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Almost half of Cuba without power as blackouts deepen

More than half of Cuba was without power on Thursday night as fuel shortages and brokendown power plants left the government with little choice but to black out a huge swath of the Caribbean island country.

Cuba's National Electric Union reported it had run a deficit of nearly 1600 megawatts with a need approaching 3,200 MW around supper time on Thursday, leaving millions without lights, fans and a/c as night fell.

Parts of Havana saw intermittent blackouts throughout the day, but some provinces, including Pinar del Rio, a key farm and tobacco-growing area, were completely without light for part of the night.

The circumstance had actually improved by Friday morning, however authorities said in a daily report that nearly one-third of the island would be blacked out again as peak need approached later on in the day.

The current spike comes following months of hours-long blackouts throughout Cuba, as shabby oil-fired power plants, many years old, stop working repeatedly, and the bankrupt Communist-run federal government, saddled by U.S. sanctions, struggles to buy fuel on the global market.

A foreboding economic crisis, including alarming lacks of food, fuel and medication, have actually triggered a record-breaking exodus of Cubans from the island, additional deepening its woes.

(source: Reuters)