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.

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

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 power-grid operator said it had restored electricity to most of the capital Havana on Monday even as Tropical Storm Oscar lashed the island's eastern end, downing trees and power lines. Strong winds raked the region as the storm stalled over land,

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.

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.