Tropical Storm — Wayne, Georgia

2024-09-27 to 2024-09-28 · Wayne, Georgia

Event narrative

At 1:50 am on 9/27, a mesonet station at the Wayne County High School about 2 miles NW of Jesup measured a 66 mph wind gust from the SE. At 3:20 am, a mesonet station about 1 mile NNE of Jesup along US Highway 341 at State Road 38 measured a gust of 64 mph from the SE. Widespread trees and powerlines down across the county, with wind damage to homes like shutters, shingles, and trees fallen on homes. A significant portion of the metal roofing of a local school peeled off. The county experienced 100% power outage and some households didn't have power for 14 days.

Wider weather episode

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.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1217268. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.