By Rene Sanchez
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, October 6, 1995; Page A1

DESTIN, FLA., OCT. 5—Hurricane Opal cut a deadly and destructive path through the South today, bringing the death toll to 15 people in four states and battering the homes, resorts and condominiums that line a 120-mile stretch of Florida's famous Gulf Coast beaches.

Florida officials said that fast-moving Opal, which disintegrated into a tropical depression as it made its way north, was one of the most destructive storms ever to hit the state. Initial estimates are that Opal caused at least $1.8 billion in insured property damage, second only to Hurricane Andrew, which devastated a portion of South Florida in 1992 and caused $17 billion in damage.

In Florida, a 76-year-old woman was killed in her home in Crestview, where the storm spawned a tornado. The Associated Press reported that in Georgia, seven people were killed in accidents related to Opal. In Alabama, six died in such accidents, including two people killed when a tree fell on a trailer, and in western North Carolina, a man was killed when a tree fell on a mobile home.

Opal knocked out power to nearly 2 million people in Florida, Georgia, Alabama and the Carolinas, and many, especially in the Florida panhandle, were without water. Fifteen Florida counties were approved for federal emergency aid, and National Guard troops were posted in Panama City, which was under a dusk-to-dawn curfew.

At 11 p.m., the storm was near Buffalo.

All along Highway 98 here today, residents staggered back to their beach town homes and looked with horror at the great destruction that Hurricane Opal had wrought.

The Miracle Strip, as it's known here, has never looked worse. In some places, boats and the thick wood pilings to which they were strapped have been ripped from the water by the storm and hurled at least a half mile to the shore. Houses were flattened, storefronts battered. Fallen trees and debris filled most roads. Most towns had no power, and gas and ice were virtually impossible to find.

In nearby Fort Walton Beach, the Rev. Ray Blanchard awoke to find a neighbor carting around an American flag that looked an awful lot like the one that flies above his Westwood Baptist church. It was – and Blanchard soon discovered that the church's entire roof had been crushed by the mighty storm. He spent the morning there picking through rubble as the sun cast a bright glow upon his pews.

"I've never seen anything like it," Blanchard said. "But despite this we still feel very lucky. Yesterday my wife thought that we should come inside the church during the storm, but at the last minute we decided against it and left town instead."

Outside the church, the sign was still intact, and Blanchard noted, with the sort of good humor that typified that of his neighbors even in the face of the devastation: "At least the storm did not knock my name off the sign." Blanchard may need the exposure; he became Westwood Baptist's pastor just three weeks ago.

After killing 10 people in Mexico and moving swiftly across the Gulf of Mexico, Opal hit land early Wednesday evening with 125 mph winds that in some places gusted to 150 mph. It spared little in its path. But because the coastline had largely been evacuated, most of the damage that it did was strictly to property. Many residents here said today that they were at least grateful that only a few lives had been lost and a few people had been hurt, but for many the hardships from the storm have only just begun.

Opal's 15-foot surge of ocean water washed over the top of several of the barrier islands, carving new channels where there were no buildings and moving or damaging structures. An entire condominium building was moved, intact, by the powerful water. Smaller buildings near it were battered.

And in many places the once-sparkling beaches were literally gone. In their place were a deep ridge of sand and more of the Gulf of Mexico than had been there before.

By afternoon, many business owners had returned to see their property in ruins. At Destin's Lucky Snapper bar and grill, which has a beautiful waterfront view and space to seat 650 patrons, the second-floor dining room had collapsed onto the first floor and was struck by several boats that the hurricane had flung from the harbor. One of the boats belonged to a restaurant owner.

"For us, this loss is monumental," said Tom Rice as he surveyed the damage to the Lucky Snapper. "When you live near the water you know that sooner or later you're going to be dealt a card like this. But I don't think that we've ever had a hurricane that destroyed so much property."

If anything, Opal gave the Lucky Snapper an even more watery view: Where once there had been a keyhole bay and a strip of sand leading to an inlet, today there was nothing but water.

DuneTown officials said it could take at least a week to restore electrical power to everyone; there were long lines at the few stores in the area selling ice and no gas station for about 20 miles had pumps that worked.

The 65-foot steel schooner "Flying Eagle" lay scratched and dented alongside the seawall where docks had stood, resting three feet below its water line. Capt. Mark Christy and his crew were surveying damage as a bilge pump spilled thousands of gallons of water from below decks.

Christy has anchored the yacht in Destin Harbor with two 50-pound anchors hung on 250 feet of chain to weather the storm. "I've been through lots of hurricanes before and never lost one," he said.

Farther down the harbor a stuffed marlin seemed to be leaping out of a 10-foot pile of debris. Inan Smith, 27, laughed that "the fish will survive," even though the fishing shack it was mounted on did not.

Bob Mazikowski from Atlanta was not so lucky. He owns a 1951, 40-foot cabin cruiser named Enchantress, now resting on the harbor bottom. The boat was built for the actress Mitzi Gaynor.

"Losing the Enchantress is tough. It was the nicest boat around here by far," Mazikowski said.

In Niceville, Rip and Rock Wright stand next to their gas station whose canopy lies crumpled in the parking lot. The station windows are broken, the pumps twisted. Down the road they own the Green Apple lounge that has seen similar redecorating. Last night two men were arrested for looting there.

"Over the years the canopy has blown down three or four times but this is the worst I've ever seen all at one time," said Rip Wright.

As Opal weakened, Tropical Storm Pablo, the 16th named storm of the season, formed off the African coast in the area of the Atlantic that has bred some of this season's most dangerous storms, including Hurricane Erin, which stormed through the same area just two months ago.

Special correspondent Catharine Skipp contributed to this report from Destin.