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As of early Thursday morning, Hurricane Helene continues to accelerate toward the Big Bend of Florida and is expected to make landfall later this evening. The path of the storm has shifted back east and is no longer expected to hit the LaGrange/Troup County area directly, but we will likely see extensive impacts from the storm.

Troup County is currently under a tropical storm warning and a flash flood watch until Friday evening.

Due to the intensity and fast forward motion of the storm, the National Weather Service (NWS) is predicting unprecedented wind and flooding impacts, rivaling or exceeding those of Hurricanes Opal (1995), Irma (2017), and Michael (2018), are expected across the north and central Georgia.

Potential life-threatening rainfall flooding is possible across north and central Georgia, along with wind damage to property.

Short-lived tornadoes will also be possible across east-central Georgia today through early Friday morning, with the greatest potential over areas north and east of the track of Helene.

Helene will be an expansive system with impacts occurring well away from the storm center.

NWS recommends that storm preparations be rushed to completion before impacts begin.