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.
The State Department said it's activated U.S.-based Urban Search and Rescue teams and has deployed a regional Disaster Assistance Response Team to help with the response to Hurricane Melissa's destruction in the Caribbean.
Melissa has weakened to a Category 2 hurricane with 105 mph winds hours after making landfall in Cuba as a Category 3 hurricane.
The storm, now moving north-northeast at 14 mph, will soon exit Cuba and take aim at the southeastern Bahamas.
As of 5 a.m. ET on Wednesday, Hurricane Melissa was a Category 3 storm with sustained winds of 115 mph moving northeast across Cuba.
Melissa -- the strongest hurricane on record to hit Jamaica -- made landfall on Cuba early on Wednesday near the city of Chivirico in the southeastern province of Santiago de Cuba.
Melissa is forecast to move off the northern coast of Cuba on Wednesday morning as it heads towards the Bahamas. It is expected to pass through the Bahamas as a Category 2 storm in the afternoon. A Hurricane Warning is in effect for the southeastern and central Bahamas.
Rain totals could reach 25 inches for higher elevations in Cuba and 5 to 10 inches of rain is expected across the southeastern Bahamas.
Storm surge is still affecting the islands. Cuba is experiencing a surge of up to 12 feet along the southeast coast, with 5 to 8 feet of surge possible in the southeastern Bahamas through Wednesday.
As Melissa moves into the Atlantic Ocean, it is expected to pass close to Bermuda late on Thursday. The archipelago is under a Hurricane Watch.
-ABC News' Kenton Gewecke and Samantha Wnek
Hurricane Melissa made landfall in Cuba early Wednesday morning as a Category 3 storm, the National Hurricane Center confirmed in a bulletin.
The NHC said the storm remains "extremely dangerous" with maximum sustained winds near 120 mph.
Melissa made landfall in the province of Santiago de Cuba near the city of Chivirico, the NHC said.
