Hurricane Melissa made landfall early Wednesday in eastern Cuba as a Category 3 storm after roaring through Jamaica as one of the strongest hurricanes in the Atlantic basin.

Storm back in open water

Update 11:01 a.m. ET, March 29: Hurricane Melissa has emerged from Cuba and is now churning in the waters of the southwestern Atlantic Ocean.

At 8 a.m. ET on Wednesday, the National Hurricane Center reported Melissa’s center about 150 miles south of the Central Bahamas. The storm was packing maximum sustained winds estimated near 100 mph and was moving northeast at 14 mph.

25 killed in Haiti after river floods

Update 11:05 a.m. ET, March 29: Jean Bertrand Subrème, mayor of the Haitian coastal town of Petit-Goâve, told The Associated Press that at least 25 people died after La Digue river burst its banks and flooded nearby homes.

Dozens of homes collapsed and people remain trapped under the rubble as the river overflowed in the wake of Hurricane Melissa’s powerful surge, he said.

“I am overwhelmed by the situation,” the mayor told the AP.

Storm weakens over eastern Cuba

Update 8:03 a.m. ET March 29: Hurricane Melissa weakened as it traveled over eastern Cuba and headed toward open waters.

At 8 a.m. ET on Wednesday, the National Hurricane Center reported Melissa’s center about 45 miles northwest of Guantanamo, Cuba and about 205 miles south of the Central Bahamas. The storm was packing maximum sustained winds estimated near 105 mph and was moving northeast at 14 mph.

That makes Melissa a strong Category 2 hurricane.

Original report: At 5 a.m. ET on Wednesday, the National Hurricane Center reported Melissa’s center about 60 miles west of Guantanamo, Cuba and about 230 miles south of the Central Bahamas. The storm was packing maximum sustained winds estimated near 115 mph and was moving northeast at 12 mph.

Hurricane conditions are expected in the southeastern and central Bahamas on Wednesday.

The center of Melissa hit the coastal town of Chivirico in the municipality of Guamá, Santiago de Cuba province, at 3:05 a.m. local time, according to Cuba’s Institute of Meteorology.

At landfall, the hurricane had maximum sustained winds of 121 mph.

Cuban authorities said that more than 735,000 people had been evacuated.

Landslides, fallen trees and many power outages were reported in Jamaica as Melissa made landfall. Officials on the island warned that cleaning up the damage and assessing it could take some time.

“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.”

Melissa is the third Category 5 storm to form in the Atlantic basin this hurricane season. The others were Hurricane Erin in August and Hurricane Humberto in September.

The only season with more Category 5s was 2005, when four reached the highest level on the Saffir-Simpson scale.

Only two other hurricanes have had winds as strong as Melissa when making landfall. The storm came onshore near New Hope, Jamaica, at 1 p.m. local time Tuesday with winds up to 185 mph.

That ties the storm with 2019’s Hurricane Dorian in the Bahamas and the 1935 Labor Day Hurricane in the Florida Keys for the strongest Atlantic landfall by wind speed.

Melissa currently poses no threat to the United States mainland.

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