“Extremely dangerous” Hurricane Melissa lashing Cuba after pounding Jamaica

Hurricane Melissa made landfall over eastern Cuba near the city of Chivirico early Wednesday as an “extremely dangerous” Category 3 storm, the Miami-based National Hurricane Center said, after pummeling Jamaica as one of the strongest Atlantic hurricanes on record.

Melissa was hitting eastern Cuba with “damaging winds, flooding rains, and dangerous storm surge,” the center said.

Some 735,000 people were evacuated ahead of the storm, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez said Tuesday night.  

A hurricane warning was in effect for the provinces of Granma, Santiago de Cuba, Guantanamo, Holguin and Las Tunas as well as the southeastern and central Bahamas.

Melissa had top sustained winds of 120 mph when it got to Cuba but they were down to 115 mph when the NHC issued its 5 a.m. EDT advisory. A hurricane is considered major when it’s a Category 3 on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale, with winds of at least 111 mph. 

The storm was speeding up a bit, moving northeast at 12 mph, according to the hurricane center, and its core was about 60 miles west of Guantánamo, Cuba, and 230 miles 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 but remain a powerful 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 NHC said Melissa is likely to still be a strong hurricane at that point.

The continuing intense rain could cause life-threatening flooding with numerous landslides, U.S. forecasters said.

Melissa struck Jamaica Tuesday with top sustained winds of 185 mph.

The storm was expected to generate a storm surge of up to 12 feet in the region and drop up to 20 inches of rain on parts of eastern Cuba.

“Numerous landslides are likely in those areas,” said NHC director Michael Brennan.

The hurricane could worsen Cuba’s severe economic crisis, which already has led to prolonged power blackouts, fuel shortages 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.

Jamaica set to get a look at damage Melissa left behind  

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.