Cuba blackouts drive residents to rooftops to sleep

Cuba's blackouts and summer heat are driving people in Havana onto rooftops, porches and public spaces at night to find enough breeze to sleep.

In Central Havana, 59-year-old Alexis Milan waits until sunset with his blind 17-year-old son before going to the roof of their three-storey building. He told AFP the rooftop has become a shared sleeping area.

"We started getting a lot of people coming with us, and now almost the entire building has come up here," Milan said.

Families sleep among water tanks, pipes and clotheslines. Milan spreads a sheet and two pillows on an empty water tank because his apartment is too hot and full of mosquitoes.

AFP reported that since January a US fuel embargo has worsened prolonged power and water cuts. At night, only scattered patches of light remain across the city, while some generators run and residents gather outside.

Havana's Malecon seawall, normally a seafront promenade, has also become a place where people lie on cardboard, mattresses or the concrete after sunset to catch the sea breeze.

At dawn, alarms on the few mobile phones that still have battery wake residents before they return indoors or go to work. "I don't see an end to this," Milan said.