海角大神

Cubans took to the streets in protest as widespread blackouts stretched into their fourth day, their concerns heightened as Hurricane Oscar crossed the island鈥檚 eastern coast with winds and heavy rain.

In Santo Su谩rez, part of a populous neighborhood in southwestern Havana, people went into the streets banging pots and pans in protest at night on Oct. 20.

鈥淲e haven鈥檛 had electricity for three nights, and our food is rotting. Four days without electricity is an abuse to the children,鈥� resident Mary Karla, a mother of three children, told The Associated Press. She didn鈥檛 give her surname.

The protesters, who say they have no water either, blocked the street with garbage.

Energy Minister Vicente de la O Levy said in a news conference he hopes the electricity grid will be restored on Oct. 21 or Oct. 22 morning.

But he said that Oscar, which made landfall on the eastern coast late Oct 20, will bring 鈥渁n additional inconvenience鈥� to Cuba鈥檚 recovery since it will touch a 鈥渞egion of strong [electricity] generation.鈥� Key Cuban power plants, such as Felton in the city of Holgu铆n, and Rent茅 in Santiago de Cuba, are located in the area.

Oscar later weakened to a tropical storm but its effects were forecast to linger in the island through Oct. 21.

Some neighborhoods had electricity restored in Cuba鈥檚 capital, where 2 million people live, but most of Havana remained dark. The impact of the blackout goes beyond lighting, as services like water supply also depend on electricity to run pumps.

People resorted to cooking with improvised wood stoves on the streets before the food went bad in refrigerators.

In tears, Ylenis de la Caridad Napoles, mother of a 7-year-old girl, says she is reaching a point of 鈥渄esperation.鈥�

The failure of the Antonio Guiteras plant on Oct. 18, which caused the collapse of the island鈥檚 whole system, was just the latest in a series of problems with energy distribution in a country where electricity has been restricted and rotated to different regions at different times of the day. The status of Cuba鈥檚 other power plants was unclear.

People lined up for hours on Oct. 20 to buy bread in the few bakeries that could reopen.

Some Cubans like Rosa Rodr铆guez have been without electricity for four days.

鈥淲e have millions of problems, and none of them are solved,鈥� said Ms. Rodr铆guez. 鈥淲e must come to get bread, because the local bakery is closed, and they bring it from somewhere else.鈥�

The blackout was considered to be Cuba鈥檚 worst since Hurricane Ian hit the island as a Category 3 storm in 2022 and damaged power installations. It took days for the government to fix them. This year, some homes have spent up to eight hours a day without electricity.

Cuba鈥檚 government had said Oct. 19 that some electricity had been restored. But the 500 megawatts of energy in the island鈥檚 electricity grid, far short of the usual 3 gigawatts it needs, had quickly decreased to 370 megawatts.

Even in a country that is used to outages as part of a deepening economic crisis, the collapse on Oct. 18聽was massive.

The Cuban government has announced emergency measures to slash electricity demand, including suspending school and university classes, shutting down some state-owned workplaces, and canceling nonessential services.

Local authorities said the outage stemmed from increased demand from small- and medium-sized companies and residential air conditioners. Later, the blackout got worse because of breakdowns in old thermoelectric plants that haven鈥檛 been properly maintained, and the lack of fuel to operate some facilities.

Cuba鈥檚 energy minister said the country鈥檚 grid would be in better shape if there had not been two more partial blackouts as authorities tried to reconnect on Oct. 19. Mr. De la O Levy also said Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, and Russia, among other nations, had offered to help.

This story was reported by The Associated Press.