Power blackout in Cuba
A chronicle from central Havana
A problem in the Antonio Guiteras generating plant in the province of Matanzas caused a collapse of the Cuban national electricity system. The event occurred at 11:00 a.m. on Friday, October 18.
Life during the power outage
In our small apartment in central Havana, we lost electricity at precisely the moment of the event in Matanzas. I was working on my laptop, which I generally use for writing and internet connectivity. Its battery charge lasted for four hours, so without laptop or connectivity, and not able to tolerate idleness, I turned to rereading the chapters on William Jennings Bryan, Theodore Roosevelt, and Woodrow Wilson in Richard Hofstadter’s The American Political Tradition.
At the time of the electricity failure, our building was low on water. The person responsible for turning on the pump that sends water from the basement cistern to the building and apartment water tanks did not fulfill this task at 8:30 or 9:00 a.m., as is expected. So water for the d…