Tropical Storm — Walton, Georgia

2024-09-26 to 2024-09-27 · Walton, Georgia

Event narrative

Emergency manager passed along about 60 reports of trees or powerlines down across Walton County. The trees and power lines were reported down in the following locations: Multiple trees were reported down in the following locations: at the 3500 block of GA-186, on Loganville Hwy between McCuller Road and Thompson Road, the 1400 block of Hwy 11, the 1900 block of Snows Mill Rd, on Towler St near Old Mill Run, Youth Monroe Road at Highway 78, Miller Bottom Rd at S. Sharon Church Rd, Tig Knight Rd at Atkinson Rd, Jacks Creek Rd at Bethel Church Rd, Eddie Byrd Ln at Winder Hwy, and on SR 186 at the intersection of Randolph Still Rd. Powerlines were reported down along East Hightower Trail in Social Circle and Bradley Gin Road NW, S Madison Avenue, Gene Bell Road, Jersey Walnut Grove Road SE, S Broad Street in downtown Monroe, the 300 block of Alcovy Street, the 5500 block of Highway 81, Tom Brewer Rd at Hoke Ct, the 2200 block of Bold Springs Rd, and at the intersection of Loganville Hwy and Creekwood Dr.

Wider weather episode

Hurricane Helene made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane in the Big Bend region of Florida at 11 PM EDT. Helene moved quickly inland bringing wind gusts between 50 and 100 mph to portions of east and central Georgia. Widespread rainfall totals between 6 and 14 inches were observed in association with Helene across north and central Georgia. The highest rainfall amounts were primarily observed in portions of east-central Georgia and in the Atlanta Metropolitan area. Due to the prolonged heavy rain, numerous instances of flash flooding and river flooding were reported. The combination of strong winds and heavy rain also downed millions of trees with widespread power outages and numerous structures damaged or destroyed, mostly from falling trees. Ahead of Hurricane Helene, there were several showers/storms in the rainbands that had low-level rotation. One of these storms spawned a short-lived tornado occurred in Wheeler County during the evening of the 26th.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1218945. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.