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Hurricane Opal

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A different kind of 4-by-4
takes him for a wild ride

By BILL MOSS, Times staff writer
©St. Petersburg Times, published October 6, 1995

FORT WALTON BEACH -- It was 2 p.m. Wednesday, and Richard Williams thought he could outrun Hurricane Opal and get to his mother's home.

That was before his car sank.

Williams, 42, left Panama City for Niceville, normally about a 90-minute drive. He was racing down U.S. 98, thinking he had almost made it, when his 1984 Chevrolet Celebrity hit a big puddle in Destin and stalled.

He got out of the car. High winds and swirling water forced him into Choctawhatchee Bay. For a little while, he could stand on a sand bar. But the rain stung like pellets, raising a red mark wherever it hit. He could see a 4-foot wave buckle the roadway. He watched his car disappear under the bay.

The sand bar under him was washing away, and soon, he was swept away by the storm.

Now he was being pitched up and down, splashed in the face by waves, swallowing saltwater. He wiped so much brine from his eyes that he scratched a cornea.

Trying to stay afloat, Williams shed his jeans, and then his topsiders. He had just cashed a $300 check, but he shed the cash, too.

"I said, well, here it goes. I had on a T-shirt, drawers and a pair of black socks. That's me."

That was him. In a pitch black night. City lights darkened by a power failure. Howling wind, punishing waves and a hurricane making landfall right over his head.

"Lo and behold, there's a 4-by-4 piece of wood, 7 or 8 feet long. I'm hugging that board. I said, "Yeah, this is a good little float right here. I'm going to stay with this bad boy.' "

For a long while, he could see nothing. But then, finally, he saw red lights on a tower.

Inspired, Williams started kicking and tried to paddle with his left hand while hugging the board with his right.

"I lost the board. I swear it's dark, it's hard to see, (but) I find the board." He thought of his fiancee, Margaret "Meg" Winkler. His mom, Dorothy Williams. His son, Sherod. He thought of brothers.

"I did a lot of praying."

Suddenly, he saw dock pilings loom in the black night. He hung on. Then something even more miraculous. Lights flickering and bouncing. Flashlights. Safety.

In nearly four hours, Williams had floated to Shalimar, some 5 miles across the bay from Destin.

He was rescued by residents on shore and taken to the hospital for treatment of hypothermia and dehydration.

"Why did I make that decision (to drive) so late?" Williams, 42, pondered as he rested at Fort Walton Beach Medical Center.

"I have no idea."

By Thursday afternoon, the 6-foot, 200-pound Williams, who works on crew boats that run supplies and workers out to oil platforms in the gulf, laughed easily as he recounted his wild ride.

He said he never thought he would die.

"My father always tried to tell me you maintain things better if you don't panic and if you keep a cool head."