Local Perspective on Opal, please?

I'm a newbie, but years ago when I was looking at homes, a realtor who was raised there told us that there was some sand dredging after Opal. Boats were seen on the beach kicking out sand. I am not sure what areas. But I was also told that mother nature also kicks in to help over time.

It was pretty devastating to the beaches and ate up some dunes. The dunes after Opal looked similar to how they looked after Ivan.

Then there was a lot of beach scraping where they actually used backhoe buckets to dip sand out of the water at the waterline. After the first pass they went back through a couple of times.

The sand that was taken from the waterline was pushed back to the dune line. There were massive sea oat plantings all along the beaches. A lot of gulf front owners had high-quality sand trucked in and planted sea oats.

30A was washed out at Dune Allen, Western Lake, and Eastern Lake. The road at the lake was rebuilt and rocks placed along the side to prevent washout. Grayton Beach around the Red Bar was flooded badly and many homes were washed off of their foundation. The water level from Opal was higher than from any storm since.

The dunes were almost back to pre-Opal status when Ivan hit. But the level of the horizontal beach was still down a few feet, making Ivan's impact on the dunes larger. Ivan, Arlene, and a couple of minor storms, and further scraping lowered the beach even more leaving the dunes extremely vulnerable to Dennis.

Proponents of beach scraping say that it simply speeds nature by helping to migrate sand from the beach to the dunes, which they argue will happen over time from wind anyhow. My uneducated opinion is that it speeds the lowering of the beach level so that even the smallest event causes damage. It seems logical to me that the natural process builds beach first, then dunes. But that would require more patience on our part.

I'm not saying scraping is the only cause of our problems. It seems now that dredging, right or wrong, is the only real way to protect property now, if that is the goal.

Another note on Opal - there was quite the boom here afterwards, when large money flowed in and large structures rose quickly.

The previous owner of our condo left behind a huge sandollar, no flaws, and marked the back of it "Opal 1995." So I guess Opal washed up some really big shells?

Ivan washed up some beautiful shells as well in perfect condition. I have a very large bowl of them here in Michigan to remind me of SoWal (and Ivan). I also have a nice small plastic Spongebob SquarePants that I saved from the waters after Ivan (in the bowl with the shells now).

Ivan washed up some beautiful shells as well in perfect condition. I have a very large bowl of them here in Michigan to remind me of SoWal (and Ivan). I also have a nice small plastic Spongebob SquarePants that I saved from the waters after Ivan (in the bowl with the shells now).

Spongebob- how cute Paula. :clap_1: Love that cartoon.

Spongebob- how cute Paula. :clap_1: Love that cartoon.

He'ss very cute. I feel like I saved him from the storm. One of these days I'll make a shadow box with a few photos of before and after Ivan, SpongeBob, and some shells... I found a lot of olive shells and bonnet shells (tons of bonnet shells) and a few good-sized fancy ones as well. No sand dollars though.

After Ivan we found beautiful bonnett shells everywhere! I have many bowls of them. There were thousands of live starfish (or parts of them) I was throwing some back in and was told you can't make a difference they are all just going to die. I picked one up threw it in and said "made a difference to that one!"
We also found a top plate of false teeth and some bent up eyeglasses. Makes you wonder where that came from?!
We came down the day after Ivan and was just kind of stunned. Not by much devastation of buildings but at the beaches. I think they look so pretty now just a little less than two years after. I have many pictures after Ivan and would try to post them if I could ever figure out how! Kurt?!

After Ivan we found beautiful bonnett shells everywhere! I have many bowls of them. There were thousands of live starfish (or parts of them) I was throwing some back in and was told you can't make a difference they are all just going to die. I picked one up threw it in and said "made a difference to that one!"
We also found a top plate of false teeth and some bent up eyeglasses. Makes you wonder where that came from?!
We came down the day after Ivan and was just kind of stunned. Not by much devastation of buildings but at the beaches. I think they look so pretty now just a little less than two years after. I have many pictures after Ivan and would try to post them if I could ever figure out how! Kurt?!

Go to the photo gallery and click "upload". Pics need to be less than humongous.

The previous owner of our condo left behind a huge sandollar, no flaws, and marked the back of it "Opal 1995." So I guess Opal washed up some really big shells?

That was nice of the previous owner to leave behind a piece of beach memorabilia for you to keep. :clap_1:

Here's a Georgia perspective on Opal. I've heard we had it worse.

We have a reproduction of an 1830's Louisiana plantation house designed by the late Samuel Wilson, Jr., of Koch & Wilson in New Orleans. He insisted on authenticity, which included working hurricane shutters. We agreed, even though we laughed about a hurricane coming to this part of Georgia.

When we got the warnings for Opal, we decided to use them. Bottom line is that we needed them. There were large tree branches, etc., that had been hurled toward our home. The storm knocked down 40 trees in our yard, blocking our driveway (thankfully my husband had a chainsaw). We were without power for a week because a secondary power line was down, couldn't be accessed from our yard because of all of the downed trees, and our "neighbor" wouldn't allow the power company to access it from her side because she didn't want her lawn damaged. Yet she had so many trees down that her house was on the front page of the newspaper! We rented a room at the Holiday Inn and would go there just to take a warm shower. But we stayed at home where I prepared my lectures via candlelight.

It was also my provisional year in Junior League. We had scheduled our annual attic sale fundraiser for that Saturday. I'll never forget setting it up and pulling off the sale with no power. We actually had a big crowd because people were bored - no power, so you couldn't watch TV, cook meals, do laundry, run the vacuum cleaner, etc. 😀

BTW it was pretty scary. I couldn't believe how noisy it was. The house shook. Thankfully our house was not damaged, even though one huge tree missed the house by inches. Our Weimaraner was forever scarred by it. From then on, whenever it even rained, she'd get scared. Once we were shopping at Lenox and when we returned, we saw blood everywhere. A thunderstorm had popped up while we were gone, and she had tried to claw her way into the house, injuring herself. Another time we had just had the house painted. A thunderstorm came up while we were gone, and she damaged all of the doors on the front gallery. So the claw marks had to be sanded down, and the doors had to be repainted. After that we put an Invisible Fence under the house so she couldn't get to the doors when it rained, and kept one garage door slightly open so she could feel safe inside.

Go to the photo gallery and click "upload". Pics need to be less than humongous.

Describe humongous...i have tried to load pictures from my computer and it tells me it is too large. I do not know how to reduce them. Can you tell me how to do this?
BTW...if I ever figure this out you will all be in trouble! I have some great photos of a lot of locals!!!

The remembrances I have to add about "Opal" is that a house at Dune Allen was blown across the road into Oyster Lake. There were several houses on the beach that collapsed. It may have been tornados because one house would be standing and the one next to it collapsed. The beach looked alot worse than after Ivan and Dennis. That could be due to the fact that the dunes were so large and plentiful and we all had been use to seeing them. Not so after Ivan and Dennis. The dunes had not recovered to pre-Opal when Ivan came.

All about Opal:

http://www.geocities.com/hurricanene/hurricaneopal.htm

BR, after reading your account, I was racking my brains trying to figure out how I have no memory of it. Then I googled the exact date, and it turns out we left Atlanta for Indianapolis only the month before. Narrow escape!

All about Opal:

http://www.geocities.com/hurricanene/hurricaneopal.htm

BR, after reading your account, I was racking my brains trying to figure out how I have no memory of it. Then I googled the exact date, and it turns out we left Atlanta for Indianapolis only the month before. Narrow escape!

Wow! Thanks for correcting me. Back then we did our beach trips at The Cloister, so I was clueless about the Panhandle. Everyone here said we had it worse. NOT!

All about Opal:

http://www.geocities.com/hurricanene/hurricaneopal.htm

BR, after reading your account, I was racking my brains trying to figure out how I have no memory of it. Then I googled the exact date, and it turns out we left Atlanta for Indianapolis only the month before. Narrow escape!

I worked for BellSouth in Atlanta at the time. I got a phone call at about 4:15 am on Thursday from work. I was told to come in to the office asap and have the EOC (emergency operation center) operational by 6:30 am. We had Atlanta emergency personnel rolling to Fla. when I arrived.

I spent the next 5 days in the EOC coordinating crews for local damage. We had widespread damage from high winds, at least 1 tornado, and several micro bursts. All told. We got out light compared to the panhandle. They were battered and tattered. :(

Here's a Georgia perspective on Opal. I've heard we had it worse.

We have a reproduction of an 1830's Louisiana plantation house designed by the late Samuel Wilson, Jr., of Koch & Wilson in New Orleans. He insisted on authenticity, which included working hurricane shutters. We agreed, even though we laughed about a hurricane coming to this part of Georgia.

When we got the warnings for Opal, we decided to use them. Bottom line is that we needed them. There were large tree branches, etc., that had been hurled toward our home. The storm knocked down 40 trees in our yard, blocking our driveway (thankfully my husband had a chainsaw). We were without power for a week because a secondary power line was down, couldn't be accessed from our yard because of all of the downed trees, and our "neighbor" wouldn't allow the power company to access it from her side because she didn't want her lawn damaged. Yet she had so many trees down that her house was on the front page of the newspaper! We rented a room at the Holiday Inn and would go there just to take a warm shower. But we stayed at home where I prepared my lectures via candlelight.

It was also my provisional year in Junior League. We had scheduled our annual attic sale fundraiser for that Saturday. I'll never forget setting it up and pulling off the sale with no power. We actually had a big crowd because people were bored - no power, so you couldn't watch TV, cook meals, do laundry, run the vacuum cleaner, etc. 😀

BTW it was pretty scary. I couldn't believe how noisy it was. The house shook. Thankfully our house was not damaged, even though one huge tree missed the house by inches. Our Weimaraner was forever scarred by it. From then on, whenever it even rained, she'd get scared. Once we were shopping at Lenox and when we returned, we saw blood everywhere. A thunderstorm had popped up while we were gone, and she had tried to claw her way into the house, injuring herself. Another time we had just had the house painted. A thunderstorm came up while we were gone, and she damaged all of the doors on the front gallery. So the claw marks had to be sanded down, and the doors had to be repainted. After that we put an Invisible Fence under the house so she couldn't get to the doors when it rained, and kept one garage door slightly open so she could feel safe inside.

Yes, most people have no idea that the effects of a hurricane travel so far inland. Growing up in Lower Alabama, we had many a tree (beautiful old magnolias) uprooted in our yard from un-named hurricanes or tropical storms. It was always wind and rain damage, obviously.

With Opal, tho, there had been a lot of heavy rain all across the SE for weeks. The ground was saturated, so when the winds hit, it uprooted trees for many, many miles, far from the coast line. I remember visiting my dad in Andalusia months later and was in shock to see all the trees uprooted or broken in half, like toothpicks, hundreds upon hundreds all thru the Conecuh Nat'l. Forest.

I heard the same thing too, that it was worse in Atlanta. Just totally unexpected & unprepared, I guess.

Describe humongous...i have tried to load pictures from my computer and it tells me it is too large. I do not know how to reduce them. Can you tell me how to do this?
BTW...if I ever figure this out you will all be in trouble! I have some great photos of a lot of locals!!!

If you'd like to resize your photos on your computer, here is a link to the world's easiest picture resizer by Microsoft. Click on it, then select run, and it will install. Once installed, all you have to do is right click on any pic file on your computer, select "Resize Pictures" and it will give you several size options - it's that easy!
http://download.microsoft.com/downl...wertoySetup.exe

If you'd like to resize your photos on your computer, here is a link to the world's easiest picture resizer by Microsoft. Click on it, then select run, and it will install. Once installed, all you have to do is right click on any pic file on your computer, select "Resize Pictures" and it will give you several size options - it's that easy!
http://download.microsoft.com/downl...wertoySetup.exe

It really is that easy too.

Having grown up in Walton County, I don't believe Grayton Beach has ever been quite the same since Hurricane Opal. The storm carried a 16-ft. storm surge. It stalled just out in the Gulf before making landfall, which probably resulted in it causing even less damage than it would have otherwise. But was there was plenty to go around, even so. To my memory, the dunes at Grayton have never regained either their height or mass prior to Opal. Many of the seaoats were already gone, the victims of decorator whims, alas.

The old Conch Out cottage, so named even then, was washed completely off its foundation and was not salvageable. I have always heard that it is back luck to rename a house, though and so the name remains the same. The present Conch Out, a far cry from its funky old predecessor, was built immediately after Opal and still carries the old "The Conch Out" sign, since given a face lift. Someone (you know who you are) in the area has a chest of drawers that washed down Hotz Avenue from the old Conch Out cottage. I hope you have given it a new life.

The hurricane did significant damage in DeFuniak Springs, as well. Almost every tree in the beautiful Lake DeFuniak yard was wiped out. Huge pines and oaks were snapped in half or torn out by the roots. A huge oak in my family's backyard, one I estimated to be easily 100 years old, was ripped out by the roots. It had the most beautiful wisteria vine entertwining the big oak limbs and our entire backyard would be carpeted with the lavender petals after it bloomed. I miss that tree to this day, even though the other oaks have since grown almost to its size.

Ivan was bad because we were on the NE side of the action. I hate to even contemplate what another Opal would do, though. Right now, I am giving thanks for a thus far easy storm season. Grayton Beach is a model of how nature cleans up after herself, though. Thank goodness for the State Parks folks, who prevent us from our own best intentions! :clap_1: