Sandy claims at least 29 lives in Caribbean Last Updated 11:10 a.m. NASSAU, BAHAMAS Hurricane Sandy raged through the Bahamas early Friday after leaving 29 people dead across the Caribbean, following a path that could see it blend with a winter storm to hit the U.S. East Coast with a super-storm next week. Sandy knocked out power, flooded roads and cut off islands in the storm-hardened Bahamas as it swirled past Cat Island and Eleuthera. "Generally people are realizing it is serious," said Caroline Turnquest, head of the Red Cross in the Bahamas, who said 20 shelters were opened on the main island of New Providence. Sandy, which weakened to a Category 1 hurricane Thursday night, caused havoc in Cuba Thursday, killing 11 people in eastern Santiago and Guantanamo provinces as its howling winds and rain toppled houses and ripped off roofs. Authorities said it was Cuba's deadliest storm since July 2005, when Category 5 Hurricane Dennis killed 16 people and caused $2.4 billion in damage. Sandy also killed one person while battering Jamaica on Wednesday and 16 in Haiti, where heavy rains from the storm's outer bands caused flooding in the impoverished and deforested country. Police in the Bahamas said a 66-year-old man died after falling from his roof in upscale Lyford Cay late Thursday while trying to repair a window shutter. Some further weakening in Sandy was forecast during the next 48 hours, but it was expected to remain a hurricane. Forecasters warned that it will likely blend with a winter storm to cause a super storm in the eastern U.S. next week. According to the National Hurricane Center, as of 11:00 a.m. Friday Sandy was centered about 25 miles north-northeast of Great Abaco Island, or about 460 miles south-southeast of Charleston, S.C. The storm is moving north at 6 mph, with maximum sustained winds of 80 mph. A hurricane warning is in effect for Great Abaco and Grand Bahama Islands. A tropical storm warning extends to the rest of the northwest Bahamas, and remains in effect for Florida's East Coast (from Ocean Reef to Flagler Beach), and Lake Okeechobee. A tropical storm watch is in effect for North Carolina (Savannah River to Oregon Inlet), Pamlico Sound, and Florida's East Coast (from north of Flagler Beach to Fernandina Beach). The stage is set for a meteorological mess as Hurricane Sandy continues to barrel north. A wintry storm is chugging across the country from the west. And frigid air is streaming south from Canada. And if they meet Tuesday morning around New York or New Jersey, as forecasters predict, they could create a big, wet mass that settles over the nation's most heavily populated corridor and reaches as far west as Ohio. "It's looking like a very serious storm that could be historic," said Jeff Masters, meteorology director of the forecasting service Weather Underground. Mother Nature is not saying, 'Trick or treat.' It's just going to give tricks. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration forecaster Jim Cisco, who coined the nickname "Frankenstorm" said: "We don't have many modern precedents for what the models are suggesting." Government forecasters said there is a 90 percent chance -- up from 60 percent two days earlier -- that the East will get pounded. In the Bahamas power was out on Acklins Island and most roads there were flooded, government administrator Berkeley Williams said. On Ragged Island in the southern Bahamas, the lone school was flooded. "We have holes in roofs, lost shingles and power lines are down," said Charlene Bain, local Red Cross president. A U.N. Peacekeeper stands watch near a bridge washed away by heavy rains from Hurricane Sandy Thursday, October 25, 2012 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.