A downgraded Hurricane Melissa made landfall in Cuba early on Wednesday after ripping a path of destruction across Jamaica, which authorities have designated a “disaster area.”

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 120 miles (195 kilometers) per hour, the NHC said, after fluctuating between Category 3 and Category 5, the highest on the Saffir-Simpson scale.

Windspeeds of the storm, which is now about 60 miles (95 kilometers) west of Guantanamo, have eased slightly to a maximum of 115 miles (185 kilometers) per hour, but it was still causing “floodi

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