VALDOSTA, Ga. — After Hurricane Helene made landfall along Florida's "Big Bend" region Thursday night at 11:10 p.m., the Category 4 storm has moved into south Georgia with extreme winds and bands of heavy rain.
11Alive's Angelina Salcedo is in Valdosta, where the rain and winds have increased exponentially since the hurricane made landfall in Florida.
The conditions have deteriorated over the last several hours, as power continues to flicker on and off with the sounds of pops in the distance from transformers seemingly going out.
The Valdosta area has been waiting to see what the hurricane-force winds were actually going to feel like and what they were going to look like. The area has been getting hammered by rain, with Valdosta being on the "dirty side" of the storm with some of the heaviest wind gusts.
For reference, Valdosta is about an hour and a half drive from Perry, Florida, near where Hurricane Helene made landfall in Florida.
The ground is extremely saturated, meaning the chance for trees to come down in the area is greater throughout the night.
To add to the issues, thousands of people are without power in Lowndes County. Over 57,900 people are without power in the Valdosta region and its surrounding areas, according to the Georgia EMC power outage map.
You can take a look at just how strong the winds and rain are in Valdosta as the storm hit that region of south Georgia:
Lowndes County was the very first county that showed up as red on the power map, marking the most significant power outages in Georgia.
More video of Valdosta shows just how powerful the wind gusts are:
The following video came right as the northern eyewall of Hurricane Helene was hitting Valdosta, showing the first of the strong winds to come through.
11Alive will continue to monitor conditions in Valdosta and south Georgia as Hurricane Helene moves through.