Cuba exceeded 12 noon this Wednesday in total blackout, with “zero electricity generation”, due to failures in the links of the National Electric System (SEN), after the passage of the powerful hurricane Ian, which also left 2 dead and extensive damage.
“Not a drop of water has fallen and since 5:20 (9:20 p.m. GMT on Tuesday) there is no current,” Chelita Delgado, a 52-year-old housewife living in the eastern province of Granma, told AFP by telephone, where they did not feel the attacks of Ian, a category 3 hurricane that punished the west of the country on Tuesday.
(Also read: Hurricane Ian, close to reaching category 5 as it approaches the Florida coast)
In Cuba, with 11.2 million inhabitants, Frequent and prolonged blackouts have been recorded since May due to lack of electricity generation, but none national in scope.
The state-owned National Electric Union, the only service operator in the country, announced Tuesday night that the SEN was “with 0 electricity generation, without electricity service in the country,” a condition associated with “weather effects.”
“The fault (which) is given in the western, central and eastern links, will be restored gradually between tonight and early tomorrow morning (Wednesday),” he added.
(You may be interested in: Hurricane Ian: the areas of Florida that are most threatened)
In some cities brief reconnections of the service were registered this Wednesday.
On the Isle of Youth, 340 km south of Havana, and the first territory punished by Ian, “we have had electricity since yesterday at five in the afternoon,” Roxana González, a 75-year-old housewife, told AFP by phone.
This island has its own generation and does not depend on the SEN, which links eight large thermoelectric plants and generator set batteries, all powered by fossil fuels.
Even so, its obsolete technologies and lack of maintenance have caused frequent and long blackouts on the island since May.
(You can read: Hurricane Ian strengthens and reaches category 4, ‘extremely dangerous’)
In a morning tour of a darkened Havana, AFP observed that the Turkish floating generator anchored in the bay had its chimneys turned off, just like the old and small Tallapiedra thermoelectric plant, which only works in times of emergency.
“They took the light from us since yesterday at 6 in the afternoon (10:00 p.m. GMT) and we don’t know when they are going to turn it on,” Alejandro Pérez, a 35-year-old farmer, said by telephone from eastern Santiago de Cuba.
Ian, which hit Pinar del Río in the early hours of Tuesday, left two dead and much destruction in that province in western Cuba, and in Havana it caused five total collapses and 68 partial collapses of residential buildings.
AFP
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