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 the defeat of JamaicaAs one ofThe strongest Atlantic hurricanes on recordThe US National Hurricane Center said.
Hundreds of thousands of people were evacuated to shelters in Cuba. A hurricane warning was in effect for the Cuban provinces of Granma, Santiago de Cuba, Guantanamo, Holguin and Las Tunas, as well as the southeast and central Bahamas.
Early Wednesday, Melissa had maximum sustained winds of 115 mph (185 km/h) and was moving northeast at 12 mph (19 km/h), according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami. The hurricane’s center was 60 miles (97 kilometers) west of Guantanamo, Cuba, and 230 miles (370 kilometers) south of central Bahamas.
The agency warned Cuban residents to stay in safe places, and that preparations for the storm in the Bahamas “must be accelerated until completion.”
Melissa is expected to weaken as it passes Cuba during the morning, and to remain a strong hurricane as it moves across the southeast 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.
US meteorologists said continued heavy rains could cause life-threatening flooding with numerous landslides.
Melissa hit Jamaica on Tuesday with winds of 185 mph (295 km/h).
The storm was expected to generate storm surge of up to 12 feet (3.6 metres) in the area and drop up to 20 inches (51 cm) of rain in parts of eastern Cuba.
“There are likely to be many landslides in those areas,” said Michael Brennan, director of the US National Hurricane Center in Miami.
The hurricane could exacerbate Cuba’s severe economic crisis, which has already led to prolonged power outages, as well as fuel and food shortages.
“There will be a lot of work to be done. We know that there will be a lot of damage,” Diaz-Canel said in a televised speech, in which he stressed that “no one will be left behind and no resources will be spared to protect the lives of the population.”
At the same time, he urged residents not to underestimate Melissa’s power, “the strongest ever to hit the national territory.”
Provinces from Guantanamo – in the far east – to Camagüey, roughly in the center of Cuba, had already suspended classes on Monday.
While Cuba braced for the storm, officials in Jamaica prepared to set out on Wednesday to assess the damage.
Desmond McKenzie, vice-chairman of Jamaica’s Disaster Risk Management Board, said severe damage was reported in parts of Clarendon in southern Jamaica and in the southwestern parish of St Elizabeth, which was “under water”.
The storm also destroyed four hospitals and one of them lost power, forcing officials to evacuate 75 patients, McKenzie said.
More than half a million customers were without power as of late Tuesday, with officials reporting that much of the island saw fallen trees, power lines and widespread flooding.
The government said it hopes to reopen all Jamaica’s airports as early as Thursday to ensure rapid distribution of emergency relief supplies.
The storm has already killed seven people in the Caribbean, including three in Jamaica, three in Haiti and one in the Dominican Republic, where another person is still missing.