PICTURED: Teenager, 14, killed during Hurricane Laura was riding out the storm with her two sisters in her parents' room when a tree smashed through and help only arrived once cops had spent five hours on foot sawing down trees to get to their home
Cynthia Miller, 14, died in the early hours of Thursday morning after Hurricane Laura threw a tree onto her home
The first confirmed victim of Hurricane Laura has been named as a 14-year-old in Louisiana who died when a tree fell on her parents' bedroom as she rode out the storm with them and her two sisters.
The heartbroken family of Cynthia Miller revealed the terrifying conditions as the Category 4 hurricane, among the strongest to ever hit the US, tore apart their home as they tried to shelter inside.
Miller's hometown Leesville was not under an evacuation order and her Mom and Dad tragically believed that they would be safe.
The damage caused by the storm left the Miller family abandoned for five hours as the rescue effort from the sheriff's office was forced to travel on foot and use chainsaws to cut apart trees that were blocking the roads.
At least six people died in the US as the devastating storm ripped through Louisiana and Texas on Thursday.
Other fatalities included a 68-year-old man who also died when trees fell on his home in Louisiana, as well as a 24-year-old man who died of carbon monoxide poisoning from a generator inside his residence.
Another man drowned in a boat that sank during the storm, authorities said.
Miller and her family tried to ride out the storm in their now destroyed home
A rescue effort from the sheriff's office worked for five hours on foot, using a chainsaw to cut apart the trees that blocked the two -mile stretch of road to the Miller home
Miller's heartbroken family, pictured, spoke about the terrifying night to storm hit
It is feared that more fatalities may be discovered as rescue teams battle to clear the billions of dollars worth of damage caused by historic 150mph winds.
Miller was the first reported death Thursday when she was killed in the early hours of the morning after being trapped underneath a fallen tree.
Her family said she had been doing what she loved the most, reading, when the tree crashed down on top of them.
'It was scary, dark. It was terrifying. There was rain wind everywhere. It was huge ... We went to ride out the storm in our parents' room. Everyone was sitting in there and the tree — it came down,' her sister Nellie told CBS News.
'I walked and tried to find Cindy cause she wasn't talking. And I tried to wake her up and she wouldn't wake up,' she added.
Help remained unavailable as Cindy was pinned down by the tree and the sheriff's office battled on foot along the two-mile stretch of road covered in trees that led up to their home.
Images of the aftermath show the enormous damage to the house as the family tried to come to terms with their loss.
'She was going to do something big,' her sister said of Cynthia.
'She was really smart. She wanted to go to Harvard and be a microbiologist.'
Miller's family said the teenager was reading when she died
Her family said the 14-year-old wanted to be a microbiologist
The family's house was destroyed by the storm, pictured
The rubble of the bedroom where they sought shelter remains
Laura weakened to a Tropical Depression by Friday morning but fears of further twisters and flooding remained after a tornado apparently tore through a church and homes in Arkansas Thursday night.
More than 580,000 evacuated from the Gulf Coast as authorities warned of the dangers of the storm earlier in the week.
The hurricane's top wind speed of 150mph put it among the strongest systems on record in the U.S.
More than 750,000 homes and businesses were without power in Louisiana, Texas and Arkansas in the storm's wake, according to poweroutage.us, which tracks utility reports as of Friday morning.
The National Weather Service reported that the storm was losing its tropical characteristics early that morning but that a flood threat continued.
Up to 5 inches of rain were expected across the Tennessee Valley region before the system closed in on the Mid-Atlantic states by Saturday.
Destroyed planes lie damaged around a Southland Field airport hanger in the aftermath of Hurricane Laura in Sulphur, Louisiana, Thursday. The storm is now a Tropical Depression
Buildings and homes are flooded in the aftermath of Hurricane Laura. More than 580,000 were forced to evacuate along the Gulf Coast as the historic storm hit
A couple go through their destroyed mobile home following the passing of hurricane Laura in Lake Charles, Louisiana, Thursday. The true extent of the damage is not yet known
On Saturday, Laura is expected to produce 1 to 2 inches with isolated maximum amounts of 3 inches across portions of the central and southern Appalachians, and the Mid-Atlantic States before strengthening again slightly before it moves into the northwest Atlantic.
A sense of relief prevailed that Laura was not the annihilating menace forecasters had feared, but a full assessment of the damage could take days.
Thunderstorms and sizzling heat were expected in the disaster area on Friday, complicating recovery efforts.
The other victims of the hurricane have not yet been named.
The storm was so powerful that it could regain strength after turning east and reaching the Atlantic Ocean, potentially threatening the densely populated Northeast.
Laura hit the U.S. after killing nearly two dozen people on the island of Hispaniola, including 20 in Haiti and three in the Dominican Republic, where it knocked out power and caused intense flooding.
It was the seventh named storm to strike the U.S. this year, setting a new record for U.S. landfalls by the end of August.
The old record was six in 1886 and 1916, according to Colorado State University hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach.
Laura was tied with five other storms for fifth most powerful U.S. hurricane, behind the 1935's Labor Day storm, 1969's Camille, 1992's Andrew and 2004's Charley, Klotzbach said.