Major Hurricane Melissa makes landfall in Cuba, high flash flood risk; Bahamas is next in path

Hurricane Melissa made its second landfall shortly after 3 a.m. on Wednesday in the province of Santiago de Cuba in eastern Cuba. Melissa made landfall as a Category three hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 120 mph, making it a Category three hurricane at its second landfall. Melissa will spend the whole day traveling over Cuba, but it is also picking up a little bit of speed. At 10 a.m. Eastern Time, Melissa was moving at 14 mph, a big contrast to the 8 mph forward speed when it moved over Jamaica.

By Thursday morning, Melissa should be crossing the southern Bahamas, where strong winds and downpours are expected. In the southern Bahamas, up to 8 inches of rain could fall in some areas. In the long term, Bermuda could also be impacted by Melissa. We will continue to monitor to see how close Melissa can get to Bermuda.

For this Wednesday, conditions will continue to improve across Jamaica as they start their cleaning efforts. The first images to emerge after being hammered down all afternoon on Tuesday are devastating. Many locations are completely flooded. Melissa's violent winds completely rip many places across the western side of the islands.

Across Cuba, although some images have already started to appear, the true aftermath of Melissa will likely not be known until Thursday as Melissa moves further away from the island. So far, flooding has been widespread, especially in parts of Santiago de Cuba and Guantanamo.

Melissa does not pose a threat to the United States and will continue to move across the open Atlantic waters, gradually weakening and accelerating northward.