HAVANA: Cuba’s widespread blackouts stretched into their fourth day as Hurricane Oscar crossed the island’s eastern coast with winds and heavy rain. In Santo Suarez, part of a populous neighbourhood in Havana, people went into the streets banging pots and pans in protest. The protesters, who say they have no water either, blocked the street with garbage.
Energy minister Vicente de la O Levy said he hopes the electricity grid will be restored on Monday or Tuesday.But he said that Oscar, which made landfall on the eastern coast Sunday, will bring “an additional inconvenience” to Cuba’s recovery since it will touch a “region of strong (electricity) generation”. Key Cuban power plants, such as Felton in the city of Holguin, and Rente in Santiago de Cuba, are located in the area. Oscar later weakened to a tropical storm but its effects were forecast to linger through Monday. Some neighbourhoods had electricity restored in Cuba’s capital, where 2 million people live, but most of Havana remained dark. The impact hits services like water supply too as it depends on electricity to run pumps.