Hurricane Rafael caused a nationwide power outage in Cuba. 70,000 people were evacuated, and the category three storm brought heavy rains and the threat of flooding.

On Wednesday, Cuba experienced a nationwide power outage due to Hurricane Rafael, which brought winds of up to 185 km/h to the Caribbean island, UNN reports citing the BBC.

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The country's national power company said that strong winds caused the power grid to shut down.

At least 70 ,000 people were evacuated from their homes before a category three storm made landfall on Wednesday evening, with warnings of storm surges, flash flooding and landslides.

This comes just weeks after millions of people were left without power for four days following a blackout caused by problems with the country's energy infrastructure. The incident also coincided with Hurricane Oscar, which killed at least six people.

"Rafael hit the western province of Artemis, near the capital Havana, at about 16:15 local time, the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) reported.

A representative of the state-owned energy company Unión Eléctrica said that engineers will have to wait until the storm passes over the island before they can assess its impact on power plants and the grid in general.

By 22:00 local time, Rafael had moved into the Gulf of Mexico and weakened to a Category 2 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 169 km/h.

The NHC reported that the storm will continue to bring heavy rains across western Cuba through Thursday, and storm surges could pose a life-threatening threat.

Heavy rains are expected in the Cayman Islands, while a tropical storm warning is in effect in the Florida Keys.

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