South Carolina was the worst-affected state, with 1,089,535 outages recorded as of early Saturday, according to PowerOutage.us, a service that tracks disruptions. In South Carolina's Greenville County alone, 258,688 outages were recorded.

Tropical Storm Helene is forecast to rapidly intensify into a Category 3 hurricane and strike the Gulf Coast this week as a major hurricane. Tropical storm warnings and hurricane watches are in effect for parts of Cuba and Mexico,

Residents in Florida and Georgia are being urged to get ready for storm Helene, which is expected to make landfall as a “potentially catastrophic” hurricane along the Florida Big Bend later today, bringing with it damaging winds and “life-threatening” storm surges.