Helene will slam into the Florida coast as an extremely fast-moving storm, continuing into Georgia while still a hurricane.
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00:00Our team coverage continues now with meteorologist and storm chaser Tony Lavex.
00:04He joins us live from Cordell, Georgia.
00:06And you know what, Tony, I was just talking to our AccuWeather experts right behind me,
00:10including AccuWeather hurricane expert Dan DePodemon, where you're located in Cordell,
00:15Georgia, pretty far inland.
00:17At the time that the eye passes near you, either Category 1 or Category 2 hurricane,
00:24that's not a statement that's made much with these kind of storms.
00:30Yeah, we mentioned in the last hit, I actually measured on the map, we were 137 miles inland,
00:37straight as the crow flies from Apalachicola, Florida.
00:40That gives you an idea of how fast and how powerful this hurricane is going to be as
00:46it rolls onshore, as likely that Cat 4, and it's still going to maintain that hurricane
00:51intensity over 100 miles inland.
00:54And that is why we're here in Georgia, because we think Georgia is going to see some significant
00:59impacts from this, not just from the rains that typically occur when you get a hurricane
01:03that moves that far inland, but we're still talking hurricane-force winds.
01:07And yes, folks, we could be talking about gusts well over 100 miles per hour here in
01:12Cordell.
01:13We were rucking around today, getting set up here as we drove from the coast up here.
01:17We made that hundred-and-some-odd-mile journey.
01:19And we're not the only ones stationed here, folks.
01:21We've been talking about this for days, how we were going to see the impacts here in Georgia.
01:25We've got power crews from all over the region, not only stationed down in Florida, but they
01:30are stationed here in Cordell as well.
01:31We've got a dozen or so trucks in our vicinity staying at the various hotels here along I-75
01:37and Cordell, all of them ready to jump into action as soon as safety permits, as that
01:42hurricane will work its way up through here, likely taking down trees and knocking out
01:47power.
01:47So we're going to be kind of holding our breath to see how long we can maintain some of that
01:51power here today.
01:52If you were with us last hour, we were in pretty calm conditions.
01:55We had cloudy skies.
01:56Now we've got a little bit of a rain.
01:58We're right on kind of the eastern, northeastern edge of kind of where some of that precipitation
02:02shield is starting to come in.
02:03I think once it starts to fill in in this area, I think we're going to stay in rain
02:08for the remainder of the evening into the overnight hours.
02:10And of course, then we'll start to see conditions really deteriorate, probably as we get later
02:15into the evening.
02:16I would assume probably in the 10 to 11 o'clock range is when we're going to start to see
02:19this tropical storm force gusts get up into this area.
02:23And then, of course, as we get after midnight, that's when we're going to start to see the
02:26hurricane conditions really persist.
02:28Behind me here is I-75.
02:30This is going to be a heavy traveled area that is going to be dealing with a lot of
02:34those issues.
02:35We've driven up and down this route numerous times over the years.
02:38There are a lot of trees.
02:39There are a lot of things that likely can create hazards there on the interstate.
02:43We talked about this incessantly, how we were going to be dealing with this all after dark.
02:49We are going to stay put here through the duration of the storm with all the trees and
02:52the likely hazards, Bernie, all that coming down in the area roads.
02:56Fortunately, though, for us, it looks like as we get into daylight, as fast as this hurricane
03:00is moving with that dry air that's going to work its way on the south side of it, we could
03:03be almost in sunny skies getting up tomorrow morning as we're going to wake up to see what
03:07is left behind here.
03:08And I'm afraid what you're going to wake up to tomorrow morning when you wake up, Tony,
03:12and you look around and you look at the damage, it's like, holy cow, what just happened?
03:17But we've been warning you about this possibility now for days.