THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, October 6, 1995 TAG: 9510060495
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY STEVE STONE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 75 lines
When will it end?
As Opal sped toward the Great Lakes on Thursday - threatening eastern Virginia with tornadoes and dumping up to 12 inches of rain in North Carolina - yet another tropical storm formed in the Atlantic.
Pablo - the first ever ``P'' storm - was about 1,000 miles west-southwest of the Cape Verde Islands, heading west-northwest at 21 mph toward the hurricane-ravaged islands of the eastern Caribbean. And it's expected to intensify into the season's 10th hurricane.
``We're getting into uncharted territory here,'' said John Hope, senior meteorologist at The Weather Channel in Atlanta. ``We're surprised to see a storm that well-developed this east in the Atlantic in October . . . but this is no ordinary season.''
It was Opal that held center stage Thursday, however, as it dominated the eastern half of the United States, spreading rain from South Florida to New England even as it was downgraded to an extratropical low.
As the storm moved north, it brought flash floods and gusty winds to western North Carolina, forcing hundreds of people to evacuate their homes for much of the day. Gov. James B. Hunt Jr. declared a state of emergency in 26 counties.
One North Carolina man was killed when a tree fell on a mobile home in Buncombe County.
Floodwaters and mudslides closed roads and bridges, including a 150-mile stretch of the scenic Blue Ridge Parkway from Boone to Cherokee.
The National Weather Service placed southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina under a tornado watch most of the day.
In Isle of Wight County, the roof of a barn was damaged and a large tree uprooted near the courthouse after a tornado was spotted on radar in the area and a warning was issued.
In Windsor, students were held at school for about 30 minutes past their 3 p.m. dismissal time, until the warning was lifted.
The Sheriff's Department reported one sighting of the ``tail end of a tornado'' near Walters.
In both states, Opal made for a windy, gray day. Gusts were clocked at 55 mph in Richmond and 58 mph in Asheville and New Bern, N.C.
``One of the feeder (rain) bands from this storm is huge, stretching from Norfolk all the way to Florida,'' Weather Channel meteorologist Bob Farmer said Thursday afternoon.
Heavy rains also spread through New England - and that was welcome in the Northeast, where an extreme drought has left reservoirs at critically low levels.
While many airports in the East experienced delays and cancellations because of Opal, airlines at Norfolk International said only a few local flights were affected.
Meanwhile, far in the Atlantic, Tropical Storm Pablo steadily gathered strength Thursday, with top winds up to 50 mph at 5 p.m.
The fact that it was there at all surprised forecasters. Storms that form late in the hurricane season usually develop in the Gulf of Mexico, not the eastern Atlantic, Farmer said. Several of this year's worst storms - Iris, Luis and Marilyn - all formed off Africa before ripping through the islands of the Caribbean.
``Opal was a normal storm in the sense of where it developed,'' Farmer said.
It was not normal in terms of what it did, however, and for that reason it will probably be the last storm named Opal.
The list of names used for storms is recycled every six years, but the names of particularly strong and damaging storms are traditionally retired. ``I suspect we'll not see another Opal,'' Hope said. MEMO: Staff writer Linda McNatt contributed to this story.Staff writer Linda
McNatt contributed to this story.
KEYWORDS: HURRICANE OPAL DAMAGE by CNB