In Buckhead and other northern Atlanta neighborhoods, a swollen Peachtree Creek, a 7.5-mile waterway that flows into the Chattahoochee River, helped fuel the flooding in some apartments and houses that forced some residents to flee, wading through the streets.

Hurricane Helene slammed into Florida’s Gulf Coast, making landfall late Thursday as a powerful Category 4 storm, bringing with 140 mph winds, torrential rain and a record storm surge before moving inland across Georgia and the Carolinas.

City and state officials are preparing for flash floods, heavy winds and downed trees as Hurricane Helene, a massive and potentially historic storm, plows through south Georgia and into Atlanta. Why it matters: National Weather Service forecasters say the storm will drop intense amounts of rain — possibly over a foot in some areas — and unleash powerful,