Hurricane Rafael triggers nationwide blackout in Cuba

Hurricane Rafael knocked out power to all of Cuba on Wednesday as it slammed through the cash-strapped island, which was still reeling from a recent blackout and a previous deadly storm.

Rafael strengthened to a major Category 3 hurricane as it made landfall on the Caribbean island of 10 million people.

It hit in western Artemisa province, east of Playa Majana beach, at about 2115 GMT, according to the US National Hurricane Center (NHC).

The agency said Rafael swept across the island in two and a half hours before losing intensity as it entered the Gulf of Mexico.

US meteorologists had warned of "a life-threatening storm surge" and flash flooding.

The Union Electrica national power company blamed "strong winds" caused by Rafael for "the shutdown of the national electricity system," in a post on X.

Nine of Cuba's 15 provinces, including Havana, were placed on storm alert.

In Candalaria, a town hard hit in Artemisa province, gusting winds took down tree branches and debris littered the streets.

More than 70,000 people were evacuated from their homes in Artemisa and neighboring Pinar del Rio province on the island's westernmost tip.

In Havana, home to two million people, the streets were nearly empty: businesses were closed, several gas stations had their fuel pumps removed and transport services were halted.

"I am desperate, I am homeless, the roof is gone and I don't know what I'm going to do," Marta Leon Castro, 57, told AFP. At least five families in her neighborhood had lost all of part of their roofs.

The state newspaper Granma said airports in the western part of the country, including in Havana and the resort town of Varadero, had been temporarily shut as a result of the storm.

A tropical storm warning is in effect in the Florida Keys.

The storm piled fresh misery on Cuba just two weeks after the island was left without power for four days due to the failure of its biggest power plant and a shortage of fuel to produce electricity.

Cuba has for months been suffering hours-long power cuts -- a manifestation of the worst economic crisis since the fall of the Soviet Union, a key ally and financial backer, in the early 1990s.

Last month's blackout, which took several days to fix, coincided with the passage of Hurricane Oscar, which killed eight people in the country.

The office of Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel said Tuesday that it was mobilizing the military to help respond to the storm.

"We have activated the National Defense Council to provide the maximum attention to the passage of Hurricane Rafael," Diaz-Canel said in a post on X.

"Measures have been taken in each place to protect our people and material resources. As we have always done since the revolution, we will overcome this situation."

Ahead of the storm, state television showed workers clearing drains, collecting garbage and cutting back trees.

In the village of Alquizar, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) southwest of Havana, Liset Herrera, 57, said Wednesday she had been unable to follow the news about Rafael "because there is no electricity."

Further south, in the coastal village of Ganimar, Marisol Valle, a 63-year-old farmer, came home briefly to collect some belongings before the water reached her home near the sea.

"There didn't appear to be a soul left" after the villagers had been evacuated, she said.