About half of Cuba was plunged into darkness on Thursday evening, followed by the entire island on Friday morning after the failure of the Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric plant in Matanzas Province east of Havana.

HAVANA, Oct 21, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - Hurricane Oscar made landfall on Sunday evening in Cuba, where residents were preparing for more chaos and misery as the country grapples with a nearly nationwide power outage in its third day.

Fidel Castro once called Cuba’s power plants “prehistoric.” But the country still relies on them, contributing to the longest blackout since the collapse of its former patron, the Soviet Union.

Cuba’s government says some electricity has been restored on the island after one of the country’s major power plants failed and left millions without electricity in an outage that started two days earlier.

A hurricane was approaching Cuba Sunday as the island nation's authorities struggled to restore power following a massive nationwide outage. The expected arrival of Hurricane Oscar, just days after the failure of Cuba's largest power plant crippled the national grid,

The Cuban government had just announced emergency measures to reduce electricity use — then the power went out across the entire nation.

Hurricane Oscar has made landfall in eastern Cuba, packing winds of nearly 80mph (130km/h) on the third day of a nearly nationwide power outage.

The power outage is happening against the backdrop of Hurricane Oscar, which is anticipated to make landfall in eastern Cuba later on Sunday, bringing damaging and high surf. It made landfall in the Bahamas early Sunday with sustained winds of 80 mph.

Residents pass the time during a massive blackout after a major power plant failed in Havana, Cuba, Friday, Oct. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa) A man looks at his phone during a massive blackout after a major power plant failed in Havana,

HAVANA (TNND) — Cuba was in total darkness Friday after a reported failure at hermoelectric power plant. "From the highest leadership of the country we are working to resolve this energy contingency as soon as possible. We will not rest until it is restored," Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz said on X.

Millions of Cubans awoke on Sunday to find their homes still without power after another partial grid failure overnight, deepening a crisis that has raised questions over the viability of the government's efforts to reestablish electrical service.