Will Always Remember Miss Opal

September 30, 2006, 10:11 pm

Posted by J.B. Elliott in Weather Discussions
Rating: 0/5 Votes : 0

Well, well. As we get up this morning, we discover it is October 1. We are cruising right along into the nicest part of the year. Unfortunately, October is also traditionally the driest month of the year in Alabama.

I will always remember early October because of Hurricane Opal. Eleven years ago today Hurricane Opal was growing stronger and by early on October 4 she had intensified rapidly to a category 4 in the Gulf of Mexico.

I remember very well working in the weather office at WBRC-TV with James (that is where he was chief meteorologist at the time). I was doing complete updates every 30 minutes on several local radio stations and we worked most of the night.

After midnight, it got so windy and stormy that some trees started coming down.

Opal made landfall about 6:00 p.m. on October 4, 1995 near Navarre Beach in NW Florida. After moving inland, she curved toward the NNE passing all the way through South-Central and East Alabama. The center passed just west of Montgomery, then to near Talladega and eventually to near Ft. Payne in the NE corner of the state.

At the worst, 2.6 million people in Alabama were without power�some for over a week. Alabama Power reported the most widespread outages in their history up until that time. 1,400 utility poles were brought down and 400 miles of power lines.

2,500 Alabama power linemen teamed up with 2,500 from out of state and worked like Trojans. They did their usual great job but the task was enormous.

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Posted by
on September 30, 2006, 10:25 pm

I remember that night well. I was living in Glencoe (between Gadsden & Hokes Bluff) at the time. The west side of the eye or center passed directly over me. Huge trees were bending almost to the ground for two or three hours. Just about every pecan tree in the area, plus many other trees came down that night. The neighbor and I had to cut our way out with chainsaws the next morning as Rabbittown Rd was blocked in both directions. At the time, I had a rain gauge that held 7". I emptied 3" before dark then it filled up and ran over during the night, meaning I had at least 10" of rain. That's almost as much as I've had in the last five months.....13.88" since May 1st.

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Posted by
on October 1, 2006, 9:06 am

I remember too!! We we living in Fort Walton Beach, FL. We all went to bed thinking that it would hit New Orleans. I woke up about 3 a.m. and it didn't make the turn it should have. About an hour later Gulf Power Company (part of the Southern Company family) called my husband into work. I called my parents in Destin to get them up. Next I clled the in laws. I didnt want to leave but my husbands boss called and said that we needed to leave it was going to be bad and that Eddie didn't need to worry about our safety. Mallorie and I had stayed home with Erin a few months before. We all packed our stuff that we didnt want to ruin, because we knew we wouldn't have homes to come home to. My Mom and Dad, Mallorie, the dog, the bird and my in-laws hit the road before the traffic was too bad. 14 hours later and only 250 miles we ended up in Philadelphia, Ms. Never heard of it before. We stayed in a parking lot at a gas station that night and then the next day went toward Monroeville, Al and found a motel room. Eddie had been trying to call me and all the circuits were busy with the cell phones and when he finally go through 2 days later he asked where we went and I told him Philadelphia....he said you drove a little far to out run the storm didn't you...he thought we were in Pennsylvania!! hahah! Then we headed toward home and that wouldn't let us through the state line so we went back to Andalusia and stayed in the parking lot in at the JC Penney for a few days... I don't miss those days....

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Posted by www
on October 1, 2006, 8:59 am

vacationing on the Gulf the last weekend in Sept., very stormy looking. WE knew Opal was out there but it was barely a Cat 1 then, we actually debated on extending the weekend to stay a couple of days of the week to see what it would be like. Fortunatly we decided not too..hard to call work, I had a doc. appt. with the ob/gyn (pregnant with out 3rd) etc..I drove home in the worst rain ever..no more than 30 mph up to I65 and 35 all the way to Montg. We also listened for the OJ Simpson verdict as we crept along. Didn't get out of rain till Shelby Cty and just did get the van unloaded before it started here. At the doc's the next morning all the nurses were in a panic..they'd closed all the schools. In the car I heard the Governor come across the Emer. Radio Net. (1st time I'd heard that..sent chills all over me)...quickly went to the store and got some supplies before the rush began. Good thing as we were without lights for days. Rained so hard and wind blew so strong it came thru the chimmney and window sills on the floor. Interesting night!

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Posted by ladybug
on October 1, 2006, 8:40 pm

oh, i may be young but i remember opal well. at the time i was in college at judson in marion al. the weather there was awful. hard wind and rain. couldn't get to mom by phone so me and a friend drove up to the rock creek area to check on mom and she had no power and limbs down in the yard. after the checking on mom we drove back to campus then later helped out with cleanup around the campus and surrounding areas. dont want to forget the friend, but gladly will forget opal. thought i had lived through a bad storm but on 4-8-98 my hometown suffered the f5.

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Posted by
on October 2, 2006, 7:23 am

I REMEMBER OPAL VERY WELL. I WAS LIVING IN MONTGOMERY AT THE TIME. I WAS SUPPOSE TO GO TO WORK AT MAXWELL AFB THAT AFTERNOON, AND I CALLED MY BOSS AND SHE SAID DO NOT COME IN. THEN AS THE AFTERNOON PROGRESSED THE WINDS PICKED UP, THEN BY NIGHTFALL THE WORST WAS UPON US. I LIVED RIGHT ACROSS THE STREET FROM ALA ST. IN OLD CLOVERDALE. TRANSFORMERS STARTED BLOWING AND YOU COULD SEE THAT BLUE/GREEN COLOR AS THEY WENT OFF LEFT AND RIGHT. BY THIS TIME I WOULD HAVE ESTIMATED THE WINDS TO BE JUST NEAR HURRICANE STRENGTH. THE WINDS WERE HOWLING, AND THEN AROUND 8:30, A HUGH 50 YEAR OLD OAK TREE FELL IN MY BACKYARD AND REALLY SHOOK ME UP LIVING BY MYSELF WITH JUST MY 2 CATS. THEN AROUND 9-9:30 ALL WAS CALM. YOU COULD ACTUALLY GO OUTSIDE AND SEE THE MOON AND STARS AS THE CENTER PASSED OVERHEAD. THEN ABOUT 30 MINS LATER, ROUND 2. DRIVING AROUND THE TOWN THE MORNING AFTER WAS SOMEWHAT SHOCKING. YOU COULD SEE HUGE BRANCHES THAT HAD BE THROWN INTO THE WINDSHIELD OF CARS, POWER LINES DOWN, AND A BIG MESS TO CLEAN UP. I DON'T MIND HURRICANES, BUT I AM NOT A BIG FAN OF THEM AT NIGHT WHEN YOU CANNOT SEE WHAT IS GOING ON, AFTER THIS EXPERIENCE. I STILL HAVE A TAPE FROM THE LOCAL NBC STATION OF THE EVENT TO REMIND ME.

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Posted by
on October 5, 2006, 12:39 am