Cuba’s entire electric system completely collapsed on Tuesday, after Hurricane Ian devastated the island with flooding and strong winds.
Over 11 million people were left without electricity late Tuesday, after Cuba’s fragile power grid failed to withstand the powerful winds and rain brought on by Hurricane Ian. The Soviet-era oil-fired generators were already succumbing to problems long before the storm, but the category 4 hurricane took out all three main regions of the island’s grid system, with the most amount of damage occurring in the west.
By Wednesday, Cuba’s National Electric System had restored some power to the eastern part of the island which was least ravaged by the storm. In the meantime, smaller, diesel-powered generators were brought into use as backup systems until crews are able to repair the country’s entire grid.
“Once generation is achieved in the three regions, they will all be able to be linked to the National Electric System, which will allow the largest amount of built-in load to be restored and all the service that has not been affected by Hurricane Ian will be restored,” said the National Electric System in a statement cited by Reuters. No timeline was given as to when that will happen, though.
Hurricane Ian, which by now has been upgraded to a dangerous category 4 hurricane, is currently about 125km southwest of Naples, Florida, and is expected to hit land south of Tampa Bay late Wednesday evening.
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