Hurricane Paloma strengthens as it heads to Caymans

(CNN) -- Hurricane Paloma continued to intensify Friday night as the Category 3 storm pounded Grand Cayman island with strong winds and heavy rain.

The National Hurricane Center said additional strengthening of the storm could occur through Saturday night as Paloma turned northeast and headed toward Cuba.

A hurricane warning was in effect Friday throughout the Cayman islands, with residents being told that "preparations to protect life and property should be rushed to completion," the center said.

A hurricane warning means that hurricane conditions are expected within 24 hours.

Cuban officials also issued a hurricane warning for the provinces of Sancti Spiritus, Ciego de Avila, Camaguey and Las Tunas, the Miami, Florida-based hurricane center said in an advisory.

As of 10 p.m. ET, Paloma's winds were near 115 mph (185 kph) with higher gusts. Paloma is forecast to approach Cuba as a Category 2 storm after weakening late Saturday, according to the hurricane center. Watch rainstorms beat the Cayman Islands »

Friday evening, the center of Paloma was about 25 miles (40 kilometers) south of Grand Cayman Island and about 275 miles (443 kilometers) southwest of Camaguey, Cuba.

It was moving northeast at about 7 mph and was expected to pass near Grand Cayman Friday night and approach the coast of central Cuba late Saturday, the hurricane center said. The storm's projected path would steer it away from the U.S. mainland and into the Atlantic. See where the hurricane could be headed »

J.B. Webb, a manager at a radio station on Grand Cayman, said Friday evening that some residents had gone to shelters and others were shutting themselves in downtown businesses rebuilt to withstand a Category 5 hurricane.

He said the local government had advised people to be off the roads by 11 a.m.

The storm is expected to produce rainfall accumulations of 5 to 10 inches over the Caymans and central and eastern Cuba, with isolated maximum totals of 15 inches possible. Flash floods and mudslides are possible, forecasters said.

Hurricane-force winds extend outward up to 25 miles from the center, and tropical storm-force winds extend outward up to 120 miles, the hurricane center said. iReport.com: Are you in Paloma's path?

Forecasters predicted storm-surge flooding of 5 to 7 feet above normal tide levels, accompanied by dangerous battering waves, near the center of Paloma in the Cayman Islands.

Near where Paloma is expected to make landfall, along Cuba's southern coast, storm surge flooding of 8 to 12 feet is forecast, the hurricane center said.

Cuban television was broadcasting advisories to viewers, telling them not to cross swollen rivers, to avoid fallen cables and to evacuate if told to do so by Civil Defense officials.

In Las Tunas, students in boarding schools were sent home, because the schools will be used as shelters.

Evacuations were under way in some coastal areas prone to flooding. Rice and cereal was being shipped to other parts of the country to keep it from spoiling, and no tourists were being allowed to enter many areas.

CNN's Morgan Neill and Rory Suchet contributed to this report.

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