As Hurricane Helene made landfall in Florida late Thursday night and moved into Georgia just after 2 a.m. Friday, metro Atlanta and its surrounding communities experienced torrential rain, heavy flooding and widespread power outages.

ATLANTA — Hurricane Helene has made landfall on Florida’s Big Bend. The storm will be moving through Georgia during the overnight hours and Friday morning. Severe Weather Team 2 has been tracking Helene for days and its path for Georgia.

As Hurricane Helene made landfall in Florida late Thursday night and moved into Georgia just after 2 a.m. Friday, metro Atlanta and its surrounding communities are bracing for torrential rain, heavy flooding and widespread power outages.

The highest landfall probability is somewhere along the eastern part of the Florida Panhandle late Thursday evening, forecasters said.

Helene came ashore amid warnings from the National Hurricane Center that the enormous system could create a “nightmare” storm surge. There were at least four storm-related deaths. Hurricane John once again weakened into a tropical storm Thursday evening as the slow-moving storm crept along the coast of the Mexican state of Michoacan,

More than 2 million customers in Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas were in the dark as Helene moved inland from the Big Bend area of Florida's Gulf Coast.

Hurricane Helene weakened to a Category 1 hurricane early Friday with maximum sustained winds of 75 mph (120 kph), according to the National Hurricane Center.