Read our past coverage on Hurricane Helene as it made landfall in Florida and began moving north into Georgia.
Damaging Helene has swept through Georgia, leading to at least 11 deaths. All 159 counties are now assessing the devastation and working to rebuild, even as serious flooding risks linger.
The storm entered South Georgia as a Category 2 hurricane around 1 a.m. Friday. By around 2 p.m., Tropical Depression Helene was over northeastern Tennessee and southeastern Kentucky.
In Georgia, it led to more than 1 million power outages statewide, downed trees and destruction to several homes. Gov. Brian Kemp said one first responder is among the 11 confirmed fatalities. Others remain trapped, including in several places in Valdosta.
While metro Atlanta seems to have avoided the worst of the storm, the risks of falling trees and flooding persist.
Ryan Willis, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Peachtree City, noted that the massive storm drifted along the eastern edge of the forecast cone. That left most of the metro area on the storm’s weaker, western side, leading to lower wind speeds compared to areas like Augusta. Most of metro Atlanta still saw gusts of around 35 to 45 mph, Willis said.
Atlanta’s northern neighborhoods, such as Buckhead, suffered the worst of the flooding, while other areas like English Avenue, Vine City and Peoplestown — usually most susceptible to storms — have avoided floodwaters for now, Mayor Andre Dickens said. No injuries or deaths have been reported in Atlanta so far, and hospitals remain operational.
[5 p.m.]: There are roughly 1 million Georgians without power, according to data from Georgia Power and Georgia EMC, which represents 41 electric membership cooperatives in the state.
Roughly 635,000 of Georgia Power’s 2.7 million customers were without electricity. The largest numbers of outages were clustered around metro Atlanta, Savannah, Augusta and Valdosta.
Georgia EMC members, which mainly serve rural areas, were reporting an additional 390,000 without service.
— Staff writer Kelly Yamanouchi
[4:35 p.m.]: Hurricane Helene brought wind gusts of up to 76 mph to the Savannah area overnight, downing trees, ripping traffic lights from above intersections, tearing awnings from storefronts and causing a roof collapse on a historic building in the heart of downtown.
Tornadoes were forecast as the greatest threat to Savannahians ahead of the storm’s arrival because of the coastal city’s location on the northeastern edge of the system. Tornado sirens began sounding on the suburban islands east of Savannah at 8:45 p.m. Thursday as a twister was detected off the coast of Wassaw Island, an uninhabited barrier island home to a national wildlife refuge.
Tornado sirens continued throughout the night. At one point, seven sirens were sounding simultaneously across Chatham County.
Credit: Katelyn Myrick
Credit: Katelyn Myrick
— Read the full story by straff writer Adam Van Brimmer here.
[3:52 p.m.]: South Georgia Medical Center in Valdosta might be about the only place for miles around with power after Hurricane Helene passed through.
As they deal with the patients who are discovered in the wreckage or straggle in, the 285-bed facility is on backup generators. For a few eerie minutes in the middle of the night, even one of those wasn’t working. As regular electricity lines fell, one of the building’s three generators flickered off: the one that powers the main hospital’s emergency room and the laboratories.
Emergency batteries within the ER’s lights and medical machines kicked in so the hospital could keep providing care, while the hospital’s facilities staff raced to the generators to see what was wrong, and finally got them back up, said hospital CEO Ronald Dean.
“Our team was in-house taking care of patients,” he said. “Uninterrupted.”
— Read the full story by staff writer Ariel Hart here.
[3:50 p.m.]: The Salvation Army Emergency Disaster Services team is accepting donations to help those impacted by Helene. Donations will help provide emergency aid, food, drinks, emotional and spiritual care, and long-term recovery services, their website states.
[3:17 p.m.]: Augusta Mayor Garnett Johnson declared a state of emergency for Augusta-Richmond County on Friday due to the widespread damage. There were six deaths in the Augusta area. In neighboring Aiken County, South Carolina, there were four deaths reported.
Augusta Fire Chief and EMA Director Antonio Burden said he is in contact with the National Weather Service to determine if a tornado touched down in Augusta during the storm.
Credit: Charmain Brackett
Credit: Charmain Brackett
Savannah Riverkeeper Tonya Bonitatibus said the Savannah River is at a flood stage and she expects the damage throughout Augusta to be felt for weeks — if not months — before things get back to normal.
Augusta was hit with wind gusts up to 80 mph early Friday morning. Reports of flooding, downed trees and power lines are widespread in the area. More than 145,000 Georgia Power customers are without service in Richmond and Columbia counties.
— Staff writer Jozsef Papp
[3:09 p.m.]: State education officials are reporting roof leaks, power outages and light poles blown over at schools in metro Atlanta all the way south to Bibb County. No structural damage has been reported.
Oglethorpe University said it had minor leaks and water damage. The Brookhaven school said it temporarily lost power, but it has been restored.
— Staff writer Martha Dalton
[2:58 p.m.]: A 58-year-old Dublin man was killed early Friday when massive pine trees blown over by Helene crashed through the roof of his house, Laurens County Coroner Richard Stanley said. He was identified as Charles Douglas Brownlee, and lived in a house that at least four giant pines keeled over on in a particularly hard-hit section of town near the city’s high school football stadium, the Shamrock Bowl.
A 48-year-old Kentucky woman died when the 18-wheeler she and her husband were traveling in was struck by a wind-blown falling tree along U.S. 441, about 20 miles south of Dublin. Stanley identified the woman who was killed as Angela Edwards of Eddyville, Kentucky. The coroner said the truck Edwards and her husband were in hit a tree in the highway. Before they could move that tree, another toppled onto Edwards.
Credit: Joe Kovac
Credit: Joe Kovac
— Staff writer Joe Kovac Jr.
[2:52 p.m.]: Atlanta received an “unprecedented” 11.12 inches of rainfall in the past 48 hours, breaking the previous record of 9.59 inches in 1886, said Georgia’s State Climatologist Bill Murphey. Helene added to the 4 to 6 inches of rain Atlanta had already received by Thursday afternoon, he said. Murphey explained that the saturated soil loosened tree roots and Helene’s wind gusts weakened tree limbs.
”You get 20-25-mph winds sustained for a brief period of time, then any of those trees already weakened from the root system could still come down,” he said.
— Intern writer Caleb Groves
[2:45 p.m.]: Morgan Falls Dam is flooded at Bull Sluice Lake near Morgan Falls Overlook Park.
[2:41 p.m.]: At least six people are dead in the Augusta area.
Richmond County Coroner Mark Bowen confirmed three deaths due to fallen trees in Augusta. In neighboring Columbia County, a person died in Grovetown after a tree fell on a mobile home, news station WRDW reported. In Washington County, a 7-year-old boy and a 4-year-old girl died after a tree fell on their home and trapped them inside the burning house, WRDW reported.
— Staff writer Jozsef Papp
[2:40 p.m.]: Jimmy Carter’s hometown of Plains largely dodged Helene, which struck just before Saturday’s Peanut Festival and upcoming celebrations tied to the former president’s 100th birthday. Officials prepped for problems and ordered a curfew overnight and into the morning, thinking Plains would be hit worse.
They had concerns about what the storm might mean for locals. Also seemingly at risk: the one-day Peanut Festival that is the city’s biggest annual event. Organizers say the events will go on as planned, both in Plains and in Atlanta at the Carter Center, which lost power during and after the storm.
— Staff writer Matt Kempner
[2:32 p.m.]: Peachtree Creek is flooding neighborhoods in Buckhead around the Bobby Jones Golf Course.
[2:10 p.m.]: Hurricane Helene made an “exceptionally damaging impact on farms” in South and Middle Georgia,” the Georgia Cotton Commission said. Impacted producers are reporting a 35% total loss of crops, as well as losses to farm structures, equipment and infrastructure.
“Losses will be in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Losses will extend well beyond the farm, as cotton gins, other agribusiness and rural communities will feel the ripples of Hurricane Helene’s aftermath for years to come,” the commission said.
[2 p.m.]: Mayor Andre Dickens declared a state of emergency for Atlanta.
“Due to the devastating impacts of Tropical Storm Helene, including significant flooding and power outages, I am declaring a state of emergency for the city of Atlanta, effective immediately. This declaration will allow us to access vital federal and state resources to expedite our recovery efforts and ensure the safety and well-being of all Atlanta residents,” Dickens said.
[1:44 p.m.]: Helene toppled trees on roughly two dozen roads in Athens, but Mayor Kelly Girtz expressed relief when comparing the damage to Elbert County and Augusta.
”It is not bad here,” Girtz said, noting that about 10% of residents lost power early Friday morning.
No signs of damage were evident during an Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter’s drive through the heart of the University of Georgia campus, including past Sanford Stadium and the president’s office. A university spokesperson said a few downed trees on campus were quickly removed Friday morning. No deaths or injuries have been reported.
— Staff writer Fletcher Page
[1:26 p.m.]: West Midtown resident Lashawn Gee heard a thud in front of her unit at The 500 apartments shortly before 8 a.m. She said she thought it was thunder but was nervous after realizing a large tree had fallen over her roof and the staircase that leads to her third-floor apartment.
”I felt a corner of my unit shake. I immediately put on rain boots, left out of the back door, walked to the front and moved my car because the gutters on the building had dropped and I was afraid it would damage my vehicle,” Gee said.
Three other tenants had their front doors blocked by the fallen tree. Gee, who was putting her newborn daughter down for a nap when she heard the loud noise, said she and her husband were prepared to vacate but the property managers immediately had a landscaping company arrive to remove the tree around 9:30 a.m.
”They were very expedient about it. It wasn’t the best thing to wake up because the building already needed some repairs. I’m just worried that something else could happen,” she said.
— Staff writer Christopher A. Daniel
Credit: Christopher Daniel
Credit: Christopher Daniel
[1:19 p.m.]: Hurricane Helene came knocking, but Angel Coney didn’t answer her door. For a while, she didn’t so much as peek outside. She huddled in her basement with her sons Travi, 10, and Mari, 9. The roaring wind sounded like someone stomping on their roof.
”It was awful. It was loud. Like a bomb,” Coney said. “You heard everything falling.”
The storm, or at least its eye and the brunt of what remained of its once-Category 4 force, hadn’t been expected this far east in Middle Georgia. But it crashed into Laurens County and its county seat, home to 16,000 people, and about 50 miles east of Macon at around 3 a.m. Friday. The power went out and trees crashed onto homes, cars and trampolines. Utility poles snapped.
Across the street at Coney’s place, she and her boys could only gaze at the surreal destruction in the daylight. Pecan leaves and branches littered the street. Coney said her family spent much of the night praying.
— Staff writer Joe Kovac Jr.
[1:13 p.m.]: The storm snapped power poles and brought down trees and power lines in much of the small city of Elberton in northeast Georgia, according to interim City Manager Kevin Eavenson.
The city, which operates its own power system but relies heavily on Georgia Power transmission lines, was able to restore electricity to about 20% of its customers, he said. But most of the city remains without service. It could take at least another two days to have them fully restored, Eavenson said.
At least two homes were hit by falling trees and crews responded to a house fire apparently caused by burning candles, though there weren’t reports of injuries, he said.
— Staff writer Matt Kempner
[12:30 p.m.]: In Hart County, near where I-85 crosses from Georgia into South Carolina, the storm rates as “the worst one we’ve had in years,” based on the breadth of areas with fallen trees, said Marshall Sayer, the county commission chairman.
He shared a tally of damage he learned from the county administrator: at least 178 roads with downed trees, at least eight homes and one business damaged by falling trees, about 7,000 customers without power as of 10 a.m.
According to the county administrator, no injuries in Hart had been reported, and road crews were out clearing the pavement, backed by private citizens, fire department crews and sheriff’s investigators and deputies running chainsaws.
— Staff writer Matt Kempner
About the Author
