ATLANTA — Here’s what you need to know:
- Helene officially made landfall at 11:20 p.m. in the Florida panhandle.
- Downgraded to strong tropical storm as it neared metro Atlanta
- Heavy downpours are causing flooding across north Georgia.
- Brief spin-up tornadoes are possible as Helene moves in.
- The storm is moving quickly north.
- Helene is likely to hit as a Category 1 hurricane in the southern counties of the Channel 2 Action News viewing area.
- Helene will move out of Georgia by mid-morning Friday.
- Extensive power outages and mass amounts of trees down are expected from the storm.
Severe Weather Team 2 is monitoring Tropical Storm Helene around the clock and making sure you have the latest information to keep you and your family safe.
Helene officially made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane on Thursday night along Florida’s Big Bend and is quickly moving north across Georgia.
It quickly got downgraded to a Category 1 storm shortly after moving into Georgia and was downgraded again to a tropical storm at 5 a.m.
Here are the current warnings issued for our area:
A Hurricane Warning is in effect Butts, Jasper, Jones, Lamar, Pike, Spalding and Upson counties.
A Tropical Storm Warning is in effect for Banks, Barrow, Bartow, Carroll, Catoosa, Chattooga, Cherokee, Clarke, Clayton, Cobb, Coweta, Dawson, DeKalb, Douglas, Fannin, Fayette, Floyd, Forsyth, Gilmer, Gordon, Greene, Gwinnett, Hall, Haralson, Heard, Henry, Jackson, Lumpkin, Meriwether, Morgan, Newton, North Fulton, Oconee, Oglethorpe, Paulding, Pickens, Polk, Putnam, Rockdale, South Fulton, Towns, Troup, Union and White counties.
A Flash Flood Warning is in place for parts of Cherokee, Cobb, Douglas, Fayette, Fulton, Gilmer, Pickens, Bartow, Carroll, Gordon, Paulding and Coweta counties until 5:30 a.m. Friday.
Helene is already bringing flooding to our area:
Heavy rain has already started falling across North Georgia, causing flooding and trees down across the metro and additional extensive amounts of rain is going to continue to fall throughout Friday. Parts of North Georgia could see 4-8 inches of rainfall on top of what has already fallen.
Deaths and injuries:
Two people were killed in a possible tornado in south Georgia as the storm approached, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said one person died while driving on Interstate 4 when a sign fell onto their car.
The Georgia deaths happened in a trailer park in Wheeler County, according to Sheriff Randy Rigdon.
Wheeler County is about 70 miles southeast of Macon.
Power outages:
The storm has knocked out power to over 1 million homes and businesses in Florida and over 50,000 in Georgia as it approached and came ashore.
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