Hurricane Harbor: OJ vs Hurricane Opal

On June 12th, 1994 the world was rocked with a news story that went on to dominate the news cycle for the following year. It's a date and a time many will not forget. OJ Simpson a much beloved football player that broke many records in college and won the Heisman Trophy in 1968 for his incredible run at USC in the heart of LA was suddenly the suspect in his wife Nicole Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman's death! OJ went on after college to fame playing for the Buffalo Bills and infact had become quite the football hero, to many, as well as a public figure who had acted and was popular on TV. Everyone knew OJ and when you heard the term OJ it stood for a football hero, not that orange stuff in a glass in somewhere that comes from Florida.

OJ running from the police in a panic.

Making a White Ford Broncos suddenly popular ..

..and eventually the chase ended.

Much discussion on TV

Familes argued over OJ's innocence or guilt!

All the elements of a love triangle.

A husband's rage and revenge.

A husband set up to take the blame.

Glitzy California story and went on and on.

Then the trial........

This is a blog about what happens when an Iconic News Story collides with a hurricane in the process of intensifying and no one is paying attention to the hurricane. The OJ Trial after OJ being on the run in his Bronco that much of the whole nation watched in the early days of Cable News..... went long into a murder trial on the news every day, leaving everyone with the memory of the staying "if gloves don't fit, you must acquit" and all of America was watching live! People watched the trial, they sat at home with friends watching the trial, everyone having their own opinion arguing it out at work or at school or pretty much anywhere you went someone would ask what you thought of OJ.

And then on October 3rd, 1995......

........FINALLY.....the verdict was in.

And, then people cheered or screamed foul play!

People argued.

People celebrated.

Meanwhile in the Gulf of Mexico.......

...during an epically busy hurricane season.

There was your typical October storm.

September 27, 1995

Everyone is watching OJ

A storm forms down near the Yucatan.

You know those slow forming storms.

Weak, nothing much.

Crosses the Yucatan.
Reforms and heads North.

You have all been there.

Think Michael.

Nothing until it was something.

On October 2nd it entered the GOM

It intensified into a hurricane.

Nothing much to look at yet.....

..compared to the trial of the century.

(at that time..)

Cable News vs a young TWC

Even local news was following the trial.

On October 4th Opal became a Cat 4.

160 MPH

Understand had this been any other busy year with an O storm in the Gulf of Mexico, nowhere to run and trapped and obviously making landfall somewhere it would have been a lead story on the news. Everyone would have been glued to their local weather or TWC and yet many were not..........

It did not make landfall at it's peak and it was a marginal Category 3 at landfall, but as many of you know when a hurricane traversed the Gulf of Mexico and had been strong enough to have 150 MPH winds it usually packs a strong storm surge that's just as important as if it was a Cat 2, Cat 3 or even a Cat 4! And in this case Opal ran like OJ for the end zone far inland creating flooding problems way past the point of storm surge and wind impacts. Many complained they were not properly warned or didn't know how bad it would be and yes obviously anyone who obsesses on hurricanes was out shopping at the store and preparing for a hurricane landfall. But, the general public in the path of the hurricane.... well many missed the Intensification and wrote it off as a late season mild hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico. That was a big mistake for many caught unaware ....caught up in the drama of OJ and the trial, and again the verdict was read on October 3rd the day before Opal made landfall.