Cuba was plunged into a nationwide blackout Friday after the island's biggest power plant failed, the energy ministry said, coming on the heels of weeks of extended outages across the cash-strapped country. The capital Havana came to a virtual standstill as schools closed, public transport ground to a halt and traffic lights stopped functioning. The head of electricity supply at the energy ministry, Lazara Guerra, announced the unexpected shutdown of the Antonio Guiteras power plant, the biggest of the island's eight decrepit coal-fired power plants.
"The system collapsed," he told state media, adding the government was working to restore service as soon as possible to communist Cuba's 11 million inhabitants. The blackout followed weeks of power outages, lasting up to 20 hours a day in some provinces, which prompted Prime Minister Manuel Marrero on Thursday to declare an "energy emergency." The government on Thursday suspended all non-essential public services in order to prioritize electricity supply to homes.
Schools across the country have now been closed until Monday. Authorities in Havana said hospitals and other essential facilities, which are powered by generators, would remain open. "This is crazy," Eloy Fon, an 80-year-old retiree living in central Havana, told AFP.
"It shows the fragility of our electricity system...
We have no reserves, there is nothing to sustain the country, we are living day-to-day." Barbara Lopez, a 47-year-old digital content creator, fumed th.
