SANTIAGO DE CUBA, Cuba (AP) — Hurricane Melissa made landfall in eastern Cuba near the city of Chivirico early Wednesday as a Category 3 storm after pummeling Jamaica as one of the strongest Atlantic hurricanes on record, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.
Hundreds of thousands of people had been evacuated to shelters in Cuba. A hurricane warning was in effect for the Cuban provinces of Granma, Santiago de Cuba, Guantánamo, Holguin and Las Tunas, as well as the southeastern and central Bahamas.
Early Wednesday, Melissa had top sustained winds of 115 mph (185 kph) and was moving northeast at 12 mph (19 kph) according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami. The hurricane was centered 60 miles (97 kilometers) west of Guantánamo, Cuba, and 230 miles (370 kilometers) south of the central Bahamas.
The agency warned residents of Cuba to remain sheltered and that preparations for the storm in the Bahamas “should be rushed to completion.”
Melissa was forecast to weaken as it crosses Cuba through the morning, and remain a strong hurricane as it moves across the southeastern or central Bahamas later Wednesday. The storm is then expected to make its way late Thursday near or to the west of Bermuda, where a hurricane watch is in effect.
The continuing intense rain could cause life-threatening flooding with numerous landslides, U.S. forecasters said.
Melissa struck Jamaica on Tuesday with top sustained winds of 185 mph (295 kph).
The storm was expected to generate a storm surge of up to 12 feet (3.6 meters) in the region and drop up to 20 inches (51 centimeters) of rain in parts of eastern Cuba.
“Numerous landslides are likely in those areas,” said Michael Brennan, director of the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami.
The hurricane could worsen Cuba’s severe economic crisis, which already has led to prolonged power blackouts, as well as fuel and food shortages.
“There will be a lot of work to do. We know there will be a lot of damage,” Díaz-Canel said in a televised address, in which he assured that “no one is left behind and no resources are spared to protect the lives of the population.”
At the same time, he urged the population not to underestimate the power of Melissa, “the strongest ever to hit national territory.”
Provinces from Guantánamo — in the far east — to Camagüey, almost in the center of elongated Cuba, had already suspended classes on Monday.
As Cuba prepared for the storm, officials in Jamaica prepared to fan out Wednesday to assess the damage.
Extensive damage was reported in parts of Clarendon in southern Jamaica and in the southwestern parish of St. Elizabeth, which was “under water,” said Desmond McKenzie, deputy chairman of Jamaica’s Disaster Risk Management Council.
The storm also damaged four hospitals and left one without power, forcing officials to evacuate 75 patients, McKenzie said.
More than half a million customers were without power as of late Tuesday as officials reported that most of the island experienced downed trees, power lines and extensive flooding.
The government said it hopes to reopen all of Jamaica’s airports as early as Thursday to ensure the quick distribution of emergency relief supplies.
The storm already was blamed for seven deaths in the Caribbean, including three in Jamaica, three in Haiti and one in the Dominican Republic, where another person remains missing.
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