Havana in Darkness as Grid Fails

By Staff Writers

The Island-wide blackout that started on the Island Nation of Cuba on Friday, 18th October has continued into this week with only pockets of Havana reporting flickering lights and electrical power.

The cause of the outages is said to be one of the country’s major power plants failing, according to the Island’s Energy Ministry.

A vast majority of the country’s 10 million people were left without power over the weekend, though major hospitals have been among the services coming back online. The situation remains critical and the government has enacted drastic measures such as closing schools and sending most state workers home to conserve energy. Recreational and cultural activities including night clubs have also been ordered to close.

The Islands grid operator has announced plans to restart at least 5 oil-power generation plants, which they hope will help restore electricity to wider areas soon. However, the arrival of Category 1 Hurricane Oscar with 80 MPH winds on Sunday night made matters somewhat worse.

On Sunday afternoon nearly 216,000 of the 2 million residents in Havana had power restored but the power collapsed again late in the day for the fourth time.

However, during the course of Monday the Cuban government announced that power had been restored to roughly 88 percent of residents in Havana, though service is still believed to be down in rural parts of the country.

Protests and breadlines have added to the concerns for the Island’s residents, with supplies and rations running low.

Nations such as Russia, Venezuela and Mexico have been supplying Cuba with oil to keep the lights on. On Sunday morning reports were that Havana’s José Marti Airport was operating in darkness with emergency power only and no way of printing or issuing tickets, in addition to there being no air conditioning in the terminal.

Meanwhile the US Embassy in Cuba is open only for emergency services.

Cuban officials have blamed the blackouts on increased economic sanctions, disruptions caused Hurricane Oscar and poor infrastructure.

To many observers, the events that unfolded over the last week was expected as the largest Caribbean territory has been surviving on a patched up infrastructure that many have blamed on the US embargo. The lack of access to spare parts for crumbling electricity generation plants has undoubtedly led to the current crisis.

With no permanent solution for electricity generation in sight amid a worsening economy which has been affected by inflation and a drop in tourism activity, Caribbean neighbours can look forward to a continued exodus of Cuban migrants as they seek better living conditions.

The Cayman Islands has close ties to Cuba and the national airline, Cayman Airways, now operates flights to and from Havana. In recent months, passenger loads have decreased as the number of visitors to Havana have fallen.

The Caymanian Times have been reporting on activities in Cuba for years and will continue to update readers on this dire situation affecting residents in Cuba

We wonder if an increase in migrants to Cayman Brac and Grand Cayman is imminent and encourage the Government to pay close attention to developments in this neighbouring country particularly during the American election season which will impact the outcome of life and livelihoods in the Spanish country to the north of our shores.