According to the government, 13 of the country's 15 provinces had been reconnected to the national grid, with work underway to restore power to two other western provinces.

In Havana, home to two million people, many residents remained without electricity after Rafael brought down power lines.

Around 17 percent of people in the capital had electricity, authorities said.

Rafael, a major Category 3 hurricane, ripped roofs from homes and bleachers from a baseball stadium as it barreled across the island, which was already reeling from a deadly storm last month.

The hurricane came just two weeks after a power plant failure plunged the island into darkness for several days.

There were no reports of fatalities in the latest storm.

Nearly 250,000 people were evacuated from their homes before it hit, according to the authorities.

Cuba has been suffering hours-long power cuts for months -- a symbol of the island's worst economic crisis since the fall of the Soviet Union, a key ally and financial backer, in the early 1990s.

The UN General Assembly last week renewed its long-standing call for the United States to lift its six-decade trade embargo on the communist island.