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Transcript
00:00In the streets of Havana, coal cellars are everywhere.
00:04Amid power outages lasting up to 10 hours,
00:06and as shortages of fuel, food and medicine begin to bite,
00:10hard-pressed Cubans are having to be resourceful.
00:14The situation is getting even more complicated than it was,
00:17so we're out looking for coal.
00:19Our budget doesn't stretch to an electric generator
00:22or an EcoFlow battery, or anything like that.
00:26Charcoal is the most affordable option.
00:28It's not exactly cheap, but at least it solves the problem.
00:33No foreign fuel or oil tanker has arrived in Cuba in weeks,
00:38meaning many are resorting to cooking with coal.
00:41Those who can afford it, meanwhile, have been turning to solar panels.
00:44Installers have seen demand go through the roof.
00:48These last few weeks and months have been incredible
00:51in terms of the sheer level of demand.
00:58Since U.S. President Donald Trump severed the island's access
01:01to its primary petroleum sources in Venezuela and Mexico,
01:05the Cuban government has brought in emergency measures
01:07to ration what fuel is left and ease blackouts
01:11that are affecting everything from homes to hospitals.
01:14They've shuttered universities, reduced school hours and the work week,
01:17and slashed public transport, leaving Cubans stranded and worried.
01:23I've got a trip to make and everything's been cancelled.
01:26There's nothing.
01:27We're stuck here and what's worse is the helplessness
01:29about what's going to happen, the uncertainty.
01:34The crisis also threatens to cut Cuba off
01:36from another vital economic lifeline,
01:39that of tourism, which looks set to continue its plummet.
01:42After Cuban officials warned airlines that they wouldn't be able
01:45to refuel their planes on the island for at least a month.
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