After a second night of almost total blackout, Cuba Race against time this Sunday 20th to prepare for the imminent arrival of Hurricane Oscar in the east of the island.
Oscar moves across the Caribbean in a west-southwest direction at about 19 km/h, with winds of up to 130 km/h. At 12:00 GMT (9:00 Brasília time) it was about 185 km from Guantánamo, according to the latest report from the United States National Hurricane Center (NHC).
A hurricane warning remains in effect for the southeastern Bahamas and the northern coast of the eastern Cuban provinces of Holguín and Guantánamo.
Oscar arrives in Cuba in the midst of an energy crisis, which spent the second night without electricity due to a breakdown on Friday in the main thermoelectric plant that caused the network to collapse.
President Miguel Díaz Canel said on Saturday on X Network that “work was underway to protect people and economic resources, given the imminence of Hurricane Oscar.”
Hurricane Oscar approaches Cuba. NOAA Photo/Reproduction
“The energy situation” of the island is also being discussed, he added.
The country was left without electricity from 11am local time (12pm in Brasília) on Friday, after the unexpected shutdown of the Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric plant, the main one on the island and located in Matanzas (west).
Difficulty after difficulty
“This blackout made life very difficult for Cubans. The situation is very difficult, but I try to stay calm, because there is already a lot of stress in this country,” he told AFP Yaima Valladares, a 28-year-old dancer.
Housewife Isabel Rodríguez, 72 years old, complains about not being able to sleep. “How will our lives not be affected if we have nothing, not even the hydraulic motors can start,” she said.
Only hotels, hospitals and some private homes that have their own generators had electricity.
“People are a little upset about being without power for so long and only God knows when they will turn it back on,” said Rafael Carrillo, a 41-year-old mechanic, who said he walked almost five kilometers due to lack of transportation.
“You spend four or five hours waiting for the bus, when it arrives it’s full and doesn’t stop,” he says, tired, given the almost absence of public transport.
On Thursday, Díaz-Canel said that the crisis is due to the difficulty in acquiring the fuel needed for the electrical system, due to the embargo that Washington has applied to the island since 1962.
That same day, the government announced the stoppage of work in state-owned companies to face the crisis that in recent weeks has left the population of several provinces without electricity for up to 20 hours a day.
Cubans have suffered for three months with prolonged blackouts, with a deficit of up to 30% in national coverage. On Thursday, the day before the total blackout, it reached 50%.
