Sandy packs punch as a strong Category 2 hurricane, claims 2 lives

Hurricane Sandy churned over eastern Cuba early Thursday as a Category 2 storm with winds of 105 mph, slipping a bit in strength since making landfall, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said. Along the U.S. East Coast, residents were told to be wary headed into the weekend. Sandy claimed a pair of lives before reaching Cuba. A woman in western Haiti’s Camp-Perrin died Wednesday when she tried to cross a flooding river in the Ravine du Sud, according to Haitian news agency AHP. And CNN affiliate TV J reported a man in Jamaica was killed when he was hit by a boulder sent tumbling downhill by the storm’s rain.