This was in 1979, per Al Gwhore lookups. I've never seen winds like that from any other hurricane/storm system up this far from the gulf. Our neighbors at the time had a typical brick ranch-style house. They had added a screened porch that covered the full length of the side of the house opposite to us. The wind was strong enough that it lifted the entire roof of the screened porch off of the house and blew it over the top of the house, with it landing in the front yard. This was a big, heavy roof with the typical 2x10 or whatever rafters, old-school thick plywood and asphalt shingles.

I have no idea what were the measured wind speeds all the way up in Rockmart. It was really strong, though. One other detail I remember is that the wind was blowing so hard, and sustained, that it was causing the metal weather stripping in the exterior door frame of our house to reverberate and make this loud noise.

Yikes. It takes a lot of energy to do that. I hope the folks that need flood insurance bought it. This cold front rain we've had is saturating the ground for the Helene rain. Runoff could be very ungood.

As dry as it's been, a fast soaking of 4 or more inches of rain along with fairly strong winds could cause a lot of shallow rooted trees to topple.

(09-26-2024, 11:59 AM)Replying to Rogasingingdawg As dry as it's been, a fast soaking of 4 or more inches of rain along with fairly strong winds could cause a lot of shallow rooted trees to topple.

If the wind does get up to any significant level, that is also what I am thinking... trees falling over.

(09-26-2024, 10:17 AM)Replying to RockmartDawg This was in 1979, per Al Gwhore lookups. I've never seen winds like that from any other hurricane/storm system up this far from the gulf. Our neighbors at the time had a typical brick ranch-style house. They had added a screened porch that covered the full length of the side of the house opposite to us. The wind was strong enough that it lifted the entire roof of the screened porch off of the house and blew it over the top of the house, with it landing in the front yard. This was a big, heavy roof with the typical 2x10 or whatever rafters, old-school thick plywood and asphalt shingles.

I have no idea what were the measured wind speeds all the way up in Rockmart. It was really strong, though. One other detail I remember is that the wind was blowing so hard, and sustained, that it was causing the metal weather stripping in the exterior door frame of our house to reverberate and make this loud noise.

Opal was pretty bad back around 94 or so.