Columbus residents are waking up Friday to find damages from Hurricane Helene aren’t as bad as feared after the storm turned farther east overnight.
The worst wind speeds were expected to hit the Chattahoochee Valley late Thursday night into the early morning hours Friday, leaving risk for downed trees, power outages and more. While the city is seeing outages and downed trees, damage is less than expected.
But much of the rest of Georgia felt the effects of the storm: More than 1 million people were without power Friday morning across the Peach State. Some counties in southeastern Georgia saw the vast majority of its residents without power.
Here’s what to know about the storm’s impact in Columbus.
11 confirmed dead in Georgia
11:50 a.m. – While Columbus didn’t see extreme damages, other parts of Georgia suffered from the severe weather. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp announced just before noon Friday that 11 people have died , and more have been trapped in collapsed homes.