Wikipedia:Today's featured article/March 9, 2022
Racer's hurricane was a destructive tropical cyclone that affected Jamaica, northeastern Mexico, the Republic of Texas, and the Southeastern United States in September and October 1837, killing an estimated 105 people. It was named after the Royal Navy ship HMS Racer, which encountered the cyclone in the northwestern Caribbean Sea. Matamoros, on the southern bank of the Rio Grande, faced hurricane conditions for several days, with significant damage to ships. Towns along the Texas shoreline were inundated, and Galveston Island was devastated, with nearly every building washed away. A water-level rise of 8 ft (2.4 m) on Lake Pontchartrain wrecked buildings along its shores and submerged low-lying areas of New Orleans. As the weakening storm buffeted the Outer Banks of North Carolina on October 9, the passenger steamship SS Home ran aground off Cape Hatteras and broke up in the pounding surf (pictured), killing about 90 passengers and crew members. (Full article...)