The United States Coast Guard has rescued a man and his dog as Hurricane Helene rapidly approached them, causing his boat to become disabled and take on water 25 miles out at sea, officials said.

The sailor and his dog were on a 36-foot sailboat on Thursday when the vessel began taking on water, leaving them stranded in the ocean roughly 25 miles from Sanibel Island with no assistance available, according to a statement released early Friday morning by U.S. Coast Guard Air Station Clearwater.

“Coast Guard teams responded to the boater’s distress call and raced to his location, approximately 25 miles from Sanibel Island near Fort Myers,” officials said. “A successful rescue operation was carried out, and the unidentified sailor and his dog were saved and brought back to shore.”

Authorities have not explained why the man was sailing at sea when warnings about the approaching Hurricane Helene were in effect.

Hurricane Helene has officially made landfall in the Big Bend region of Florida as a major Category 4 storm with 140 mph winds late Thursday night. The storm made landfall near Perry, Florida, just east of the mouth of the Aucilla River.

Hurricane Helene marks the first Category 4 hurricane to strike Florida's Big Bend Region since at least 1859.

Shortly after Hurricane Helene made landfall in Florida, the number of customers experiencing power outages surpassed 1 million. The outages have extended into neighboring Southern states, with over 46,000 customers in Georgia and over 12,400 customers in North Carolina affected, according to powerouttages.us.

Georgia Governor Brian Kemp confirmed that two individuals lost their lives during Hurricane Helene's passage into Georgia overnight, bringing the storm's total death toll to three.

Kemp expressed his and his family's sorrow over the deaths of two people in Wheeler County that evening. While offering condolences to the bereaved families, he urged all Georgians to prepare for Helene's continued impact, remain vigilant, and offer prayers for those affected by the storm.

Earlier, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis reported in a press conference late Thursday that one person died on I-4 highway near Tampa when a sign fell on a car.