SANTIAGO DE CUBA, Cuba — 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, Guantanamo, Holguin and Las Tunas, as well as the southeastern and central Bahamas.

Early Wednesday, Melissa had top sustained winds of 115 m.p.h. (185 km/h) and was moving northeast at 12 m.p.h. (19 km/h) according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami. The hurricane was centred 60 miles (97 kilometres) west of Guantanamo, Cuba, and 230 miles (370 kilometres) south of the c

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