THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, November 27, 1995 TAG: 9511270047
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A5 EDITION: FINAL
SERIES: 1995 HURRICANE SEASON WRAP-UP
SOURCE: BY STEVE STONE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 67 lines
In the summer of '95, the ``Sunshine State'' simply wasn't.
Just three years after Hurricane Andrew ravaged South Florida, the state was besieged by four tropical storms and hurricanes. The only places spared were Jacksonville on the northeast corner of the state and the Florida Keys.
To make matters worse, heavy rains deluged the state even when the wind was quiet.
Floridians had a hint of what lay ahead one day after hurricane season opened. On June 2, Allison - a minimal storm with peak winds that barely rose to hurricane force - developed in the western Caribbean.
The unusually early storm steered straight north, seemingly taking aim at Pensacola. But just before going ashore, it turned northeast and went into the Big Bend, causing little damage.
Pensacola's residents didn't know it, but Allison's turn marked the end of 69 years of good fortune during which no hurricanes had struck.
On July 31, Erin formed in the eastern Bahamas and quickly intensified into a minimal hurricane. The storm lost some of its winds just before coming ashore on Florida's central east coast. But it dumped copious amounts of rain before crossing into the Gulf, north of Tampa, where it reintensified.
On Aug. 3, the hurricane hit Pensacola, heading northwest into Alabama. Winds caused extensive damage.
Three weeks later, another tropical depression formed in the Bahamas and steered into Florida on a path only slightly different from Erin. It became a tropical storm - Jerry - just before making landfall. Again, however, rain, rather than wind, caused problems.
Jerry also moved into the Gulf north of Tampa, but hugged Florida's west coast. It eventually lost its tropical characteristics. But remnants of the storm later moved into the Atlantic and split, with one offshoot heading back into Florida, dropping still more rain.
Finally, in late September, Opal formed over Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. It was forecast to move north like Allison but not intensify. Instead, Opal moved west into the warm waters of the Gulf where it exploded from a minimal storm to a Category 4 storm on the 5-tier Saffir-Simpson scale.
A week after forming, Opal had moved only a few hundred miles. Then it turned northeast and charged toward Pensacola.
A day before landfall, Opal's top sustained winds peaked at 150 mph with gusts to 180 mph. But cooler waters south of Pensacola sapped some of its strength.
As it was, Opal still had top winds of 125 mph when it went ashore, causing immense damage to Pensacola and a 100-mile area east of the city. Thousands of coastal homes and businesses were destroyed; the damage has been estimated at nearly $3 billion.
Between its crossing of the Yucatan and its attack on Florida, Opal claimed 50 lives. ILLUSTRATION: NANCY STONE
Scores of homes were swept away by a huge storm surge - a wall of
water - that hit the coast of the Florida Panhandle just before
Hurricane Opal made landfall Oct 4. Thousands of other homes, like
this one, sustained heavy damage from strong surf, high tides and
heavy winds. Although Opal came ashore near Pensacola Beach, it cut
a huge swath of destruction for more than 100 miles to the east.
KEYWORDS: HURRICANE by CNB