Hurricane Oscar formed off the coast of the Bahamas on Saturday and passed south through the Turks and Caicos Islands overnight.
The National Hurricane Center in Miami characterized the storm as “minor,” but hurricane warnings were in effect for the Turks and Caicos Islands, the southeastern Bahamas, and the states of Holguin and Guantanamo on Cuba's north coast. Several inches of rain was expected in those locations.
The storm's maximum sustained wind speed was 85 mph, with higher gusts.
Its center is located about 110 miles west of Grand Turk Island, and it is heading west and is expected to reach eastern Cuba by Sunday night.
The hurricane's approach comes as Cuba attempts to recover from the worst power outage in at least two years, which left millions without power for two days this week.
Some electricity service was restored on Saturday.
After reaching Cuba, Oscar is expected to make a roughly U-turn and head northeast toward the Bahamas, according to its projected path as of Saturday night.
Philippe Papin of the National Hurricane Center said it was somewhat unexpected that Oscar became a hurricane on Saturday.
“Unfortunately, the system has crept up on us a little bit,” Papin said.
Hours earlier, Tropical Storm Nadine formed off Mexico's southern Caribbean coast, bringing heavy rain and tropical storm conditions to parts of Belize and the Yucatan Peninsula.
It moved inland across Belize and worsened into a tropical depression.
