Hurricane Rafael is knocking out power in Cuba, weeks after the country’s power outages

Cuba was without power as powerful winds from Hurricane Rafael knocked out power to the entire island, the region’s power company said, weeks after another power outage across the country.

I Category 3 storm turned past the Cayman Islands to the west of Cuba on Wednesday afternoon, arriving in the province of Artemisa, just east of Playa Majana. The storm made landfall at 4:15 p.m. with maximum sustained winds near 115 mph, the National Hurricane Center said.

Millions of Cubans they had no power in Octoberprompting the government to implement emergency measures to reduce demand, including suspending classes, closing some government offices and canceling non-essential services. Cubans without power resorted to cooking on improvised wood stoves in the streets before food spoiled in refrigerators as they waited for power to return.

The blackout was the latest in a series of power distribution problems in the country where electricity is restricted and rotated to different areas at different times of the day. Various electrical installations in the country were destroyed by storm Ian which left some households without electricity for up to eight hours a day. The October blackout was considered Cuba’s worst outage in two years and power authorities took days to restore power for about two million people.

The US State Department issued an advisory for Cuba on Tuesday afternoon, offering flights from non-essential workers and US citizens, and advising others to “reconsider travel to Cuba due to the potential impact of Tropical Storm Rafael,” before the storm grows into a hurricane.

On Tuesday morning, the Cuban Civil Defense called on Cubans to prepare as soon as possible, because when the storm makes landfall “it is important to stay where you are.” The previous day, authorities said they had issued an order to evacuate 37,000 people in eastern Cuba, Guantanamo province, due to bad weather.

Hurricane Rafael’s track is expected to continue toward Florida and the adjacent southeastern US with heavy rainfall forecast. Storm surge is forecast, and storm surges could reach 1 to 3 feet in the Dry Tortugas and 1 to 2 feet in the Lower Florida Keys.