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Hurricane Zeta surprised weather forecasters Wednesday as it strengthened just before making landfall and plowed ashore, leaving a wake of destruction across Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.

The storm caused downed trees and knocked out power to hundreds of thousands across Alabama. In total, approximately 2 million were without power across the South.

The Category 2 hurricane made landfall Wednesday afternoon on the southeastern Louisiana coast and by Thursday morning had quickly churned its way to North Carolina where it was still a tropical storm early Thursday.

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey said early Thursday that the storm’s impact on the state was still being assessed.

“Zeta proved to be an intense storm!” she wrote on social media. “Folks are without power and trees are down all across AL. Please use caution if you head to work this morning, and stay off the roads if possible.”

At least three people across the South were killed as a result of the storm, officials confirmed.

A Theodore, Alabama, man who was in Biloxi, Mississippi, drowned after he getting caught by rising water after filming the storm surge, the Biloxi Sun Herald reported.

A 55-year-old man in Louisiana was electrocuted by a downed electrical power line in the New Orleans area and Georgia officials said a man was killed in Cherokee County when a tree fell onto a mobile home.