November 6, 2024 / 5:58 PM EST / CBS/AP

  Cuba was without power once again as strong winds from Hurricane Rafael
  disconnected the power across the island, the county's [1]electric
  company said, weeks after another nationwide blackout.

  The [2]Category 3 storm swirled past the Cayman Islands on its way
  toward western Cuba on Wednesday afternoon, making landfall in the
  province of Artemisa, just east of Playa Majana. The hurricane made
  landfall at 4:15 p.m. with maximum sustained winds near 115 mph, the
  National Hurricane Center said.

  Millions of Cubans [3]were without power in October, which prompted the
  government to implement emergency measures to slash demand, including
  suspending classes, shutting down some state-owned workplaces and
  canceling nonessential services. Cubans without power resorted to
  cooking with improvised wood stoves on the streets before the food went
  bad in refrigerators as they waited for the power to go back on.

  The outage was the latest in a series of problems with energy
  distribution in a country where electricity has been restricted and
  rotated to different regions at different times of the day. Various
  power installations in the country were damaged by Hurricane Ian
  leaving some homes without electricity for up to eight hours a day. The
  October blackout was considered to be Cuba's worst outage in two years
  and power authorities took days [4]to restore power for about 2 million
  people.
  Evacuation of people due to Hurricane Rafael in Cuba Emergency workers
  evacuate people from Batabana because of Hurricane Rafael's arrival
  Nov. 6 in Artemisa province, 53 kilometers away from Havana, Cuba.
  Yander Zamora/Anadolu via Getty Images

  The U.S. State Department issued an advisory for Cuba on Tuesday
  afternoon, offering departure flights to non-essential staff and
  American citizens, and advising others to "reconsider travel to Cuba
  due to the potential impact of Tropical Storm Rafael," before the storm
  grew 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's
  important to stay where you are." The day before, authorities said they
  had issued an evacuation order for 37,000 people in far eastern Cuba,
  in the province of Guantanamo, due to bad weather.

  Hurricane Rafael's path is expected to continue toward Florida and
  nearby areas of the southeast U.S. with heavy rainfall forecast. Storm
  surges are predicted, and surges could reach 1 to 3 feet in Dry
  Tortugas and 1 to 2 feet in the Lower Florida Keys.
  In:
    * [5]Cuba
    * [6]Hurricane

References

  1. https://x.com/OSDE_UNE/status/1854252013212844461
  2. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/hurricane-categories-what-the-ratings-scale-means/
  3. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cuba-blackout-power-outage-government-schools-workplaces-shutdown/
  4. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cuba-blackout-electricity-not-fully-restored-major-power-outage/
  5. https://www.cbsnews.com/tag/cuba/
  6. https://www.cbsnews.com/tag/hurricane/

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