Hurricane Helene has weakened to a Tropical Storm over Georgia with maximum sustained winds of 70 mph. The National Hurricane Center says Helene continues to weaken while moving further inland over Georgia. The storm was about 40 miles east of Macon and about 100 miles southeast of Atlanta, moving north at 30 mph at 5 a.m. The center says Helene came ashore Thursday evening in the Big Bend area of Florida’s Gulf Coast. Officials have forecast storm surges of up to 20 feet and warned they could be particularly “catastrophic and unsurvivable” in Florida’s Apalachee Bay. Hurricane warnings and flash flood warnings extend far beyond the coast up into northern Georgia and western North Carolina. At least three deaths have been reported.
