48 hours of relentless rain, 70 hours without electricity, and over 90 hours without water supply.
These are the most important figures in Cuba right now.
You may have seen some headlines in your country’s news. The reality is that around 11 AM local time, the country’s most powerful thermoelectric plant suffered an unexpected breakdown. This situation caused the rest of the electrical system to go out of sync, plunging the entire country into darkness.
That’s when the problems began.
Friday, 18th
At 11 AM, the electricity completely went out, but so did communications. At that moment, no one knew what was happening. Everyone thought it was just another blackout, like the ones they had been experiencing.
It could have been the end of the world, an attack on Cuba, or anything; no one could guess. It wasn’t until the evening, through landlines, from other people, or in areas with very low coverage, that Cubans began to learn: the ENTIRE country had gone dark.
In my house, we found out through a neighbor who has a landline (yes!, in Cuba, this technology is still predominant ). A friend from Matanzas (where the largest thermoelectric plant in the country is located) told her what had happened.
The Cuban electrical system had collapsed.
Just hearing it, Cubans knew that this breakdown was the largest in recent history and that finding a solution wouldn’t be easy. —Dark hours were ahead—
The weather wasn’t helping either; the western part of the country had been battered by a trough for over 24 hours; many streets in the capital were already flooded (I’ll talk about this in another post), and the east would be impacted by Hurricane Oscar.
The sun would set, and hope would fade; the situation was not normal.
Saturday, 19th
The country woke up without power, frozen in time, and the capital remained underwater.
Most of us already knew what was happening (bad news travels fast). There was no hope for a quick recovery.
In Cuba, the electrical system is based on several technologies, with the main generation coming from thermoelectric plants and some fuel engines strategically located across the island. Of course, renewable energies contribute very little. Adding to this, the system has been in continuous operation for 63 years with minimal investment and maintenance—a perfect recipe for collapse.
The little information available indicated that recovery would take at least 72 hours.
As I’ve mentioned before, my father was in the airforce, so we had some reserves of water and food (he has everything was planned). However, refrigerators and supplies have limits, and in Cuba, life is too expensive to waste food, and buying it daily is a hard blow to the wallet.
We still had no stable internet connection, and cellphone service was very intermittent.
Although in more central areas of the city, neighbors took the opportunity to go to hotels, and some charged their devices, while others managed to contact their families abroad, but everything was very limited.
No headline on international tv could reflect the reality being experienced. It was hell!
On my street, some neighbors began to throw away food (the blackouts had been intermittent for days prior)
When night came, some areas of the country, and to a lesser extent the capital, began to receive electricity. The thermoelectric plants started to synchronize, and the official media kept encouraging everyone.
The reality: Urgent help was expected from some Chinese experts, who would work together with Cuban specialists to find a solution. In Cuba, no one knew what was happening or how to fix it.
Sunday, 20th
In my house, we still hadn’t received a single minute of electricity. The most anyone had received was just six hours or less.
Many households were cooking only the essentials, and water was being conserved as much as possible. The only public system still functioning was public transportation (the worst of all )
If I told you we had already played every board game you could think of, that would be an understatement.
The hours dragged on.
Fortunately, the weather had improved. Many places continued without electrical service, surpassing 48 hours without regular power.
The situation was so dire that official channels announced classes and work would be suspended until Wednesday (meaning Cuba would be completely at a standstill for nearly a week).
In the afternoon of that day, with half the battery left on my laptop, I began writing this article. My cellphone remained in airplane mode, and I only connected it to check in with my grandparents and see how they were doing.
By the afternoon, they tried to synchronize the system, and for the third time , there was a widespread blackout. From West to East, the country was plunged into darkness again.
Another night without power.
During this day and the previous one, in some areas of the country, especially the capital, people took to the streets to protest the situation. The "president" labeled them as drunks, but they were merely individuals who had lost the little food they had in their refrigerators, the meager supplies they could buy on their low salaries, and what family members abroad had sent to help those who stayed behind. They protested not for a few beers but for survival.
It doesn’t seem like these events will cease, and that’s more than understandable. There are places where there hasn’t been a water supply for over ten days, and with 72 hours of blackout, little is happening.
The 20th was Cuban Culture Day , but the country had nothing to celebrate; there was no electricity to rejoice in, nor food to eat. Today, Cuba hurts 💔
Monday, 21st
In the early morning, many areas of the capital began receiving electricity.
In my house, power would arrive around noon, meaning 73 hours without electrical service. Still, we were "privileged," as by four in the afternoon, many areas of the capital still had no power.
The East, which was being battered by a hurricane, was once again in the dark because the system in that area would trip again. In the Center, conditions were a bit more stable due to having the largest thermoelectric plant in the country. In the West (where I live), the situation has been relatively stable, but across the island, we all share the same fear: when will it go out again?
The solution, more than 72 hours later , remains absent, and many say the country will remain at a standstill until Friday.
The sound of pots and pans continues to echo at night across almost the entire country. Hopefully, a solution appears soon and tensions ease. Although this is unsustainable, and it doesn’t seem like this will be the last time, so some measures need to be taken.
This is the reality of what has been happening in Cuba, told by an ordinary Cuban. This isn't a political post, is just informative and a bit of shit photographies of these hard days (damn! I really love this community 😅)
You may have noticed that content creators from Cuba have slowed down our posting rhythm, and we had no other option.
That’s why the title: we don’t know when things will return to normal; for now, we are here. I really wanted to publish, but I couldn’t keep up the pace of postings without addressing the reality of the disconnection Cuba experienced.
Right now, the greatest pain is seeing my country halted, disconnected, and, above all, without hope.
I saw this phrase online:
"We used to want a future in this country; now we don’t know if we’ll have a country without a future."
Let me know if you heard about the situation in Cuba and how it was reported in your country?
If you’re Cuban, please leave a comment with your experience from these days; the commentrewarder
I hope you enjoyed this brief reading.
THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO WROTE ME AND SHOWED CONCERN FOR MY SITUATION. THANK YOU ❤️
The situation isn't over, but my family and I are doing Ok, I hope that each of the Cuban hivers are as better as possible, please leave your comment if you read this.
All photos are mine.
[dahpilot]
