Welcome to The Weather Scene segment! Each week here on Geek Alabama, The Weather Scene will feature weather related content. Editor / publisher Nathan Young loves weather related content. And this segment will feature something about the weather every week.
On September 27, 2022, Hurricane Ian struck western Cuba and triggered the first nationwide power outage in the island’s history. I was there, trapped inside a hotel in Pinar del Río as the storm intensified, then driven nearly 100 miles back to Havana through a country without lights.
At the time, I thought I was covering another hurricane. Nearly four years later, Cuba’s electrical grid continues to collapse, some communities endure blackouts lasting more than 20 hours a day, and millions of Cubans have been forced to reconsider their future on the island.
This documentary examines how Ian exposed an aging power system already weakened by decades of underinvestment, fuel shortages, U.S. sanctions and the Cuban government’s own priorities. The hurricane did not create Cuba’s crisis, but it may have been the shock from which the country never fully recovered.
Featuring original footage from Hurricane Ian’s landfall in Cuba, firsthand accounts from Pinar del Río and a look at the growing connection between electrical power and political power.
