Greg @Lefkeo - Twitter Profile

Lefkeo retweeted

over 1 year ago

⚡️I'M BACK FROM THE BLACKOUT! Spain, Portugal, and part of France have been under a complete power blackout for 10 hours. No electricity, no mobile data, no calls, nothing. Let me tell you how I lived through it from the inside, if it ever happens in your country, you'll remember this post 👇🏻 I was in Murcia, Spain, in the middle of a Zoom work call when plash, the power went out. Well, that’s not so rare. The first thing I did was tell the others, who were in Málaga (400 km away), that I had lost power (mobile data was still). Their reply: "Hostia, it's out here too!" Me: WTF? But it can’t have gone out everywhere in the country, right? Right??? THE BLACKOUT Damn, I wasn’t expecting this bonus episode of Black Mirror. But yep, it was a massive blackout for unknown reasons, hitting all of Spain/Portugal/France. A few minutes later, mobile networks and data collapsed too! I had never lived through anything like this. I was literally hearing the news through a portable radio I barely remembered owning. There was no other way. Anyone who didn’t have a battery radio was absolutely cut off from the world. Mobile data started to work only sporadically, and calls began to collapse until they completely stopped working. In fact, as the hours passed, it went from "mobile data works a bit" to "nothing at all." All the traffic lights in every city went out, so people had to give way as best as they could. And the most amazing part is that there were no major accidents across the entire country. I biked back home from the office without any trouble. Sirens could be heard nonstop, but everyone was driving with incredible caution, something I didn’t expect! Respect. Hospitals were a huge concern, and the radio couldn't stop talking about them. A friend's mother was scheduled for surgery today, and I haven’t had news yet, but I’m trusting that everything went well: basically, they kept operating thanks to generators. No surgeries were left half-finished (although lit were postponed), and all ICU ventilation systems kept running for the patients who depended on them to stay alive. Diesel distributors were working at full capacity, delivering fuel wherever it was needed. Still, the chaos around ambulances, communications, and logistics was enormous. Don't envy the women who gave birth today. Many people got trapped in elevators and since emergency lines were overwhelmed, it took quite a while to rescue them all across the country. My wife got stuck with the car inside the garage and had to walk back home. Then, since the intercom wasn’t working and she had forgotten her keys inside the car, she had to shout until I came down to open the door for her. Of course, a whole army of doomsday preppers rushed to the supermarkets to buy toilet paper, water jugs, and dog food. Pandemic 2.0. And well, it might sound silly compared to all of this, but the countdown for all the freezers in the country had started ticking... Imagine the stench that was about to hit with half the country’s meat and fish rotting! And what did the people of Murcia do after 5 hours when it was clear this thing was going to last a while? Well, what any sane man or woman would do: go out for drinks since it was still daylight! The streets and promenades were packed with people walking, chatting about the situation, complaining about not having internet, walking their dogs, sunbathing, and drinking beers at the bars nonstop... On the radio, a bar owner said their biggest worry was that the beer was warming up and needed to be drunk quickly... Oh, my dear little Spain! Anyway, unbelievable. A mix between science fiction and Kafkaesque surrealism. A day to never forget. Well, actually, it’s not even over yet: as I write these lines, I'm watching the last lights of sunset, facing a dark city skyline straight out of a dystopian movie. Hopefully, you’ll be able to read these lines soon. So, what do you think would happen in your country if there was a 10-hour blackout?

javilopen's tweet photo. ⚡️I'M BACK FROM THE BLACKOUT!

Spain, Portugal, and part of France have been under a complete power blackout for 10 hours. No electricity, no mobile data, no calls, nothing.

Let me tell you how I lived through it from the inside, if it ever happens in your country, you'll remember this post 👇🏻

I was in Murcia, Spain, in the middle of a Zoom work call when plash, the power went out. Well, that’s not so rare. The first thing I did was tell the others, who were in Málaga (400 km away), that I had lost power (mobile data was still). Their reply: "Hostia, it's out here too!" Me: WTF? But it can’t have gone out everywhere in the country, right? Right???

THE BLACKOUT

Damn, I wasn’t expecting this bonus episode of Black Mirror. But yep, it was a massive blackout for unknown reasons, hitting all of Spain/Portugal/France. A few minutes later, mobile networks and data collapsed too! I had never lived through anything like this.

I was literally hearing the news through a portable radio I barely remembered owning. There was no other way. Anyone who didn’t have a battery radio was absolutely cut off from the world. Mobile data started to work only sporadically, and calls began to collapse until they completely stopped working. In fact, as the hours passed, it went from "mobile data works a bit" to "nothing at all."

All the traffic lights in every city went out, so people had to give way as best as they could. And the most amazing part is that there were no major accidents across the entire country. I biked back home from the office without any trouble. Sirens could be heard nonstop, but everyone was driving with incredible caution, something I didn’t expect! Respect.

Hospitals were a huge concern, and the radio couldn't stop talking about them. A friend's mother was scheduled for surgery today, and I haven’t had news yet, but I’m trusting that everything went well: basically, they kept operating thanks to generators. No surgeries were left half-finished (although lit were postponed), and all ICU ventilation systems kept running for the patients who depended on them to stay alive. Diesel distributors were working at full capacity, delivering fuel wherever it was needed. Still, the chaos around ambulances, communications, and logistics was enormous. Don't envy the women who gave birth today.

Many people got trapped in elevators and since emergency lines were overwhelmed, it took quite a while to rescue them all across the country. My wife got stuck with the car inside the garage and had to walk back home. Then, since the intercom wasn’t working and she had forgotten her keys inside the car, she had to shout until I came down to open the door for her.

Of course, a whole army of doomsday preppers rushed to the supermarkets to buy toilet paper, water jugs, and dog food. Pandemic 2.0.

And well, it might sound silly compared to all of this, but the countdown for all the freezers in the country had started ticking... Imagine the stench that was about to hit with half the country’s meat and fish rotting!

And what did the people of Murcia do after 5 hours when it was clear this thing was going to last a while? Well, what any sane man or woman would do: go out for drinks since it was still daylight! The streets and promenades were packed with people walking, chatting about the situation, complaining about not having internet, walking their dogs, sunbathing, and drinking beers at the bars nonstop... On the radio, a bar owner said their biggest worry was that the beer was warming up and needed to be drunk quickly... Oh, my dear little Spain!

Anyway, unbelievable. A mix between science fiction and Kafkaesque surrealism. A day to never forget. Well, actually, it’s not even over yet: as I write these lines, I'm watching the last lights of sunset, facing a dark city skyline straight out of a dystopian movie. Hopefully, you’ll be able to read these lines soon.

So, what do you think would happen in your country if there was a 10-hour blackout?

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