Hurricane Helene is barreling towards the world-famous Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia, home of the Masters tournament.

Hurricane Helene made landfall on the Florida coast, unleashing dangerous weather conditions across the region.

Though the storm has weakened to a Category 1 hurricane, it is now moving into Georgia, where it is expected to bring heavy rainfall and a heightened risk of flooding.

More From Newsweek Vault: Learn How to Build an Emergency Fund Quickly

Forecasters have warned that the massive system could trigger a “catastrophic” storm surge and unleash hazardous winds and heavy rainfall across much of the southeastern U.S.

According to the Florida Highway Patrol, a driver was killed after a sign fell onto their car in Tampa.

Hurricane Helene rapidly intensified into a Category 4 storm just hours before its landfall on Florida’s northwest coast on Thursday night.

More From Newsweek Vault: Compare the Best Banks for Emergency Funds

Helene battered the shores around 11:10 p.m. Thursday about 10 miles west of Perry, Florida, according to the National Hurricane Center (NHC). “Based on data from Air Force reconnaissance aircraft, the maximum sustained winds are estimated to be 140 mph,” NHC said in a statement.

More From Newsweek Vault: Online Banks vs. Traditional Banks: Learn the Differences

The storm made landfall with maximum sustained winds of 140 mph, just east of the Aucilla River’s mouth, approximately 10 miles west-southwest of Perry.

Perry sits in the Big Bend region of northern Florida.

“As Hurricane Helene makes its way out of Suwannee County, we cannot stress this enough: STAY OFF THE ROADS. DO NOT BE RIDING AROUND SIGHT SEEING!” Suwannee County Sheriff’s Office said in a post on Facebook.

The post said there had been “extensive damage reported along the western side of Suwannee County,” east of Tallahassee.

The social media added: “With the extreme destruction across our area, resources from the state are going to be stretched very thin for a while since unfortunately there are areas that have been hit harder than us.”

“We’re fearing the worst when the sun comes up.”

The National Weather Service said in a post on X, formerly Twitter: “Catastrophic and life-threatening flash and urban flooding, including numerous significant landslides, is expected across portions of the southern Appalachians through Friday. Considerable to locally catastrophic flash and urban flooding is likely for northwest and northern Florida and the Southeast through Friday. Significant widespread flooding and isolated major river flooding are likely.

Severe flooding affected North Carolina in the early hours of Friday morning as Hurricane Helene brought torrential rainfall to parts of the Southeast.

According to poweroutages.us, 2 million customers are without power across four states overnight into Friday.

Nearly 1.3 million residents in Florida lost power as Hurricane Helene passed north into Georgia.

In Georgia, 596,194 customers were reported to be without power early on Friday morning.

Meanwhile, in Florida, emergency services rescued approximately 40 individuals from rapidly rising waters in Pasco County, Florida, just north of Tampa, according to the local sheriff’s department.

The Pasco Sheriff’s Office shared footage on X, showing deputies loading several rescue boats into the flooded streets as operations continued overnight.

Augusta National Golf Club is the site of the Masters, one of the four men’s major golf championships in professional golf.

The 2025 Masters Tournament will be the 89th edition of the major gold tournament.

It is the first one played each year and was first played in 1934.

Do you have a story we should be covering? Do you have any questions about this article? Contact LiveNews@newsweek.com