HOLGUIN, Cuba -- Hurricane Sandy has been rumbling across the mountains of eastern Cuba and is heading toward the Bahamas.

The National Hurricane Center says Sandy is a Category 2 hurricane, with top winds of 105 miles an hour. The storm emerged off Cuba's northeast coast around dawn and is now centered about 65 miles south-southwest of Long Island in the Bahamas.

Sandy has been pummeling the rural eastern half of Cuba with heavy rain and winds that have torn the roofs off homes and damaged crops. But, there have been no fatalities reported.

The hurricane center says Sandy likely will remain a hurricane as it passes over the Bahamas and could bring tropical storm conditions to southeast Florida by tomorrow morning.

Forecasters say Sandy also may combine with other weather systems to create a major storm over the northeastern U.S. next week. Jim Cisco of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says: "It'll be a rough couple days from Hatteras up to Cape Cod."