Hurricane Zeta: Still no power for more than 1M across Southeast

Oct. 30 (UPI) -- More than 1 million homes and businesses across seven southeastern states were still without power early Friday, almost two days after Hurricane Zeta blew through.

Several people have died in the storm, which arrived Wednesday on the Louisiana coast as a Category 2 hurricane.

At least 1.3 million customers in Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia were without electricity Friday morning, according to PowerOutage.us.

Nearly 325,000 were in Louisiana and most were in and around New Orleans.

Utility Entergy said it's restored power to about 30% of Louisiana customers. More than 1,000 poles and nearly 200 transformers were damaged or destroyed.

The utility warned that some customers who were in Zeta's direct path might be without power for as long as 10 days.

In Georgia, outages affected about 350,000 residents. Electricity has been restored, however, to about a half-million customers, utility officials said.

"Hurricane Zeta hit Georgia hard, but we expect power to be restored to 95% of customers impacted by Sunday night," Georgia Power tweeted.

Utility association spokesperson Terri Statham told the Atlanta Journal Constitution the damage from Zeta is "some of the worst Georgia has seen in a number of years."

Downed trees and electric wires blocked interstates and city streets in metro Atlanta after the storm passed through early Thursday.

Emergency officials said at least four families were rescued after trees fell on their homes or vehicles.