Q: In a recent AJC, it indicated Georgia has not had a direct hit from a hurricane in more than a century. While not a direct hit, Hurricane Opal brought considerable destruction to Atlanta in 1995. Do you have any statistics you can share with your readers?
—Lori Srail, Johns Creek
A: Hurricane Opal caused 11 deaths in Georgia and left 410,000 Georgia Power customers without power for days in early October 1995.
Winds nearly 70 mph and heavy rain toppled thousands of trees across the state on Oct. 4-5, with 4,000 falling on power lines around Atlanta, the AJC reported.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported deaths in nine Georgia counties (Carroll, Cobb, DeKalb, Floyd, Fulton, Gilmer, Haralson, Murray and Spalding).
A state of emergency was declared in 45 counties, schools were closed and millions of dollars of crops were destroyed, including an estimated $5 million in pecans.
Hurricane Opal was a Category 4 hurricane that hit the Florida Panhandle and the Gulf Coast and moved north through Alabama, causing heavy rain, high winds and flooding into the Ohio Valley and Mid-Atlantic states.
Q: What happened to Fred Kalil and Randy Waters? We enjoyed their sports report for years on 11 Alive. They always gave such good analysis and are both good at their job.
—Lynn Bradford, Riverdale
A: Kalil left 11 Alive in March 2015 after 22 years at that station to become the sports anchor at CBS46.
Waters, who had been with 11 Alive for 29 years, retired in 2013.
He’s the sideline reporter on Georgia Tech football broadcasts and the analyst for Georgia Tech basketball.
Andy Johnston with Fast Copy News Service wrote this column. Do you have a question? We’ll try to get the answer. Call 404-222-2002 or email q&a@ajc.com (include name, phone and city).
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