Following Hurricane Ian’s devastation-filled passage across the western part of the island, the electrical infrastructure in Cuba crashed late on Tuesday, according to local authorities, putting the whole nation in the dark.
Late on Tuesday, the US National Hurricane Center reported that the massive Category 3 storm, with top wind gusts of 120 miles per hour (195 kilometers per hour), was headed northward toward the Dry Tortugas, off the Florida Keys (NHC).
Blackouts have become a regular occurrence on parts of the island due to Cuba’s decades-old electrical grid, which is in urgent need of upgrading. But according to officials, the storm was too much for the system, resulting in a malfunction that turned off the lights for the island’s 11.3 million residents.
The passage of Hurricane Ian had already put the system in difficult operational circumstances, according to Lazaro Guerra, technical director of Cuba’s Electricity Union. There is currently no power service available in any part of the country.
He promised that the union will work all night on Wednesday to quickly restore power.
Exhausted Cubans received an additional injury from the nationwide blackout. In the provincial capital’s main street, ice cream vendor Mayelin Suarez described the storm’s passage as “the darkest of her life.”Suarez said, her voice quivering, “We almost lost the roof off our house.
When the hurricane hit, there was a severe economic crisis in Cuba. Attempts to recover from Ian are probably going to be made more difficult by blackouts and persistent shortages of food, medication, and fuel.
