Frustrated locals left without electricity as Cuba’s power grid collapses for third time this month скачать в хорошем качестве

Frustrated locals left without electricity as Cuba’s power grid collapses for third time this month

(22 Mar 2026) RESTRICTION SUMMARY: ASSOCIATED PRESS Havana - 22 March 2026 ++NIGHT SHOTS++ 1. Women collecting water in jerrycans from public tap on sidewalk in the dark 2. Cars driving by with street lights out 3. Woman using flashlight as she enters house 4. People walking in street with street lights out 5. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Alberto Alfredo Díaz, local resident: “I’m here to pick up some food. I couldn’t finish cooking because the power went out. We ran out of charcoal, and there wasn’t enough left for me. We’re sick of this game (the power outages), really sick of it.” 6. Various of people in street with street lights out 7. Local resident, Suleydi Crespo, sitting on sidewalk holding her daughter 8. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Suleydi Crespo, local resident: “Because of the blackout and the low voltage my refrigerator broke down; that was today. The day before yesterday, the voltage also dropped around 10 p.m., and the power wasn’t restored until 3 a.m. We couldn’t get water. Today, we haven’t been able to get water without power. If there's no power tomorrow, we won't be able to get any water.” 9. Various of coffee seller Dagnay Alarcon 10. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Dagnay Alarcon, coffee seller: “We have to get used to it and stick to our routine. What else can we do? We have to try to get by. We have to adapt to the situation, with or without power.” 11. Car driving down street with street lights out STORYLINE: Residents expressed their frustration as Cuba’s power grid collapsed Saturday, leaving the country without electricity for a third time in March. The outage comes as the communist government battles with a decaying infrastructure and a U.S.-imposed oil blockade. "We’re sick of this game, really sick of it," said Havana resident Alberto Alfredo Díaz as he walked down the dark streets of the capital on his way to his mother’s house to see if she had any spare food. “I couldn’t finish cooking because the power went out. We ran out of charcoal, and there wasn’t enough left for me," he said. The Cuban Electric Union, which reports to the Ministry of Energy and Mines, announced a total blackout across the island without initially giving a cause for the outage. The union later said the blackout was caused by an unexpected failure of a generating unit at the Nuevitas thermoelectric plant in Camagüey province. “From that moment, a cascading effect occurred in the machines that were online,” said a report from the Ministry of Energy and Mines, which activated “micro-islands” of generating units to provide power to vital centers, hospitals and water systems. Authorities said they were working to restore power. "We have to get used to it and stick to our routine. What else can we do," said another local Dagnay Alarcon. "We have to try to get by. We have to adapt to the situation, with or without power.” Power outages, whether nationwide or regional, have become relatively common in the last two years due to breakdowns in the aging infrastructure. The breakdowns are compounded by daily blackouts of up to 12 hours caused by fuel shortages, which also destabilize the system. The last nationwide blackout occurred on Monday. Saturday's outage was the second in the past week and the third in March. The blackouts have a significant impact on the population, whose lives are disrupted by reduced work hours, lack of electricity for cooking and food spoilage when refrigerators stop working, among many other consequences. In some cases, hospitals have canceled surgeries. Cuba produces barely 40% of the fuel it needs to power its economy. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...