Cuba awaits arrival of Hurricane Oscar, after a second night of blackout

After a second night of almost total blackout , Cuba is preparing this Sunday in a race against time for the imminent impact of Hurricane Oscar in the east of the island.

Oscar is moving west-southwest across the Caribbean at around 19 km/h, with winds of up to 130 km/h. At 12:00 GMT it was located about 185 km from Guantanamo, according to the latest report from the US National Hurricane Center (NHC).

A hurricane warning remains in effect for the southeastern Bahamas and the northern coast of the eastern Cuban provinces of Holguin and Guantanamo.

Oscar arrives in a Cuba in the midst of an energy crisis, which spent its second night without electricity due to a breakdown on Friday at the main thermoelectric plant that caused the grid to go down.

President Miguel Díaz Canel said on Saturday night on the X network that “hard work is already underway to protect the people and economic resources, in view of the imminent Hurricane Oscar.”

“The island’s energy situation is also being addressed,” he added.

The country was left without electricity from 11:00 local time (15:00 GMT) on Friday, following the unexpected shutdown of the Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric plant, the island’s main power plant located in Matanzas (west).

Difficulty after difficulty

“This blackout is making life very difficult for Cubans. The situation is very difficult, but I try to remain calm, because there is already too much stress in this country,” Yaima Valladares, a 28-year-old dancer, told AFP.

Housewife Isabel Rodriguez, 72, complains that she can’t sleep. “How can we not have a mess when we have nothing, not even the water jets can be turned on?” she said.

Only hotels, hospitals and some private homes with their own small generating plants had electricity.

“People are a little upset about having been without power for so long, and God knows when they’ll put it back on,” said Rafael Carrillo, a 41-year-old mechanic who said he had been walking almost five kilometers for lack of transportation.

“You spend four or five hours waiting for the bus and when it comes, it’s packed and doesn’t stop,” he says wearily, given the almost non-existent public transport traffic.

On Thursday, Díaz-Canel said the crisis is due to the difficulty in purchasing the fuel needed for the electrical system, due to the embargo that Washington has applied against the island since 1962.

That same day, the government announced the suspension of state work to deal with the crisis that in recent weeks has left the population of several provinces without electricity for up to 20 hours a day.

Cubans have been suffering from prolonged blackouts for three months, with a deficit of up to 30% in national coverage. On Thursday, the day before the total blackout, the coverage reached 50%.

Precarious system

Electricity on the island is generated by eight worn-out fuel-fired power plants, some of which are broken or undergoing maintenance, as well as several floating plants – which the government rents to Turkish companies – and power generators.

Most of this infrastructure requires fuel to operate.

With food and medicine shortages, soaring inflation and chronic power outages limiting the development of productive activities, Cuba is facing its worst economic crisis in three decades.

The power outages were one of the triggers for the historic demonstrations of July 11, 2021.