HAVANA: A blackout left millions of people without power in Havana and the rest of western Cuba on Wednesday in the latest outage on an island struggling with dwindling oil reserves and a crumbling electric grid.
Government radio station Radio Rebelde quoted an energy official as saying that it could take at least 72 hours to restore operations at one of Cuba's largest thermoelectric power plants, where a shutdown sparked the outage.
The government's electric utility said on social platform X that the outage affected people from the western town of Pinar del Rio to the central town of Camaguey.
Energy and Mines Minister Vicente de la O Levy wrote on X late Wednesday that the government was powering critical infrastructure in the affected region as two power plants came online. Such infrastructure includes hospitals and medical clinics.
"We are working to restore the National Electric System amid a complex energy situation," he wrote earlier on X.
The US Embassy warned people to "prepare for significant disruptions" and conserve fuel, water, food and mobile phone batteries.
"Cuba's national power grid is increasingly unreliable, and scheduled and unscheduled power outages are prolonged and a daily occurrence across the country, including Havana," it said on X.
'We'll have to eat bread again'
By late afternoon, the government said crews had restored power to 2.5% of Havana, or some 21,100 customers, noting that efforts were gradual and tied to what the system's conditions would allow. It did not provide updated numbers by late Wednesday night.
"We trust in the experience and effort of the electrical workers to overcome this situation in the shortest possible time," Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz wrote on X.
As night fell, people across Havana lingered on doorsteps and used wood or charcoal to prepare "caldosas," a popular soup shared among neighbors who contribute items including vegetables, chicken and meat. A group of musicians along the city's famed seawall played into the night.
Others played dominoes by a rechargeable lightbulb.
"With the power outages, this is the only thing we young people have to distract ourselves," Jeferson Silvera said.
Daily, prolonged outages have become so common in Cuba that 66-year-old Genoveva Torres was waiting for power to return at night as usual to cook dinner. She was perturbed when told about the massive blackout.
"My God, until when?" she exclaimed.
"Then we won't eat. We'll have to eat bread again."
State media reported that the outage was caused by a shutdown of the Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric power plant east of Havana following a leak in its boiler.
Radio Rebelde quoted the plant's technical director Román Pérez Castañeda as saying that crews must first locate the fault before repairing it and restarting the unit.
Pérez Castañeda said that a pipe burst in the boiler, causing a water leak and subsequent fire that was extinguished without major damage, according to Radio Rebelde.
The outage caught 63-year-old Odalis Sánchez out on the street with her grandson. She was unable to walk because of a recent operation, so she called someone for a ride home.
Some 200 people waited at a bus stop near her, but buses were not running given a lack of fuel, so they tried to get a ride via any means available, including hitchhiking.
"I need to be able to get home to see what I can do," Sánchez said. "Without power, you can't do anything. My grandson also is studying and I have to make him food. Public transportation isn't helping."
'We have to move forward'
It is the second such outage to affect western Cuba in three months.
The outage in early December lasted nearly 12 hours. Officials said a fault in a transmission line linking two power plants caused an overload and led to the collapse of the energy system's western sector.
Authorities have noted that some thermoelectric plants have been operating for over 30 years and receive little maintenance given the high cost. US sanctions also have prevented the government from buying new equipment and specialized parts, officials say.
Cuba also is struggling with dwindling oil reserves after the US attacked Venezuela in early January, which halted critical petroleum shipments from the South America country.
Later that month, US President Donald Trump threatened to impose tariffs on any country that would sell or supply Cuba with oil.
Ernesto Couto Martínez, 76, was trying to find a ride home and said he would confront the latest outage "with the spirit that all Cubans have."
"We must keep fighting. There's no other way," he said. "We have to move forward, blockade or no blockade."
Last month, Cuba's government implemented austere fuel-saving measures and warned that jet fuel wouldn't be available at nine airports until mid-March.
Prior to the attack on Venezuela, the island already was struggling with a crumbling electric grid, generation deficits and interruptions in fuel supplies.