A view of the city at dawn on the fourth day of a massive power outage in Havana on October 21, 2024, was captured by AFP.

Hurricane Oscar claimed six lives after striking Cuba over the weekend, causing a significant power blackout, authorities reported on Monday. By then, electricity had been restored to most parts of the capital. The entire grid of the Communist-run country, home to 10 million people, collapsed on Friday following the failure of the nation's largest power plant. By Monday afternoon, nearly 90 percent of Havana's two million residents had their power back, according to a report from the capital's electricity company published on state-run news portal Cubadebate.

"Of course I'm happy!" exclaimed Olga Gomez, a 59-year-old housewife in Havana, upon the return of electricity. "I have an 85-year-old senile mother and an autistic son. It's very difficult when there's no power," she told AFP. However, many residents outside Havana were still without electricity, according to authorities.

Cuba remained in darkness on Sunday when Hurricane Oscar made landfall in the eastern part of the country as a Category 1 storm, leading to several fatalities and extensive damage. "Regrettably, according to preliminary information, six lives have been lost," President Miguel Diaz-Canel stated in a televised address. The storm caused severe damage in the eastern province of Guantanamo.

Oscar weakened into a tropical storm as it moved inland but was still expected to cause "significant, life-threatening flash flooding along with mudslides," warned the US National Hurricane Center. State television reported damaged roofs and walls of houses, as well as fallen electricity poles and trees.

With concerns of instability rising in a country already grappling with sky-high inflation and shortages of food, medicine, fuel, and water, Diaz-Canel warned that his government would not tolerate attempts to "disturb public order." In July 2021, blackouts sparked unprecedented public anger, with thousands of Cubans taking to the streets chanting "Freedom!" and "We are hungry."

Residents expressed frustration over the latest power outage, which crippled businesses and led to food spoilage. "I feel like crying, like screaming. Honestly, I don't know what I'm going to do," said Kenia Sierra, a housewife. Dozens of people took to the streets over the weekend in one neighborhood, banging pots and pans and shouting "Turn on the lights."

The power grid failed in a chain reaction on Friday due to the unexpected shutdown of the largest of the island's eight decrepit coal-fired power plants, according to Lazaro Guerra, the head of electricity supply at the energy ministry. Power was briefly restored to a few hundred thousand inhabitants on Sunday before the grid failed again, according to the national electric utility UNE.

Authorities have suspended classes and business activities until Wednesday, with only hospitals and essential services remaining operational. Cuba generates only a third of the electricity it needs, so to bolster the grid, it has leased seven floating power plants from Turkish companies and added many small diesel-powered generators. The country's main power plant was due to be reconnected to the national grid on Monday.

Diaz-Canel attributed the situation to Cuba's difficulties in acquiring fuel for its power plants, which he linked to the tightening of a six-decade-long US trade embargo during Donald Trump's presidency. However, the island is experiencing a broader economic malaise, described by experts as the worst economic crisis since the collapse of the Soviet Union, which heavily subsidized Cuba.

"Cubans are tired of so much... There's no life here, (people) can't take it anymore," said Serguei Castillo, a 68-year-old bricklayer.

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