Cuba suffers third major setback in restoring power, millions still in dark
Residents were already suffering from food, medicine and fuel shortages. Most have also been unable to charge phones and get online
Cuba’s efforts to restore power to the island were derailed for a third time late on Saturday, authorities said shortly before midnight, leaving millions in the dark and raising fresh questions over the viability of the government’s bid to re-establish electrical services.
Cuba’s national electrical grid first crashed around midday on Friday after the island’s largest power plant shut down. The grid collapsed again on Saturday morning, state-run media reported.
By early evening, authorities reported some progress restoring power before announcing the grid had once again collapsed.
“Tonight at 10:25pm the total disconnection of the national electro-energetic system occurred again,” the Havana Electric company said on Telegram late on Saturday.
The post was later removed from the company’s Telegram feed. It was not immediately clear why the post was removed, but millions were still without power early on Sunday.
Cuba’s energy ministry said shortly after the Havana Electric post that it was working to re-establish services, adding that “another disconnection” had occurred in the “western subsystem”, which includes the capital Havana.
