Hurricane Melissa Makes Cuba Landfall After Lashing Jamaica (2)

Hurricane Melissa thrashed Cuba, unleashing landslides and flooding in the nation’s second-largest city, as the storm tracked northeast toward the Bahamas.

Melissa hit the island around 3:10 a.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday near Santiago de Cuba, according to the US National Hurricane Center. That came less than a day after it became the strongest recorded storm to strike Jamaica, where it left hundreds of thousands without power and forced hospitals to evacuate.

Damage after the passage of Hurricane Melissa in Manchester, Jamaica, on Oct. 28.

Photographer: Ricardo Makyn/AFP/Getty Images

The storm weakened after hitting rugged terrain in Cuba, becoming an “extremely dangerous” Category 3 on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale, with sustained winds of 115 miles ...