Hurricane Oscar: Record Power Outages and Civil Unrest In Cuba
- Nora Clark
- Oct 30, 2024
- 2 min read
Hurricane Information
Hurricane Oscar first landed on Great Inagua Island in the Bahamas Sunday, October 20. On Sunday evening, it made landfall in eastern Cuba, specifically in the coastal city of Baracoa, in the province of Guantanamo. It landed as a Category 1 hurricane, with sustained winds of 75 mph and has since weakened into a tropical storm. There have been six known casualties so far, and the rainfall has surpassed 15 inches in some areas. The severe rainfall has led to flooding and mudslides, which has damaged homes and crop fields. The mudslides have been concentrated mostly in the Sierra Maestra mountain range.
Image courtesy of the National Hurricane Center
Power Outages and Civil Unrest
On October 17, Cuba’s nationwide power grid experienced its longest total outage in history. This was due to the failure of one of Cuba’s major power plants, the Antonio Guiteras plant. The initial collapse left 10 million residents without power. The following Saturday, October 19, the plant went offline, subsequently causing Cuba’s power grid to fail again. Reportedly, the grid had already collapsed 4 times before Hurricane Oscar made its landfall on Sunday. The hurricane has exacerbated the issues caused by the power outages, creating food, fuel and medicine scarcity. This has led to unrest in the Cuban population. Cuba’s communist government has led to a broad economic decline for the country, and many Cuban citizens are fed up. After the blackouts and the hurricane, there have been protests across the nation. The most notable have been in Havana, where citizens have taken to the street with pots and pans to chant, expressing frustration about the power outages. The president of Cuba has addressed the nation, asking citizens to express their frustrations in a peaceful manner and warning against vandalism. He maintained the government’s dedication to restoring power and public order.
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