Cuban power grid collapses for fourth time due to hurricane

In the capital Havana early Monday morning, people were seen on the street in poor lighting, some playing dominoes to pass the time. Children are choosing to sleep outside to cool off from the stifling heat indoors – schools are also canceled until Thursday.

Oscar made landfall near Baracoa along the east coast of Cuba around noon Sunday as a Category 1 storm with winds of 80 mph. By Sunday evening, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) announced that Oscar had strengthened into a tropical storm and was moving west-southwest at 6 mph.

“Rainfall amounts of 6 to 12 inches are expected across eastern Cuba on Wednesday morning, with isolated amounts of 18 inches,” the NHC said, adding that isolated amounts of up to 8 inches of rain could fall in the southeastern Bahamas.

Oscar earlier made landfall on Inagua Island in the Bahamas, with maximum wind speeds estimated at 80 mph, the NHC said.

On Sunday afternoon, the Cuban Electrotechnical Union announced that more than 216,000 people in Havana, a city of 2 million people, had received electricity. Later that day, the power grid collapsed again for the fourth time since Friday.

Some Cubans took to the streets to protest the three-day power cut, with many banging pots and pans, disrupting traffic.

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel criticized the demonstrators for causing public unrest, saying in a video posted on X that “we are not going to allow acts of vandalism, much less disturb the peace of our people.”

Cuba was plunged into darkness on Friday when one of the country’s largest power plants failed, according to the Energy Department. Since then, most people in the country of 10 million have had their access to electricity cut off and have struggled to maintain fresh food and a stable supply of water.

Some people began filling WhatsApp chats with updates about which areas had power, while others arranged for medicines to be stored in the refrigerators of those who briefly had power – or who were lucky enough to have a generator.

In Havana, residents waited for hours to buy a few loaves of bread at several places in the capital that sell bread. When the bread sold out, several people angrily announced that they had been skipped in line.

Many have wondered where Cuba’s traditional allies, such as Venezuela, Russia and Mexico, are located. Until now, they have supplied the island with much-needed barrels of oil to keep the lights on.

Meanwhile, tourists were still seen cruising Havana’s main avenues in classic 1950s cars, although many hotel generators had run out of fuel.

One foreign visitor told CNN that Havana’s José Martí International Airport was running in the dark on only emergency power, adding that printers were not working when issuing tickets and there was no air conditioning in the terminal.

Reuters reporters witnessed two small protests on Sunday night, and videos of protests in other parts of the capital also emerged.

The Cuban government is canceling classes for students Monday through Wednesday, having previously canceled them on Friday. He also ordered non-essential workers to stay home. The US Embassy in Havana will be open for emergency services only on Monday.

Cuban officials blamed the energy crisis on a confluence of events, from tightening U.S. economic sanctions to disruptions caused by recent hurricanes and the island’s poor infrastructure.

In a televised address on Thursday that was delayed due to technical problems, Cuban Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz said much of the country’s limited production had been shut down to avoid leaving people completely without power.

“We are paralyzing economic activity to provide energy to the population,” he said.

The country’s health minister, José Angel Portal Miranda, said on Friday on X that the country’s health facilities are running on generators and that health workers continue to provide vital services.

CNN’s Mia Alberti, Jean Norman, Rob Shackelford and CNN en Español’s Veronica Calderon and Gerardo Lemos contributed to this report.