Local Perspective on Opal, please?

was born here in 83 however, i have pics dating back to the 70's at least. if not earlier. after opal all the high schoolers rode the big jet boat out of choctawhatchee bay to fort walton beach to go to school because the roads were out. Water transportation is never out of style.......................

These are fantastic stories. :clap_1: Keep them coming. This is a good place to collect and save history of SoWal. And photos! Please please please photos. These stories about Opal are both frightening and comforting. Frightening because of the damage (no stories yet about loss of human life during Opal - was there any?) and comforting because it's clear that the area (nature and people) bounce back.

Thanks for the feedback about the sand dunes, folks. I remembered dunes 30 ft. high or more, too but refrained from posting that for fear of exaggeration. I mean, when you're a short kid, everything looks taller and bigger, right? But I remember those dunes being extremely high, canyons within them, and covered with sea oats, like a forest. We have an etching of "The Store" on the landing at Conch Out, made from a very old photo. The sand dunes surround it and come right up to the windows and people often think it is the artist's liberty. Not so. I can remember when people had fights in "The Store," they would sometimes jump right out those windows into the dunes to finish things up. A whole new take on, "Let's take this outside!"

As for loss of life, I recall the bridge house (on the old Bay bridge) going into the drink with the bridgekeepers inside on at least two occasions. While I cannot be sure, I seem to recall that a barge hit that bridge during Opal and one of the bridgekeepers was drowned. Someone else may want to weigh in on this because I might have my storms confused.

I think that Opal made a huge difference in how SoWal residents view hurricanes. Before, there was no mandatory evacuation and I can actually remember sitting on the beaches watching hurricanes roll in, before driving home for the big event. The evacuation process down there is now very efficient and you have to consider it as to how it relates to the debacle that occurred in New Orleans and subsequently in the Houton, TX areas. Opal turned us all into veterans.

Now if someone could just say something about that chest of drawers from the old Conch Out?!? Reward offered...no questions asked. Furniture just wants to come home. :roll:

Before, there was no mandatory evacuation and I can actually remember sitting on the beaches watching hurricanes roll in, before driving home for the big event.

I, too, remember us staying on the beach 'til the last minute and jumping in the car to drive home. One time when I was about 10, I was hanging onto one of those brown visitors info signs on the sidewalk at P'cola Beach to keep from being blown away and my dad ran up and carried me to the car. It was totally black out and the wind, sand and rain was whipping around. It was so loud we had to scream at each other. There just wasn't much early notification - just common sense, which dosen't sound like we used much of it that time!

was born here in 83 however, i have pics dating back to the 70's at least. if not earlier. after opal all the high schoolers rode the big jet boat out of choctawhatchee bay to fort walton beach to go to school because the roads were out. Water transportation is never out of style.......................

I remember reading about your mode of transportation in the paper and thinking how cool that must have been, but it probably got pretty old after a while. Does anyone remember the Destin Harbor? Boats stacked on top of one another five at a time...as if someone had placed them on top of one another..really bizarre! Who is the guy from LA that owns/owned all the chicken fast food? Anyway he had his first mate stay aboard his yacht during Opal docked in the harbor. This guy stayed throughout and had videos of refrigerators and furniture flying by. I believe it was CNN that showed the video on the news. Scarey times! 😱

I found a photo of our beach access from 2002. Only that little patch of dark green in the lower left-hand corner remains. From there it is now a vertical cliff down to sea level.

I don't have any pre-Opal photos. We hadn't discovered 30-A yet.

I uploaded a pre- Opal photo from 1976 to the members photo gallery. If anyone is interested they can see it there. The Santa Rosa Beach Club is the building nearest to the camera. Hurricane Eloise came through Walton Co. the year before but I really don't know how much damage was done to the beach. Historically the large storms hit Walton Co. about every 20 years.

I was in the eighth grade when Opal hit. Like Kurt said, I too remember the storm surge being much worse as compared to Ivan and Dennis. I have some pre-Ivan photos in the member's section, and will be sure to look for some others to post there as well. My mom and dad came down two days later to check on our condo at Seamist. My mom found the largest seashell which we have ever found on our many vacations to SoWal. As the storm passed over North GA, it was picked up by a low level jet, racing it northward so that it did not have much time to lose strength, and so heavy rain, tornadoes and very strong winds--80mph measured at Dobbins Air Force Base, were the story of the evening. This was quite scary and exciting all at the same time. I remember being out of school for two days, and not having electricity for just as long.

I don't live there, but have a couple of memories of post-Opal. mr. dd's family has two houses on Okaloosa Island. Both houses were severely damaged. When his cousin went down to survey the damage, she found a Sony TV in the yard. Washed up from who knows where. She took it inside, cleaned it off and danged if the thing didn't work like a champ. Then, the following year, when we were visiting, his same cousin was there working on the other house. We were in Destin that day, and she had a seizure and fell off a ladder and hit her head on the window sill. When she came to, she staggered to the bathroom and then called 911. They took her to the hospital. When we returned, and went to look for her, there was blood EVERYWHERE. Looked like a murder scene. He raced to the hospital--she was fine. I tried to clean up all the blood, but she ended up having to re-paint some of the walls she had just painted. Then, she drove 17 hours back home! 😱

My son was not quite 3, so even though we were living south of Freeport at the time, we evacuated. In context of an evacuation, "we" means my son and I - hub can't go as he is supposed to protect and serve. We went to Jacksonville, which was much too far, but we were safe. A 5 hour drive that took 12 hours. Lights were on when we returned the following evening (advantage of living just off 331!).

If we had been living where I live now: we found driftwood against the front door. That is never a good sign. Since I was tending to a baby, I had not been able to clean out my mom's house after she died. Opal made the decision on what to keep and what to trash very easy. :(

Hubby did call me from the top of the 331 bridge to alert me that I very nearly collected on his life insurance. After the wind had died down and the surge receded, he and another officer headed for SoWal. They were between the small bridge and the large bridge when the bay came BACK up over the road. 😱 They could not tell where they were in reference to the road, the bridge, the bay...fortunately the officer behind hub had a spotlight and found the reflector at the base of the bridge. Four WCSO cars stuck on the bridge until the bay went back down, but thankfully safe.

To this day, he will tell you that being in that car and not knowing if he was on the road or headed for deep water is the most frightened he has ever been in his life.

I for one am glad we are reading these stories from over 10 years ago and not from some current storm.

This is going to be a calm season!!!!!

My son was not quite 3, so even though we were living south of Freeport at the time, we evacuated. In context of an evacuation, "we" means my son and I - hub can't go as he is supposed to protect and serve. We went to Jacksonville, which was much too far, but we were safe. A 5 hour drive that took 12 hours. Lights were on when we returned the following evening (advantage of living just off 331!).

If we had been living where I live now: we found driftwood against the front door. That is never a good sign. Since I was tending to a baby, I had not been able to clean out my mom's house after she died. Opal made the decision on what to keep and what to trash very easy. :(

Hubby did call me from the top of the 331 bridge to alert me that I very nearly collected on his life insurance. After the wind had died down and the surge receded, he and another officer headed for SoWal. They were between the small bridge and the large bridge when the bay came BACK up over the road. 😱 They could not tell where they were in reference to the road, the bridge, the bay...fortunately the officer behind hub had a spotlight and found the reflector at the base of the bridge. Four WCSO cars stuck on the bridge until the bay went back down, but thankfully safe.

To this day, he will tell you that being in that car and not knowing if he was on the road or headed for deep water is the most frightened he has ever been in his life.

Wow!! 😱