WHEELER COUNTY, Ga. — Central Georgia counties Southeast of Macon are strewn with damage.
"We've never seen anything like this," Frank Jackson said.
A 13WMAZ crew spent all Friday trekking to Wheeler County, but roadblocks literally prevented us.
We turned around after our first exit off Interstate-16 in Dublin because we saw power lines on the ground beside fallen trees.
When we returned to I-16, we made it to exit 58 before returning to the interstate when we we confronted another roadblock we couldn't drive around.
Our journey on the interstate was at a standstill for an hour because of Helene's damage on the highway.
We drove for a few more miles, made an exit to detour into Truetlen County where we got stuck in the mud.
Jackson, Jason Durden and Colby Harden helped us free our station vehicle on the way to Durden's home.
They told us a tree fell on it, and they were on the way to clear it from their yard.
Sheriff Thomas Corbin told us "We got crews cutting the trees getting them out of the road way."
Durden told us, "Trying to get to Wheeler County is bad."
Eventually, we made it to Wheeler County and met some neighbors of the people who died after they were thrown from their trailer home.
Rebecca Tanner told us she left something at home that really mattered to her.
"I have a dog in my bathroom waiting on me," she said. "I got to get back. I don't have a choice."
Melissa Edge says she was a friend of the two people who passed during the storm.
"They was nice loving people they ain't do anything they can't hurt anyone. They had a good heart, a loving heart and very caring," Edge says.
Most of the people we met along the way told us they were trying to get to their loved ones in other places, like Liz Tillmon travelling with her fiance, her nephew, his wife and their two kids.
She said she was trying to get to her sister in Unadilla.
Minutes before we spoke to her, she told us her nephew got a call from her niece about a tree falling through her sister's home and hitting her back. She couldn't find out if they were hurt because "the service cut off."
Cleaning crews kept reiterating: "If you do not need to get on the roads, do not get on the roads."
They said it takes longer for first responders and emergency services to respond if you're on the road blocking their way.