Hurricane Zeta: South assesses damage left by storm

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Zeta slams Gulf Coast as Category 2 hurricane

Casino parking garage in Mississippi flooded by storm surge. Charles Watson reports from New Orleans.

Post-Tropical Cyclone Zeta continues to downgrade as it drifts across the Northeast, but the damage in its wake continues to linger across the South.

More than 2.6 million homes and businesses from Louisiana to Virginia were left without power at the peak of outages.

Zeta weakened to a Category 1 storm over the course of the first day after it made landfall as a hurricane and moved into Southern Mississippi, but forecasters continued to warn about the dangers of the storm.

A large tree limb, which snapped as Hurricane Zeta moved through New Orleans, rests on power lines in the city's Carrollton neighborhood on Thursday, Oct. 29, 2020. (AP Photo/Kevin McGill)

Gov. John Bel Edwards called the damage in Louisiana “catastrophic” and ordered the Louisiana National Guard to fly in soldiers to assist with search-and-rescue efforts.

People walk along a sidewalk in New Orleans as the outer eye wall of Hurricane Zeta passed by the city, Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2020. (Chris Granger/The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate via AP)

Residents across the South have already dealt with repeated onslaughts from hurricanes over the last few months, but Zeta was not expected to be as strong or cause such damage.

Residents use chain saws to clear fallen trees in the aftermath of Hurricane Zeta in Waveland, Miss., Thursday, Oct. 29, 2020. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

The storm ripped off rooftops and pulled down trees everywhere. Mayor Sheldon Day of Thomasville, Ala., said hundreds of trees fell in roads and on homes, while some gas station canopies blew over.

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“At one point, every major thoroughfare was blocked by trees,” Day said.

A woman walks out of a house where the roof was torn away during Hurricane Zeta, as people begin the process of cleaning and rebuilding in Chauvin, La., Thursday, Oct. 29, 2020. (Chris Granger/The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate via AP)

Six people have died due to hazardous conditions during and after the hurricane.

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A man was electrocuted in New Orleans, and four people died in Alabama and Georgia when trees fell on homes, authorities said, including two people who were pinned to their bed. In Biloxi, Mississippi, a man drowned when he was trapped in rising seawater.

Boat owner Ricky Mitchell, center, and his friend Buck, left, no last name given, survey damage to his boat that washed up against the home of Ray Garcia, in Lakeshore, Miss., Thursday, Oct. 29, 2020. Hurricane Zeta passed through Wednesday with a tidal surge that caused the boat to become unmoored. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

The very system that was meant to break Zeta up instead fed into it, causing the system to rapidly gain strength and become a category 3 hurricane when it made landfall in Louisiana.

States across the region felt the hit, with snap snowstorms in Oklahoma while winds lashed the Carolinas. In South Carolina, hundreds of trees came down, pulling down powerlines and crashing in rooftops where they fell, Weather.com reported.

"We had lots of wind damage with trees down. There's been trees down with a lot of damage to homes. Highway 14 was blocked by a downed tree and power line. We are busy getting the trees cleared," Landrum Mayor Robert Briggs said. 

Atlanta instituted a tropical storm warning for the second time ever, with the storm leaving over 1 million homes and businesses without power.

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Georgia Power said its website and mobile app were overwhelmed with high volumes of traffic.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.