Helene -- which weakened to a tropical storm on Friday morning over Georgia -- made landfall as a Category 4 hurri in the Big Bend region of Florida on Thursday with 140 mph winds.
Helene weakens to tropical storm
Hurricane Helene was downgraded to a tropical storm around 100 miles southeast of Atlanta early on Friday, as its sustained wind speed slowed to 70 mph.
Life-threatening winds, flash flooding, rain and storm surge are ongoing through Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina.
Helene is expected to slow and weaken as it travels north-northwest through Georgia toward the Tennessee-North Carolina border, the National Hurricane Center said.
Helene is projected to turn post-tropical on Friday afternoon or Friday night, the NHC said.
"However, the fast forward speed will allow strong, damaging winds, especially in gusts, to penetrate well inland across the southeastern United States, including over the higher terrain of the southern Appalachians," the NHC said.
-ABC News' Max Golembo
65 people rescued from flooding on Florida highway
Members of the Pasco Sheriff’s Office and Pasco County Fire Rescue were working through the night and into the early morning responding to water rescue calls along the US-19 corridor on Florida’s Gulf coast.
As of 3:30 a.m. ET, the Pasco Sheriff's Office said a total of 65 people were rescued, with additional efforts ongoing.
Emergency services received more than 100 calls for assistance due to flooding, the Pasco Sheriff's Office wrote on Facebook.
-ABC News’ Ahmad Hemingway
Extreme flooding hits North Carolina
Severe flooding hit North Carolina in the early hours of Friday as Hurricane Helene brought torrential rainfall to swaths of the Southeast.
Parts of the state saw up to 15 inches of rain with more expected through Friday. Some areas are expecting as much as 20 inches of rain through the course of the storm. Dangerous landslides are also expected.
The National Weather Service in Greenville-Spartanburg issued a flash flood warning for Haywood County in western North Carolina, in effect until 10:15 a.m. Friday.
As of 4:09 a.m., emergency services reported numerous road closures, ongoing water rescues, and flooded homes across Haywood County.
-ABC News’ Max Golembo
2 million without power across 4 states
Storm-related outages left more than 2 million customers without power across four states overnight into Friday, according to poweroutages.us.
Nearly 1.3 million customers in Florida lost power as Hurricane Helene made landfall and passed north into Georgia.
In Georgia, 596,194 customers were reported without power early on Friday.
Another 45,045 customers in North Carolina and 155,428 in South Carolina are also without power.
-ABC News' Kori Skillman
Helene death toll rises to 3
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp confirmed that two people were killed during Hurricane Helene's passage into Georgia overnight, bringing the storm's total death toll to three.
Kemp said he and his family were "saddened to learn of the loss of two lives in Wheeler County this evening. As we join their families in mourning their deaths, we urge all Georgians to brace for further impact from Helene, remain vigilant and pray for all those affected."
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said in a press conference late Thursday that one person was killed on the I-4 highway near Tampa when a sign fell on a car.
-ABC News' Ahmad Hemingway