Hurricane (Typhoon) in Appling, Georgia

At 2:30 am on 9/27, a mesonet site 2 miles SSW of Baxley measured a gust of 68 mph from the SE. At 3:38 am, a mesonet station 2 miles SSW of Baxley measured a wind gust of 73 mph from the S. Widespread power outages, numerous trees down, powerlines down, and minor damage to homes were reported. Some large trees fell on homes causing roof damage. A metal roof was completely blown off a building in Baxley. Appling county emergency management implemented a curfew beginning September 30th to support public safety efforts for the widespread power outage, disruptions to cellular service and damaged traffic signals. The Georgia Farm Bureau reported numerous flattened or damaged chicken houses in Appling county.

Hurricane Helene made landfall as a category 4 with peak winds of near 140 mph in the Florida Big

Bend just east of the Aucilla River Entrance in Taylor County, late Thursday evening September 26,

2024. Helene's main impact to southeast Georgia and northeast Florida was wind damage as it

tracked quickly north-northeast. The very powerful hurricane and the forward motion produced a

wide swath of wind damage across the forecast area with peak wind gusts 55 to 75 mph across the

eastern half of the area, and western zones up to 75 to 100 mph from the Suwannee Valley area

northward through interior southeast GA. The max wind gust of 100 mph was measured at the Alma

GA ASOS in the early morning hours of Friday September 27th. Given the strength of these winds,

widespread power outages, structure damage and downed or uprooted trees occurred across inland

southeast GA and portions of northeast FL. At least 1 tornado occurred, which was in Coffee county.

Maximum rainfall amounts of 3 to 5 inches were located over western half of the area.