Cuba's government has made a rare request for emergency assistance from the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden after Hurricane Ian knocked out power to the whole island of 11 million people, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.

Hurricane Ian tore through the island nation on Tuesday, flattening homes and destroying agricultural fields. 

It went on to smash its way across Florida, and then made a second landfall in the Carolinas on Friday in a diminished but still dangerous form.