THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, October 5, 1995 TAG: 9510050578
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY STEVE STONE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 147 lines
Hurricane Opal, a disaster in the making, slammed ashore east of Pensacola, Fla., on Wednesday with winds gusting to 144 mph, catching some coastal residents off-guard.
Forecasters warned that the killer storm would speed north, just west of the Appalachians, bringing heavy rainfall to western North Carolina and Virginia today. But by then it should have lost most of its high winds.
In the 12 hours before landfall, Opal - feeding on the 85-degree waters of the Gulf of Mexico - suddenly swelled almost to Category 5 status, the strongest, with sustained winds of 150 mph and gusts to 185 mph. That easily made Opal the most powerful hurricane to threaten the Gulf Coast since Camille hit in 1969, killing 256 people.
While Opal lost some of its punch as it came ashore, it remained ``a dangerous, major hurricane,'' the National Hurricane Center said.
Pensacola appeared to have been spared the worst Wednesday night.
``Ten to 15 miles east of Pensacola, they got the brunt of the storm,'' said Patrick Walshe, a senior meteorologist at The Weather Channel in Atlanta.
There was damage on Pensacola Beach and barrier islands near Pensacola, however, but the extent was not immediately known.
Hurlburt Field, an Air Force base just west of Fort Walton Beach, reported a wind gust to 144 mph at 5:42 p.m. as the eyewall of the hurricane passed.
Storm-surge flooding of up to 10 to 15 feet above normal tide levels occurred east of Pensacola, said Lixion Avila of the National Hurricane Center in Miami.
Michael Barker, public safety director of Walton County, Fla., said buildings were damaged and trees and utility poles were down.
Florida officials said it appeared the storm had done severe damage in many areas but said there were few specific reports because communications had been disrupted. Widespread power outages were reported throughout the Panhandle.
``We would expect extensive damage,'' said John Hope, senior meteorologist at The Weather Channel. ``The strong winds didn't extend very far to the west at all, but we did notice strong winds extending well to the east, about a hundred miles or so.''
At 9 p.m., the center of Opal was about 70 miles south of Montgomery, Ala. It was moving north-northeast near 22 mph with maximum sustained winds of 100 mph and gusts to 120 mph.
Opal spawned several tornadoes. One woman was killed when a twister ripped through a trailer park near Crestview, Fla.
``Additional rainfall amounts of 6 to 10 inches are possible along the path of the hurricane,'' said Avila, of the hurricane center. ``This will aggravate flooding, particularly in the Appalachians.''
Flooding already was occurring in western North Carolina on Wednesday night, thanks to storms along a strong cold front that is expected to guide Opal northeast today.
The National Weather Service office in Raleigh, relying on Doppler radar, estimated that as much as 4 to 6 inches of rain fell over Johnston County on Wednesday. The Sheriff's Department reported that some roads were flooded.
The Wake County Sheriff's Department reported that several roads in eastern and northern parts of the county were flooded after 3 inches of rain fell.
``It will be a pretty good dousing of rain, on the order of anywhere from 2 to 6 inches,'' The Weather Channel's Walshe said. ``But it's moving pretty quick . . . so it shouldn't linger over any one area more than 12 hours.''
Aside from flooding, ``damaging winds and very strong gusts are possible over western North Carolina'' today, said Ruth Aiken, a meteorologist at the Weather Service office in Raleigh.
A flash-flood watch is in effect today for much of interior North Carolina, with a high-wind warning in the mountains and a high-wind watch in the foothills and western Piedmont. A gale warning is in effect on the coast.
A flash-flood watch is in effect for western Virginia.
Even with the power it had as it came ashore Wednesday evening, Opal was nothing like the mammoth it had been earlier. ``It's still a good, strong Category 3 storm'' on the five-tier Saffir-Simpson Scale, Hope said. ``But this morning it was almost a Category 5. . . . That would have been a calamity had the hurricane come ashore at that time.''
Hope, who has tracked hurricanes for decades, said he had never seen a storm intensify as rapidly as Opal, going from sustained winds of 100 mph at 8 p.m. Tuesday to 150 mph at 9 a.m. Wednesday.
The hurricane came ashore more quickly than expected. That was good, because it hit at low tide - but bad, because many coastal residents had little time to evacuate. Thousands had to weather the storm in their homes.
A hurricane warning was issued at 10 p.m. Tuesday. And the Hurricane Center, noting attention on the O.J. Simpson verdict in Los Angeles and the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, took the unusual step of urging people to telephone and alert relatives in the affected areas.
Still, many people went to bed expecting they would have time in the morning to get ready. But Opal raced more than 400 miles in the 20 hours before it made landfall.
Emergency officials ordered the evacuation of a 150-mile stretch from Pensacola to Wakulla Beach. But as tens of thousands began to crowd highways and interstates out of the area, gridlock occurred.
With roads hopelessly tangled, officials finally called a halt to the evacuation and urged residents to seek any shelter they could. But most residents of the barrier islands appeared to have made it inland, an emergency management official said.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency on Wednesday was pre-positioning rescue teams and essential supplies so relief efforts could begin within hours of the storm's passage.
The Hampton Roads regional search-and-rescue team, Virginia Task Force 2, was among those deployed. The 62-member crew representing area fire and emergency-services departments left Wednesday for Camp Shelby, Miss., a spokesman said. ILLUSTRATION: ASSOCIATED PRESS COLOR PHOTOS
MOBILE, ALA., ABOVE:
When high winds from Opal hit, Maxine Johnson was here, in bed. Her
husband threw himself across her to protect her, then dragged her
from the house. Wednesday she was OK, except for a cut lip.
FORT WALTON BEACH, FLA., LEFT:
Drivers try to get out, hours before Opal hit, but were stuck and
had to turn back once it did.
Graphic
TRACKER'S GUIDE
Tropical cyclone data from the National Hurricane Center includes
latitude, longitude and maximum sustained winds.
Tropical Storm Noel
Date Time Lat. Long. MPH
10/2 11 p.m. 25.4 40.2 50
10/3 5 a.m. 26.1 40.6 50
11 a.m. 27.2 42.2 45
5 p.m. 28.0 42.8 50
11 p.m. 29.0 43.1 60
10/4 5 a.m. 30.2 43.5 50
11 a.m. 31.0 42.9 65
5 p.m. 31.9 42.7 65
Tropical Storm Opal
Date Time Lat. Long. MPH
10/2 11 p.m. 22.0 92.2 80
10/3 5 a.m. 22.5 92.1 80
11 a.m. 23.1 91.4 90
5 p.m. 23.9 90.6 100
11 p.m. 25.3 89.5 120
10/4 5 a.m. 26.4 89.2 120
11 a.m. 28.1 88.2 150
5 p.m. 29.8 87.3 125
To hear updates from the National Hurricane Center, call INFOLINE
at 640-5555 and enter category 1237.
KEYWORDS: HURRICANES HURRICANE OPAL by CNB