Cubans Sleep on Havana Malecón During 6th Nationwide Blackout as Heat Index Hits 106F
Updated
Updated · The Associated Press · Aug 3
Cubans Sleep on Havana Malecón During 6th Nationwide Blackout as Heat Index Hits 106F
3 articles · Updated · The Associated Press · Aug 3
Summary
Sunday night’s nationwide outage — Cuba’s sixth since January — drove Havana residents onto the Malecón, where many slept on concrete to catch an ocean breeze.
Temperatures reached 93F and felt like 106F with 80% humidity, turning repeated blackouts into overnight ordeals as much of the island still lacked power Monday.
Rolling outages now last more than 20 hours a day, after two grid collapses in March and three in July plus partial failures across western cities including Havana and Matanzas.
The power crisis has compounded shortages of fuel and basic goods, crippled transport and tourism, strained hospitals and deepened hopelessness in a country already hit by tighter U.S. pressure on oil supplies.