In Opal’s Path, Blocks Of Homes Gone

Under blue skies, the damage wrought by Hurricane Opal became clear Thursday: hundreds of houses smashed into splintered boards, condominiums flattened, hotel walls caved in and boats tossed ashore along 120 miles of eroded beach.

“This is what I call utter destruction,” an astonished Al Donaldson said as the homeowner looked over Santa Rosa Beach, west of Panama City.

Opal, which hit land late Wednesday with gusts up to 144 mph, killed at least 15 people and caused an estimated $1.8 billion in damage to insured property along the Florida Panhandle. That made it the secondcostliest storm in state history after Hurricane Andrew, which inflicted $17 billion in damage in 1992.

Fifteen Panhandle counties were approved for federal emergency aid.

“Blocks and blocks of homes are gone,” said Jo Miglino, a spokeswoman for the state Division of Emergency Management. “We have widespread reports … of many, many homes destroyed.”

Opal lost its punch as it blew through Alabama but still knocked out power to 2 million in Florida, Georgia, Alabama and the Carolinas. Many homes also had no water or phone service.

Almost 4,500 National Guardsmen were posted in Florida to prevent looting. Bay County, where an estimated 100 homes were destroyed and 1,000 damaged, was under a dusk-to-dawn curfew, and the Guard set up a center to provide food, water, clothes and showers to people left homeless.

As Opal approached land Wednesday, more than 100,000 coastal residents fled inland, clogging highways. After the hurricane had passed, hundreds of people were frustrated when police refused to let them return to their homes.

“They’re telling us some of the houses were blown right into the water,” said Mike Moody, who was trying to get back to his home on Navarre Beach.

“We can’t let people back - not even if they are trying to get back to their homes,” said Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Deputy Rick Hord. “They would have no power and no sewage service. You can’t even flush the toilets because there’s no water. If there is water, it is likely to be full of disease.”

By midday, Opal had been downgraded to a tropical depression and was 95 miles south of Lexington, Ky., with sustained winds of 35 mph.

The storm disrupted air traffic throughout the day, causing flight delays from Philadelphia, Boston, St. Louis, Chicago and New York, the Federal Aviation Administration said.