Cuba issued a hurricane warning for its northern coast regarding Hurricane Oscar, which is forecast to make landfall in Cuba on Sunday night, the United States National Hurricane Center (NHC) said on Saturday.
The warning was for the provinces of Holguin and Guantanamo, according to the latest NHC advisory.
The government of the Bahamas has also issued a warning for Oscar, which formed east of the Turks and Caicos Islands, the NHC said in an earlier advisory on Saturday.
A hurricane warning was also in effect for the Turks and Caicos Islands.
Heavy rainfall from Oscar will lead to flash flooding along with potential mudslides across portions of eastern Cuba, especially within the Sierra Maestra mountain range, the latest advisory said.
Hurricane Oscar is also expected to produce a dangerous storm surge for portions of the Turks and Caicos Islands and the southeastern Bahamas on Saturday night, and along the north shore of Cuba later on Sunday, according to the NHC.
Power outage in Cuba
The hurricane warning for Cuba on Saturday came as its government announced that it had restored power to nearly one-fifth of the island’s people after the national grid collapsed twice in 24 hours, plunging millions of people into darkness.
The unprecedented nationwide blackout is the latest blow in the nation of 10 million, already suffering from dramatic shortages of food, medicine and fuel.
However, the capital Havana was still largely in the dark on Saturday evening.
Strong winds and rain began to buffet much of the Caribbean island ahead of the arrival of Hurricane Oscar, capping a dramatic series of events in Cuba over several days that has raised tensions among the island’s already exhausted residents.
Cuba’s electrical grid first failed around midday on Friday after one of the island’s largest power plants shut down. The grid collapsed again on Saturday morning, Cuban media reported.
The government has blamed weeks of worsening blackouts — as long as 10 to 20 hours a day — on deteriorating infrastructure, fuel shortages and rising demand.
Strong winds that began with Hurricane Milton last week had also complicated Cuba’s ability to deliver scarce fuel from boats offshore to feed its power plants, officials have said.
Cuba also blames the US trade embargo, as well as sanctions instituted by then-President Donald Trump, for ongoing difficulties in acquiring fuel and spare parts to operate and maintain its oil-fired plants.
