Hurricane Helene makes landfall overnight, pushing through state east of Atlanta
The good news? Hurricane Helene shifted eastward after making landfall, and the impacts that were predicted were instead minor for the local area.
The bad news? Florida and South Georgia just took another major hit this hurricane season.
Helene made landfall late on Thursday night in the Big Bend near Perry, Florida and traveled northward into Georgia before making a westward turn east of the Metro Atlanta area. The outer band impacts have thus far been minor locally, with a handful of small scale power outages and trees going down in the area.
Several local roadways inundated by rainfall and rising waters have closed, per Paulding County officials. Those include Sleepy Hollow Road, Garmon Road and Benson Lake Road.
A flood warning is also in effect as of this morning for Sweetwater Creek. Rising waters are mainly due to runoff from the storm.
Rainfall is still likely over the coming hours as the system pushes through, but it won’t be the same inundation Paulding received over the past 72 hours.
The main damage left by Hurricane Helene is southward, where it made landfall as a Category 4 storm in the Big Bend of Florida. Three people are reported to have died so far due to the storm’s impact, and at least 4 million are without power across Florida, Georgia and South Carolina according to the Associated Press.
