Hurricane Opal
CNN feedback: Hurricane Opal
CNN Interactive asked its users:
At least six are dead and nearly a million people were without power at times in the wake of Hurricane Opal. How did the storm affect you?
Here's what our users said.
Updated October 7, 1995 7:30 p.m. EDT
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My father has been living in the same house in Atlanta for 24 years. Today it took me 45 minutes to go see him, a trip that usually takes 15 minutes. The amount of damage is enormous, and today, Saturday, he is still without electricity. We both have had to dump all of our food out of our refrigerators due to the length of time the electricity has been out. He has a large tree on the top of his home, which will require a crane to remove. In 32 years of living in Atlanta, this is the worst storm I have ever witnessed. To those with snide comments about living in high risk areas such as the Florida coast, let me assure you that wherever you live in the path of this storm, you suffered.
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Here in Virginia we received quite a bit of rain and wind but mostly it's been humid and very very cloudy. We've been affected by most of the hurricanes that have hit here or close to us. I live on the beach so we can always expect huge waves which we've been getting the past couple of days. Felix scared everyone here so I think we're all trying to prepare a little bit more.
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This one missed us here in Puerto Rico. But I was amazed (well, not really) at how quickly the press suddenly switched all its attention from the Caribbean to the path of Opal. I know that Opal left destruction and suffering in its path, but please don't forget all the victims still trying to piece their lives together in the swath cut by hurricanes Luis and Marilyn! Those people typically have less infrastructure to help them get back on their feet. Even FEMA-- which did a fantastic job in the recovery effort in the Virgin Islands-- yanked its Marilyn situation reports from its pages as soon as its attention was diverted to Opal.
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I have been following Hurricane Opal with some interest, since I just moved from the Panama City area. I am sur- prised by those who keep saying it should be "no big deal." 1) I have many good friends in the area whom I have been try- ing to get in contact with, and I cannot. This is a "big deal" to me. 2) I suppose the next time they have a monster of a storm bearing down on them with winds in excess of 130 mph, they won't have much time to think about whether or not such a storm is a "big deal." They will be wondering if they will survive, and if they will have any place to live if they do survive.
Also, not everyone who experienced Opal owns a $500,000 house on Navarre Beach. A lot of people who lived in little frame houses are coming home from their evacuation to find out that they have not only lost their home, but their jobs have probably blown away, too. To be honest, I think this will wind up like Hugo five years ago: the rich will be compen- sated, but the poor will have to fend for themselves.
Don't be complacent about other people's disasters. When you get your own, then you may be grateful that other people decided not to be complacent about helping you out.
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The only effects felt in Harrisburg were a day of rain, and a day of very, very nice heat. But I really don't feel sorry for all of the people that were killed or "de-housed" by the hurricane. It's not like this is the first one to hit that area, and it's not gonna be the last. If you don't wanna get hit with em, don't live where they hit. If you don't want to get flooded, don't live on a flood plain. If you don't want earthquakes, don't live on a fault line...etc.
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Living in South Florida and still recovering from hurricane ANDREW, I feel the Panhandle area got off lucky with OPAL. The majority of damage sems to be from storm surge. I have little compassion for those living on beaches or barrier islands. Those living a mile or so inland seemed to fair O.K.
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I just wonder how much federal taxes will be used for people who have no flood insurance while living along the waterfront. I'm tired of constant bailouts to people who contnue to build their homes so close to the waterfront without flood insurance, then expect Uncle Sam to bail them out.
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I live in Destin, FL and the situation here is very bad. I read the article about how Opal is and will affect our area. The travel experts that you interviewed for your story have arrarentlt never even seen Destin. First of all, these so called travel experts say that we will be fine by the next tourist season. October was a very busy tourist season due to the fishing rodeo. Unfortunately not only are most of the fishing boats destroyed, the contestants would have no place to stay.
Secondly, these so called travel experts referred to Destin as the "redneck riviera". Before Opal destin was full of very upscale housing and society. I don't know of any "rednecks that would live or stay in any of Destin's many million plus dollar homes.
Our lives have been temporarily destroyed and many people will be unemployed as a result of this storm. It seems like the little publicity that we have gotten as a result of this storm has been very inaccurate and poor coverage. If you are going to cover the story, and include information ffrom "travel experts" at least find some people who know what they are talking about.
I am available to you at any time to answer questions or give you whatever information that you require. For current progress reports and pictures of the rebuilding of Destin check out our WWW site. http://www.destinfl.com.
Pics From CNN.com
Destin
Pensacola
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Escambia County
Gulf Shores
Auburn
Dothan
Atlanta
Chattanooga
Big storms no stranger to Northwest Florida coast
By BETH CHACEY Daily News Staff Writer
If you thought Erin was big and bad and that Opal delivered the worst beating the Emerald Coast has ever taken, you are either new to the area or suffering from natural disaster memory loss.
You could also use a quick hurricane history lesson.
Storm records dating back to 1875 in Northwest Florida show a long line of storms and hurricanes. And there are plenty of people who were around for hurricanes in the early part of this century.
Lifelong Point Washington resident Peggy Bailer was about 8 years old when the hurricane of 1936 came to her rural home, washed inland and sucked the water out of Choctawhatchee Bay. You could have walked across it, she said, except that it was so muddy.
"I can remember so well everyone waiting for it, with the wind rising," Bailer said. " ... As a child I thought that was just so exciting."
That unnamed hurricane hit Fort Walton Beach dead on, with only 80 mph winds but 6-foot tides. It came up into Grayton Beach and moved the cottages around, Bailer remembers.
And it was the first time that U.S. Highway 98 linking Destin with Fort Walton Beach was washed out, Bailer recalls.
History is just repeating itself.
The Sept. 27, 1956 edition of the Playground News featured a front-page package about Hurricane Flossy, which struck Fort Walton Beach head-on. The journalists of that day were not impressed, describing Flossy as a storm that failed to live up to its billing. Winds were only about 70 mph, not the 100 mph figure that was advertised, and tides were a good 3 feet below the project 8-foot height.
But U.S. 98 between Fort Walton Beach and Destin was inundated once again, undermining the asphalt along the road's north end. Despite the damage, the road was open to traffic the next day.
Flossy's damages amounted to no more, the report said, than a few broken windows, peeled-back roofs, flooded docks and sunken boats.
Further down the timeline, Camille missed Northwest Florida in 1969 and hit the Mississippi coast instead. This area got a lot of rain and gusty winds, but the storm's effects were nothing like what the folks in Pass Christian experienced. Newscasters at the time said Camille was no lady.
And remember all the trees we mourned after Erin and Opal?
"Some of the damage done to trees that have withstood the slow march of time for nearly half a century and more, will never be undone."
That description from the DeFuniak Herald wasn't about Opal. It wasn't about Erin. It described Hurricane Eloise, according to the story that appeared in the paper's Sept. 25, 1975 edition.
And, the paper said, "Eloise was no lady."
When Eloise hit, more than 200 commercial buildings lost their roofs, according to the Sept. 24 edition of the Miami Herald.
And get this, according to the same Miami Herald story: "More than 100,000 residents of the coastal stretch east of Pensacola -- many of them given just scant hours notice of the impending storm strike -- were driven from their homes. Traffic jams clogged the inland highways leading to higher ground and safety in the predawn hours."
Storm tides of 8 to 10 feet smashed ashore at Panama City Beach, the story continued. And Eloise left a $229 million path of destruction.
The Daily News reported after Eloise that the Okaloosa Island Pier lost 550 feet when a recently opened concrete extension completely broke off and washed away.
And though the Destin fishing fleet was hit, the fishermen vowed to have the boats running in time for the Fishing Rodeo.
Sound familiar?
How good is your storm memory?
September, 1875: A storm strikes Panama City.
September, 1877: A storm strikes Panama City.
September, 1877: A storm strikes between Panama City and Apalachicola.
October, 1878: A storm strikes east of Panama City.
October, 1879: A storm strikes in the vicinity of Navarre.
August, 1880: A storm rakes Northwest Florida from Apalachicola to Pensacola.
September, 1882: A storm strikes Pensacola.
August, 1885: A storm strikes Panama City.
September, 1885: A storm strikes Panama City in almost exactly the same
location as the August storm.
September, 1885: A storm moves ashore in Louisiana, then turns east and
travels across Northwest Florida.
June, 1886: A hurricane strikes Apalachicola.
July, 1887: A hurricane strikes the vicinity of Fort Walton Beach.
September, 1889: A hurricane strikes Pensacola.
August, 1894: A tropical storm strikes Pensacola.
October, 1894: A hurricane strikes Apalachicola.
July, 1896: A hurricane strikes between the vicinity of Fort Walton Beach and
Panama City.
August, 1898: A hurricane crosses Northwest Florida, from Apalachicola to
Fort Walton Beach.
August, 1899: A hurricane strikes Cape San Blas.
September, 1901: A tropical storm strikes Pensacola.
September, 1903: A hurricane strikes Panama City.
June, 1906: A tropical storm strikes Panama City.
September, 1907: A tropical storm strikes Panama City.
June, 1909: A tropical storm affects all of Northwest Florida.
August, 1911: A hurricane hits Pensacola.
September, 1914: A tropical storm affects all of Northwest Florida.
September, 1915: A hurricane strikes Panama City.
October, 1916: A hurricane strikes just west of Pensacola.
September, 1917: A hurricane strikes the vicinity of Fort Walton Beach.
July, 1919: A tropical storm hits Pensacola.
October, 1922: A tropical storm strikes Pensacola.
September, 1924: A hurricane strikes Panama City.
August, 1928: A tropical storm strikes Cape San Blas.
September, 1929: A hurricane strikes Apalachicola.
July, 1936: A hurricane strikes Fort Walton Beach.
August, 1939: A hurricane affects Northwest Florida from Apalachicola to Fort
Walton Beach.
July, 1948: A tropical storm moves ashore just east of Destin.
August, 1950: Hurricane Baker moves ashore just west of Pensacola.
June, 1953: Tropical Storm Alice follows a looping course across the Gulf of
Mexico and strikes Panama City.
September, 1953: Hurricane Florence strikes between Fort Walton Beach and
Panama City.
September, 1956: Hurricane Flossy strikes Fort Walton Beach.
September, 1957: Tropical Storm Debbie strikes Fort Walton Beach.
October, 1959: Tropical Storm Irene strikes just west of Pensacola.
June, 1965: An unnamed tropical storm hits just east of Fort Walton Beach.
June, 1972: Hurricane Agnes strikes Cape San Blas.
September, 1975: Hurricane Eloise strikes just east of Fort Walton Beach.
October, 1985: Tropical Storm Juan strikes Pensacola after loitering over
Louisiana.
November, 1985: Hurricane Kate strikes Panama City.
July, 1994: Tropical Storm Alberto strikes just east of Fort Walton Beach.
August, 1994: Tropical Storm Beryl strikes Cape San Blas.
June, 1995: Hurricane Allison strikes Cape San Blas.
August, 1995: Hurricane Erin hits Navarre.
October, 1995: Hurricane Opal strikes between Navarre and Fort Walton Beach.
From the Department of Commerce.
The Articles
Opal 'devastates' Florida panhandle
Alabama, Georgia also feel storm's punch
October 5, 1995
Web posted at: 8:15 a.m. EDT
PENSACOLA, Florida (CNN) -- This waterfront city on the Florida panhandle is a "scene of devastation" after Hurricane Opal crashed in from the Gulf of Mexico with 144 mph winds. The storm quickly moved northward into Alabama, where it weakened into a tropical storm Thursday morning. At least two people were reported killed as the storm tore through the Southeast. Opal's heavy rain and high winds had widespread effects, spawning tornadoes, causing floods and blocking roads with fallen trees. Schools were closed and sporting events canceled. More than half a million people in Florida, Alabama and Georgia lost power, officials said, and it could be days before electricity is restored. Tens of thousands of people evacuated, clogging roads before the storm hit.
Opal came ashore between Navarre Beach and Gulf Breeze, Florida, just east of Pensacola, about 6:30 p.m. EDT Wednesday, tearing up beaches, washing away waterfront homes, ripping off roofs and destroying an unknown number of boats.
At 5 a.m. EDT Thursday, Tropical Storm Opal was centered 55 miles east of Huntsville, Alabama, moving north at 25 mph. Forecasters said it will be over the eastern Great Lakes within 24 hours. Maximum sustained winds were 40 mph but the storm system continues to weaken and should soon become a tropical depression. Along the path of the storm, another four or five inches of rain are possible, especially in mountainous areas. Flooding and tornadoes are also a threat. A tornado watch is in effect until noon EDT across most of the Carolinas.
Emergency officials in Escambia County in Florida said Pensacola Beach is a "scene of devastation." Officials reported one restaurant destroyed by fire and leaking propane tanks floating in the Gulf. The bottom floor of the Holiday Inn at Pensacola Beach was completely gutted by water and the town's fishing pier was severely damaged, county officials said.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency sent in relief teams and was planning to fly in water and other supplies. President Clinton signed an emergency declaration clearing the way for federal help with cleanup and rebuilding in Florida and Alabama. "Our hearts and prayers go out to all whose lives have been disrupted by the devastation," Clinton said in a written statement. "I will do all I can to ensure you get the federal support you need for successful recovery efforts."
As the storm moved northward, hurricane warnings were discontinued from Anclote Key on the west coast of Florida to Mobile, Alabama. Tropical storm warnings were dropped from south of Anclote Key to Venice, Florida.
Heavy rains preceded the hurricane throughout the Southeast. A Delta 727 overshot the runway Wednesday night at Hartsfield Atlanta International Airport, which had been drenched by daylong downpours, and got stuck in wet grass and mud. None of the 133 people on board was hurt. Near Atlanta, high wind from Opal tore a 70-foot experimental blimp from its moorings. Emergency crews worked to untangle the blimp from power lines.
On a scale where category five is the most dangerous hurricane, Opal was downgraded from category four to category three before coming ashore. Andrew, a category four hurricane, hit south Florida and then Louisiana in August 1992, killing 14 people and causing billions of dollars in damage. Hurricane Camille, category five, hit Mississippi and Louisiana in August of 1969, killing 256 people and causing damage in the millions. Opal is the latest in the busiest Atlantic hurricane season on record.
Hurricane Opal pummels Gulf Coast
Storm weakening as it heads inland
October 5, 1995
Web posted at: 2 a.m. EDT (0600 GMT)
PENSACOLA, Florida and CLAYTON COUNTY, Georgia (CNN) -- Cities along the U.S. Gulf Coast looked like ghost towns Wednesday night as Hurricane Opal battered the area. Opal crashed into Florida's panhandle late Wednesday, tearing up beaches, ripping roofs off buildings and flooding homes and roads. (663K Quicktime movie)
The storm was weakening as it made its way across land. At 12 a.m. EDT (0400 GMT), the storm was centered 25 miles north of Montgomery, Alabama, moving north-northeast at 23 miles an hour. Top sustained winds were down to 75 miles an hour. Waves were at least 12 feet above normal and could rise. Police and National Guardsmen have been mobilized to prevent looting and help with the cleanup.
Georgia could be pummeled by the strongest winds and heaviest rain in 15 years. Already, there was flooding. Hurricane warnings remained in effect from Anclote Key, Florida, to the mouth of the Mississippi River.
The storm, the latest in the busiest Atlantic hurricane season on record, spawned tornadoes, stirred wind gusts that reached 144 miles per hour and was blamed for at least one death. Tens of thousands evacuated, clogging roads before the storm hit.
Heavy rains preceded the tornadoes throughout the Southeast region. A Delta 727 overshot the runway at Hartsfield Airport in Atlanta and got stuck in wet grass and mud. None of the 133 people on board were hurt, and though the runway was shut down, it caused no flight delays because it was off peak time, airport officials said.
The worst damage reports came from cities east of where the storm came ashore. Power outages were widespread.
Hank Christen with Emergency Management in Okaloosa County reported severe damage around the cities of Destin, Mary Esther and Fort Walton Beach. Okaloosa Island also took a hit. "I would consider it severe damage at this time," he told CNN.
With 10- to 15-foot storm surges hitting the coast of Okaloosa County, Christen said boats and cars were floating, roofs were missing, and first floors of buildings were inundated with water.
He reported massive debris, downed power lines and trees. "We have 911 calls holding that we can't get to," Christen told CNN, stressing search and rescue operations were the main concern Wednesday evening.
Initial reports out of Escambia and Santa Rosa counties, to the west of the storm's center, indicated there was less damage than when Hurricane Erin hit earlier this tropical storm season. The two counties surround Pensacola. Jeff Mullendore with Escambia County Emergency Management told CNN there was debris on the roads, downed trees and power lines, but no major damage to homes or other buildings.
He told CNN the highest wind gust measured in Escambia, to the west of the center of the storm, was 65 miles per hour. He said nearly 60 percent of homes were without power by 7:30 p.m. eastern time. "There's not nearly as much damage as from Hurricane Erin," Mullendore told CNN.
Twenty miles east, in Santa Rosa county, Skip Dugger with Emergency Management said there were downed trees and power lines and a few stray roofing shingles in the streets, but nothing more severe than that. Weather officials said the eye wall came down just east of Pensacola, Florida. Wind gusts of 144 miles per hour were reported at Hurlburt Field, an Air Force installation in Okaloosa County. The National Hurricane Center said the storm hit land between Navarre Beach and Gulf Breeze on the Florida panhandle about 6:30 p.m. EDT.(366K Quicktime movie)
Opal was downgraded from category four to category three before coming ashore, but forecasters said tornadoes spawned by the dangerous hurricane were likely to develop as the storm moves through Alabama and Georgia.
Pier damage was reported in Panama City Beach, and several homes were washed out at Mexico Beach.
Outer rain bands produced six tornadoes over the Florida panhandle and southern Alabama earlier in the day.
Emergency officials warned that deaths were possible if residents did not flee, and many did, not bothering to board up their homes and businesses.
Roads throughout the Florida panhandle were jammed with traffic. Lieutenant Robert Farrior with the Florida highway patrol confirmed that one man died when a tornado, spawned by the storm, blew over a mobile home near Crestview, Florida. The man was in his 60s.
"Conditions have deteriorated to such an extent that to make an effort to leave Escambia County might put one's life in jeopardy," Farrior said.
Earlier in the day, he reported bottlenecks of traffic, with people trying to escape the Pensacola area in anticipation of the powerful storm. "We certainly have the potential for loss of life with this storm if people don't get out of the way," said Mike Rucker, a meteorologist with the Florida Emergency Management Agency. Early Wednesday he had urged people in the Pensacola and Panama City areas to get out, calling Opal a "monster storm."(187K .aiff sound or 187K .wav sound)
"This is the by far the strongest storm we have seen since Andrew," said Rucker. "It could be even more powerful than Hurricane Camille that hit in 1969."
One forecaster at the National Hurricane Center in Miami was concerned that residents might have been caught off-guard by the approaching storm, and pointed to a possible lack of news coverage, locally.
The Simpson murder trial verdict has consumed a large portion of news media coverage for the last several days. There is also worry that Jews observing Yom Kippur would have missed radio and television announcements regarding Opal.
The forecaster said many residents didn't begin taking the powerful storm seriously until Wednesday morning. Gov. Lawton Chiles called up 3,500 National Guard troops to help with the effects of the storm.
The region is still trying to recover from Hurricane Erin, a category one storm that hit two months ago. Rucker said Opal would continue to inflict damage after it hits the coast. "This storm is so strong that it isn't going to lose its strength once it hits land," he said. "We'll see a lot of damage inland."
Flash flood watches were issued for Alabama and Georgia as areas as far north as Atlanta received rainfall amounts of 6 to 10 inches.
Hurricane force winds could be felt 145 miles from the center. Tropical force winds extended 260 miles from the center and were worst on the eastern edge of the storm. At Grand Isle, Louisiana, lying west of the storm's path, winds were clocked at more than 60 mph. In New Orleans, 40 mph winds were recorded.
Hurricane warnings were in effect from south of Anclote Key on the west coast of Florida to the mouth of the Mississippi River. Hurricane Andrew, a category four storm, hit south Florida and then Louisiana in August of 1992, killing 14 people and causing billions of dollars in damage.
Hurricane Camille, a category five hurricane, hit Mississippi and Louisiana in August of 1969, killing 256 people and causing damage in the millions.
This is the first category four storm to hit the Gulf Coast in the month of October since Hurricane Hazel in 1954.
KO'd by Opal, victims show their resilience
October 7, 1995
Web posted at: 12:15 a.m. EDT
From Correspondent Brian Jenkins
ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- With roads on some barrier islands along Florida's panhandle still buried under sand and water, thousands of residents have yet to see what's left of their homes. Many of those who've made it back have found their beach front houses and boats blown to bits by Hurricane Opal.
In one neighborhood, set back from the shoreline, residents saved what they could for a woman who was still away. "We're picking some of the things that belong to her," a neighbor said. "And when she comes home, hopefully, we can have something that we've salvaged for her." (128K AIFF sound or 119K WAV sound)
Insurance industry officials said Opal may be the third-costliest hurricane in U.S. history in terms of insured losses. It will still rank far behind the $4 billion paid out after Hugo in 1989 and the $17 billion total for Andrew in 1992.
Travel experts said the timing of the hurricane could have been much worse for the panhandle, sometimes called "the Redneck Riviera."
Travel writer Clark Howard said residents and business owners have a grace period in which to bounce back. "This is right after the peak season ends. Really, all tourism has quieted down by now and it won't start back up again for another six, seven, eight months. So they've got plenty of time to clean things up and rebuild."
Even as the clean-up began under blue skies along the beach, swollen rivers forced residents to flee areas north of Pensacola, down the Gulf coast near Tampa and as far south as Fort Myers.
In Alabama, downed trees cut power lines to roughly 800,000 homes. Officials couldn't say when all the lines would be fixed.
In northern Georgia, the storm knocked out power to more than 400,000 customers. It was the third worst outage ever there.
Jeannie Webb of the Georgia Power Co. said trees are the main obstacles to restoring power. "We had more than 5,000 trees or limbs that caused outages. We've had more than 13,000 (utility) poles go down ... because of the wind," she said.
Utility officials expected most customers would have electric service back by Sunday, and the rest by Tuesday.
Even with more than a 1,000 of its linemen working 'round the clock to restore electricity, Georgia Power still had to bring in more than 300 linemen from other utilities in Virginia and the Carolinas.
With nearly every Southeastern state hit by a major hurricane in recent years, and more possible in this busiest tropical storm season ever, people in the region seemed eager to help each other pick up and go on.
Clean-up continues after Opal stomps through Southeast
October 6, 1995
Web posted at: 1:07 p.m. EDT
ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Now that Hurricane Opal has steam- rolled through the Southeast, the clean up is in full swing. People found their homes splintered and pleasure boats tossed around as if they were toys. Florida residents now have a new problem caused by the storm -- flooding.
"Today is a day of positives and negatives," said Jo Miglino of the Division of Emergency Management. "We're are getting a handle on the hurricane damage, but now the flooding has started. In many ways that is much worse."
The Blackwater River just north of Pensacola was the worst hit area. At 8 a.m. EDT Friday, the river stood at 22 feet above normal and was continuing to rise. People are being flooded out of their homes in the Tampa and St. Petersburg area, said Miglino, where rainfall totals are already four inches above normal for last month and are being soaked by new rains.
Aerial photos showed the extent of the damage beginning near Mexico Beach on the east and stretching 120 miles to Pensacola on the west.
On the barrier islands, the storm surge from hurricane Opal sent tides 10 to 15 feet above normal sweeping across the islands.
Beachfront homes were torn to splinters. High-rise buildings stood akilter. Roofs were blown off condominiums. At Panama City, one of the worst-hit areas, the facades of beachfront hotels had crumbled into the surf.
Along miles and miles of beachfront, dunes were washed away, new channels had been cut across barrier islands, and portions of U.S. 98, the coastal highway, were under sand or missing.
At least 17 deaths are being blamed on the hurricane, which has since been downgraded to a tropical depression. Many were killed by uprooted trees falling on homes and vehicles. Damage to insured property along Florida's panhandle is currently estimated to be about $1.8 billion, making the storm the state's second-costliest ever.
At one point, two million people in Florida, Georgia, Alabama and the Carolinas were without power from the storm.
The remnants of Opal, blew into the northeastern United States and eastern Canada Thursday, creating tornadoes in its wake.
The tornadoes tore through parts of Virginia and Maryland. One destroyed five airplanes and ripped the roof off an airport hangar.
In Camp Springs, Maryland, a half-dozen people were rescued after tornado debris trapped them in their homes, but no injuries were reported there.
Throughout the South, homeowners remain shaken from nature's fury. "My legs are shaking. I expected it would be bad but nothing like...to be gone...it's just gone," said one distraught resident.
Opal roared through the heart of Dixie, reaching as far west as Louisiana, and winds remained at hurricane force well inland.
Auburn, Alabama was among scores of towns scarred by Opal's wrath. The Southeast took a great deal of punishment from Opal's fierce winds and rains. The storm uprooted trees, snapped utility poles, and tangled power lines.
The full extent of the damage isn't known yet and officials say it will be days, even weeks before the region returns to normal.
An affluent suburb northwest of Atlanta was swamped when the Chattahoochee River overflowed its banks, stranding some homeowners.
Many people in the Southeast are still without electricity. "We don't know the exact hour people can get back into their homes. They will not have electricity, will not have gas until this area clears of all the water," said Steve Reynolds, of the National Park Service.
High winds brought down huge trees as Opal's wrath ravaged the region. Georgia Governor, Zell Miller, declared 45 counties state disaster areas, making it easier for the state to rush financial aid to those regions.
Georgia's Insurance Commission warns the wide-spread damage will take its toll on regional insurance companies. "Whenever you have something like this that brings a lot of claims, it's going to take some Georgia insurers a little while to get over this," said John Oxendine, Georgia Insurance Commissioner.
The speed and the strength of the storm caught many emergency crews off guard. And while they work, another storm, named "Pablo" is brewing in the Atlantic.
Opal's path of destruction
Six dead, more than a million without power
October 5, 1995
Web posted at: 9:15 p.m. EDT
DESTIN, Florida (CNN) -- Hurricane Opal subsided as it passed over Kentucky Thursday, leaving behind a trail of death and misery in three Southern states.
At least six people died and more than a million lost power in the storm. Tornado and flood watches remained in effect.
Most of the fatalities were caused by falling trees. In Atlanta, a man died after being rescued from a house damaged by a fallen tree. In Marietta, Georgia, a man died when a tree fell on the cab of his truck.
Near Asheville, North Carolina, a tree fell on a mobile home in western Buncombe County, killing one man. In Gadsden, Alabama, a man and a woman were killed late Wednesday when a tree fell across their mobile home. A tornado killed a 76- year-old Crestview, Florida, woman.
By mid-afternoon Thursday, Florida officials had opened roadways into Panama City, but continued to bar residents from returning to nearby Panama City Beach.
A 15-mile traffic jam was reported on Route 231 leading into Panama City. Police said Panama City Beach would remained closed for safety reasons. Residents were angry that they were prevented from returning to the area, which was among the hardest hit. Panama City police arrested two people they described as looters.
Those without electrical power Thursday afternoon included 410,000 residents in Georgia, 230,000 in Florida and 476,000 in Alabama. Utility officials estimated it would be at least Friday before power would be restored to everyone.
In Florida, the Division of Emergency Management said there was no official estimate on the amount of damage. In Georgia, Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine said damage would total $100 million in 45 of the state's counties.
More damage was expected. "We expect flooding from the Coosa River, which is an inch above flood stage already," said Don Hudgins, director of the Gadsden-Etowah County Emergency Management Agency.
At 11 a.m., the hurricane was downgraded to a tropical depression as it passed near Lexington, Kentucky. It continued to move north-northeast at 29 miles per hour and was expected to be over the Great Lakes by Thursday night.
Maximum sustained winds were 35 miles per hour with higher gusts, but forecasters said the storm should lose much of its strength by Friday.
Gale warnings remained in effect for portions of the east coast. The National Weather Service said there was a threat of isolated tornadoes over the Carolinas spreading northward Thursday night. Areas in the path of the storm were expected to receive 2 to 4 inches of rain.
Flash flood watches and warnings were in effect from central Florida northward to Ohio. High wind warnings were also declared for North Carolina and Tennessee.
Residents of Destin, a resort community known for its sugar white beaches, ventured out Thursday morning to find $500,000 beach homes splintered to sticks. Docks were destroyed and U.S. 98, the coastal highway, was littered with boats thrown up by the 15-foot storm surge along a 120-mile stretch.
The end of a new pier at Panama City Beach crumbled into the surf. In Panama City, officials said at least 100 homes were destroyed.
Roads in Okaloosa County and in neighboring Bay County were closed. Officials in a string of Florida communities said water was contaminated and no longer drinkable.
Okaloosa Island, a barrier island running from Fort Walton Beach to Destin, was completely overrun by the storm surge, which washed away sand dunes and destroyed homes.
Eglin Air Force Base in Okaloosa County was closed. A base spokeswoman said runways were damaged, but were being repaired. Roofs of large hangars were damaged, windows were blown out and trees were uprooted, but none of the 4,000 people housed at the base were injured as the storm passed.
In Fort Walton Beach, high winds took the roof off Westwood Baptist Church. Docks were destroyed and wooden decks were blown into people's front yards.
Florida Gov. Lawton Chiles, Federal Emergency Management Agency Director James Lee Witt and Red Cross Director Elizabeth Dole were scheduled to tour the area Thursday afternoon.
Further northward, Opal carried wind gusts of up to 60 mph as it swirled through Atlanta, knocking down hundreds of trees, blocking roads, snarling traffic and cutting off power to 392,000 customers.
Even as storm victims began cleaning up, another tropical storm formed in the Atlantic, the 16th of the season. But "Pablo" will not be a threat to land for another week. It is 1,000 miles west-southwest of the Cape Verde Islands and moving at 21 mph.
Two months after Opal, panhandle still a mess
December 4, 1995
Web posted at: 8:15 p.m. EST
From Correspondent John Zarrella
PANAMA CITY BEACH, Florida (CNN) -- Around Panama City Beach, people say the beaches are made of sugar. The land looks like new-fallen snow. And just like snow, the sand is everywhere.
So are construction workers. Two months after Hurricane Opal, much of the panhandle is still a mess.
"If I had a hundred more men, I could put them to work," said contractor Rick Mock.
From Pensacola to Panama City, roofers and carpenters are working seven days a week. It's been estimated that Opal left behind $3 billion in damage.
"It doesn't compare money-wise to some of the bigger storms, but it covered a lot of territory," said roofer Ed Baker. (85K AIFF sound or 85K WAV sound)
All along the panhandle, Opal's 14-foot storm surge swept through homes, condominiums, hotels and motels. Along with property, Opal washed away the winter tourist season.
"The force of the water is unimaginable," said motel owner Philip Griffitts. "You can't imagine how strong that water is when it's moving."
The sign in front of Griffitts' Panama City Beach motel says it all -- "Opal was no lady." Most of the place is in ruin, waiting now for bulldozers to finish what Opal started. Yet, some of the motel's regular winter guests are still coming.
Seaside builders passed Opal's test
October 23, 1995
Web posted at: 3:15 p.m. EDT
From Correspondent Dick Wilson
WALTON COUNTY, Florida (CNN) -- Along the beachfront communities of the Florida Panhandle, the fury of Hurricane Opal is being replaced by signs of recovery. Some harsh lessons have been learned there about where to rebuild, and why. But one community, at least, didn't have to learn those lessons.
Seaside is a small exclusive waterfront community of about 200 homes. It took the full force of the storm and survived virtually undamaged. Robert Davis developed Seaside using special building techniques. All his houses exceed Florida's hurricane building codes. For example, he said, "We do all of the deep pilings and tying down from the ridge beam of the roof all the way down to the piling. That will give these buildings a pretty fair amount of wind resistance." He also noted that "the biggest thing that helped us, beyond providence, is that we built a couple of hundred yards back from the sea, and way, way back from the primary dune."
Nearly 300 homes in the southern part of Walton County, near Seaside, were damaged so badly they are uninhabitable. The severity of the damage depends on where each home was built. Some homes were destroyed because they were built in front of the dune line, exposing them directly to the storm. But homes next door survived almost intact because they were built behind the dunes, protecting them from the weather.
The county is trying to put the beach back together using bulldozers and replanting natural vegetation. And as could be expected in a county heavily dependent on tourism, many rental properties are slated for rebuilding. "We expect to have 70 percent of our available inventory back on line by November first," said Malcolm Patterson of the Walton County Tourism Council. But many of the properties may not be put back quite the way they were before Opal. As Davis explained, "We tend to want to put everything back to what we think of as normal as quickly as possible. It's actually very abnormal to build buildings very close to the shoreline, because the shoreline is a constantly changing landscape."
State officials say even tougher building codes are expected to be enacted as a result of the expensive lessons learned from Hurricane Opal.
From USA Today
BUSY STORM SEASON A BOON TO FORECASTERS
Jack Williams; 10-12-1995
Roxanne, the 10th hurricane and the 17th tropical storm
of the season, Wednesday blasted across Mexico's Yucatan.
Already this is the busiest hurricane season since 1969,
within three storms of the all-time record year 1933. And
the season doesn't officially end until Nov. 30.
It has been a scientific bonanza for researchers struggling
to solve the secrets of the greatest storms on the planet.
"You need to have hurricanes to study them," says Dean
Churchill of the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of
Marine and Atmospheric Science.
And they can study them more closely thanks to a new weather
satellite, more sophisticated radars lining the U.S. coasts
and new computer models of storm mechanics. But more
dramatically, researchers flew three turboprops at once into
hurricanes Iris and Luis to take the most detailed
measurements ever.
The object is to find better answers to the big three
questions:
Where will the storm hit?
When will the storm hit?
How strong will the storm be when it hits?
More Americans living in the hurricane danger zone on and
near the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts - now 44 million, twice
that of a quarter-century ago - are pressuring researchers
and forecasters to improve their predictions.
On the morning of Oct. 4, Hugh Willoughby, acting
director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration's hurricane research division, heard that
Hurricane Opal's atmospheric pressure was in the Category 5
range. Immediately, ``visions of (Hurricane) Camille II ran
through my mind.''
Would the storm crash into the U.S. Gulf Coast with 150
mph plus winds and 20 or more feet of storm surge as Camille
did in 1969? It was one of only two Category 5 storms to hit
the USA this century.
Forecasts the night before had not foreseen such a
monster. Would people in danger have time to flee?
``I was wondering how I would explain this to the
congressional inquiry we would have when a thousand people
died,'' says Willoughby. ``The forecast was a state-of-the-
art forecast. But the state of the art doesn't handle these
situations very well.''
The situation Willoughby worries about is a storm
strengthening in the last few hours before hitting land, as
Hurricane Andrew did before hitting Dade County, Fla., in
1992 and as Opal seemed about to do.
Willoughby was right in the middle of Opal in an NOAA
Lockheed P-3 research airplane when the storm did the
opposite: It weakened.
As the storm's winds decreased, the area of hurricane
force winds spread out, expanding the length of coast washed
by the dome of high water known as storm surge.
The P-3 followed Opal's eye, and storm surge, across the
beaches of western Florida. ``We looked down and saw
buildings awash in surf,'' he says. ``Almost all of the
damage you saw on television was from the storm surge, not
from the wind.''
Hurricane track forecasts are improving, and forecasters
expect another leap forward in the 1996 hurricane season
with flights of a new $38 million Gulfstream G-4SP jet.
It will fly higher and farther than the NOAA P-3s and Air
Force Reserve WC-130s that now fly into storms collecting
data.
``We're like the canaries in the mine shaft,'' says Ron
Philippsborn, an NOAA pilot and program manager. ``You can't
study the environment without going into it.''
Instead of flying into the eyes of hurricanes, the
Gulfstream will measure winds, temperatures and air
pressures in the thousands of square miles around storms.
This data, fed into improving computer models, will give
forecasters a better handle on the winds that steer storms.
Researchers expect the improvement in forecast accuracy
with the Gulfstream will be the equivalent of all advances
of the past 20 years.
``There's nothing we can do about a hurricane,'' says
Phillippsborn. ``If people are expecting us to ward them
off, we can't do that. But if you can improve the forecasts
in 24 to 48 hours before landfall, then you're going to see
an immediate impact.''
But how strong will the storm be? ``We have no skill at
intensity forecasting,'' Willoughby says.
But he and others have come up with theories and tested
them on computer models of storms. The measurements needed
to test these theories have to be taken at the top of the
storm, up around 40,000 feet.
Willoughby expects data from the Gulfstream to improve
intensity forecasts within 10 years.
``Nothing we can or don't do is going to affect
hurricanes,'' says Churchill. ``They're part of the world's
climate system.''
El Nino, the complex global weather pattern that begins
with unusually warm water in the eastern tropical Pacific,
is a key to the number of Atlantic hurricanes.
One of the nation's foremost hurricane experts, William
Gray of Colorado State University, has found that El Nino
years tend to have fewer storms. Warm eastern Pacific water
helps set up strong west to east, high-altitude winds over
the Atlantic that rip apart growing tropical storms.
Years when the eastern Pacific is colder than normal, so
called ``La Nina'' years, have more storms.
Other factors Gray uses for his hurricane predictions
include:
Rainfall in parts of west Africa. Rainy years have more
hurricanes.
Average air pressures around the Caribbean. Lower
pressures usually mean more hurricanes.
Direction of high altitude winds over the equator. More
westerly winds mean more hurricanes.
Direction of lower altitude winds over the Caribbean.
Easterly winds encourage hurricanes.
This year, says Gray, everything came together at the
same time. Gray and other hurricane experts say global
warming is not involved.
Gray says if global warming were involved, ``you wouldn't
see the big jump this year from last year.''
Gray says his 11-year record of seasonal forecasts
consists of two ``busts,'' two ``marginal'' predictions and
seven ``darned good'' years.
For this year, he predicted 16 tropical storms and nine
hurricanes - two storms and a hurricane under the current
count.
Gray won't make his 1996 season forecast until November,
but doesn't hesitate to say that ``next year definitely
won't be as active as this year'' because stratospheric
winds won't be as favorable for hurricanes.
But ``there are signs that it will be more active than
1991 to 1994.''
PANHANDLE `LIKE A WAR ZONE'
Robert Davis; 10-06-1995
The world-famous sugary dunes are gone. High-rise condos
lean tipsily off foundations. Wooden decks reduced to
splinters dangle over churning surf.
On Thursday, residents of Florida's panhandle emerged from
their shelters to survey the extensive wreckage left behind
by Hurricane Opal.
The storm that left up to 15 people dead and 2 million
without power. Early estimates of the damage run as high as
$2.4 billion.
"It looks like a war zone," declared Tom Roche, director of
the Santa Rosa County Emergency Management Agency. "Opal
just changed the whole terrain."
Meanwhile, the 16th storm of the season, Tropical Storm
Pablo, was coming to life in the area of the Atlantic Ocean
that has bred some of this season's most dangerous storms.
"It is not a threat right now (but) we ask that people pay
attention, because anything could happen," warned Fiona
Horsfall, of the National Hurricane Center in Miami.
Opal was the third hurricane to roar ashore in Florida - the
second in the panhandle - this season. At one point
residents expected a much worse punch that she eventually
delivered. The storm began in Mexico, where it left 10 dead,
and grew so fierce Wednesday morning that forecasters
thought it might become the strongest ever to hit the USA.
"This was no (Hurricane) Andrew, but it was worse than all
the other storms we got this summer," said Gov. Lawton
Chiles, after an aerial tour of the panhandle.
Hurricane Andrew inflicted about $17 billion in damage in
south Florida in 1992. Opal will likely end up the third-
costliest storm in U.S. history, behind Andrew and Hurricane
Hugo in 1989. Already, 15 panhandle counties have been
approved for federal emergency aid.
The destruction from Opal's 90-mph winds and 15-foot storm
surge stretched for 120 miles along the panhandle shore from
Pensacola to Mexico Beach.
Officials rushed to restore power in Florida, Georgia,
Alabama and the Carolinas. In Fort Walton Beach, Fla., a
caravan of 66 Mississippi Power trucks arrived carrying 107
electrical workers. "They told us to pack for 10 days," said
driver Jerry Henderson. "It's going to be a lot of hot,
tired long 12-to-14-hour days until the power is back on."
About 4,500 National Guardsmen were posted in Florida to
prevent looting. Bay County, where an estimated 100 homes
were destroyed and 1,000 damaged, was under a dusk-to-dawn
curfew.
This latest tropical punch had a potent impact on people
here. "Many people's lives were changed overnight," said
Mexico Beach Mayor Garry Gaddis. "There is no way to
describe what they feel."
In Panama City Beach, Grace Marceja trembled as she cleared
debris from around her home. "I can't hold myself still,"
she said. "I got up this morning and just thanked God that
we're still alive."
Bill Butler, 58, surveyed the dirty new lagoon covering the
swimming pool and jacuzzi in his Holiday Isle yard. "I'm
pretty well stunned."
In Panama City, sheriff's deputies said some 100 homes were
destroyed. "It's almost total devastation," said Dave Miller
of Bay County Emergency Management. "I haven't seen a
building that doesn't have some type of damage."
Those who built farther back from the beach or higher up
survived with minimal damage, but many who built on the
beach were wiped out.
The postcard-perfect town of Seaside - internationally
acclaimed as an architectural jewel - was an exception,
sustaining only minor structural damage. But the raging surf
cut deeply into sand dunes and washed away pavilions and
boardwalks.
"We knew we were in a pretty good hurricane when the house
started rocking," said Rick Moe, 35, who had ignored orders
to evacuate his rented cottage. "It was blowing like hell,
but (the cottage) held up incredibly well."
Farther inland, near Crestview, five families - 30 people in
all - had gathered in a three-bedroom house, cowering under
the fury of the storm.
"We figured that if we were going to go, we would all go
together and it would be nice to go with friends," said
Jerry Bullins, 41. "We just kept talking and telling jokes
trying to keep spirits up."
The strategy didn't work for his wife, Jewel, 47. "I was a
pitiful piece of work," she said. "Every time a wind came, I
thought I was gone."
Roger Wright, 57, said his service station in Niceville was
trashed when the roof over the gas pumps came crashing down
in the storm.
"All we can do is clean up and get back to business," he
said. "We can do it."
HURRICANE OPAL LASHES FLA
Steve Marshall; 10-05-1995
After pummeling Florida's panhandle Wednesday with winds
of up to 144 mph, Hurricane Opal weakened and began trekking
inland.
Opal was one of the strongest storms to hit the gulf coast
since Hurricane Camille killed 256 people in 1969.
"I think this one is going to clean our clock," said Tom
Beliech, who fled Pensacola.
At 9 p.m. ET, Opal's maximum sustained winds had dropped to
about 100 mph from 125 mph, and forecasters said the storm
gradually would weaken through the night as it headed toward
Alabama.
A tornado spawned by Opal was blamed for one death.
At least six inches of rain are expected as the effects of
Opal are felt through eastern Kentucky today and western
Pennsylvania and Maine Friday.
In Tallahassee, emergency officials mobilized 700 police
officers and 3,500 National Guard troops to prevent looting
and help with cleanup. Guard troops are on alert in Alabama,
Louisiana and Mississippi.
NASA delayed today's launch of the space shuttle Columbia
because of Opal.
At one point, Opal was a Category 4 hurricane, with winds up
to 155 mph. The last Category 4 to hit Florida was Andrew in
1992, killing 55.
Federal Emergency Management Agency director James Lee Witt
said Florida officials told him they evacuated low-lying
coastal areas, putting about 15,000 in shelters.
In Destin, west of Panama City, cars floated down the
streets, boats were hurled on top each other and on damaged
buildings. The storm ripped the roof off a high school
gymnasium.
Opal knocked out electricity to about 357,000 people, or
half of Gulf Power's customers, said company spokesman Steve
Higginbottom.
Gov. Lawton Chiles asked President Clinton to declare a
major disaster for Florida, clearing the way for federal
help with rebuilding.
TRAFFIC CRAWLS THROUGH EVACUATION ROUTES
Robert Davis and Tom Watson; 10-05-1995
MOBILE, Ala. - Coastal residents from Mobile, Ala., to
Panama City, Fla., woke up Wednesday morning to an unwelcome
surprise. And the news got worse as the day went on.
The Category 2 hurricane, capable of moderate damage, that
they had vaguely heard about the night before had blossomed
into a fast-moving Category 4 powerhouse carrying 16- to 18-
foot storm surges and capable of serious destruction. The
result was a major traffic jam that by mid-afternoon
prompted Florida and Alabama officials to tell fleeing
residents to leave packed roads for the nearest shelter.
Hurricane Opal "is moving at 24 mph and we're moving at
four," said Brian Mann of Pensacola, Fla. He and his wife
Trish had stopped in Greenville, Ala., along I-65 to buy a
road atlas and adjust their plans for the evening. They had
already driven 12 hours on a route that normally takes just
two. "I'm not sure how far we're going to get before we have
to stop."
Opal presented "a very tough scenario," said Florida
transportation spokesman Jim Hensley. Before Wednesday
morning, "it was a back-page story, just another weather
front. People were not anticipating it. Then, all of a
sudden in the middle of the night, it started intensifying."
Part of the problem was that Opal took aim on a part of the
state where major roads go east and west, but people seeking
to evacuate are usually trying to go north, away from
coastal regions. On top of that, Opal and the two other
hurricanes that pounded the Gulf Coast this summer came at a
time when many bridges in the Panhandle are being repaired
for safety reasons. The work created traffic bottlenecks
just as Opal bore down on the area.
"Next year this time the bottlenecks that were there today
won't be there," Hensley said. But that was little comfort
for the horde that inched along on the roads, navigating
around flooded areas as high winds shook cars and nerves.
Charles Bates of Pensacola stocked up on snacks and gas at a
Montgomery, Ala., service station, and prepared to re-enter
the 200-mile backup on I-65.
Bates, a banker, said he fled the storm at 9 a.m. with his
wife Linda and daughters Tiffany and Leia, who sported "I
Survived Hurricane Erin" T-shirts. Erin slammed the
Panhandle the first week of August, killing 11 people and
causing widespread damage.
By mid-afternoon, traffic on U.S. 231 north from the coast
was virtually bumper to bumper at Troy, about 100 miles from
the beach, and Alabama's northbound artery, I-65, was
congested from Mobile to Montgomery, 150 miles away. A
bridge on Florida State Road 87 was under water already.
By 3 p.m., both states were urging those still on the
highways to get off right away and find the nearest safe
shelter. "People who have not left their homes, it's just
too late," said Barbara Doran of Florida's Emergency
Management Agency. The Florida Red Cross opened 26 shelters
in the Panhandle; Alabama opened 52 throughout the state.
"We're trying to improve our evacuation routes out of the
area," said Scott Adcock, spokesman for the Alabama
Emergency Management Agency. "It's something we've been
working on for a long time. But that's basically dependent
on federal funding and the significant amount of progress
that needed to be made, hasn't."
AFTER OPAL
Judy Keen; 10-08-1995
DEATHS: At least 19 people killed in storm-related
accidents: two in Florida, two in North Carolina, nine in
Georgia, six in Alabama.
DAMAGE: At least $2.4 billion in damage to insured property
along the Gulf of Mexico, making it the third-costliest
storm in U.S. history. Andrew did $17 billion in damage in
1992; Hugo, $4.2 billion in 1989.
BUILDINGS DAMAGED, DESTROYED: No official estimate of
damage. In worst-hit areas, three-quarters of homes were
severely damaged or destroyed.
ARRESTS: Fourteen looting arrests in Panama City Beach area
Thursday night through Friday night; four curfew-violation
arrests in Okaloosa County. Six hundred National Guard and
law enforcement officers on patrol to prevent looting; 3,000
guard members helping with relief effort.
POWER OUTAGES: Power was out Sunday for about 41,000 of the
572,000 customers in Florida's panhandle. Thousands more as
far north as North Carolina were still blacked out.
RELIEF: Various organizations are accepting contributions
for hurricane victims. To send money to the American Red
Cross Disaster Relief Fund, call 1-800-842-2200. To donate
materials and services, call the Federal Emergency
Management Agency and Volunteers in Technical Assistance hot
line, 1-800-342-1100. Money also can be sent to Hurricane
Opal Relief, P.O. Box 270848, Tampa, Fla. 33624.
A Study on Opal
Hurricane Opal passed over the Florida panhandle between the cities of Pensacola and Fort Walton Beach on the night of October 4, 1995. Although the storm weakened in the hours prior to landfall from a strong Category 4 to barely a Category 3 hurricane, major beach erosion, storm surge flooding, and overwash occurred along a stretch of shoreline extending from Gulf Shores, Alabama, to Mexico Beach, Florida, a distance of over 150 miles. By and large, wave damage was restricted to the first row of buildings and it was severe in a stretch from Pensacola to Fort Walton Beach. Overwash was over one meter thick in many places and pervasive from Gulf Shores to Fort Walton Beach. The character of the shoreline helped control damage as did development patterns. To classify Opal in a few words, it was a "water storm," meaning most of the damage caused by the storm was in the form of storm surge, wave attack, and overwash. Contrast this to Hurricane Andrew in 1992, which was a more intense (though compact) storm and whose principal agent of destruction was wind. Wind impacts from Opal were, however, felt to a minor degree in some areas along the coast.
The coastal impacts from Opal were generally the result of wave action and flooding rather than wind. A discussion of the wind impacts of Opal can be found in Chiu (1996), but the gist of it is that there was very little wind damage caused by Hurricane Opal to areas right at the coastline. However, the damage caused by waves and storm surge was extreme, ranking Opal as the ninth costliest storm to strike the coast of the United States (damage totals corrected to 1994 dollars), causing an estimated 2.9 million dollars worth of damage (Hebert et al., 1996). Much can be learned on how to mitigate future damage from a survey of the damage patterns using a geological perspective.
Field Work. The shoreline of Florida and eastern Alabama was visited by David Bush on October 6-8 1996 under the auspices of the Natural Hazards Center. Also collaborating in the quick response phase of this study with support from their respective institutions were: Craig Webb, geology graduate student at Duke University, and Robert Young, Assistant Professor of Geology, University of Vermont. Bryan Johnson, West Georgia College student revisited some of the sites in the Pensacola area on January 13-15, 1996. Graham Bates, geology graduate student of Robert Young's, University of Vermont, will be studying the Opal impacted area during the summer of 1996 as part of an ongoing risk-mapping project funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. This quick response study provided an invaluable service in adding to our database of storm impacts and as it allowed a reconnaissance look at the coast upon which to base further studies.
It was impossible to visit all sites along the shoreline due to access problems and time restraints. Specifically, the highly publicized and severely damaged community of Navarre Beach had to, sadly, be omitted because of fading daylight and curfews.
Pre-Storm Conditions. The area studied, specifically the panhandle coast of Florida, is predominately microtidal, with a tidal range of less than 0.5 m. The coastline struck by Hurricane Opal is dominated by long, narrow, sandy barrier islands. A good example is Santa Rosa Island, upon which are located several of the communities that were severely damaged during Opal, including Pensacola Beach and Navarre Beach. Santa Rosa Island is approximately 45 miles long (72 km), and at its widest point is only 0.5 miles wide (0.8 km). For the most part these islands are sparsely vegetated and have low elevations, making them vulnerable to storm surge and wave damage. Much of the area does have large, healthy dune fields, however, with dune heights often reaching 16 feet (5 m). The presence of these dunes can help to absorb wave energy and buffer the areas behind them from the brunt of the storm, thereby reducing the damage, as shown by a study of the geomorphic impacts of Hurricane Hugo along the South Carolina coast (Thieler and Young, 1991).
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The primary funding for this study was provided by the Natural Hazards Center with the follow-up work supported by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The authors also wish to acknowledge the superb assistance of several agencies during the field inspection: Florida County Sheriff Departments, especially in Bay, Okaloosa, and Escambia Counties for their help with access; the National Guard, especially Spc. Gary Be‚gi of the Florida Army National Guard Public Affairs Office for a guided tour of Fort Walton Beach and a detailed description of the damage in Navarre Beach; and Michael Simmons and Brandon Richberg, 4-wheel drive volunteers, who provided safe transportation and their insights of the storm damage on Pensacola Beach.
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PHYSICAL ASPECTS OF THE STORM
Hurricane Opal had a strange history, blowing up seemingly overnight and then weakening in the hours before landfall (Mayfield and Lawrence, 1996). There was quite a bit of confusion over where the storm was heading and what strength it would be when it hit. The general consensus seemed to be that the weakening of the storm as it approached land helped keep loss of life down. Also, many people said that the passage of Hurricanes Allison and Erin had helped prepare the people for another storm.
Opal hit at dead low tide, and although the tidal range in this area is small, this, in addition to the fact that the storm was weakening as it approached the coast, helped to keep inland penetration of storm surge and waves to a minimum. This may account for the relative lack of sand completely washing over islands, even narrow portions, with the exception of Santa Rosa Island, which was almost entirely overwashed (Stone et al., 1996). Instead, most of the overwashed sand was deposited on the islands themselves. According to a study conducted by Stone et al. (1996), up to 95% of the sand eroded from the beach and dune area can be accounted for as overwash on the island itself and in fans overwashing into the bay side, rather than being moved offshore into a series of bars. In addition, Stone et al. noted that the shoreline did not retreat landward during the storm, as is often the case in large hurricanes, but remained in place.
Wind Damage. Hurricane Opal was definitely not a wind storm, at least not directly along the coast. Nowhere was there evidence of a great "swath" of fallen or snapped trees such as was present after Hurricane Hugo in South Carolina in 1989, nor the massive wind destruction caused by Hurricane Andrew in south Florida in 1992. There were numerous examples of delicate roof architecture (that is, many gables, angles, eaves) with little or no damage. Utility poles were left standing unless trees fell directly on the wires. Most of the trees that fell were not snapped but pushed over, meaning the weak soil and shallow root systems were contributing factors along with the wind. There were relatively few signs, awnings, or covers for gasoline station pumps blown down. Metal buildings remained standing. Opal did a great deal of damage, but wind was not the major culprit along the coast. Opal did cut a swath of extensive wind damage inland through eastern Alabama and western Georgia, but those impacts are beyond the coastal scope of this investigation.
Wave Damage. Wave damage from Opal was extensive and severe in places, especially to the waterfront areas stretching from Pensacola Beach to Destin. Damage was extensive to moderate from Gulf Shores, Alabama, to Pensacola Beach, and from Destin to Mexico Beach, Florida. In all cases, however, the wave damage was largely restricted to the first row of buildings. It was clear that those buildings that were elevated or located back from the beach suffered less damage than those built at grade or without reasonable setbacks.
Storm Surge. Storm surges were reported to have been in the 12-16 feet range (about 4-5 meters), but field inspection suggests that they were more in the maximum of 2-3 meter range. Debris lines on beaches and causeway landings, mud lines on buildings, and impact scars on pilings are some of the field observations made to estimate storm surge heights. Storm surge was certainly higher in the Pensacola Beach area than to the east or west. These observations were echoed by the detailed analysis of Jarvinen (1996) presented at the National Hurricane Conference April 2-5, 1996 in Orlando, Florida.
The very gentle slope of the continental shelf into the Gulf of Mexico, the gentle slope of the coastal plain, and the concave configuration of the shoreline work to maximize storm surge along this portion of the coast. The fact that storm surge was likely less than predicted may be accounted for by the rapid relative weakening of the storm as it was making landfall, plus the fact that Opal hit at low astronomical tide. There is enough variation in the offshore bathymetry along the coast to cause local variations in potential storm surge and storm wave height (Jarvinen, 1996).
Storm-Surge Ebb Scour. The rush of storm surge water back to the sea after passage of a hurricane is called storm-surge ebb. It can have quite dramatic consequences when the surge is high and the return flow is rapid, or when the reversal of winds by a coast-parallel storm helps blow the water back out to sea, increasing the water's flow velocity and scouring capabilities. Storm surge ebb is often funneled by shore-perpendicular roads and dune gaps, and is the primary agent in forming new inlets in barrier islands. None of these processes seemed to be very active during Opal. First, Opal was a coast-perpendicular storm, so there was no reversal of winds from onshore to offshore that would have aided in storm-surge ebb flow, as would be the case in a coast-parallel storm. Second, the storm surge was not all that high as discussed in the previous section. Finally, it appears from field inspection of sediment bedforms and other water flow indicators that the direction of flow of the last water draining off the islands, where there was some scour, was landward, toward the lagoons, not back toward the Gulf of Mexico. This would seem to corroborate the conclusion that storm surge was not excessive, and that perhaps the surge was somehow pushed forward as the storm weakened before landfall and the "surge wave" lost some of its forward momentum and simply "sloshed" over the islands and into the lagoons. It would also seem that the lagoons, then, were large enough to handle the excess water volume from Opal's surge, again corroborating the idea that storm surge was not as high as first predicted. Again, the lower storm surge effect would be aided somewhat by Opal's making landfall at low astronomical tide, even in this microtidal setting.
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HURRICANE OPAL LESSONS LEARNED
One of the main emphases of studies by this investigator and colleagues over the years has been to extract "Lessons Learned" for coastal management from each storm. Post-storm investigations in many different geologic settings and after different strength storms helps to clearly illustrate these lessons. For further information on general principles the reader is refered to Bush et al. (1996). For specifics about western Florida, please see Doyle et al. (1984), Webb et al. (submitted), and Bush et al. (in preparation). The lessons learned from Hurricane Opal are briefly outlined below.
Building Above Grade. The importance of building above grade is shown by four nearby single family houses in Mexico Beach. Two were built at grade and were completely destroyed, while two were elevated on pilings and suffered no observable structural damage. In another instance, Hollywood beach houses too close to the water were completely destroyed, even though they had protective seawalls. The seawalls did keep the structures from being undermined, but did little to prevent the floors from being damaged. One condominium complex built about 3 meters above pre-storm grade and set back farther from the water suffered only minor damage to the first floor. Building on pilings or (preferably) at higher elevations does not guarantee that no damage will be incurred, but it was observed that during this storm, those houses with more elevation, even just the several meters offered by pilings, can be saved. It is important to note, though, that if your house is on pilings and none of your neighbors' are, you are still at risk, as those houses may very well be floated off their foundations and into your house.
Removing Dunes. All along the impact area dunes were destroyed. In some cases, however, where dunes had been removed before the storm for building sites or beach view, damage was greater. For example, along Inlet Beach several houses were set back over 60 meters from the sea and were slightly elevated. Dunes had been removed before the storm and the houses suffered structural damage. Had the houses been built behind the dune, the damage likely would have been minimal.
Setback. Setback from the beach, that is, building a certain distance away from the surf zone, was seen to be a good way to avoid damage. Setbacks of as little as 50 to 100 ft, when combined with higher elevations, can help to minimize the damage to the structure. However, it is important to note that this does not guarantee safety, especially if dunes between the structure and the sea are removed. As mentioned above, buildings set back and elevated were still damaged, as the protective dunes in front of them were removed.
Mitigation Capabilities of Seawalls. Seawalls saved many structures from significant damage. However, failure of seawalls was not uncommon, indicating they may not be the best or most assured method of reducing damage. Three main types of failures were observed: (1) end-around failures resulting from erosive "flanking" of the seawall; (2) seaward toppling of the seawall by overloading from behind by rain water, wave washover, and insufficient drainage leading to failure of the tiebacks; and (3) undermining by erosive scouring at the base of the seawall, which removes material from behind the wall resulting in the characteristic landward fall of the wall. While these walls in many cases prevented damage from undermining, they did little to prevent the structure from being ravaged by waves and storm surge, which overtopped the wall. Apparently the value of the seawalls is not as great as people think, and it would seem that all they really provide is a false sense of security to those living directly on the beach. Hurricanes Gilbert (Yucatan, Mexico, 1988) and Hugo (South Carolina, 1989) illustrated that low seawalls are often overtopped (flooded by storm surge) and offer no protection against storm waves.
Beach Shape and Property Damage Potential. Hurricane Opal created a classic storm beach profile, that is, a wide and flat post-storm beach. Many of the flattened beaches were overwashed, leaving up to 1 meter of sand in some places. Where the initial beach was wide and backed by tall dunes, damage to structures were lessened. Areas with buildings set back far from the sea, where overwash sand is reintroduced to the beach/dune system, and where dune growth is encouraged with sand fencing and vegetation will help to mitigate against future storm damage.
The wide, flat beach formed in Panama City Beach and in many other areas along the coast leaves all structures at a higher risk of damage by future storms. Another storm of this magnitude, or even a smaller storm, would cause quite a bit more damage, as the protective dunes require some time to recover. Recovery will commence naturally but can be aided artificially by replenishment, dune building by trucking in new sand, or encouraging dunes by sand fencing and vegetation. Mitigating some future damage to several of the single family houses in the area could be as simple as constructing an artificial dune.
Robust dunes were heavily damaged during Hurricane Opal, but their demise offered a measure of protection to landward structures. Where dunes were completely destroyed by Hurricane Opal, structures were more seriously damaged. In cases where structures are located too close to the shore, or left too close by dune removal, there may not be enough room remaining in front of the structure to build dunes or encourage dune growth. In these cases, attempts at prevention of future damage may be impractical.
Storm-Surge Flood Scour. Storm surge flood scour occurred in many areas. By their nature, these areas are prone to repeat flooding and should be noted for future development restrictions. Where surge waters were channelized by development, scour and damage were greater. In some cases, notably near Fort Walton Beach, overwash scoured away Florida Route 98 and deposited overwash fans in the lagoon. As noted earlier in this report, scour from the return flow of surge to the sea (storm-surge ebb) was minimal during Opal.
General Remarks. It seems that after every hurricane we say that "this hurricane was different from all the rest," and that can certainly be said about Opal. Opal strengthened quickly to a strong Category 4 storm and started moving directly for the Florida panhandle. The geographic setting there allows for maximum storm surge elevation, some of the greatest anywhere in the U.S. This deadly combination did not bode well for residents of the area. The rapid weakening of the storm before landfall, and its striking at low tide certainly worked to lessen the impact of the storm. From a coastal geologic standpoint, massive amounts of sand washed onto the islands, but very little washed over the islands into the lagoons indicating that the effects from storm surge flooding were minimal in an areal and/or landward incursion of floodwaters sense.
Building code compliance, good setbacks, and selecting elevated building sites all helped to reduce the property damage from Hurricane Opal. Opal was just the size hurricane we make our coastal risk analysis for (Bush et al., 1996), so it was classic in that sense. The idea being there will be many more Category 3 and smaller storms than larger, and that when a true Category 4 or 5 hits, there is not a lot you can do in terms of property damage mitigation but keep your fingers crossed.
Mission Into Opal
Electrification and Winds at Landfall Experiment
(951004I Aircraft 43RF)
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Scientific Crew
Chief Scientist -- M. Black
Doppler Scientist -- C. Samsury
Cloud Physics Scientist -- R. Black
C-SCAT Scientist -- C. Landsea
Workstation -- P. Leighton
Observers -- H. Willoughby, J. Lawrence (UHouston), S. Gedzelman (CCNY)
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This document is divided into 3 sections (Each section is written by the Chief Scientist):
Mission Briefing
Mission Synopsis
Mission Evaluation
Mission Briefing
Crew departed HRD ~14 UTC 03 October via government van for Tampa for proposed 21 UTC takeoff on 04 October. P. Black informed us late that evening that Opal was intensifying rapidly and accelerating northward toward the east-central Gulf coast. J. McFad den was alerted for possibility of an earlier takeoff.
Early morning on the 4th revealed that Opal's MSLP dropped from 933 to 916 mb in 2 hours and winds were up to 60 m/s while Opal was moving NNE at ~10 m/s. AOC crew were alerted and Jack Parrish arranged for an 1500 UTC takeoff. Radar imagery seen on TV n ews reports showed that Opal had a small (~12 km diameter) inner eyewall surrounded by a large moat region with rainbands encircling the moat region in the west, north, and eastern quadrants at ~ 160-180 km radii. Cloud-to-ground lightning displays showed some eyewall strokes and large number of strokes in the rainband on the east side of the storm. The structure of Opal appeared to be ideal for the electrification experiment. We were informed that the proposed NOAA-42 flight (winds at landfall) was not g oing to happen as the second HRD crew was still in Miami.
In the pre-flight briefing it was decided that we would conduct a figure 4 survey pattern at 14,000 ft (500 mb) flying first through the rainband east of the center to an initial point (IP) 130 km to the south of the eye. Afterwards we would work the r ainband module before returning to the eyewall.
Mission Synopsis
Takeoff was at 1527 UTC and we headed WSW to the IP south of the eye. At 1624 we passed through a rainband, ~ 180 km east of the center where flight-level (14,000 ft) winds were 35-40 m/s. The band appeared on the LF radar as primarily stratiform with a few embedded convective elements. A few minutes later at 1633 UTC, the aircraft encountered a stratiform band radially inward of the first with winds of 45 m/s. We penetrated a rainband on the south side at 1645 and were at our IP at 1654. Heading north, we entered through an open eyewall and made a center fix at 1712. The storm structure had changed markedly since earlier that morning. The eyewall consisted of a ~150 degree arc on moderate reflectivity (30-40 dBZ) on the north side of the storm. The eye wall contained a weak wind maximum of 20-30 m/s while the main wind maximum of ~45 m/s was in the outer (eyewall?) rainbands at radii > 120 km. We dropped an ODW in the eye which failed before reaching the surface. We proceeded 130 km N of the center, ra n F/AST downwind to a point 130 km west of the eye. On our eastbound leg, we made a close approach to the center at 1810, where we made another ODW drop which worked, but was no in the center of circulation. Our final point of the figure 4 was ~ 130 km ea st of the eye at 1826, where we climbed to ~19,000 ft on the east side of the rainband we flew earlier.
After climbing, we headed west to work the rainband with a series of 30 degree turns across the band as we headed downwind to a point NW of the center. At 1839 and 1847 we made successful ODW drops on the inside and outside of the band, respectively. Fr om 1905 to 1930, the passes through the band north of the center were within Doppler range of the VLPS WSR-88D.
We broke off from the rainband (which by now was virtually all stratiform rain) to fly back to the hub cloud that made up the eyewall. From a point NW of the center, we headed SE, dropping an ODW in the moat region at 1953 and entered the hub cloud at 1 946 before making a center fix at 1958. At this time, the eyewall (hub cloud) was approaching the coast near Pensacola, well within range of the WSR-88D. We decided to fly a saw-tooth pattern back and forth across the northern eyewall, sampling as much ar ea as possible while at the same time collecting radials that could be used for both pseudo-dual Doppler and true-dual Doppler (with the WSR-88Ds) analysis. From 2000 to 2230 we flew the saw-tooth or zig-zag pattern across the eyewall making center passes at 2012, 2032, 2050, 2122, 2146, 2205, and 2230. The radials through the eyewall were flown some distance inland (30-50 km) and were in close proximity to the VLPS radar. The hub cloud contained a weak (~ 30 m/s) wind maximum but had moderate to high ref lectivity (>40 dBZ) with a few up- and downdrafts of moderate strength (~ 10 m/s) At 2230, the center was on the beach near Pensacola and we headed south to see if the rainbands on the south side were suitable for study. At 2250, it was evident that the c onvection had totally shut down and we headed SE to return to MacDill.
Mission Evaluation and Problems
Although Opal no longer had the convection in the rainbands and eyewall that would be associated with cloud to ground lightning, overall the mission was successful. While the storm was not as electrically active as we had hoped, the reflectivity, micro p hysical, in-situ and Doppler vertical wind data combined with the NLDN lightning data might serve as a weakly-convective case to compare with another data set in the future. The flexibility of Jack Parrish and the AOC pilots along with some creative think ing on our part enabled us to modify the flight-plan while on station to take advantage of the opportunity to fly flight-legs that were suitable for both the electrification and winds at landfall experiment. The vertical incidence data we collected will b e particularly useful in current studies of vertical motions and in future work on the lightning-vertical velocity relations.
Most of the equipment was in good working order with the following exceptions:
the radar system was down briefly from 2049-2056
the upper electric field mill failed at ~1900 (The loss of the upper mill would have been crucial for the electrification experiment if Opal was out of range of the NLDN)
the workstation crashed and was re-booted at 2114
2 of the 5 ODWs had problems
NHC Report
Synoptic History
Satellite imagery and synoptic analyses indicate that Opal originated from a tropical wave that emerged from the west coast of Africa on 11 September. The wave moved westward across the Atlantic into the western Caribbean Sea by 23 September and merged with a broad area of low pressure centered in the vicinity of 15N 80W. The combined system drifted west-northwestward toward the Yucatan peninsula over the following few days without significant development. Deep convection increased near the center of the low and the post-analysis "best track" shows that a tropical depression formed about 70 nmi south-southeast of Cozumel, Mexico at 1800 UTC 27 September.
Steering currents were weak and the tropical depression moved slowly over the Yucatan peninsula for the following three days. Convective banding increased and ship reports suggest that the depression became Tropical Storm Opal at 1200 UTC 30 September while centered near the north-central coast of the Yucatan peninsula. The storm gradually strengthened and moved slowly westward into the Bay of Campeche.
Air Force Reserve unit aircraft investigating Opal over the southwestern Gulf of Mexico reported that the minimum central pressure steadily dropped. Aircraft reports and satellite estimates suggest that Opal strengthened into a hurricane near 1200 UTC 2 October while centered about 150 nmi west of Merida, Mexico. A banding type eye appeared in satellite imagery later in the day while a large amplitude mid- to upper-level trough moving into the central United States began turning Opal slowly toward the north.
On 3 and 4 October, the hurricane turned toward the north-northeast and gradually accelerated. During this period, the water temperature beneath the hurricane's circulation was near 28 to 29 deg C., and a large upper-level anticyclone was well established over the Gulf of Mexico. Rapid intensification occurred not only as a result of these favorable environmental conditions on the large scale but, and perhaps mope importantly, due to significant changes on a smaller scale within the hurricane's inner core. Opal intensified into a category four hurricane on the Saffir/Simpson Scale early on 4 October at which time reconnaissance aircraft reported a small, 10 nmi diameter eye. The minimum central pressure of 916 mb, with maximum sustained surface winds estimated at 130 knots, occurred when the hurricane was centered about 250 nmi south-southwest of Pensacola, Florida near 1000 UTC 4 October. The peak intensity appears to have occurred near the end of an eyewall contraction cycle. Soon thereafter, the small inner eyewall diminished as an outer eyewall became more dominant. The hurricane weakened during this process, but was still a marginal Category 3 hurricane as the center made landfall at Pensacola Beach, Florida near 2200 UTC 4 October. The collapse of the inner eyewall, reduced sea surface temperature along the Gulf coast and increased upper-level westerlies likely contributed to the weakening.
The hurricane was moving north-northeastward near 20 knots at landfall with the sustained hurricane force winds in the eastern quadrants of the circulation primarily between Pensacola Beach and Cape San Blas. The minimum central pressure at landfall was 942 mb. Maximum sustained surface winds are currently estimated at 100 knots in a narrow swath at the coast near the extreme eastern tip of Choctawhatchee Bay about midway between Destin and Panama City. Although no official reports of surface winds were received within this area, data from reconnaissance aircraft and Doppler radar suggest that the peak winds occurred in this location. It should be emphasized that the strongest winds were in a very limited area and most of the coastal areas of the Florida panhandle experienced winds of a Category 1 or Category 2 hurricane (between 65 and 96 knots). Although the winds were diminishing at the time of landfall, extensive damage due to storm surge and breaking waves occurred over most of the coastal areas of the Florida panhandle.
Opal weakened rapidly after moving inland, becoming a tropical storm over southern Alabama and a tropical depression over southeastern Tennessee. The cyclone was declared extratropical on the best track as it moved northeastward over the Ohio Valley and eastern Great Lakes into southwestern Quebec. The strongest winds occurred well away from the center of the cyclone during the extratropical stage.
Meteorological Statistics
U. S. Air Force Reserve aircraft provided a total of 38 operational center fixes during approximately 122 flying hours of reconnaissance on this hurricane. The minimum central pressure reported by aircraft was 916 mb at 0945 UTC 4 October. This represented a 53 mb drop in pressure within 24 hours and a 42 mb fall within 12 hours. This was a very rapid rate of deepening, but it is not unprecedented. Several western North Pacific typhoons have deepened at an even faster rate. The maximum winds of 152 knots from a flight-level of 700 mb were measured shortly after the 916 mb pressure report. At 2006 UTC, approximately two hours prior to landfall, the aircraft reported 126 knots 59 nmi east of the center. In addition to the Air Force Reserve reconnaissance, a NOAA aircraft flew a 10 hour research mission at the time of landfall.
A ship with call sign XCKX reported 75 knot winds at 1200 UTC 4 October while located about 90 nmi west-southwest of the hurricane center. Several other ship reports were helpful in defining the extent of tropical storm force winds.
The strongest winds reported by a land station were 73 knots with gusts to 125 knots from Hurlburt Field, Florida.
Isolated tornadoes were reported from the Florida panhandle to the mid-Atlantic states. One fatality occurred in Crestview, Florida as a result of a tornado. Another tornado inured several people and severely damaged a number of structures as it swept through Charles, Prince Georges and Anne Arundel Counties in Maryland.
At the time of this report a post-storm high water mark survey was being conducted by the U. S. Geological Survey. Many high water marks remain to be surveyed and "tied into" bench marks. The locations of the maximum values cannot be finalized until the survey is complete. However, initial survey results show an extensive storm surge from southeastern Mobile Bay and Gulf Shores, Alabama, eastward through the Florida panhandle to Cedar Key, Florida. Still water mark elevations inside of buildings or tide gage maximums, which damp out breaking wave effects and are indicative of the storm surge, ranged from 5 to 14 feet above mean sea level. Outside water marks on buildings or debris lines on sand dunes within 200 feet of the Gulf of Mexico shoreline generally ranged from 10 to 21 feet. For example, the tide gage at Panama City Beach pier recorded a maximum of approximately 8.3 feet above mean sea level, indicative of storm surge. At the end of the pier a debris line elevation of approximately 18 feet above mean sea level was recorded. Thus, the breaking waves on top of the storm surge added approximately 10 feet. Many structures in this combined storm surge and breaking wave zone that were not elevated high enough suffered major structural damage.
The combination of Opal and a frontal system resulted in heavy rains along the path of the hurricane. Rainfall totals generally ranged from 5 to 10 inches over portions of the Florida panhandle, Alabama, and Georgia. Rains in South Carolina averaged 2 to 4 inches while in North Carolina 3 to 5 inches were common. Highlands, North Carolina recorded 8.95 inches and Robinson Creek, North Carolina recorded 9.89 inches. Elsewhere, 1 to 3 inch totals occurred over portions of the northeast U. S. from Maryland northward. These rains have been described as beneficial to areas of the northeast U. S. that had been experiencing a prolonged dry period.
Casualty and Damage Statistics
The total number of deaths directly associated with Opal is currently set at 59, and were distributed as follows:
Guatemala - 31 (from flooding during the developing stages of Opal).
Mexico - 19 (from flooding)
U.S. - 9 including:
Florida (1 from a tornado)
Alabama (2 from a tree falling on a mobile home)
Georgia (5 from falling trees)
North Carolina (1 from a tree falling on a mobile home)
There were no reported deaths due to storm surge flooding, which is remarkable in view of the vulnerable population and extensive salt water damage observed.
The Property Claim Services Division of the American Insurance Services Group preliminary estimate of insured property damage for the United States is $2.1 billion. Considerable uncertainty exists concerning the amount of additional damage due to flood claims, uninsured property damage (including damage to roads and bridges and other government property) and the cost of cleanup. If the estimate of insured property damage proves to be correct, the total damage estimate from Hurricane Opal could reach $3 billion. Without adjustments for inflation, Opal could rank as high as third on the list of costliest twentieth-century U. S. hurricanes. With adjustments for inflation, Opal will likely still be ranked in the top ten on that list.
Most of the severe structural damage occurred at the coastline. The crumbled piers, demolished homes, and eroded or submerged highways were primarily a result of storm surge. In addition, however, strong winds spread damage well inland. Opal downed numerous trees, knocking out power to nearly 2 million people in Florida, Alabama, Georgia, and the Carolinas. The Robert Trent Golf Course in Opelika, Alabama lost over 7000 trees during the storm. Many people in Florida were without water for several days.
NHC Final Report
Max Mayfield
National Hurricane Center
29 November 1995
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PRELIMINARY REPORTS
Hurricane Allison
Tropical Storm Barry
Tropical Storm Chantal
Tropical Storm Dean
Hurricane Erin
Tropical Depression Six
Hurricane Felix
Tropical Storm Gabrielle
Hurricane Humberto
Hurricane Iris
Tropical Storm Jerry
Tropical Storm Karen
Hurricane Luis
Tropical Depression Fourteen
Hurricane Marilyn
Hurricane Noel
Hurricane Opal
Tropical Storm Pablo
Hurricane Roxanne
Tropical Storm Sebastien
Hurricane Tanya
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Hurricane Opal made landfall near Pensacola Beach, Florida as a marginal Category 3 hurricane on the Saffir/Simpson Hurricane Scale, causing extensive storm surge damage to the immediate coastal areas of the Florida panhandle. It was the first major hurricane to strike the Florida panhandle since Eloise in 1975 (103K GIF).
a. Synoptic History
Satellite imagery and synoptic analyses indicate that Opal originated from a tropical wave that emerged from the west coast of Africa on 11 September. The wave moved westward across the Atlantic into the western Caribbean Sea by 23 September and merged with a broad area of low pressure centered in the vicinity of 15N° 80°W. The combined system drifted west-northwestward toward the Yucatan peninsula over the following few days without significant development. Deep convection increased near the center of the low and the post-analysis "best track" in Figure 1 (108K GIF) shows that a tropical depression formed about 70 n mi south-southeast of Cozumel, Mexico at 1800 UTC 27 September. Best track position, central pressure and maximum one-minute sustained wind speed are listed for every six hours in Table 1.
Steering currents were weak and the tropical depression moved slowly over the Yucatan peninsula for the following three days. Convective banding increased and ship reports suggest that the depression became Tropical Storm Opal at 1200 UTC 30 September while centered near the north-central coast of the Yucatan peninsula. The storm gradually strengthened and moved slowly westward into the Bay of Campeche.
Air Force Reserve unit aircraft investigating Opal over the southwestern Gulf of Mexico reported that the minimum central pressure steadily dropped. Aircraft reports and satellite estimates suggest that Opal strengthened into a hurricane near 1200 UTC 2 October while centered about 150 n mi west of Merida, Mexico. A banding type eye appeared in satellite imagery later in the day while a large amplitude mid- to upper-level trough moving into the central United States began turning Opal slowly toward the north.
On 3 and 4 October, the hurricane turned toward the north- northeast to northeast and gradually accelerated. During this period, the water temperature beneath the hurricane's circulation was near 28 to 29C, and a large upper-level anticyclone was well established over the Gulf of Mexico. Rapid intensification occurred not only as a result of these favorable environmental conditions on the large scale but, and perhaps more importantly, due to significant changes on a smaller scale within the hurricane's inner core. Opal intensified into a category four hurricane on the Saffir/Simpson Hurricane Scale early on 4 October at which time reconnaissance aircraft reported a small, 10 n mi diameter eye. The minimum central pressure of 916 mb, with maximum sustained surface winds estimated at 130 knots, occurred when the hurricane was centered about 250 n mi south-southwest of Pensacola, Florida near 1000 UTC 4 October. The peak intensity appears to have occurred near the end of an eyewall contraction cycle. Soon thereafter, the small inner eyewall diminished as an outer eyewall became more dominant. The hurricane weakened during this process, but was still a marginal Category 3 hurricane as the center made landfall at Pensacola Beach, Florida near 2200 UTC 4 October. The collapse of the inner eyewall, reduced sea surface temperatures along the Gulf coast and increased upper-level westerlies likely contributed to the weakening.
The hurricane was moving north-northeastward near 20 knots at landfall with the sustained hurricane force winds in the eastern quadrants of the circulation primarily between Pensacola Beach and Cape San Blas. The minimum central pressure at landfall was 942 mb. Maximum sustained surface winds are currently estimated at 100 knots in a narrow swath at the coast near the extreme eastern tip of Choctawhatchee Bay about midway between Destin and Panama City. Although no official reports of surface winds were received within this area, data from reconnaissance aircraft and Doppler radar suggest that the peak winds occurred in this location. It should be emphasized that the strongest winds were in a very limited area and most of the coastal areas of the Florida panhandle experienced winds of a Category 1 or Category 2 hurricane (between 65 and 95 knots). Although the winds were diminishing at the time of landfall, extensive damage due to storm surge and breaking waves occurred over most of the coastal areas of the Florida panhandle.
Opal weakened rapidly after moving inland, becoming a tropical storm over southern Alabama and a tropical depression over southeastern Tennessee. The cyclone was declared extratropical on the best track as it moved northeastward over the Ohio Valley and eastern Great Lakes into southwestern Quebec. The strongest winds occurred well away from the center of the cyclone during the extratropical stage.
b. Meteorological Statistics
Figure 2 (44K GIF) and Figure 3 (51K GIF) show the curves of minimum central pressure and maximum one-minute wind speed, respectively, versus time, along with the observations on which they are based.
U.S. Air Force Reserve aircraft provided a total of 38 operational center fixes during approximately 122 flying hours of reconnaissance on this hurricane. The minimum central pressure reported by aircraft was 916 mb at 0945 UTC 4 October. This represented a 53 mb drop in pressure within 24 hours and a 42 mb fall within about 12 hours. This was a very rapid rate of deepening, but it is not unprecedented. Several western North Pacific typhoons have deepened at an even faster rate. The maximum winds of 152 knots from a flight-level of 700 mb were measured shortly after the 916 mb pressure report. At 2006 UTC, approximately two hours prior to landfall, the aircraft reported 126 knots 59 n mi east of the center. At 2203 UTC, near the time of landfall, the aircraft reported 115 knots 54 n mi east of the center. In addition to the Air Force Reserve reconnaissance, a NOAA aircraft flew a 10 hour research mission at the time of landfall.
A ship with call sign XCKX reported 75 knot winds at 1200 UTC 4 October while located about 90 n mi west-southwest of the hurricane center. Several other ship reports were helpful in defining the extent of tropical storm force winds. Table 2 lists ship reports of at least tropical storm force winds in the vicinity of Opal.
The strongest winds reported by a land station were 73 knots with gusts to 125 knots from Hurlbert Field, Florida. Table 3a lists selected surface observations, and Table 3b lists selected observations made by NOAA's National Data Buoy Center (NDBC) platforms near the path of Opal.
Isolated tornadoes were reported from the Florida panhandle to the mid-Atlantic states. One fatality occurred in Crestview, Florida as a result of a tornado. Another tornado injured several people and severely damaged a number of structures as it swept through Charles, Prince Georges and Anne Arundel Counties in Maryland.
At the time of this report a post-storm high water mark survey was being conducted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Geological Survey. Many high water marks remain to be surveyed and "tied into" bench marks. The locations of the maximum values cannot be finalized until the survey is complete. However, initial survey results show an extensive storm surge from southeastern Mobile Bay and Gulf Shores, Alabama, eastward through the Florida panhandle to Cedar Key, Florida. Still water mark elevations inside of buildings or tide gage maximums, which damp out breaking wave effects and are indicative of the storm surge, ranged from 5 to 14 feet above mean sea level. Outside water marks on buildings or debris lines on sand dunes within 200 feet of the Gulf of Mexico shoreline generally ranged from 10 to 21 feet. For example, the tide gage at the Panama City Beach pier recorded a maximum of approximately 8.3 feet above mean sea level, indicative of storm surge. At the end of the pier a debris line elevation of approximately 18 feet above mean sea level was recorded. Thus, the breaking waves on top of the storm surge added approximately 10 feet. Many structures in this combined storm surge and breaking wave zone that were not elevated high enough suffered major structural damage.
The combination of Opal and a frontal system resulted in heavy rains along the path of the hurricane. Rainfall totals generally ranged from 5 to 10 inches over portions of the Florida panhandle, Alabama and Georgia. Rains in South Carolina averaged 2 to 4 inches while in North Carolina 3 to 5 inches were common. Highlands, North Carolina recorded 8.95 inches and Robinson Creek, North Carolina recorded 9.89 inches. Elsewhere, 1 to 3 inch totals occurred over portions of the northeast U.S. from Maryland northward. These rains have been described as beneficial to areas of the northeast U.S. that had been experiencing a prolonged dry period.
c. Casualty and Damage Statistics
The total number of deaths directly associated with Opal is currently set at 59, and were distributed as follows:
Guatemala - 31 (from flooding during the developing stages of
Opal)
Mexico - 19 (from flooding)
U.S. - 9 including
Florida (1 from a tornado)
Alabama (2 from a tree falling on a mobile home)
Georgia (5 from falling trees)
North Carolina (1 from a tree falling on a mobile home)
There were no reported deaths due to storm surge flooding, which is remarkable in view of the vulnerable population and extensive salt water damage observed.
The Property Claim Services Division of the American Insurance Services Group preliminary estimate of insured property damage for the United States is $2.1 billion. Considerable uncertainty exists concerning the amount of additional damage due to flood claims, uninsured property damage (including damage to roads and bridges and other government property) and the cost of cleanup. If the estimate of insured property damage proves to be correct, the total damage estimate from Hurricane Opal could reach $3 billion. Without adjustments for inflation, Opal could rank as high as third on the list of costliest twentieth-century U.S. hurricanes. With adjustments for inflation, Opal will likely still be ranked in the top ten on that list.
Most of the severe structural damage occurred at the coastline. The crumbled piers, demolished homes and eroded or submerged highways were primarily a result of the storm surge. In addition, however, strong winds spread damage well inland. Opal downed numerous trees, knocking out power to nearly 2 million people in Florida, Alabama, Georgia and the Carolinas. The Robert Trent Golf Course in Opelika, Alabama lost over 7000 trees during the storm. Many people in Florida were without water for several days.
d. Forecast and Warning Critique
During the time when Opal was of tropical storm or hurricane strength, the mean official track forecast errors of 42 (18 cases), 102 (16 cases), 161 (14 cases), 231 (12 cases) and 326 (8 cases) n mi at 12, 24, 36, 48 and 72 hours respectively were slightly larger than the long-term averages from the previous ten years.
The intensity forecasts showed a negative bias (i.e., intensity was underestimated). The trend for the strengthening of Opal while over water was correctly forecast by the NHC, but the amount of rapid deepening was not anticipated by the official forecasts or by any available objective intensity prediction techniques.
Table 4 lists the coastal watches and warnings issued during Opal. Approximately 31 hours elapsed between the time a hurricane watch was issued and the time of landfall on the Florida panhandle. Approximately 19 hours elapsed between the time of issuance of a hurricane warning was issued and the time of landfall.
Table 1. Preliminary best track, Hurricane Opal, 27 September - 6 October
1995.
Date/Time
(UTC) | Position |
Pressure
(mb) |
Wind Speed
(kt) | Stage |
| Lat. (°N) | Lon. (°W) |
| 1800 | 19.1 | 87.3 | 1004 | 25 |
Trop. Depression |
| 28/0000 | 19.4 | 87.5 | 1004 | 25 | " " |
| 0600 | 19.4 | 87.9 | 1004 | 25 | " " |
| 1200 | 19.3 | 88.2 | 1003 | 25 | " " |
| 1800 | 19.3 | 88.4 | 1003 | 25 | " " |
| 29/0000 | 19.4 | 88.4 | 1003 | 25 | " " |
| 0600 | 19.5 | 88.4 | 1003 | 25 | " " |
| 1200 | 19.6 | 88.3 | 1003 | 25 | " " |
| 1800 | 19.8 | 88.2 | 1003 | 30 | " " |
| 30/0000 | 20.1 | 88.2 | 1002 | 30 | " " |
| 0600 | 20.6 | 88.3 | 1002 | 30 | " " |
| 1200 | 21.1 | 88.5 | 1001 | 35 |
Tropical Storm |
| 1800 | 21.4 | 89.1 | 1000 | 40 | " " |
| 01/0000 | 21.3 | 89.9 | 994 | 45 | " " |
| 0600 | 21.1 | 90.7 | 987 | 45 | " " |
| 1200 | 20.9 | 91.2 | 986 | 45 | " " |
| 1800 | 20.8 | 91.6 | 985 | 50 | " " |
| 02/0000 | 20.7 | 91.9 | 984 | 55 | " " |
| 0600 | 20.8 | 92.1 | 980 | 60 | " " |
| 1200 | 21.0 | 92.3 | 973 | 65 | Hurricane |
| 1800 | 21.2 | 92.3 | 972 | 65 | " |
| 03/0000 | 21.7 | 92.2 | 970 | 70 | " |
| 0600 | 22.2 | 92.0 | 969 | 75 | " |
| 1200 | 22.8 | 91.6 | 968 | 80 | " |
| 1800 | 23.5 | 91.0 | 965 | 85 | " |
| 04/0000 | 24.5 | 90.1 | 953 | 100 | " |
| 0600 | 25.9 | 89.4 | 935 | 110 | " |
| 1200 | 27.3 | 88.5 | 919 | 130 | " |
| 1800 | 29.0 | 87.7 | 938 | 110 | " |
| 05/0000 | 31.0 | 86.8 | 950 | 80 | " |
| 0600 | 33.2 | 86.2 | 974 | 50 |
Tropical Storm |
| 1200 | 35.4 | 85.7 | 982 | 30 |
Trop. Depression |
| 1800 | 38.5 | 83.5 | 986 | 40 | Extratropical |
| 06/0000 | 40.5 | 82.3 | 989 | 40 | " |
| 0600 | 42.0 | 80.5 | 991 | 40 | " |
| 1200 | 43.3 | 78.4 | 997 | 35 | " |
| 1800 | 44.5 | 76.5 | 1002 | 30 | " |
| |
| 04/1000 | 26.6 | 88.8 | 916 | 130 |
Minimum Pressure |
| Landfall: |
| Pensacola Beach, Florida |
| 04/2200 | 30.3 | 87.1 | 942 | 100 | Hurricane |
Table 2. Ship encounters of 34 knots or
higher associated with Hurricane
Opal.
Ship Call
Sign |
Date
Mo/Da |
Time UTC | Position | Wind (kt)
Dir/Speed |
Pressure
(mb) |
| Lat°N | Lon°W |
| C6CM7 | 9/29 | 0000 | 22.6 | 85.0 |
120/35 | 1006.4 |
| KAFG | 9/30 | 1800 | 20.9 | 85.0 | 140/38 |
1005.7 |
| C6JN | 10/01 | 1800 | 21.9 | 94.7 | 340/34 |
1003.3 |
| C6JN | 10/02 | 0600 | 19.2 | 94.5 | 290/40 |
1000.8 |
| 3EWJ9 | 10/03 | 1200 | 20.6 | 86.5 | 140/58 |
1007.0 |
| C6KE8 | 10/03 | 1800 | 27.6 | 94.4 | 010/34 |
1003.0 |
| WBVY | 10/04 | 0000 | 27.5 | 91.4 | 030/38 |
997.3 |
| C6KJ5 | 10/04 | 0600 | 23.1 | 86.6 | 160/37 |
997.5 |
| XCKX | 10/04 | 0600 | 27.2 | 88.8 | 110/48 |
991.0 |
| ELIU2 | 10/04 | 1200 | 24.7 | 84.3 | 160/40 |
- |
| SHIP | 10/04 | 1200 | 26.8 | 84.7 | 170/46 |
997.2 |
| XCKX | 10/04 | 1200 | 26.8 | 90.1 | 340/75 |
984.0 |
| KGBE | 10/04 | 1200 | 27.6 | 86.0 | 140/48 |
993.0 |
| VSBZ5 | 10/04 | 1200 | 28.4 | 88.8 | 080/55 |
983.5 |
| ELIU2 | 10/04 | 1800 | 24.4 | 84.5 | 170/40 |
1008.5 |
| XCKX | 10/04 | 1800 | 26.7 | 90.3 | 290/40 |
997.0 |
| KGBE | 10/04 | 1800 | 27.4 | 85.6 | 210/52 |
994.6 |
| VSBZ5 | 10/04 | 1800 | 27.5 | 89.3 | 310/47 |
988.0 |
Table 3a. Hurricane Opal selected surface observations, October 1995.
| | Minimum sea-level
pressure |
Maximum surface wind
speed (knots) |
Storm Surge
(tide height
above normal
(ft)) |
Rain
(storm total)
(in) |
| Location | Pressure
(mb) | Date/Time
(UTC) | Sustained |
Peak
Gust | Date/Time
(UTC) * |
| Louisiana: |
| New Orleans (MSY) | 990.9 | 04/1953 | 23 | 30 | 04/2150 |
| 0.34 |
| New Orleans (NEW) | 991.2 | 04/1951 | 30 | 41 |
04/2352 | | 1.17 |
| Mid Lake Ponchartrain Causeway | | | 32 |
39 | 04/2320 | | |
| Mississippi:
|
| Gulfport (GPT) | 985.4 | 04/1947 | 30 | 38 |
04/2147 | | |
| Keesler AFB (BIX) | 984.5 | 04/2125 | 35 ** |
55 ** | 04/1956 | | 3.66 |
| Meridian (MEI) | 991.6 | 05/0303 | 24 | 34 |
04/2335 | | |
| Alabama: |
| Evergreen | 980.0 | 04/2119 | 30 | 43 | 04/2115 |
| 8.10 |
| Mobile (MOB) | 978.5 | 04/2250 | 33 | 51 | 04/2339 |
| 7.48 |
| Downtown Mobile | | | 45 |
57 | 04/2100 | | |
| Ft. Rucker (OZR) | 978.4 | 05/0059 | 65 ** |
85 ** | 05/0024 | | |
| Maxwell AFB (MXF) | 974.1 | 05/0355 | 41 |
78 | 05/0327 | | |
| Montgomery (MGM) | 969.4 | 05/0256 | 41 |
55 | 05/0245 | | 3.23 |
| Auburn (AUB) | 980.0 | 05/0400 | 24 | 45 | 05/0300 |
| |
| Birmingham (BHM) | 976.7 | 05/0655 | 27 | 42 |
05/0453 | | 3.79 |
| Anniston (ANB) | 989.0 | 05/0631 | 25 | 35 |
05/0335 | | 6.09 |
| Huntsville (HSV) | 982.4 | 05/0856 | 37 | 48 |
05/0627 | | 2.44 |
| Florida: |
| Pensacola I-10 & East Bay | 948.2 | 04/2302 | 43 |
63 | 04/2247 | | |
| Pensacola Airport (FAA) | | | 54 |
62 | 04/2041 | | |
| Pensacola (PNS) | | | | 69 |
04/1930 | | 7.27 |
| Pensacola (NPA) | 955.0 | 04/2225 | 52 | 67 |
04/2043 | | 6.93 |
| Ellyson (near (PNS)) | | | | |
| | 15.45 |
| Hurlburt Field (HRT) | 960.3 | 04/2255 | 73 |
125 | 04/2155 | | 6.64 |
| Fort Walton Beach | 960.3 | 04/2229 | | | |
| |
| Eglin AFB (VPS) | 966.5** | 04/2155 | 70 ** |
100 ** | 04/2304 | | |
| Panama City (PAM) | 977.7 | 04/2206 | 55 | 74 |
04/2252 | | |
| Apalachicola (AQQ) | 991.2 | 04/2120 | 28 | 51 |
04/2206 | 5-6 | 2.56 |
| St. George Island Causeway | | 62 | 04/2149 |
| |
| Tallahassee (TLH) | 993.9 | 04/2225 | 28 | 45 |
05/0250 | | 1.25 |
| Tallahassee (FSU Weather Station) | 995.0 | 04/2216 | |
55 | 04/2226 | | |
| Turkey Point (TUPF) | | | 36 | 61 |
04/2047 | | |
| Brooksville (BKV) | 1001.6 | 04/2106 | 20 | 28 | 04/2115 |
| |
| New Port Richey | 1003.5 | 04/2116 | 24 | 31 | 05/0445 |
| |
| Tampa (TPA) | 1002.1 | 04/2050 | 21 | 39 | 04/1652 |
| 1.57 |
| St. Petersburg (PIE) | 1001.6 | 04/2000 | 25 | 38 |
04/1948 | | 1.63 |
| Sarasota | 1002.3 | 04/1848 | 27 | 36 | 04/1648 |
2-4 | 2.80 |
| Winter Haven | 1003.5 | 04/2103 | 29 | 36 | 04/2341 |
| |
| Georgia: |
| Fort Benning (LSF) | 984.5 ** | 05/0656 |
40 ** | 50 ** | 05/0555 |
| 5.25 |
| Warner Robbins AFB (WRB) | 994.3 | 05/0656 | 29 | 44 |
05/0555 | | 0.99 |
| Atlanta (ATL) | 987.5 | 05/0731 | 27 | 43 | 05/0556 |
| 6.59 |
| Dobbins AFB (MGE) | 987.0 | 05/0755 | 37** |
60** | 05/0608 | | 5.14 |
| Marietta | | | 23 | 60 | 05/0734 |
| | |
| Fulton Co. (FTY) | | | | | |
| 6.22 |
| Peach Tree City (FSC) | | | | |
| | 7.66 |
* Time of sustained wind speed unless only gust is given.
** Estimated.
Table 3b. Hurricane Opal selected NDBC observations, October 1995.
| | Minimum sea-level
pressure |
Maximum wind speed
(knots) |
| Platform | Location | Pressure
(mb) | Date/time
(UTC) |
average * | Peak
gust | Date/time
(UTC) |
Grand Isle, LA
C-MAN GDIL1 | 29.3°N 90.0°W | 990.0 | 04/1900 |
40 | 52 | 04/1400 |
Southwest Pass, LA
C-MAN BURL1 | 28.9°N 89.4°W | 985.4 | 04/1700 |
64 | 75 | 04/1700 |
Dauphin Island, AL
C-MAN DPIA1 | 30.2°N 88.1°W | 970.0 | 04/2126 |
53 | 67 | 04/2150 |
Keaton Beach, FL
C-MAN KTNF1 | 29.8°N 83.6°W | 998.0 | 04/2000 |
30 | 47 | 04/2100 |
Cedar Key, FL
C-MAN CDRF1 | 29.1°N 83.0°W | 1000.2 | 04/2100 |
32 | 46 | 04/2300 |
| Buoy 42001 | 25.9°N 89.7°W | 963.7 | 04/0600 |
53 | 66 | 04/1000 |
| Buoy 42003 | 25.9°N 85.9°W | 992.8 | 04/1200 |
43 | 54 | 04/0900 |
| Buoy 42007 | 30.1°N 88.8°W | 979.5 | 04/2100 |
52 | 68 | 04/1900 |
| Buoy 42036 | 28.5°N 84.5°W | 995.4 | 04/2100 |
35 | 43 | 04/1800 |
*NOAA buoys report an 8-minute average wind and
C-MAN stations report a 2-minute average wind.
Table 4. Watch and warning summary, Hurricane Opal.
Date/Time
(UTC) | Action | Location |
| 30/1500 | Tropical Storm Warning |
Northeast portion of the Yucatan Peninsula from Cozumel and Cancun to Progreso |
| 01/0300 | Tropical Storm Warning extended |
Yucatan Peninsula from Progreso to Celestun |
| 01/2100 |
Tropical Storm Warning extended |
Yucatan Peninsula from Progreso to Veracruz |
| Tropical Storm Warning discontinued |
Yucatan Peninsula east of Progreso |
| 03/0900 | Hurricane Watch |
Morgan City, Louisiana to just west of Pensacola, Florida |
| 03/1500 |
Hurricane Watch extended |
Pensacola to the Mouth of the Suwannee River, Florida |
| Tropical Storm Warning discontinued |
All portions of the Yucatan Peninsula |
| 03/2100 | Tropical Storm Warning |
Morgan City, Louisiana to the Mouth of the Suwannee River, Florida |
| 04/0300 | Hurricane Warning |
Mobile, Alabama to Anclote Key, Florida |
| Tropical Storm Warning extended |
South of Anclote Key to Venice, Florida |
| Tropical Storm Warning and Hurricane Watch discontinued |
West of Grand Isle to Morgan City, Louisiana |
| 04/0900 |
Hurricane Warning extended |
Mobile, Alabama westward to the Mouth of the Mississippi River including coastal
Mississippi |
| Tropical Storm Warning and
Hurricane Watch extended |
Grand Isle, Louisiana westward to just east of Morgan City, Louisiana including
Metropolitan New Orleans |
| 05/0300 |
Tropical Storm Warning, Hurricane Warning, and Hurricane Watch
discontinued | West of Mobile, Alabama |
| 05/0500 |
All remaining coastal Watches and Warnings discontinued |
|
