Electricity outages have paralyzed an already-crippled economy, leading to shortages of everything from cash to running water; ‘it’s just like a war economy’
Millions of Cubans have been without electricity for days as the government struggled to restore nationwide power service after a massive blackout plunged the country into darkness on Friday. Then Hurricane Oscar hit the eastern tip of the island on Sunday.
The collapse of Cuba’s aging power grid has paralyzed an already-crippled economy, with rolling outages affecting everything from running water to the operation of banks, ATMs or debit-card terminals, sparking severe shortages of cash and halting distribution of basic goods and services such as drinking water, residents say.
Millions of Cuban households are seeing their food spoil because of a lack of refrigeration, and people can’t use air conditioning, fans or electric stoves on the tropical island. Cooking gas is also scarce.
In some impoverished districts of the capital Havana, residents are resorting to cooking with coal or firewood on streets and sidewalks. Driving is risky because traffic lights don’t work, residents say. Public transport has also been severely affected because of fuel shortages.
“It’s just like a war economy,” said Clemente Morgado, an Havana resident whose house was without electricity for more than 30 hours. Elsewhere in the city people have gone more than two days without power. At night, many of them have been banging pots in protest, residents say.
The government on Friday declared a state of emergency and halted all nonvital services. It ordered the closure of schools and universities, bars and nightclubs and nonessential workplaces. Hospitals and food-processing centers were permitted to operate, while most state workers were sent home. Authorities required the setup of worker brigades to protect government facilities and prevent looting.
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