Cuba starts process of bringing power back after dramatic grid failure

Cuba restored a trickle of power to its grid by mid-evening on Friday, officials said, hours after the island plunged into a countrywide blackout following the collapse of one of its major power plants.

The vast majority of the country's 10 million residents were still in the dark on Friday night, but scattered pockets of the capital Havana — including some of the city's major hospitals — saw lights flicker back on shortly after dark.

Grid operator UNE said it hoped to restart at least five of its oil-fired generation plants overnight, providing enough electricity, it said, to begin returning power to broader areas of the country.

The Communist-run government closed schools and non-essential industry early on Friday and sent most state workers home in a last-ditch effort to keep the lights on after weeks of severe power shortages. Recreational and cultural activities, including night clubs, were also ordered closed.

But shortly before midday, the Antonio Guiteras power plant, the country's largest and most efficient, went offline, prompting a total grid failure and leaving the entire island without power.

Officials said late on Friday they were working to fix the problem that had led the oil-fired plant to fail. They did not specify the cause of its collapse.

The blackout marks a new low point on an island where life has become increasingly unbearable, with residents already suffering from shortages of food, fuel, water and medicine.

Virtually all commerce in the capital Havana ground to a halt on Friday. Many residents sat sweating on doorsteps. Tourists hunkered down in frustration. By nightfall, the city was almost completely enveloped in darkness.

"We went to a restaurant and they had no food because there was no power, now we are also without internet," said Brazilian tourist Carlos Roberto Julio, who had recently arrived in Havana.

"In two days, we have already had several problems."

As the afternoon came to a close, Luis González, a 73-year-old retiree in Havana, summed up the extent of the outages to that point in the day.

"The power went out at eight in the morning and it is now five in the afternoon and there is no electricity anywhere," González said.

This week Cuban Prime Minister Manuel Marrero blamed worsening blackouts during the past several weeks on a perfect storm well-known to most Cubans — deteriorating infrastructure, fuel shortages and rising demand.

"The fuel shortage is the biggest factor," Marrero said in a televised message to the nation.