The National Weather Service issued a tornado watch for much of central North Carolina, including Durham, Wake and surrounding counties for Friday until 6 p.m. A watch means conditions are favorable for the development of tornadoes in and close to the watch area.

Central Florida has already seen a few tornado warnings Thursday as the region and much of the Florida peninsula remains under a tornado watch until 8 p.m. as Hurricane Helene’s far-reaching

Officials feared more fatalities would be discovered on Friday. The storm, which now marks the first known Category 4 storm to hit Florida’s Big Bend region since records began in 1851, weakened to a tropical storm Friday morning as it barreled through Georgia,