“The Cuban government and Communist party are facing the worst crisis since the collapse of the Soviet Union, both economically and politically,” said Bill LeoGrande, a Cuba specialist at American University in Washington. “The government is broke, it doesn’t have the money to import enough food or fuel.”

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.

Canel warned citizens there would be consequences for taking to the streets as many on the island were still without power after more than 72 hours.

Many Cubans waited in anguish Sunday as electricity on much of the island had yet to be restored days after an island-wide blackout. Their concerns were also raised as Hurricane Oscar made landfall in the southeastern Bahamas and was heading toward their country.

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