For the latest updates on Helene click here.

(NewsNation) — Helene weakened to a tropical storm early Friday morning as it moved through Georgia, hours after making landfall as a Category 4 hurricane in Florida and leaving millions of people without power.

Twenty-seven people are confirmed dead in Florida, Georgia and North and South Carolina.

The hurricane caused catastrophic storm surge and flooding along Florida’s Gulf Coast, and there have been at least four storm-related deaths.

Helene has left more than 1.24 million Floridians without power, according to tracking website poweroutage.us. As of Friday morning, more than 1 million outages were reported in Georgia, more than 1.1 million in South Carolina and more than 400,000 in North Carolina.

Helene had threatened Florida’s coast with potentially “unsurvivable” storm surges when it made landfall Thursday. Forecasters warned that the enormous storm could create a “nightmare” surge in coastal areas and bring dangerous winds and rain across much of the southeastern U.S.

9/27/24 5AM EDT Update:
🌀#Helene is now a Tropical Storm.
⚠️All hurricane warnings have been cancelled. Tropical Storm Warnings remain for south-central GA and the SE FL Big Bend.
🌊Dangerous Storm Surge continues for Wakulla, Jefferson, Taylor, and Dixie counties.#FLwx #GAwx pic.twitter.com/C6pKUDvH9i

— NWS Tallahassee (@NWSTallahassee) September 27, 2024

As Helene passed through south Georgia, the winds slowed to 70 mph around 5 a.m. ET Friday. According to the National Weather Service, all hurricane warnings have been canceled, but tropical storm warnings remain for south-central Georgia and southeast Florida Big Bend counties.

Dangerous storm surge warnings continue for Wakulla, Jefferson, Taylor and Dixie counties.

Hurricane Helene rescues underway

A person died from a falling sign on a Tampa roadway during the storm, according to Gov. Ron DeSantis, and two others died in a possible tornado in south Georgia as the storm approached, according to the Associated Press. A fourth person in Jeff Davis County, Georgia, died, according to NewsNation affiliate WSAV.

Rescue crews have been working tirelessly to help get people stuck in floodwaters and storm surges caused by Hurricane Helene to safety.

Danny Alvarez, public information officer for Hillsborough County Fire Rescue in Florida, said crews have experienced up to 9 feet of flooding, saying it’s been “quite the task” trying to get to some of the county’s residents.

During several news conferences Thursday, DeSantis emphasized the storm’s strength and warned residents to seek appropriate shelter and evacuate high-risk flood zones.

“It is moving fast,” DeSantis said. “More rainfall is, of course, expected and it could lead to significant storm surge in our coastal areas.”

“To the extent it is tracking east and mirroring more of an Idalia track rather than a direct hit on Tallahassee, that is going to impact the extent of the damage,” he said. “This area has not had a major hurricane hit in quite some time and certainly, no one in recent memory has seen a storm of this magnitude that has hit.”

Vice President Kamala Harris urged people in the path of Hurricane Helene “to take this storm very seriously.”

“So, the president and I, of course, are monitoring the case and the situation closely, and we urge everyone who is watching at this very moment to take this storm very seriously, and please follow the guidance of your local officials,” Harris said Thursday. “And President Biden and I, of course, will continue to work closely with state and local officials to ensure that everyone is safe, and to protect communities before, during, and after the storm.”

Officials have forecast storm surges of up to 20 feet and warned they could be particularly “catastrophic and unsurvivable” in Florida’s Apalachee Bay.

Hurricane Helene emergency measures

Forecasters expect Helene to turn northwestward and slow down over the Tennessee Valley on Friday into Saturday.

More than 20 Florida counties remained under voluntary or mandatory evacuation orders as of Friday morning, and DeSantis declared a state of emergency for most of Florida. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster did the same, as wind damage is forecast to extend far beyond the storm’s center and inland across the southeastern U.S.

Public officials had warned residents to take extreme caution ahead of the storm’s landfall.

“There is a danger of catastrophic and unsurvivable storm surge for Apalachee Bay … this forecast, if realized, is a nightmare surge scenario for Apalachee Bay,” the NWS said ahead of Helene’s landfall, pleading with residents to “please, please, please take any evacuation orders seriously.”

“Every minute that goes by brings us closer to having conditions that are simply too dangerous to navigate,” DeSantis said Thursday.

Tampa International Airport, St. Pete–Clearwater International Airport and Tallahassee International Airport are closed, along with the Skyway Bridge over Tampa Bay. Four NFL stadiums have been designated as extreme weather shelters: New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium; Lumen Field in Washington, Acrisure Stadium in Pennsylvania; and Florida’s Raymond James Stadium.

One man named Jay lives on his sailboat and said Thursday that’s where he planned to weather the hurricane.

“Anything that happens was meant to be,” Jay told NewsNation’s Ryan Bass. “It’s all preordained. I believe God has got our back. He looks out for all of us. He loves us all. If I wind up on land and my boat winds up crushed, then that just means I wasn’t meant to be on it.”

How could Hurricane Helene affect other regions in Florida?

The storm surge causes normally dry areas near the coast to be flooded by rising waters moving inland from the shoreline. The destructive Hurricane Ian in 2022 had storm surge levels of 10-15 feet above ground level. Helene, meanwhile, could produce a storm surge of 15-20 feet in some areas.

The NHC warns of prolonged power outages lasting days to weeks, damage to trees and powerlines and inaccessible roads. Tornadoes are also possible.

DeSantis reminded residents to use generators properly and make sure they stay outside their homes, as using them indoors could lead to carbon monoxide poisoning. He also encouraged locals to look into the pet-friendly shelters required in each county.

Florida A&M University in Tallahassee postponed its upcoming college football game against Alabama A&M, while NASA and SpaceX rescheduled a planned astronaut launch.

Other states will feel the effects from Helene, with forecasters saying impacts could possibly be felt all the way to Tennessee. Record-breaking flooding is forecasted for Asheville, North Carolina. Gov. Roy Cooper said Helene could have deadly impacts throughout the state.