As many as 14 million people, from the Florida Panhandle to New Orleans and as far north as Memphis, Tennessee, were under a flood warning on Thursday after Hurricane Francine slammed into the Louisiana coast, leaving a swampy swath across the country’s center.

The weaker but still powerful storm was expected to bring up to 10 inches (25 centimeters) of rain to parts of Alabama and Florida. The National Hurricane Center warned that widespread flooding could occur in major southern cities including Jackson, Mississippi, Birmingham, Alabama, Memphis and even Atlanta.

“Heavy rain is expected to continue through this afternoon, so stay tuned to the weather,” Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves wrote on his X social media account.

Meanwhile, Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry visited the hardest-hit areas of his state, while officials in New Orleans urged residents to conserve drinking water.

There were no immediate reports of deaths or injuries. But tornado warnings were also in effect in Alabama and northern Florida through Thursday afternoon, as more than 50,000 customers in the region were without power and local officials began assessing damage.

In New Orleans, the sound of portable generators formed the soundtrack to much of the city as entire neighborhoods were left without power and streets were blocked by debris and fallen oaks and cypress trees.

Amidst all the chaos, stories emerged of ordinary people performing extraordinary acts to save their neighbors.

A good Samaritan named Miles Crawford smashed a window to rescue a driver from a submerged pickup truck that was caught in floodwaters under the Canal Street Tunnel Wednesday night, WDSU, the NBC affiliate in New Orleans, reported.

Crawford said he sprang into action after WDSU reporter Jonah Gilmore, who was livestreaming the area, spotted the flooded pickup truck and flagged down a police officer.

“I’m a nurse, so I’m supposed to save lives, right?” Crawford, who works at University Medical Center, told The Associated Press.

Packing winds of up to 100 mph, Francine made landfall in Terrebonne Parish, battering a vulnerable Louisiana coastal area that has yet to fully recover from a series of devastating hurricanes in 2020 and 2021.

Francine barreled into New Orleans at high speed, lashing the hard-pressed city with torrential rain and ripping the roofs off hundreds of buildings. The low-lying city was quickly inundated, with 7.33 inches of rain reported at New Orleans International Airport.

In the New Orleans suburb of Kenner, about 100 homes were flooded by stormwater. In nearby Metairie, floodwaters turned local streets into impassable canals.

“This is not the time to be on the roads,” Jefferson Parish President Cynthia Lee Sheng warned on X during the storm. “All residents are urged to stay home.”

In Lafourche Parish in southern Louisiana, 26 people trapped by rising waters have been rescued, local officials said.