On Wednesday December 4th people in Cuba woke up to empty streets and darkness. 

The Antonio Guiteras power plant was experiencing a failure prior to Wednesday causing the grid to collapse in the morning. 

The country experienced similar power outages earlier this year in October. This time, however, the effects seem to be less impactful.

The government announced that many jobs and activities would be suspended during this period.

Cuba’s Minister of Labor and Social Security, Marta Elena Feito said to state media “This measure will remain in place for the duration of the crisis. Vital services will continue to function and there will be no salary impact,”

Residents are also facing the detrimental impacts of this collapse.

“I didn’t know it was a total blackout again,” Havana hotel worker Danielis Mora said. “Where I am living … there is no gas either, if there is no electricity there is no way to make food, it has to be with firewood or charcoal.” 

Due to previous government decisions it is said that sanctions from the US increased have caused the energy divisions to continuously face problems.

There are measures being taken to help get the power back to its full capacity such as micro grids and scheduled blackouts put in place by the Cuban government to save energy. These scheduled outages can even last over 12 hours a day in certain areas.

This incident has a large impact on people living in affected areas because it cuts their power sources and suspends their daily activities.

Officials were working to get the grid back up online but they forewarned that it would take some time as the facilities were from the soviet era.

Cuba has been affected by these power problems since October as there were many natural disasters such as hurricanes and earthquakes that have weakened the power grids and caused electricity issues.