it s 100 miles away. tell us what you saw and heard they are, 100 miles away. reporter: purely coincidental i happen to be in a state covering a civil rights story. people reenacting the 54th anniversary of the blood he sunday march across the bridge. weather was absolutely horrible, torrential and poor in midday a tornado warning in fact, we could hear the sirens going off. fortunately, no severe tornadoes damage in that area with the hundreds of people participating in this outdoor activity in the rain ended up letting up as people marched across the bridge weather had minimal impact and then later in the day those reports of needles touching down in the extreme eastern part of the state in the georgia state line. the worst damage appears to be
force winds 45 miles away. we need to not just focus on the center. you need to think of this as a wild storm causing damage for a large area. damaging on the coast. power outages could last several weeks. serious situation. catastrophic with building damage, trees down, power outages. but not just the coast. we still expect hurricane force winds stretching on the alabama/georgia state line. even moving into central georgia could still have some winds close to hurricane strength. so if you take the rain and take those winds, you can have power outages and trees down, remaining dangerous through georgia and portions of extreme southeast alabama and into the carolinas. taking a look at that rain, lot of flash flooding. really serious situation. any time you have a tropical systems come in, the rainfall is heavy. 6 to 10 inches of rain on the florida panhandle up into portions of southeast alabama, even into georgia. this area 4 to 6 inches of rain.
extraordinary for a hurricane as it moves inland to remain a hurricane, category 3 hurricane as it moves through georgia right now. right. it has been 120 years since we ve had a category 3 roll into georgia, since 1898. so this is extremely rare. when this storm was crossing just into the georgia crossing right over the georgia state line, it was still a low-grade category 4. so that s unprecedented. this storm has really held together. it came up quickly and it has held together, and it has a lot of rain and wind with it even now still. we re going to get back to you, jennifer. thank you very much. jennifer gray helping us appreciate the enormity of the storm. we are now just beginning to get some sad news. one confirmed storm-related death. we ll update you on the breaking news right after this. we have serious problems.
back n 135 for the maximum wind gust expected around key west. 147 for ft. myers. even as far north as tallahassee, we re nearing 100 potenti potential miles per hour for that maximum wind gust. we ve seen the expansion, chris, of the watches and warnings across the southeastern states. we ve taken the hurricane warnings all the way to the georgia state line. but even the city of atlanta, chris, now under a tropical storm warning. 52 of 67 counties, hurricane warning. the governor has made it plain for days and now the reality is here. we have bill weir in key largo. let s check in right now.
chose lafayette. a town one study recently listed as one of the happiest places in america. i think we like it when we get a real firm answer to that question. reporter: he was a drifter. he lived in georgia. last year he was evicted from a house in alabama over the georgia state line. it was at a pawnshop in alabama where he legally bought the 40 caliber pistol he used in the attack. his time in lafayette was short and not much is known about what he was up to. we know he was trying to drum up some support for a business. we know thee was at the tie anyone seashell. reporter: investigators finished processing the crime scene but are still digging into the shooter s past. well are still interviewing people. still sending our officers out to different locations. reporter: as frtor the community of lafayette, residents are remembering the two lives lost and hoping to heal from a tragedy that changed their town. the victims would have