By the Caribbean Journal staff

After pummeling much of the northeastern Caribbean approached Cuba and the Bahamas on Friday, weakening slightly to a Category 4 storm.

Maximum sustained winds were down to around 150 mph, a drop from the 185 mph that marked the storm at its peak in the Leeward Islands.

On Friday morning, Irma was about 80 miles of Cabo Lucrecia in Cuba and about 450 miles southeast of Miami.

A hurricane warning remained in effect for the southeastern Bahamas and Turks and Caicos, along with the Cuban provinces of Camaguey, Ciego de Avila, Sancti Spiritus, and Villa Clara, along with the Central Bahamas and the Northwestern Bahamas.

Irma pummeled Turks and Caicos Thursday after causing an undetermined amount of damage and flooding in Haiti, with the brunt of the TCI damage focused in Grand Turk.

The core of the hurricane is then projected to move between the north coast of Cuba and the Bahamas during the next day or two.

The Caribbean death toll from the storm has risen to at least 14 people.