Debris and floodwaters cover the main road leading to the beach in Gulf Shores, Ala., Thursday, Sept. 16, 2004. Hurricane Ivan caused widespread damage in the town, located on a barrier island off Alabama's coast. (AP Photo/Jay Reeves)

MOBILE, Alabama (CNN) -- Hurricane Ivan is invading the South, from Louisiana to Florida and up into Alabama and Georgia, spawning tornadoes that have killed at least eight people and leaving hundreds of thousands without power.

At 8 a.m., Ivan's maximum sustained winds had decreased to 80 mph, with higher gusts. A gradual weakening should continue as the hurricane moves inland.

Ivan's eye is located about 90 miles west-southwest of Montgomery, Alabama, moving slightly northeast at 17 mph.

Hurricane-force winds could extend inland up to 105 miles from the center, while tropical storm-force winds could stretch up to 290 miles outward.

A hurricane warning remains in effect from the mouth of the Pearl River in Mississippi, east to Apalachicola, Florida.

The tropical storm warning east of Apalachicola to Yankeetown, Florida, has been discontinued, but tropical storm warnings remain from the Pearl River west to Grand Isle, Louisiana.

After a deadly rampage across the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico, one of the fiercest Atlantic storms on record made landfall with 135 mph winds near the resort town of Gulf Shores, Alabama, at 1:50 a.m. (2:50 a.m. ET) on Thursday.

Several tornadoes developed along the leading edge of Ivan.

One twister leveled homes Thursday in Blountstown, Florida, west of Tallahassee, killing five people, according to officials in the Calhoun County Emergency Operations Center.

In Panama City Beach, Florida, tornadoes killed two other people riding out Ivan hours before the storm came ashore, Bay County government spokeswoman Catherine McNaught said.

A spokesman for Santa Rosa County said a young girl died in Milton, Florida, north of Pensacola, Thursday when a tree fell on her house.

Other tornadoes hit southwestern Georgia, destroying two empty mobile homes and leaving a truck driver with minor injuries, said Lt. Matt Hromalik, a spokesman for the Early County Sheriff's Department.

Ivan has already been blamed for more than 60 deaths in Venezuela and the Caribbean.

Before Ivan hit, nearly two million residents of coastal Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and the Florida Panhandle were ordered to evacuate, with residents clogging roads as they drove to higher ground in a bid to flee the flood-prone coastal areas.

The Florida Panhandle appeared to be bearing the brunt of the storm, with Pensacola Mayor John Fogg saying the city had suffered a dramatic night, predicting the effects would be "pretty horrendous."

Power outages
Some 400,000 people were without electricity, according to initial reports from Alabama, Florida and Mississippi.

Alabama appeared to have been among the hardest hit, with 250,000 residences and businesses without power.

The storm knocked out power to 56,000 homes and businesses across southeast Louisiana, officials said, and Mississippi Power reported 71,000 customers along the Mississippi Gulf Coast were without electricity.

In Fort Walton Beach, Florida, 77,000 customers lost power. (State-by-state impact)

Hurricane Jeanne
The National Hurricane Center declared Jeanne an official hurricane Thursday as it moved over the eastern tip of the Dominican Republic. The Category 1 storm has maximum sustained winds of 80 mph and is heading west near 9 mph, the center said.

Jeanne diagonally crossed Puerto Rico on Wednesday after making landfall near Yabucoa on the island's southeastern coast.