Washington, Oct 30 (IANS): Over half a million people were left without electricity in the US state of Louisiana after Category 2 Hurricane Zeta made landfall along the Gulf Coast, authorities said.

At the peak, about 531,000 people were without power in the state, Xinhua news agency quoted Louisiana governor's office as saying on Thursday citing numbers from the Public Service Commission.

In the area of New Orleans, about 470,000 people were without power Thursday morning, energy companies said.

Local media quoted power companies as saying that power will be restored some time this weekend.

In some areas, people have to wait as long as 10 days before the service is restored.

Many of the outages were the result of 200-plus "tree emergencies" reported to New Orleans officials in the aftermath of Zeta.

Some trees ripped down power lines, local media reported.

According to the National Hurricane Center, Zeta, the 11th of the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season, has downgraded to a tropical storm.

At least three deaths were reported due to the storm in Louisiana, Mississippi and Georgia.

Zeta, the 27th named storm of an already historic hurricane season, first made landfall on Monday night in Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula.

This year's season has so many storms that the hurricane center has turned to the Greek alphabet after running out of official names.

Zeta is the furthest into the Greek alphabet the Atlantic season has gone.

There was also a Tropical Storm Zeta in 2005.