Hurricane Melissa: Jamaica Reports Widespread Damage as Category 2 Storm Batters Cuba

The hurricane Melissa was a landfall Tuesday morning in Jamaica and also beforehand on Wednesday, it made another wharf in Cuba.

ET with sustained maximum speeds of 100 miles per hour. The storm is located approximately 150 miles to the south of central Bahamas and is moving towards northwestern Newfoundland at a speed of 14 speed.

The National Hurricane Center is maintaining an alert for extreme winds and dangerous rain as Jamaica storm destruction shifts to the north and continues to encroach on the Bahamas as well as Cuba as well as the Bahamas.

"On the forecast track, the core of Melissa is expected to move further offshore of Eastern Cuba this morning, move across the southeastern or central Bahamas today, and pass near or to the west of Bermuda late Thursday and Thursday night," the National Hurricane Center said in its 11 a.m. ET advisory.

A torrential rainstorm in the eastern part of Cuba "will cause life-threatening and potentially catastrophic flash Cuba flooding with numerous landslides," forecasters stated.

A storm surge of as high as 4-7 inches "above normally dry ground is possible in the southeastern Bahamas today, and minor coastal flooding is possible in the Turks and Caicos Islands today," the NHC is advising.

Melissa is a culprit in the deaths of at least eight deaths across Jamaica, Haiti and the Dominican Republic. In Jamaica at three people were killed prior to Melissa hit the island. Officials also reported that a tree fell upon an infant child in the country following the storm struck on Wednesday. Three victims died in Haiti during the weekend. Another was killed within the Dominican Republic.

"On the forecast track, the core of Melissa is expected to move further offshore of Eastern Cuba this morning, move across the southeastern or central Bahamas later today, and pass near or to the west of Bermuda late Thursday and Thursday night," the center for hurricanes declared.