Among the dead from Helene are an experienced firefighter and a 4-year-old girl

In Blackshear, Georgia, a dedicated Firefighter died trying to protect others from Hurricane Helene. In Catawba County, North Carolina, a 4-year-old who lit up every room she entered was killed in a head-on crash on a rainy road. And in Charlotte, North Carolina, a tree fell on a home, killing a resident.

The victims of Hurricane Helene were still being counted on Friday afternoon. But after it hit the Southeast as a Category 4 storm overnight, officials said it killed more than three dozen people in Florida. Georgia, Virginia and the Carolinas.

In Georgia, Vernon Leon Davis and other firefighters had set up barricades in an area where a live power line had collapsed, Blackshear Police Chief Christopher Wright said in an interview, citing a preliminary investigation. After Davis got into his pickup truck, the storm began to get worse and a tree landed on his truck, killing him early Friday morning, Wright said.

Wright said Davis, an assistant fire chief, had been a firefighter for more than 30 years, most of that time on a volunteer basis.

Wright remembered Davis, who went by his middle name Leon, as “one of the greatest people Blackshear had.”

“We’re all better for knowing him,” Wright said. “He would do anything for anyone.”

On Thursday morning, Davis’ brother James Carlas Davis, who lives in Mississippi, texted Davis, her two sisters and other family members in a group text chat, asking if they were ready for Helene. He added a praying hands emoji and told them he loved them.

James Davis said his brother responded, “As ready as we can be,” and explained that he had prepared his generator to power his home, where his wife, Shirley, would be while he cut down fallen trees and houses who cleared water out of people’s houses with sandbags.

“That was my last communication with him,” Davis said Friday afternoon, his voice breaking.

Rellina Davis Lester said she takes comfort in knowing her older brother died while protecting others.

“It’s hard, but he did what he loved and that was his calling in life,” she said.

“Her smile was contagious”

In North Carolina, officials said a Charlotte resident was pronounced dead early Friday after wind and rain caused a tree to fall on her home.

And a day earlier, in Catawba County, North Carolina, about an hour northwest of Charlotte, a young girl named Luna Jade Gaddis died as the lives of two families intersected under tragic circumstances.

According to a statement from the North Carolina State Highway Patrol, the families’ vehicles got into a collision just after 8 a.m. ET on Thursday when one car crossed the center line of a road and collided head-on with the other. The statement said the accident occurred in “heavy rain” and that in addition to killing four-year-old Luna, three other children who were in the cars were also injured: a twelve-year-old child who was taken to hospital with life-threatening injuries, a two-year-old was taken to the hospital with life-threatening injuries and a four-year-old was taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

The drivers of both cars, Lyndsey Nicole Gaddis, 32, of Catawba, and Tiffany Miner Sipe, 34, of Claremont, were also taken to the hospital, according to the North Carolina State Highway Patrol. The statement said the initial investigation determined that impairment did not contribute to the accident, but that charges could be filed once the investigation was completed.

Luna’s grandmother, Elizabeth Gaddis, described her granddaughter as a “gift from God” who gave the sweetest hugs and “could light up the room when she walked in.”

“Her smile was contagious, her laugh was contagious and she often made you wonder who was right and who was wrong,” Gaddis wrote in a statement shared exclusively with NBC News.

Gaddis, who lives in Iredell County, North Carolina, added that her faith helped her through the tragedy of losing Luna.

“I don’t understand why He wanted her back home so quickly, but she belonged to Him first,” she said in her statement, saying her family “for the four and a half years He has blessed us with, forever will be grateful.” with Luna.

There were few details on Friday afternoon about additional fatalities related to the storm. According to the governor’s office, Helene is blamed for at least 15 deaths in Georgia alone. Wright, the Blackshear police chief, and Vernon Leon Davis’ siblings said Davis loved being a firefighter and helping others, including the inmates he supervised during the decades he worked at Ware State Prison. During his time there, Davis had run a program that trained inmates in firefighting and had them respond to specific fires.

“He helped teach the prisoners a skill whenever they got out,” said Lester, who is 57 and lives in Culloden, Georgia.

According to his Facebook page, which expressed his appreciation for life, Davis, 69, began serving time in prison in 1989. His surviving relatives include his wife, two adult sons, a brother and two sisters.

“He loved his family. He helped everyone whenever he could and he was just a man of integrity,” Lester said.

James Davis, 71, said growing up he and his siblings moved around a lot because their father was in the military. He said they had lived in Germany twice; at Fort Knox, Kentucky; and at Fort Hood, Texas, now known as Fort Cavazos. But no matter where life took them, he and his brother were always close.

“We were best friends,” he said. “We pretty much did everything together.”

In one of his recent Facebook posts, his brother shared a picture with the caption: “Waking up to see another day is a blessing.” Don’t take it for granted. Make it count and be glad you’re alive.”