Three people died and more than one million were left without power as Hurricane Helene roared through Florida and into Georgia on Friday.
It is the most powerful storm to hit Flordia’s Big Bend on record and is now closing in on Atlanta, one of the country’s biggest cities.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis warned that more fatalities would be “likely” as wind speeds reached 140mph (225km/h) and six metres (20ft) of rain made landfall.
Roads and houses were submerged on Friday with one family describing how they had to swim out of their home to safety. Insurers and financial institutions have said damage caused by the storm could run into the billions of dollars.
Hurricane Helene weakened to a tropical storm after coming ashore on Thursday evening as a Category Four, but authorities said it still posed a threat to life.
The hurricane is the 14th most powerful to hit the US since records began. At approximately 420 miles wide, it is just behind only two other hurricanes – Ida in 2017 and Opal in 1996, both of which were 460 miles wide.
Because of its sheer size, the impact of strong winds and heavy rain has been wide-reaching across Florida, Georgia and into the Carolinas.
Speaking late on Thursday, Gov DeSantis said one person died in Florida after a road sign fell on their car.
“You need to be right now just hunkering down,” DeSantis said. “Now is not the time to be going out.”
Two people in Wheeler County in Georgia also died, the county coroner told the BBC’s US partner CBS News. It is reported that winds picked up and overturned a mobile home, NBC News added.
In Florida, more than 1.3 million homes and businesses were without power, according to tracking site poweroutage.us. Florida has a population of about 22 million people.
A further 460,000 customers in Georgia, 67,000 in South Carolina and 20,000 in North Carolina lost power, the site added.
In Pasco County, 65 people have been rescued, and in Lee County, many roads are impassable.
Further south along the coast, hotel guests were evacuated from a Ramada Inn in Manatee County as the hotel was flooded with water.
And in Suwannee County, authorities reported “extreme destruction”, with trees falling onto homes.
Michael Brennan, the director of the National Hurricane Centre (NHC), said damaging winds are predicted to hit Georgia and the Carolinas throughout Friday, especially over the higher terrain of the Southern Appalachians.
Speaking from the White House on Thursday evening, President Joe Biden urged residents to “listen to local officials and follow evacuation warnings”.
In Taylor County the Sheriff’s department said that people who refused to evacuate should write their names and dates of birth on their arms in permanent ink “so that you can be identified and family notified”.
Briana Gagnier told the BBC how she and her family saw water creeping into their home on Holmes Beach, Florida, and started moving their belongings onto tables and beds before hearing a loud bang.
“My family and I all looked at one another,” she said. “Then water just started pouring in.”
Ms Gagnier said she grabbed her pets, her wallet and some portable chargers and swam out of their home with her family. The water was up to their shoulders.
Hurricanes need sea surface temperatures of more than 27C (80F) to fuel them.
With exceptionally warm waters of the Gulf at 30-32C, the sea surface is about two degrees Celsius above normal for the time of year.
Florida’s 220 mile Big Bend Coast is where Hurricane Idalia made landfall in 2023. The area was also battered by Hurricane Debby last month.
The Florida Division of Emergency Management has posted a list of the counties in which voluntary or mandatory evacuation orders have been issued ahead of Helene.