Hurricane Oscar has brought heavy rain to the eastern tip of Cuba, adding to a list of problems already plaguing the Caribbean's largest island, which was hit over the weekend by a massive power outage.
The deluge caused landslides and winds of 120 kilometers per hour ripped off the roofs of houses, making the work of engineers who were trying to restore Cuba's electrical network even more difficult, after a weekend in which the entire country Some 10 million inhabitants were plunged into darkness. .
“The winds have been very strong,” said a resident of the eastern city of Baracoa. “The sea is very dangerous and they have torn tiles off the roof.”
When Hurricane Oscar was downgraded to a tropical storm and began turning north toward the Bahamas on Monday, attention returned to the collapse of Cuba's power grid, caused by the country's aging power plants.
In recent months, blackouts have become so severe that people have been losing the food they store, a disaster in a country with inflation and rising prices.
Over the weekend, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel appeared in the military-style uniform of the National Defense Council, which only occurs in times of national emergency and usually due to adverse weather conditions.
The latest crisis began last week when all non-essential workers in the vast bureaucracy were ordered to return home, in the desperate hope of saving energy and keeping the network operational.
On Sunday it was announced that schools would remain closed until Thursday, another highly unusual development on an island that prides itself on keeping children in class.
Power was restored to much of the center of the island on Monday, but reports suggest the lights are out in both the eastern end (where Oscar fell) and Pinar del Río on the western end.
In Havana, electricity began to return in the early hours of Monday, and neighborhoods gradually came back online, one after another. By lunchtime, the government said 56% of the city had electricity.
But Habaneros remained suspicious that the antiquated electrical system would hold up, and there were complaints that the government was giving out information via Twitter/X, rather than radio, even as phones have been dying from lack of charge.
In July 2021, blackouts sparked unprecedented street protests involving thousands of people. This time, expressions of discontent have been silenced and residents of several Havana neighborhoods bang pots and pans.
Díaz-Canel on Monday attributed Cuba's problems to the United States' “financial war” against Cuba, directing his comments at online activists in Miami urging Cubans to take to the streets. “We will not allow anyone to act by provoking acts of vandalism, much less disturbing the civil tranquility of our people,” he stated.
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