Hurricane Helene unleashed a “catastrophic storm surge and life-threatening winds” as it battered Florida‘s Big Bend region before making its way to Georgia.
More than four million people across five southeastern U.S. states were without power Friday morning, according to tracking website poweroutage.us.
Helene made landfall in northwestern Florida as a Category 4 storm Thursday night, before it weakened to a tropical storm over Georgia, where a flash flood emergency was in effect for metropolitan Atlanta.
At least 21 storm-related deaths have been reported in four U.S. states, according to The Associated Press.
Areas within the Big Bend region of Florida near Keaton Beach, Steinhatchee, and Horseshoe Beach had water levels reach more than 15 feet above ground level, according to a preliminary post-landfall modelling.
Helena had already flooded Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula and western Cuba earlier in the week.
The National Hurricane Center said Helene was producing “historic, catastrophic and life-threatening flash and urban flooding, including numerous significant landslides” across portions of the Southern Appalachians, which will continue into the evening.
“Widespread significant river flooding is ongoing, some of which will be major to record breaking,” the Center said in an update at 11 a.m. ET.
The Center is also warning residents in portions of the southeast U.S. of the “possibility of long-duration power outages.”
Flash flood emergencies were also in effect for much of upstate South Carolina and western North Carolina.
Meanwhile, the Canadian government is urging its citizens who are in the storm-affected areas to “exercise caution.”
“The storm brought excessive rainfall and violent winds,” the Canadian government’s travel advisory states.
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It also warned about potential for flash flooding and landslides that could disrupt essential services, like transportation, power distribution, water and food supply, telecommunications networks, emergency services and medical care.
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