Most of Havana, much of Cuba sees power restored after tropical storm, repeated grid failures

Cuba made rapid progress in restoring power to the Caribbean island nation on Tuesday, in Havana and in outlying provinces, as emergency workers and laborers struggled to reach areas devastated by Hurricane Oscar.

Oscar, which made landfall near Baracoa as a Category 1 hurricane, was downgraded to a tropical storm, but not before wreaking havoc across much of eastern Cuba, knocking down power lines, causing mudslides and raging rivers.

A powerful flood nearly wiped out the small town of San Antonio del Sur in that state early Monday, killing six people, including a young child, authorities said. On Tuesday, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel confirmed another death in the small town of Imias in the province of Guantanamo.

More than 25 centimeters of rain fell in many places, eating leaves, destroying banana plants and ending the region’s coveted coffee harvest.

Guantanamo districts were still cut off by raging rivers and mud-clogged roads, complicating efforts to restore electricity and leaving many without access to communications.

The grid has stabilized, authorities said

Cuban authorities said by mid-afternoon they had managed to restore electricity after several failures since Friday, when Cuba’s national power grid crashed for the first time before Oscar’s arrival, leaving 10 million people without power.

About 70 percent of Cuba had electricity on Tuesday, and officials said they expect more power plants to come online soon, increasing that number.

A grid operator in Cuba said 90 percent of its customers in the capital Havana, most of whom were unaffected by Oscar’s passing, saw their power restored by midday on Tuesday.

Cuba’s oil-fired oil fields, which are aging and struggling to keep the lights on, have reached a full-scale crisis this year as oil imports from Venezuela, Russia and Mexico dwindle, leading to a grid collapse last week.