Hurricane Melissa tore a path of destruction across Jamaica.
Hurricane Melissa tore a path of destruction across Jamaica after the storm made landfall on Tuesday as a Category 5 hurricane, one of the most powerful landfalls on record in the Atlantic basin.
After lashing Jamaica with dangerous winds and flooding rain, Melissa made a second landfall in Cuba as a Category 3 hurricane on Wednesday morning. Melissa then moved through the Bahamas, and next, on Thursday night, the storm will pass Bermuda as a Category 1 or 2 hurricane.
Hurricane Melissa has restrengthened into a Category 4 storm as it approaches eastern Cuba -- with maximum winds of 130 mph.
Melissa is expected to make its second landfall on Cuba as an extremely dangerous major hurricane in the next few hours.
As it pulls away from Jamaica, the hurricane warning there has been downgraded to a tropical storm warning.
Over 530,000 Jamaicans, representing more than 77% of power customers island-wide, are without electricity, Minister Desmond McKenzie with the prime minister's office said Tuesday night.
He said work was underway to restore service with priority to critical facilities, such as hospitals and water and pumping stations.
Several hospitals were impacted by the storm, including through storm surge, flooding and structural damage from strong winds, McKenzie said.
The Black River Hospital in St. Elizabeth, in southwest Jamaica, was without power and a section of the roof was damaged, he said.
McKenzie said 75 patients were removed from the hospital for safety, and the Ministry of Health and Wellness was conducting an evaluation of the situation, he said.
Melissa has weakened to a Category 3 hurricane, with 125 mph maximum sustained winds, on its approach toward eastern Cuba.
Hurricane Melissa became one of the most powerful hurricanes on record to make landfall in the Atlantic Basin.
The hurricane ranks in a three-way tie with Hurricane Dorian (2019) and the Labor Day Hurricane (1935) for the strongest sustained winds at landfall, records show.
Melissa is also the strongest storm in recorded history to make landfall in Jamaica -- after Hurricane Gilbert struck the island as a Category 4 storm with maximum sustained winds of 130 mph in September 1988.
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-ABC News' Julia Jacobo
