Cuba Plunged into Darkness: Widespread Blackout Affects 10 Million Amid Sweltering Heat

Cuba is grappling with a severe nationwide blackout that has plunged nearly 10 million people into darkness and stifling heat. The power grid failed on Thursday, leaving most of the population struggling to cope with temperatures nearing 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) and high humidity. This is the third such outage this year and the eighth since October, highlighting a deepening energy crisis.

The Cuban Electric Union confirmed the nationwide power supply had been cut. By Thursday afternoon, authorities had managed to restore only about 1% of the electricity demand in the capital, Havana, according to Reuters. The situation is dire, with the power grid already strained before the complete collapse, as two-thirds of the country was reportedly without power even before the full outage.

Residents are facing immense hardship. "It's hard to work, let alone sleep, in this heat without electricity. We are just enduring it," one Havana resident told Reuters. In Santiago de Cuba, the country's second-largest city, the blackout is compounded by a gas supply cut, forcing residents to cook with charcoal and firewood, as reported by The New York Times. The ongoing economic crisis, exacerbated by long-standing U.S. sanctions, has left the island nation vulnerable to such infrastructure failures.

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It's hard to work, let alone sleep, in this heat without electricity. We are just enduring it.