Helene is now a tropical storm as it sweeps across Georgia. Metro Atlanta is contending with dangerous flooding and the ongoing threat of powerful wind gusts. Right now: Nearly 34,000 Georgia Power customers in the Atlanta area were without power as of 6am Friday morning.

A hurricane made landfall in northwestern Florida as a Category 4 storm as forecasters warned the enormous system could create a “nightmare” storm surge and bring dangerous winds and rain across much of the southeast.