Hurricane Melissa Makes Landfall in Cuba After Devastating Jamaica

The National Hurricane Center (NHC) said Melissa, which it described as an "extremely dangerous hurricane," had weakened to a Category 3 storm before it made landfall in Santiago de Cuba province on the island's southern coast.

It hit with maximum sustained winds of approximately 195 kilometers per hour, the NHC said, after fluctuating between Category 3 and Category 5, the highest on the Saffir-Simpson scale.

Cuban residents fled the coast as it approached, with local authorities declaring a "state of alert" in six eastern provinces.

Authorities in Haiti, east of Cuba, ordered the closure of schools, businesses and government offices yesterday.

Cuban authorities reported that some 735,000 people have been evacuated so far.

Melissa hit Jamaica as a Category 5 hurricane around midday on Oct. 28 with sustained winds of up to 295 km/h, the worst hurricane to hit the island since meteorological records began. 

It took hours to cross Jamaica before first weakening and then intensifying again.

Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness declared the island a "disaster area" and authorities warned residents to remain sheltered because of continued flooding and the risk of landslides.

The scale of Melissa's damage in Jamaica was not yet clear. A comprehensive assessment could take days because much of the island was still without power, with communications networks badly disrupted.

The hurricane was the worst to strike Jamaica, hitting land with maximum wind speeds more powerful than many of recent history's strongest storms, including 2005's Katrina that ravaged the U.S. city of New Orleans.