Hurricane Melissa is expected to bring damaging winds and flooding rain to Cuba and the Bahamas on Wednesday, Oct. 29.

Hurricane Melissa is forecast to bring damaging winds, flooding rains and dangerous storm surge to portions of Cuba and the Bahamas after slamming Jamaica with catastrophic flash flooding and landslides that caused widespread infrastructure damage.

Melissa made landfall in Cuba overnight. The hurricane was spinning with maximum sustained winds around 100 mph with higher gusts, making it a Category 2 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale, as of the 2 p.m. ET advisory from the National Hurricane Center on Oct. 29.

Forecasters said Melissa was located about 110 miles south-southeast of the central Bahamas and moving toward the northeast around 15 mph, with an "accelerating northeastward motion" expected during the next few days.

The hurricane center said the core of Melissa is expected to move across the southeastern or central Bahamas this afternoon and evening, and pass near or to the west of Bermuda late Thursday and Thursday night, Oct. 30.

Forecasters said in the advisory that residents in Cuba and the Bahamas should remain sheltered, while in Bermuda, "preparations should be underway and be completed before anticipated first occurrence of tropical-storm-force winds."

A hurricane warning is in effect for the Cuban provinces of Granma, Santiago de Cuba, Guantanamo, Holguin and Las Tunas, in addition to southeastern and central Bahamas and Bermuda. A tropical storm warning is in effect for Haiti, the Cuban province of Camaguey, and the Turks and Caicos Islands.

Heavy rains are expected to taper off in eastern Cuba by Wednesday afternoon, Oct. 29, but storm total rainfall of 10 to 20 inches, with local amounts up to 25 inches, are expected, which will cause "life-threatening and potentially catastrophic flash flooding with numerous landslides," according to the hurricane center.

Over the southeast Bahamas, rainfall totals of 5 to 10 inches are expected Wednesday, with the Turks and Caicos could see between 1 to 3 inches. Heavy rain could begin affecting Bermuda on Thursday, forecasters said.

In addition to the rain, storm surge of 4 to 7 feet above normally dry ground is possible in the southeastern Bahamas on Wednesday.

Hurricane Melissa tracker

This forecast track shows the most likely path of the center of the storm. It does not illustrate the full width of the storm or its impacts, and the center of the storm is likely to travel outside the cone up to 33% of the time.

Hurricane Melissa spaghetti models

Illustrations include an array of forecast tools and models, and not all are created equal. The hurricane center uses only the top four or five highest-performing models to help make its forecasts.

Melissa causes widespread damage, outages on Jamaica

Melissa reached Jamaica as an extremely dangerous Category 5 hurricane, the highest level on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale, bringing damaging winds, catastrophic flash flooding and landslides across Jamaica on Tuesday. The storm caused widespread infrastructure damage, including power and communication outages that left hundreds of thousands of residents in the dark.

Parishes across Jamaica reported heavy floodwaters, blocked roads and fallen trees and utility poles, according to Desmond McKenzie, the island's minister of local government and community development. The parish of St. Elizabeth was submerged by flooding, and its only public hospital lost power and reported severe damage to one of its buildings.

The International Federation of the Red Cross previously said up to 1.5 million people in Jamaica were expected to be directly affected by the storm. About 15,000 people were in temporary shelters by late Tuesday, according to McKenzie. The government had issued mandatory evacuation orders for around 28,000 people.

At least seven hurricane-related deaths have been reported across the Caribbean, including three each in Jamaica and Haiti and one in the Dominican Republic. McKenzie said on Tuesday that officials were praying for no deaths on the island, but conditions were still too severe for assessments to be completed.

How do hurricanes form?

Hurricanes are born in the tropics, above warm water. Clusters of thunderstorms can develop over the ocean when water temperatures exceed 80 degrees. If conditions are right, the clusters swirl into a storm known as a tropical wave or tropical depression.

A tropical depression becomes a named tropical storm once its sustained wind speeds reach 39 mph. When its winds reach 74 mph, the storm officially becomes a hurricane.

This story has been updated to add new information.

Contributing: Thao Nguyen, Dinah Voyles Pulver, and Jeanine Santucci, USA TODAY

Gabe Hauari is a national trending news reporter at USA TODAY. You can follow him on X @GabeHauari or email him at Gdhauari@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Track Hurricane Melissa's path as Category 2 storm hammers Cuba

Reporting by Gabe Hauari, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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