DECATUR, Ga. — Helene has drifted out of Georgia and was downgraded to a tropical depression Friday. Though the rain has stopped, the risk has not.
Thousands of people are sifting through debris and left to rebuild in the aftermath. There's been several reports across the Peach State of trees toppling into homes. For one Decatur couple, the damage is a heartbreaking turn of events as their home is now largely unlivable after months of renovations.
Imari and Micki Harvard had lived in their home for a mere five months before Helene's powerful winds and heavy downpours helped uproot a tree.
Micki evaded the fall by moments.
"I was about to walk into the room, which is the sunroom, and I heard like a crackling," she described. "I could see the tree just eclipse the window of the room."
She ran down the street to find her husband, who was working with a tow truck to move his flooded vehicle.
"You have to come home; a tree just fell," she remembers calling out to him.
Imari said he panicked after hearing the news Friday morning. He just finished renovating the home not long ago.
"A lot of this was very hands-on for me," he said, "(I was very) involved in building this house. It's heartbreaking."
The two are grateful they survived and were out of the home when the tree fell. At the moment, they're lost about what to do with their home next.
The couple is among dozens of people struggling after Helene's impact. We've listed ways to help here.