Dana mentions hurricanes:
"It was hurricane month, too, and we were just in the track of the tremendous hurricane of 1830, which swept the North Atlantic, destroying almost everything before it."
The first hurricane I ever saw was in 1938, and though it was one of the biggest - we didn't know it was a hurricane until it was over.

hurricane is simple the name for a tropical storm arising in the atlantic, the same type of tropical storm in the western pacific is a typhoon.

hurricane's etymology (from the American Hertiage Dictionary)
ETYMOLOGY: Spanish huracán, from Taino hurákan; akin to Arawak kulakani, thunder.