Cuba restores power to parts of Havana following hurricane
HAVANA, Nov 8 (Reuters) -Cuba had restored power to nearly 20% of the capital Havana by late on Friday afternoon, the government said, two days after hurricane Rafael struck the island and collapsed the country's electrical grid, leaving millions in the dark.
Rafael knocked out hundreds of power lines and poles across the western half of the country, downing trees, cutting communications and complicating recovery efforts.
The hurricane strike was the latest blow to the Communist-run country's already precarious electrical grid, which just two weeks ago collapsed multiple times, knocking out power for days and sparking scattered protests across the island.
The timing could not have been worse.
Another hurricane, Oscar, struck the far eastern end of Cuba in mid-October, a one-two punch that has crippled a country already suffering from severe shortages of food, fuel and medicine.
On Friday, officials said the national grid was back online and providing electricity to parts of central and eastern Cuba, though the hard-hit western farm provinces of Pinar del Rio and Artemisa were still largely without electricity ahead of the weekend.
Central Havana and its eastern suburbs saw lights flicker back on in places on Friday. Most of the western half of the city of two million people, however, remained in the dark.
Authorities had not yet given an estimate for when power would be fully restored in the capital.
Havana resident Claudia Espinosa, who lives in Vedado, where many trees and power lines still littered city streets, said she had been without power for three days.
"The situation is critical," she said. "There is no water, there is no food, everything is going to waste."
Cuba's grid operator UNE on Friday warned that even in areas where power was available, the country was still running a substantial generation deficit and blackouts would persist.
The country's decrepit oil-fired generation plants have struggled to keep the lights on for decades, but this year the system collapsed into crisis as oil imports dropped off from allied countries like Venezuela and Mexico.
Russia on Friday pledged to provide Cuba with approximately 80,000 tons of diesel fuel worth $60 million to assist the island nation in its energy crisis, Russian state-run RIA news agency reported on Friday.
Reporting by Dave Sherwood; additional reporting by Alien Fernandez and Mario Fuentes; Editing by Bill Berkrot
Latest News
Disclaimer: The XM Group entities provide execution-only service and access to our Online Trading Facility, permitting a person to view and/or use the content available on or via the website, is not intended to change or expand on this, nor does it change or expand on this. Such access and use are always subject to: (i) Terms and Conditions; (ii) Risk Warnings; and (iii) Full Disclaimer. Such content is therefore provided as no more than general information. Particularly, please be aware that the contents of our Online Trading Facility are neither a solicitation, nor an offer to enter any transactions on the financial markets. Trading on any financial market involves a significant level of risk to your capital.
All material published on our Online Trading Facility is intended for educational/informational purposes only, and does not contain – nor should it be considered as containing – financial, investment tax or trading advice and recommendations; or a record of our trading prices; or an offer of, or solicitation for, a transaction in any financial instruments; or unsolicited financial promotions to you.
Any third-party content, as well as content prepared by XM, such as: opinions, news, research, analyses, prices and other information or links to third-party sites contained on this website are provided on an “as-is” basis, as general market commentary, and do not constitute investment advice. To the extent that any content is construed as investment research, you must note and accept that the content was not intended to and has not been prepared in accordance with legal requirements designed to promote the independence of investment research and as such, it would be considered as marketing communication under the relevant laws and regulations. Please ensure that you have read and understood our Notification on Non-Independent Investment. Research and Risk Warning concerning the foregoing information, which can be accessed here.
