Helene deaths have been reported in Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas

More than a dozen people died in the four states of Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina after Helene made landfall in Florida’s Big Bend on Thursday evening as a Category 4 hurricane.

In Florida, a person traveling on I-4 in Tampa was killed when a sign hit their vehicle, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said in a late-night news conference.

A spokesman for Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp said 11 people had died in the state as a result of the storm. According to local station 13WMAZ, two of those people died in Wheeler County when a suspected tornado overturned a mobile home. Two more people reportedly died in Laurens County, Georgia, one when a tree fell on a home and the other in a car accident, according to EMA Director Bill Laird.

In Charlotte, North Carolina, one person was killed and another is critically injured after a tree fell on a home, according to a post from the Mecklenburg Emergency Medical Services Agency.

As a hurricane, Helene brought catastrophic winds, heavy rain and flooding overnight. Emergency services in several southeastern states were tasked with risky rescue missions under these conditions.

In Pasco, Florida, the local sheriff’s office said it conducted about 200 rescues overnight, but that slowed as water levels receded Friday morning.

More than 25 people were reportedly rescued from floodwaters in Atlanta. The city was under a flash flood warning Friday morning, the National Weather Service said.

Power outages

Millions of people in the southeast are struggling with power outages

Nearly 1.2 million customers in Florida were without power as of Friday morning, according to PowerOutage.us.

Another 1.2 million are without power in South Carolina, more than 1 million are without power in Georgia and nearly 500,000 customers in North Carolina are without power, PowerOutage.us said.

As the storm moves further inland, it is expected to weaken over the Tennessee Valley. But if it slows down, rainfall could be so heavy that many regions will be flooded. Flood warnings were in effect for large parts of the Carolinas, Virginia and Tennessee on Friday.

High wind warnings were issued in parts of Tennessee, Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio and Indiana.

Helene should no longer be a tropical storm by the end of Friday, but rain could continue over the Ohio Valley through the weekend. The rain could actually be helpful there, as large parts of the region are suffering from severe drought.

RELATED STORY | Helene was downgraded to a tropical storm after making landfall as a Category 4 hurricane