Opal was, what,1979? Predictive technology, though not perfect, has certainly changed since then.
I had to look it up but Opal his Oct. 4, 1995.
It came to land just barely East of Ft. Walton, Beach. My Sister has lived there since around 1960.
It wiped everything out right where it landed but was moving so fast that overall damage wasn’t as great as was feared. Still it did a lot.