The wild late-season storm — which intensified by 50 mph over just 24 hours — was less than 85 miles from the island and expected to make landfall at around 3 p.m. Wednesday, according to the National Hurricane Center.

ToplineTropical Storm Rafael is expected to strengthen on Tuesday while becoming a hurricane over the western Caribbean as the storm heads northwest toward the Gulf Coast later this week, impacting the Florida Keys and other states,

Hurricane Rafael strengthened to a Category 3 storm as it headed towards Cuba on Wednesday, threatening the island nation with deadly storm surge and floods just 2 weeks after it was hit by Oscar.