Xavier Riley woke up on his couch at about 4 a.m. Friday morning in a sweat. There was no air condition after the power went off during Hurricane Helene’s roll through Georgia. Riley moved to his back bedroom inside a multi-unit Savannah mansion on 42nd street between Bee Road and Ash Street.
Five minutes later Riley heard crackles and a crash, jolting him and his dog off the bed. Soon he was peering out of his bedroom window with a flashlight to see that a 90-foot live oak tree had fallen onto the house.
“I was terrified it was going to keep coming down,” Riley said. “That was my initial, first fear with it being so massive, like the biggest tree around.”
Although Savannah was not in Helene’s direct path, the storm brought peak 76 mph wind gusts and seven simultaneous tornado warnings in the area at one point Thursday evening. By Friday morning the sun was up, and winds speeds began to dissipate, bringing droves of Savannah residents to city streets surveying the damage.
Limbs, leaves and debris were strewn across streets from downtown squares―where a split tree limb on Lafayette Square obstructed portions of the roadway―across neighborhoods from Savannah’s east side to western portions of the county. Some roads throughout the Ardsley Park, Parkside and Thomas Square neighborhoods had so much debris, entire roadways were closed.