Hurricane Melissa is barreling northeast toward the Bahamas, after leaving a trail of destruction across Jamaica and the eastern side of Cuba.

Melissa made landfall around 3 a.m. eastern time near Santiago de Cuba as a Category 3 storm on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale, before weakening to Category 2 as it moved across rugged terrain. Sustained wind speeds are still around 105 miles (169 kilometers) per hour, and a hurricane-strength storm is expected to hit the Bahamas later on Wednesday.

From there, Melissa is forecast to track west of Bermuda on Thursday before degrading into an extra-tropical cyclone late Friday or early Saturday, according to the US National Hurricane Center.

The hurricane has dumped torrential rain on Cuba, unleashing landslides and flooding in the nation’s se

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