Cuba without power as hurricane hits

Cuba faced nationwide blackouts on Wednesday as Hurricane Rafael brought winds of up to 185km/h (115mph) to the Caribbean island.

The country’s electricity company says strong winds caused the power outage.

At least 70,000 people were evacuated before the Category 3 storm hit Wednesday evening with warnings of tornadoes, flash floods and mudslides.

This happened just a few weeks ago, millions were left without electricity for four days following a power outage caused by problems with the deterioration of the electricity infrastructure in the country. This event also coincided with Hurricane Oscar, which it is they killed at least six people.

Rafael made landfall in the western province of Artemisa, near the capital Havana, at around 16:15 local time (21:15 GMT), the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.

A spokesman for the state-owned power company, Unión Eléctrica, said engineers would have to wait for the storm to pass over the island before assessing its impact on power plants and the grid in general.

At 22:00, Rafael had moved to the Gulf of Mexico and weakened to a second category storm, with maximum wind speed of 169km/h.

The NHC said the storm will continue to bring heavy rains to western Cuba until Thursday and that strong storms could endanger life.

Heavy rains are expected in the Cayman Islands, while a tropical storm warning is in effect for the Florida Keys.

Last month, about 10 million Cubans were left without power following a power outage caused by maintenance problems and lack of fuel to run power stations.

That outage also coincided with Hurricane Oscar, a Category 1 storm that left a trail of destruction along the island’s northeast coast.

The worst affected area is the eastern province of Guantánamo, where more than 1,000 homes were damaged by heavy rains and strong winds.