The Cuban government has announced emergency measures to slash electricity demand, including suspending classes, shutting down some state-owned workplaces and canceling nonessential services. Officials said that 1.64 gigawatts went offline during peak hours, about half the total demand at the time.

Cubans expressed alarm at the situation and one resident said they felt the country had reached the “bottom of the barrel.”

Cuba’s government says some electricity has been restored on the island after one of the country’s major power plants failed and left millions without electricity for two days