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.

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

Many Cubans waited in anguish late Sunday as electricity on much of the island had yet to be restored days after an island-wide blackout. Their concerns were heightened as Hurricane Oscar slammed into Cuba’s eastern coast,

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.

Cuba's capital was partially illuminated on Tuesday after a large-scale blackout generated a handful of protests and a stern government warning that any unrest would be punished.

As Cuban authorities were struggling to reconnect the country’s decrepit power grid on Sunday, a category-one hurricane barrelled into the east of the island, dumping heavy rain and lashing the area with winds.