The Panhandle Places

Pensacola Beach

After Hurricane Opal tore across this skinny barrier island in 1995 the damaged areas were redeveloped, sand was brought in to fill the eroded beachfront, and beach facilities and parking were added to what came to be known as the "Opal Day Use Area," named in honor of the hurricane responsible for the destruction. A local bartender even invented a potent but short-lived concoction called a "Raging Opal" to commemorate the storm.

It's doubtful, however, that any public parks or cocktails will be named after Hurricane Ivan, which devastated the area in 2004. The Category 4 storm wasn't an event that anyone around here cares to remember. The storm's tidal surge washed completely over the island in several places, and the obvious reminders of Ivan's visit—washed-out roads, devastated homes, uprooted lives, and erased sand dunes—are still visible and may well be for years to come.

Since the national media focused its attention on Pensacola Beach for not much longer than it took the storm to do its damage, the scope of the disaster might come as a surprise to many visitors: nearly half of the island's homes were destroyed; all of the island's hotels were closed for months (some never reopened); and the miles of sea-oat-covered, pristine dunes that protected the island from winter storms and gave the area its laid-back Florida look were leveled in hours. In short, Pensacola Beach was a city changed.

But locals here know the post-hurricane drill: dig in, dig out, and move on. Several hotels have reopened after complete renovations; homes and condos have been demolished or are being rebuilt; and city and state crews made significant progress in reconnecting roads to areas of the island rendered inaccessible by the storm. The biggest grand opening came when the main road that reaches historic Fort Pickens was cleared after several years of being buried under tons of sand. The other grand opening came in April 2009, when a lovely stretch of County Road 399 reopened to give travelers heading east a pristine seaside ride for the 15 blissfully undeveloped miles between Pensacola Beach and Navarre—one of the finest strands of sand in Florida.