KINGSTON, Jamaica — One of the most powerful Atlantic hurricanes in recent history weakened a little Saturday as it drenched coastal Colombia and roared across the Caribbean on a course that still puts Jamaica, Haiti and Cuba in the path of potentially devastating winds and rain.

Matthew briefly reached the top hurricane classification, Category 5, and was the strongest Atlantic hurricane since Felix in 2007.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said Matthew's winds had slipped from a peak of 160 mph to a still-potentially devastating 140 mph, and the storm was expected to reach the eastern part of Jamaica on Monday.

The forecast track would carry it across Cuba and into the Bahamas, with an outside chance of a brush with Florida. “It's too early to rule out what impacts, if any, would occur in the United States and Florida,” said Dennis Feltgen, a spokesman at the Hurricane Center.

Authorities said at least 18 houses were damaged along the drought-hit La Guajira peninsula of Colombia.

Colombian authorities urged residents living near the ocean to move inland in preparation for storm surges that they said would be most intense Saturday.

In Jamaica, high surf began pounding the coast and flooding temporarily closed the road linking the capital to its airport. Feltgen said storm force winds and rain will arrive well before the center of the storm. Jamaicans “basically have daylight today, they have tonight and they have daylight tomorrow to take care of what needs to be done,” he said.

The U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, is also potentially in the path of the storm. A mandatory evacuation of nonessential personnel was underway, said a spokeswoman.