Cuba's power grid collapsed again on Sunday, the fourth failure in 48 hours as an approaching hurricane threatened to cause further damage to the island's dilapidated electricity infrastructure.
Cuba said early Sunday that progress was being made in restoring power after multiple attempts, but millions of people were still without electricity more than two days after the grid initially collapsed.
"Restoration efforts have begun immediately," the country's Ministry of Energy and Mines said on Thursday.
Hurricane Oscar slammed into the Caribbean island on Sunday, bringing strong winds and rain to northeastern Cuba and threatening government efforts to restore services. Power outages and communications were disrupted across much of the region before the storm hit.
In an almost unprecedented move in Cuba, Cuba's communist government, citing the hurricane and an ongoing energy crisis, announced that schools would be closed until Wednesday. Officials said only essential workers would be allowed to work on Monday.
The repeated collapses of the power grid have dealt a major setback to government efforts to quickly restore power to residents already suffering from severe shortages of food, medicine and fuel.
Multiple setbacks in the first 48 hours also highlighted the complexity of the effort and the still-precarious state of the country's grid.
Before the grid collapsed on Sunday, Cuba had restored power to 160,000 customers in Havana, offering some residents a glimmer of hope.
Energy and Mines Minister Vicente de la O Levy told reporters early Sunday that he expected the grid to be fully operational by Monday or Tuesday, but warned residents not to expect significant improvements.
Cuba's national grid first collapsed around noon Friday amid chaos caused by the shutdown of the island's largest power plant. The grid collapsed again Saturday morning, according to state media.
By early Saturday evening, authorities reported some progress in restoring power, but then declared the grid partially down.