Hurricane Sandy 2012 Update: Storm Kills One In Jamaica, Heads For Cuba

Hurricane Sandy touched down in Jamaica, north-northeast of Kingston, around 3 p.m. Wednesday with the National Hurricane Center warning that the eye of Sandy was between Jamaica and Cuba at 8 p.m. 

Sandy toppled trees and power lines in Jamaica with the storm possibly posing a threat to the U.S. East Coast.

The storm was determined to be moving north at 14 miles per hour, and sustaining winds at 85 miles per hour. Advisories were issued for the North Atlantic and Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico.

After ferocious winds battered Jamaica, the hurricane is continuing on its path toward Cuba and the Bahamas.

Schools and businesses closed and residents who live in flood-prone areas were moved into safe shelters.

Residents of Jamaica have reported experiencing widespread power outages, flooded streets and damaged homes.

"A part of the roof of my veranda just went like that," Walford Freak, 55, told Reuters. “At least five of my neighbors have lost their entire roofs."

Nearly 70 percent of its customers do not have power, the Jamaica Public Service Company reported.

According to police, one person was killed from the storm. The man was crushed under stones that fell from a hillside when he was trying to get into his house in a village outside Kingston, Reuters wrote.

Warnings have been advised for Florida because of its close proximity to the storm.

"It is a big storm and it's going to grow in size after it leaves Cuba," said Michael Brennan, a hurricane forecaster at the NHC in Miami.

The storm is also expected to extend to the Bahamas, causing "very high surf and dangerous conditions all the way up the East Coast into the Carolinas," he said.

Forecasters also warn the storm could turn into a nor'easter and tear up the East Coast next week.