marked 12 feet above its ordinary level... (Anonymous, 1870b). Presumably, refering to Castilian feet (278,6 mm) (Anonymous, 1972), meaning that in that place the height of the water reached approximately 3,5 m.

Lengthy and Dantesque would be the enumeration of the impressive scenes picked up by the columnists of the catastrophe. Among them, we extract these paragraphs:

We held on until one o’clock when the rivers San Juan and Yumurí overflowed, it was a horrible thing; seeing that the flood grew, I ordered that the family moved to the house at the corner that is a two stories house. When leaving to the street the water reached to the chest. I made this way three trips carrying the children and exposed to drown each step that we made because the current was so impetuous... To have an idea formed of the flood, it will be enough to know that the water went by the roof of the houses in the town's low part; the impetuous current dragging those that were in the easels... According to the parts of the Police, it is calculated in 2 000 people that have perished... (Anonymous, 1870b).

A fact that illustrates with fidelity what happened during the second part of the catastrophe turns out to be the ordeal at the railroad station of San Luis, in Matanzas. In that place a group formed by some 60 people, men, women, and children had been caught. 26 of them were employees of the Railroad Company, and other 30 were passengers of the train that had arrived in Matanzas on the afternoon of the 7, coming from Havana. These people could not leave the building of the Station, because they were stopped by the tempest at the moment of their arrival to the city, and they waited for the weather to improve to continue toward their destination (Anonymous, 1870b).

After an indescribable night, the ascent of the water forced them to climb up to the roof of the local, holding one to each other with great difficulty against the battering of the water and the wind. Several of them were dragged by the gusts while the ones remaining sheltered the best way they could in a kind of rustic raft, formed by pitches and other fragments: ...until the growing water rolled over and it was dragged by the current. At 6 in the morning it passed down the river heading to the bay, some loudly requesting mercy... they would be about 40 people on it, and a wave buried them in the abyss... (ibídem.).

Dozens of victims that were able to survive the flood at the city were later crawled to the sea without any one been able to make the smallest attempt to rescue them nor having any means to do it.

Only some few of these unfortunate people could get rid of the death among the stormy waters. This way, for example, the crew of the American ship Liberty, anchored in Matanzas (see chart 6), rescued a man named Antonio Mesa who covered his shift in the night of the day 7 as night watchman at San Luis' mentioned station. Sailors of the brig Mary Chase saved six men in total ...that floated in a raft, and others that rushed to the sea from the dredge of the bay (Anonymous, 1870a). The Geo Hunt, on the other hand, ...rescued a black woman (ibídem.).

The English ship Nichols was able to save ...3 white, 2 Chinese and 2 black... (ibídem.), while the Manlius rescued ...a 2 white and 2 black... (ibídem.)

It is said that of 22 people crawled to the sea on the beams of the roof of the warehouses of Gorostiza and Benet, only 5 were able to survive, holding with all their forces to the chains of the anchors of the ships anchored in the bay, until they could be hoisted on board (Fernández de Castro, 1871).

We have calculated that the maximum gusts during the pass of the meteor should be of about 55 m.s-1; therefore, the objects and constructions exposed to the effect of the wind received a push that should fluctuate between 193 kg.m² and 286 kg.m².

The possibility should not be excluded that the readings of the barometer used in Matanzas have been somewhat inexact. It could happen, among other reasons, as consequence of the specific characteristics of the instrument used or to errors of calibration of the barometer, probably holostérico.

In connection with the pass of the hurricane, descents of the sea level were reported at the Bay of Cárdenas (2 m) and also at Batabanó, South of Havana, although it’s not known the time. From this last place it was informed that “the beach was in dry.”

On different descriptions of the phenomenon reference is made to the electric activity observed during the pass of the hurricane. Regarding this Viñes (Op. cit.) stated the following:

The quantity of developed electric fluid should be very considerable; because as they count of Cárdenas it was observed a phenomenon similar to a northern light that lasted for space of 10 minutes (Viñes, 1909).

Fernández de Castro (Op. cit.) on the other hand, it points out that in some towns of the Island lightning related with the electric activity of the hurricane were observed, among them in Cienfuegos, and there were similar observations made from Havana in the night of the day 7.

Up to where we know, there were no reports of tornadoes associated to the circulation of the meteor.