SANTIAGO DE CUBA, Cuba —

Hurricane Melissa was grinding across Cuba on 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 in Cuba had been evacuated to shelters. A hurricane warning was in effect for Granma, Santiago de Cuba, Guantánamo, Holguin and Las Tunas provinces as well as the southeastern and central Bahamas.

Melissa had top sustained winds of 105 mph and was moving north-northeast at 14 mph according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami. The hurricane was centered 45 miles northwest of Guantánamo, Cuba, and 205 miles south of the central Bahamas.

Preparations for the storm in the Bahamas “should be rushed to completion," the agency said.

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