Helene was the strongest hurricane to ever strike Florida’s Big Bend as it was the first Category 4 storm to do so. 

Helene brought massive devastation: The Florida coast from Tampa to Cedar Key experienced record storm surge of 6 to 9.5 feet last night. Some places set storm surge records including Cedar Key, Clearwater Beach, St. Petersburg and Old Port Tampa. 

Rainfall highs include 15.5 inches recorded in Sumatra, Florida, 13.74 inches in Busick, North Carolina, and 11.12 inches in Salem, South Carolina. 

Wind gusts as fierce as 99 mph were clocked in Perry, Florida, 85 mph in Cedar Key, and 83 mph in Augusta, Georgia. 

Jamie Cruse, the police chief of Perry in Florida’s Big Bend, said his only regret in Helene is "we weren’t aggressive enough in the notification to tell people to evacuate the areas that were prone to flooding."

"I just hope that when we finally discover what we’re dealing with that we don’t have a big loss of life," Cruse said on NBC News Now this morning.

"Right now the sun is starting to rise, we’re starting to get the first glimpse of what we actually have laying on the ground and what we’re going to be dealing with. We have helpers everywhere now doing the first push through to try to see what we need to do to clear these roads to get assets and resources in here that we desperately need to serve our communities," Cruse explained.

Perry is in Taylor County, where the sheriff had issued a grim request for those who ignored evacuation orders to mark themselves with their names and information so they could be easily identified in the worst-case scenario.

Cruse said initial reports show that at least 15 foot surge inundated the coastal areas outside Perry, where there are single-story homes on stilts.

He's urging locals to not despair, instead allow police and local officials to do their jobs.

A flash flood emergency was issued for the Atlanta area this morning due to thunderstorms that are expected to produce heavy rain. Between 2 to 4 inches has already fallen with an additional 1 to 2 inches expected.

"Flash flooding is ongoing or expected to begin shortly," the National Weather Service in Peachtree City said in an update.

The warnings are in the following counties: Northern Cherokee, Northwestern Dawson, Southwestern Gilmer, Pickens, Catoosa, Northeastern Gordon, Murray, Northeastern Walker, and Whitfield.

Floodwaters are seen in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene near Steinhatchee, Florida on Friday, a day after the storm made landfall.

Bruce Rector, the mayor of Clearwater, on Florida's Gulf Coast, has yet to establish the full extent of the damage from Helene, but he fears the worst.

He told NBC's "TODAY" show: “When the sun comes up this morning we’ll see what the damage is, but we believe it’s devastating.” 

Overnight, the Clearwater Fire & Rescue Department had shared videos of first responders rescuing elderly locals in knee-deep flood water.

“The pictures I saw, the I videos saw last night were just devastating along Clearwater Beach, along all of our beaches here in Tampa Bay. I know from our fire and police that we had some homes burn to the ground out on the island, there were some folks that we just couldn’t get to because of high waters to rescue,” Rector explained.

He said some people just didn't want to evacuate.

“Last night it was a historic storm surge. We saw things out there in the flooding that people who have lived out there their entire lives have never seen. We did our best and it breaks the heart of our first responders when they can’t get through high water to rescue folks,” he said. “As far as I know they got to everyone eventually who needed to be rescued but we’ll find out today when we go out and assess the damage.” 

At least three people have been confirmed dead in Georgia as a result of Hurricane Helene. Meanwhile, about 1 million people are without power and remain under a flash flood emergency. NBC’s Priya Sridhar reports for TODAY from Atlanta, Georgia.

A person died and another was hospitalized with life-threatening injuries after a tree fell on a home in Charlotte, North Carolina, around 5 a.m. this morning, officials said. 

Officials believe the tree blew over due to Helene’s wind and rain, Mecklenburg EMS Agency PIO Grace Nelson said.  No details regarding the victims were released.

That brings Helene’s storm-related deaths to five after one death was reported in Florida and three in Georgia.

Extended flash flood warnings are in place in for swaths of Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina today as Helene dumps heavy rain that has flooded roads, buildings and prompted evacuations.

A flash flood warning for Habersham County and Rabin County in northeastern Georgia was extended through 11 a.m. ET. This morning doppler radar indicated 3 to 7 inches of rain has fallen in those counties with the rate at 1 to 1.5 inches an hour, the National Weather Service in Greenville-Spartanburg, South Carolina, wrote in its morning advisory. As a result “significant flooding appears likely.” 

A flash flood warning was also issued for Jackson County and Transylvania County in western North Carolina through 3:15 p.m. p.m. ET due to widespread catastrophic flooding across these counties.”

"Numerous roadways are flooded and impassable, and hundreds of trees are down across the area amid completely saturated ground. Many water rescues are ongoing. In Jackson County, evacuations of low-lying areas are already underway,” the weather service said.

In South Carolina, a flash flood warning was extended for Oconee County and Pickens County upstate through 4:30 p.m. ET Friday as hundreds of down trees reportedly prevent rescue operations and as 5 to 8 inches of rain has already fallen.

“This is a particularly dangerous situation. Seek higher ground now!” The weather service warned. Warnings were also extended for Abbeville County, Greenwood County and Laurens County through 10 a.m. 

Hurricane Helene's size was clearly seen from the International Space Station about nine hours before the storm made landfall in Florida.