Metro Atlanta was not made for storms like Helene
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Satellite view of Hurricane Helene as it intensified over the Gulf of Mexico on Sept. 26. Image: CIRA/RAMMB
Atlanta's no stranger to devastating tropical storms and spin-offs from hurricanes. But a storm of Helene's strength is rare.
Why it matters: This could be one of metro Atlanta's most significant encounters with a hurricane or tropical storm on record, with hurricane-force wind gusts anticipated, Axios' Andrew Freedman reports.
How it works: Hurricanes tend to lose strength as they move inland and typically downgrade to a Category 1 or tropical storm by the time they reach landlocked metro Atlanta.
- Helene's Atlanta-bound track, combined with its speed and potential wind impact, puts the metro area — America's sixth-largest — in unprecedented territory.
Threat level: The biggest risk in Atlanta, known as the City in the Forest, will be falling trees. Lots of them.
- The city sits in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, and the region's elevation — more than 1,000 feet above sea level — can foster significant rain events.
- Tall trees sporting full foliage capture wind like "sails on a clipper ship," the Weather Channel's Reynolds Wolf says.
- Most power lines in Atlanta are overhead, not buried, making them especially vulnerable to falling trees.
State of play: Soil sucked dry by the recent drought soaked up Wednesday and Thursday's steady rainfall like a sponge.
- The result: stormwater rushes into drains and waterways, putting the hilly region at risk of major flooding.
Flashback: Major storms that have impacted metro Atlanta include:
- Irma (2017): More than 1.5 million people in Georgia lost power — some for several days — and two people died in north Georgia as a result of falling trees, per the National Weather Service.
- Opal (1995): 4,000 trees fell in metro Atlanta during this storm, including an ancient oak at Piedmont Hospital, according to the AJC.
Zoom out: The inland threats of Helene, particularly in Atlanta, have some forecasters using a loaded name as a comparison, Axios' Michael Graff reports.
- "#Helene has the potential to be Atlanta's Hugo," Charlotte, N.C.-based meteorologist Brad Panovich posted. "An inland hurricane [with] winds over a major metro similar to what happened in Charlotte in 1989."
- Hugo became one of the South's most memorable and despised storms, not just because of its catastrophic landfall as a Category 4 storm near Charleston, S.C., but also because it brought winds upward of 70 mph 200 miles inland through the center of the Carolinas, causing thousands of downed trees overnight.
The bottom line: Every hurricane is a unique threat. Helene is one of the largest ever observed in the Gulf of Mexico, and it will move inland even faster than Hugo did, meaning its winds could carve a buzzsaw-like damage path through the forests of Georgia and South Carolina.