Oscar made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane at 5:50 p.m. local time, according to the US National Hurricane Center (NHC). It then had a sustained wind speed of almost 36 meters per second. It weakened after hitting land.
Thunderstorms and rain and flooding have been reported in low-lying areas in the east of Cuba. Cuban media report storm surges of up to 2 meters along the coast and damage to buildings in the town of Baracoa.
20 evacuation centers have been set up.
Extensive power outages
All of Cuba lost power on Friday when the country’s largest old and poorly maintained coal-fired power plant collapsed, taking down the island’s entire power grid.
Work to restore the power supply started immediately, but on Saturday morning the grid collapsed again and they had to start over. Then there was another collapse on Saturday afternoon. On Sunday afternoon, progress was reported, before the power grid collapsed again a few hours before the storm hit.
The country’s government says most people will have electricity back on Monday evening.
Havana in the dark
On Sunday, most neighborhoods in the capital, Havana, where around 2 million people live, were in darkness. It was only at the hospitals and some hotels that have their own generators that there was light.
The President’s office stated on Sunday that 16 percent of the country’s inhabitants had had their electricity restored, which means that more than 80 percent still had no electricity.
The power cut also means that the water supply is affected because there is a lack of power for pumps, and that online communication disappears. Internet traffic dropped quickly on Saturday when it became impossible to charge mobile phones.
Occurred quickly
Oscar strengthened over the Bahamas and on Sunday was on its way to the north coast of eastern Cuba, in the provinces of Guantánamo and Holguín.
Cuba’s Meteorological Institute warned of an extremely dangerous situation in eastern Cuba if the storm hit without power and communications being restored.
The US hurricane center in Miami says that the storm arose very quickly, and twelve to 30 centimeters of rain was expected over eastern Cuba from now on towards Tuesday.
Power outages not uncommon
The power outage is the worst since the power grid collapsed after Hurricane Ian hit the country as a category 3 hurricane in 2022. Then it took the authorities several days to get the grid back up.
However, power outages are nothing new to Cubans. Due to the country’s deep economic crisis, parts of the country are still without electricity for several hours at a time. This year, some areas have been without power for four days in a row.
Reuters’ reporters report on some smaller protests, one on the outskirts of Havana and one in the Cuatro Caminos area of the city, and social media have also registered protests.
Congested
Before the collapse on Friday, the electricity grid was already so overloaded that the authorities had to limit electricity use, including by closing schools and sending public employees home.
The government blames the constant blackouts on poor infrastructure, lack of fuel and increasing demand, and not least the US trade blockade which makes it difficult to obtain fuel and spare parts.
Cuba produces little oil itself, and in the last year Venezuela, Russia and Mexico, which for years have been responsible for most of the supply, have reduced their exports to Cuba.
#Storm #Oscar #hit #Cuba #power #grid
