Hurricane (Typhoon) — Laurens, Georgia

2024-09-27 · Laurens, Georgia

Event narrative

As of October 3, 2024, the Emergency manager in Laurens County accounted for around 40 homes that were destroyed due to trees coming down on them with 80+ structures sustaining 'major' damage. These numbers will likely go up when final assessment is completed. The fatalities occurred when a tree fell on a home.

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 1219016. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.