Hundreds of thousands of people were evacuated in eastern Cuba and a hurricane warning was in effect for the provinces of Granma, Santiago de Cuba, Guantanamo, Holguin and Las Tunas as Hurricane Melissa made landfall as a Category 3 storm early Wednesday.
The storm, which has since been downgraded to Category 2, was expected to generate a storm surge of up to 12 feet (3.6 meters) in the region and drop up to 20 inches (51 centimeters) of rain in parts of eastern Cuba.
