Cuba's power grid collapsed four times in as many days in late October as Hurricane Oscar approached the island nation.
What's happening?
Millions of Cubans struggled without power during Hurricane Oscar. Some children in the capital city of Havana had to sleep outside to avoid the oppressive heat in their homes.
Oscar made landfall along Cuba's eastern coast near Baracoa as a Category 1 storm with maximum sustained winds of 80 mph. The province of Guantanamo in eastern Cuba received at least 10 inches of rain from the storm.
During the several power outages Cuba endured, at one point or another, most of the nearly 11 million people there had their power interrupted, making it difficult to keep food fresh and have access to a safe water supply.
"We have been paralyzing economic activity to generate (power) to the population," said Manuel Marrero Cruz, the Cuban Prime Minister on X, per CNN.
Why are power outages in Cuba important?
Our overheating planet is making many extreme weather events more frequent and intense. Extreme weather puts a strain on energy infrastructure. Cuba, the U.S., and other countries are dealing with the ramifications when that stress causes power outages.
Last year, the United States set a record for billion-dollar weather and climate disasters. There were 28 in 2023, smashing the previous record of 22 set in 2020. This year is on pace to break last year's record, with 24 confirmed billion-dollar weather and climate disasters as of November 1.
According to a study by Climate Central, 80% of all major U.S. power outages from 2000 to 2023 were caused by weather. The study found that the U.S. experienced around two times more weather-related outages during the past 10 years (2014-2023) than during the first 10 years analyzed (2000-2009).
Outages impact everyone. The loss of heating, air conditioning, and refrigeration can be deadly.
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Those who rely on electricity for critical medical equipment, people with disabilities, and others with certain health conditions are particularly vulnerable.
Hurricane Oscar contributed to Cuba's most recent power outages, but other factors put the country at risk of losing power. Cuban officials point to their energy crisis, increased U.S. economic sanctions, and aging and depleted infrastructure as additional causes of their energy crisis.
What's being done about a rising risk of power outages?
Innovations in microgrids, small-scale independent power systems that can be easily powered by renewable energy sources like solar and wind power, are part of the solution. Shifting away from dirty energy sources toward cleaner, renewable options can relieve the strain on aging power grids and reduce carbon pollution that warms our world and makes certain types of extreme weather more likely.
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