Millions of Cubans remain without electricity as the crisis worsens

The capital of nearly two million people appeared to be completely without electricity early Sunday, as many Cubans lined up to buy subsidized food and pondered the situation outside their homes.

State digital news channel CubaDebate reported that the country’s largest power plant, Antonio Guiteras, returned to operation this Sunday and would begin contributing to the restoration of service throughout the day.

A third power grid failure late Saturday marked a major setback in government efforts to quickly restore power to exhausted residents who were already suffering from severe shortages of food, medicine and fuel.

Meanwhile, Hurricane Oscar approaches northeastern Cuba early Sunday, threatening to further complicate the government’s plans to restore power.

Cuba’s national power grid went out for the first time around noon on Friday after the island’s largest power plant shut down, sowing chaos. The network collapsed again on Saturday morning, state media reported.

Early Saturday evening, authorities reported some progress in restoring power before announcing another partial grid collapse.