Electricity restored to 50% of Havana after nationwide blackout: Cuba state media
by AFP Staff Writers
Havana (AFP) Oct 21, 2024

Electricity has been restored to half of Havana, the Cuban capital's power company reported Monday, four days after the start of a nationwide power blackout that the authorities have struggled to address.

"Around 50 percent of clients" now have power, Havana's electricity company said in a report published by state-run news portal Cubadebate.

Power went out for the communist island's 10 million people on Friday after the collapse of the nation's largest power plant crippled the grid.

The government has said that electricity is expected to be restored to most of the country by the end of Monday.

Amid concerns of instability in a country already battling sky-high inflation and shortages of food, medicine, fuel and water, President Miguel Diaz-Canel warned Sunday that his government would not tolerate attempts to "disturb public order."

In July 2021, blackouts sparked an unprecedented outpouring of public anger, with thousands of Cubans taking to the street and chanting slogans including "Freedom!" and "We are hungry."

Cuba was still bathed in darkness on Sunday when Hurricane Oscar made landfall in its eastern part at 5:50 pm local time (2150 GMT) as a Category 1 storm.

It weakened into a tropical storm as it moved inland, the US National Hurricane Center said, whipping up waves up to 13 feet (four meters) high along the eastern coast.

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