Hurricane set to hit Cuba amid national blackout

Hurricane Oscar approaches Cuba as authorities work to restore power after nationwide blackout.

A hurricane was bearing down on Cuba Sunday (October 20, 2024) as the island nation's authorities scrambled to restore power following a massive nationwide outage.

The expected arrival of Hurricane Oscar, just days after the failure of Cuba's largest power plant crippled the national grid, and piled more pressure on a country already battling sky-high inflation and shortages of food, medicine, fuel and water.

President Miguel Diaz-Canel said Saturday in a post on social media that authorities in the east of the island were "working hard to protect the people and economic resources, given the imminent arrival of Hurricane Oscar".

“Packing winds of 140 km (85 miles) per hour, Oscar was forecast to reach eastern Cuba on Sunday, where heavy rains are expected,” according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center.

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The Cuban Presidency said in another social media post that progress had been made in restoring power, with 16% of consumers receiving electricity and around 500 megawatts being generated.

That was a fraction of the country's 3,300-megawatt demand on Thursday, the day before the grid collapsed and the government declared an "energy emergency" following weeks of extended outages.