Hurricane Melissa tracks towards Bahamas and Bermuda after pummeling Cuba

Hurricane Melissa is forecast to exit Cuba and sweep across the Bahamas on Wednesday, before reaching Bermuda late on Thursday, reported Weather.com.

The storm is expected to bring with it strong winds, torrential rain, and the risk of coastal flooding, following its historic Category 5 landfall in Jamaica and the subsequent lashing of south-east Cuba.

A downgraded Hurricane Melissa made landfall in Cuba early on Wednesday after ripping a path of destruction across Jamaica, which authorities have designated a "disaster area."

The NHC reported that Melissa had weakened to a Category 3 storm before it hit Santiago de Cuba province on the island's southern coast.

It struck with maximum sustained winds of approximately 120 miles (195 kilometres) per hour, the NHC confirmed, after fluctuating between Category 3 and Category 5, the highest on the Saffir-Simpson scale.

Cuban residents evacuated the coast as the storm approached, with local authorities declaring a "state of alert" in six eastern provinces.

Local residents told AFP that they had been stockpiling foodstuffs, candles, and batteries since Monday in anticipation of the hurricane's arrival.

Powerful Hurricane Melissa kills 7 people

Seven people reportedly died even before powerful Hurricane Melissa made landfall in Jamaica. The storm is now heading towards Cuba.

Latest update: Hurricane Melissa is racing northeast toward the Bahamas after leaving widespread destruction across Jamaica and eastern Cuba.

The storm made landfall around 3 a.m. Eastern Time near Santiago de Cuba as a Category 3 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale, before weakening to Category 2 while crossing the island’s rugged terrain. With sustained winds of about 105 miles (169 kilometers) per hour, Melissa is expected to strike the Bahamas with hurricane-force intensity later on Wednesday.

National Hurricane Center (NHC) said Hurricane Melissa was about 230 miles (370 km) south of the Central Bahamas and maximum sustained winds were flowing at 115 mph (185 km/hr).

According to AFP, even before Melissa slammed into Jamaica, seven deaths had been blamed on the deteriorating conditions. Three deaths were reported in Jamaica, three in Haiti and one in the Dominican Republic.

Hurricane Melissa became the strongest-ever cyclone on record to hit that Caribbean island nation on Tuesday.

The hurricane was the worst to ever strike Jamaica, hitting land with maximum wind speeds even more potent than most of recent history's most brutal storms, including 2005's Katrina, which ravaged the US city of New Orleans.

Catastrophic winds in Jamaica

The storm took hours to cross over Jamaica, dropping by Tuesday evening to a Category 3 storm from the top-level of 5. But the still-powerful Melissa was set to hit Cuba and later the Bahamas.

At its peak, Hurricane Melissa packed ferocious sustained winds of 185 miles (300 kilometers) per hour, according to the US National Hurricane Center.

This was well above the minimum 157 mph (252 kph) wind speed of a Category 5 storm, the highest level on the Saffir-Simpson wind scale.

Melissa's winds subsided to 145 mph (233 kph), the NHC said, as the storm drifted past the mountainous island, lashing highland communities vulnerable to landslides and flooding.

Melissa turns to Cuba

The hurricane was forecast to curve to the northeast on a trajectory toward Santiago de Cuba, Cuba's second-most populous city.

"We should already be feeling its main influence this afternoon and evening," Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel said in a message published in state newspaper Granma, calling on citizens to heed evacuation orders.

“There will be a lot of work to do. We know that this cyclone will cause significant damage,” the President was quoted by Reuters as saying.

Damage due to Hurricane Melissa

Landslides, fallen trees and numerous power outages were reported as Melissa hit with 185 mph (295 kph) winds near New Hope, with officials cautioning that the cleanup and damage assessment could be slow, the Associated Press reported.

“There is no infrastructure in the region that can withstand a Category 5,” Prime Minister Andrew Holness said. “The question now is the speed of recovery. That’s the challenge,” he added.

Jamaica's climate change minister told CNN that Hurricane Melissa's effect was "catastrophic," citing flooded homes and "severely damaged public infrastructure" and hospitals.

However, the scale of Melissa's damage in Jamaica wasn't yet clear, as a comprehensive assessment could take days and much of the island was still without power, with communications networks badly disrupted.

Government minister Desmond McKenzie was quoted by Reuters as saying that several hospitals had been damaged, including in the hard-hit southwestern district of Saint Elizabeth, a coastal area he said was “underwater.”

In southwestern Jamaica, the parish of St. Elizabeth was left "underwater," an official said, with more than 500,000 residents without power.

"The damage to Saint Elizabeth is extensive, based on what we have seen," he told a briefing. “Saint Elizabeth is the breadbasket of the country, and that has taken a beating. The entire Jamaica has felt the brunt of Melissa.”

The mammoth storm could leave devastation on the scale of some of the worst hurricanes in recent memory like Katrina, Maria or Harvey.

(With inputs from agencies)