A small town in far eastern Cuba was recovering Tuesday from flooding that killed at least six people after Oscar crossed the island’s eastern coast as a tropical storm with winds and heavy rain.Cuba's capital was partially illuminated after a large-scale blackout generated a handful of protests and a stern government warning that any unrest would be punished.

The repeated failure of the power grid and a hurricane that has swamped the island’s eastern end has many Cubans fed up, posing a challenge to the Communist government.

Electricity outages have paralyzed an already-crippled economy, leading to shortages of everything from cash to running water.

Seventy percent of Cuba's population has power again as the island recovers from a nationwide blackout and a hurricane that left seven people dead, the government said Tuesday.

Cubans experienced their second black out wave Saturday after government officials said they were working to restore electrical service to hospitals and crucial service centers after a grid failure on Friday.

Many of Cuba’s power plants are outdated and inefficient; some have been in operation for over 50 years without proper maintenance. After the country’s grid collapsed when hurricane Ian hit in 2022, experts warned the government needed to urgently invest in modernizing the system.

Nearly 10m Cubans have been without electricity since the island’s energy grid collapsed on October 18th. Authorities were quick to place the blame on technical snafus. Small outages began a day prior,