'There is no electricity': Canadian travellers in Cuba urge caution in hurricane's wake

Sitting in the courtyard of a Cuban resort, Canadians Max and Alison Drenikow sat for an interview Thursday, his arm around her shoulder. Alison remarked they made the trip to celebrate their wedding anniversary.

"Twenty-five years yesterday," Max chimed in.

It hasn't exactly been the quarter-century celebration they had planned – the windows overlooking the grassy grounds are dark. Inside the hotel, tourists are searching for outlets to keep their phones charged and moments of Wi-Fi access to contact their families.

Cuba's power grid was knocked out by fierce winds and rain wrought by Hurricane Rafael, which ripped across the country as a Category 3 storm. In western Cuba, it toppled buildings and pushed 50,000 people to find shelter elsewhere. Cubans were already enduring rolling blackouts due to energy shortages. Now, local authorities are trying to restore power post-Rafael, which battered the Cayman Islands earlier this week.

The resort, which is located in Varadero, a skinny peninsula lined with tourist accommodations, is about 130 kilometres east of Havana. It was spared by the storm, but the blackout means Max can't use his CPAP, or continuous positive airway pressure, machine.

"I sometimes stop breathing, so it helps me get a good night's sleep," he said. Alison warned travellers planning to fly to Cuba to ensure their lodging has power before they board a plane.

"If the flight still comes, they need to realize what they're walking into," she said. "There has to be a warning to people who have any respiratory issues required to sleep with a CPAP: there is no electricity."

Canada has put a travel advisory in place for Cuba, cautioning Canadians to "exercise a high degree of caution in Cuba due to shortages of basic necessities including food, medicine and fuel."

Those shortages were in place before the hurricane hit. The Drenikows already made a trip to their nearest city, Matanzas, to drop off a package from Not Just Tourists – a Toronto organization that provides understocked clinics with medical supplies via Canadian travellers.

"They're so limited on supplies," said Alison. "So, we were there to drop off supplies before the hurricane."

Alison, a former PSW and social service worker says she and her husband have been working to care for the more elderly residents at the hotel.

"We've been just trying to make sure that everyone's OK here … just because it's so hot, right?" she said. "We're very spoiled in Canada. We're used to air conditioning. So, when you're in a hot, sticky room, there are consequences for people with respiratory issues."

There are at least 1,715 Canadians in Cuba, according to Global Affairs Canada. That number accounts only for those who voluntarily declared their presence in the country. The true number is almost certainly higher.

"Canadian consular officials stand ready to provide consular assistance to Canadian citizens if needed," Global Affairs Canada spokesperson Renelle Arsenault wrote in an email to CTVNews.ca.

Canadians in need of emergency consular assistance should contact the Embassy of Canada in Cuba at (53-7) 204-2516/7 or Global Affairs Canada's Emergency Watch and Response Centre:

• By calling [phone]
• By text message at [phone]
• Via Signal at [phone]
• Via WhatsApp at [phone]
• By email at [e-mail]