The Canary Islands Government has declared a state of emergency over worries about supplies amid a widespread power cut that crippled Spain and Portugal on Monday afternoon and evening
A state of alert has been issued in a holiday hotspot popular with Brits over worries about essential supplies as Spain and Portugal deal with a huge power cut.
Government officials in the Canary Islands activated the alert in case the Spanish electricity emergency affects basic supplies to the popular destination. They say a “special mechanism is in place to permanently monitor and evaluate the evolution of this situation.” In a statement issued today, Government officials said: “The General Directorate of Emergencies of the Government of the Canary Islands has declared a sitaution of alert due to the great blackout affecting mainland Spain, in application of the Territorial Emergency Plan of Civil Protection of the Autonomous Community (PLATECA), as established by Decree 95/2015 of May 22.
“This declaration is made due to the risk of affecting basic supplies throughout the Autonomous Community of the Canary Islands. The main objective of activating the PLATECA in a situation of alert is to guarantee constant and effective monitoring in the event of possible interruptions or incidents in essential services for the population.
“A special device is active to permanently monitor and evaluate the evolution of this situation, ensuring a rapid and coordinated response in the event that such effects materialise.”
In the face of the energy blackout that has blanketed much of the Iberian peninsula, the Government is asking citizens for “tranquility”. The Canary Islands have escaped the huge impact of the outage due to the islands’ electricity system being independent of the continent and not interconnected.
However, shops did report problems with payment machines and government officials appealed to people to limit the use of their mobile phones. Millions of people across Spain and Portugal were plunged into darkness in the huge power cut, with haircuts half finished and people doing their grocery shopping using the torches on their mobile phones.
The power cut also sparked widespread travel disruption, leaving train passenger stranded. The unprecedented blackout hit the area on Monday at around 12.30pm local time, leaving huge portions of the population facing a night with no electricity or essential power. Emergency services and rail workers in Spain had to help evacuate around 35,000 people from over 100 trains that stopped on the tracks when the electricity was cut. By 11pm passengers from 11 trains still needed evacuating, Prime Minister Sánchez said. Spanish power distributor Red Eléctrica’s head of operations Eduardo Prieto said the event was “exceptional and extraordinary.”
The national grid operator of Portugal confirmed that 6.2 million out of 6.5 million households now have power back again. Meanwhile, electricity has returned to households in Spain, as authorities try to find the exact cause of the power cut.
Authorities are still trying to determine the sudden crash of the power grid which left millions of people without phone and internet coverage, and access from cash machines across the Iberian Peninsula. Eduardo Prieto, head of operation services at Spain’s power company REE, said at a news conference today confirmed were two “disconnection events”, just seconds apart, before the blackout. He added that “nothing leads us to believe that it could have been human error”.
Although officials have dismissed any malicious intent, including a cyberattack, the ordeal has been no less exasperating for Brits eager to bask in the holiday sun. In the Algarve, Nicola Boswell expressed her dismay on TikTok during a 5pm visit to an Aldi store, where she found the shelves nearly empty amidst the turmoil.
“This is the situation in Aldi – there’s queues bigger than Alton Towers in peak season,” she exclaimed, showing her followers the long lines of customers. “There’s nothing left to buy. Everything has completely sold out.”
While there were some remnants of fresh produce, the store was largely picked clean. Nicola added: “This is unbelievable. The toilet roll is pretty [much gone], that’s always the first to go. Look at the queues – they are right the way up the aisles.”
Meanwhile, in Spain, another Briton confessed he had “never seen queues like it”, sharing footage from his location in Benidorm. Nigel Pope labelled the situation a “disaster in the making”, revealing that shops were only allowing a few customers in at a time to prevent panic.
“Everybody is buying water and supplies because the electricity could be out be out for days,” he said. “It’s a real disaster, we don’t really know what is going on. I would normally use the lift but I’ve had to walk up and down the stairs to get my supplies. It’s becoming a bit of a disaster zone.”