Cubans are rushing to liquefied gas sales points this Sunday to be able to cook in the coming days, before the Hurricane Oscar arrival forecastwhich will make landfall this evening in Cuba as the island experiences a national power outage that has left them in the dark since Friday.
In fact, the Cuban government suspended all “non-essential” state activitiesincluding schools, until Wednesday due to the massive power outage and the imminent arrival of the hurricane at its northeastern tip.
“Taking into account the imminent passage of Hurricane Oscar in our country and the subsequent recovery period, as well as the work undertaken to restore the national electricity system, it was decided to suspend non-essential administrative activities and activities educational, on the days Monday October 21, Tuesday October 22 and Wednesday October 23,” the Cuban government indicated in a press release.
It should land this afternoon in the provinces of Guantánamo and Holguín (Far East), according to information from the Institute of Meteorology (Insmet). The authorities have declared a cyclone alert for the region.
The Cuban government added that vital services for the population remain operational, including hospitals. Workers mobilized in these circumstances will receive “payment of their average salary” and those who do not report to work due to this suspension will receive “payment of a salary guarantee equivalent to the salary scale of the position they occupy “, notes the note. explain.
In addition, The Government hopes that the National Energy System (NES) will reach again on Tuesday the state it was in on Friday, when the total power outage occurred that has paralyzed the island ever since.
During a press conference for international media, the Minister of Energy and Mines, Vicente de la O Levy, assured that the Executive believes that the majority of consumers will have electricity again “tomorrow, Monday” and that “the last customer will perhaps be reception (current) next Tuesday.
The head of Energy and Mines added, however, that the problems of insufficient production from which the country has suffered for months, and which have worsened over the last six weeks due to the breakdowns of its obsolete Soviet-made power plants and the fuel deficit, would continue. . fruit of the lack of foreign currency to import it.
