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As Tropical Storm Helene barrels toward the Gulf Coast, most of Georgia is in the projected path of the storm, leading to warnings of significant wind and rain.

Forecasters at the National Weather Service (NWS) in Peachtree City are predicting the storm will strengthen to a hurricane by Wednesday morning and become a major hurricane by Thursday.  The storm is expected to make landfall Thursday evening around 8 p.m.

Laura Belanger, Senior Service Hydrologist for NWS, said that the center of the storm is expected to track over the Metro-Atlanta area, so LaGrange and Troup County will potentially see more favorable conditions.

“LaGrange will be in the typically favorable part of the storm. The impacts, however, will be far extending,” Belanger said.

The current forecast shows LaGrange getting four to six inches of rain, but she said other models project even more rain. A combination of weather systems could interact to produce heavy rains.

A separate rain system is expected to come in over North Georgia ahead of the hurricane late Wednesday and through Thursday and Friday. 

“We’re generally talking about a 30-hour period of rainfall, so four to six inches during that time would be significant,” Belanger said.

Aside from rain and potential flash floods, the NWS also has concerns about wind speeds in the area.

“At this point, the LaGrange area has anywhere between a 30 and 50% chance of seeing tropical storm force winds of 39 miles per hour,” Belanger said. “The combination of these winds with the wet soils from the rainfall could mean that we could see trees down.”

A severe thunderstorm will typically see winds that are 58 miles per hour or higher.

“This would be less than a really strong thunderstorm, but it would be over a longer period of time. That’s where it gets to be more concerning. When you have sustained winds that are a little bit higher for a longer period of time than your average thunderstorm, then it could be more of a concern,” Belanger said. “We typically wouldn’t see damage to shingles or roofs coming off with those kinds of wind speeds, but if you’ve got trees around your home, that could be a risk.”

Belanger said NWS is warning that Georgians should make preparations for power outages across a significant part of the state.

NWS is also predicting potential flash flooding for the LaGrange and Troup County area starting Thursday, where there is a 40% chance rains will exceed the threshold where flash flooding would occur.

“Given how Tropical Rainfall does seem to dump all at one time and come in waves, it’s not like this is going to be six inches of steady rain spread out over Wednesday evening through early Friday,” Belanger said. “What’s likely to occur is it rains, and then it pours, and you might get a little bit of a break, and then it pours again. The combination of those bursts of rainfall is going to be concerning for flash flood development.”