Hurricane Zeta tore across southern US states on Thursday, leaving a trail of downed trees and damaged buildings and killing at least two people along its path.

The storm brought 175kmph to the Louisiana coast and knocked out power to 2.4 million people. A new Orleans man died after touching a live power line, while in Biloxi, Mississippi, a man drowned after his car became flooded near the coast.

The fifth tropical cyclone this year to strike Louisiana brought more misery to the Gulf Coast state, where thousands were still out of their homes from prior hurricanes.

New Orleans mayor LaToya Cantrell urged the city’s residents to stay indoors while crews removed storm debris and restored power.

“Now is not the time to go sightseeing,” governor John Bel Edwards advised the state’s residents.

Zeta spun up in the Caribbean Sea and went from tropical storm to a damaging Category 2 hurricane in less than 4 days. It struck Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula and raced across the Gulf of Mexico.

The storm steamed over warm Gulf waters towards the US mainland at up to 32kmph and rode a fast-steering current that propelled it over the Appalachian Mountains and will push it to the Atlantic Ocean by Thursday evening. Some 2.4 million homes and businesses were without power.