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A major power outage hit Spain and Portugal on Monday afternoon, abruptly shutting down daily activities, halting trains and subways, cutting off traffic lights, closing stores and canceling or delaying some flights.<\/p>\n
The cause of the blackout, which stranded tens of millions of people across the Iberian Peninsula, was still unknown by Tuesday morning, though several officials said there were no signs of foul play.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt this point, there are no indications of any cyberattack,\u201d Ant\u00f3nio Costa, the president of the European Council, wrote on X<\/a> after communicating with the leaders of Spain and Portugal, who both assembled emergency meetings. \u201cGrid operators in both countries are working on finding the cause and on restoring the electricity supply.\u201d<\/p>\n Spain\u2019s national power company, Red El\u00e9ctrica, said early on Tuesday that nearly all power had been restored in the country. The electricity and gas supplier in Portugal, REN, said that everything was \u201c100 percent operational.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The outage briefly affected France. RTE, the French electrical grid operator, said in a statement that some households in the Basque region had lost electricity but that \u201call power has since been restored.\u201d<\/p>\n Still, others remained in the dark.<\/p>\n The reaction across the region ranged from frantic stockpiling to confused bewilderment to calmly hunkering down and making do with old-fashioned electricity-free ways of living.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n There were widespread problems connecting to the internet and to phone networks across Spain and Portugal. The lack of access to information was bewildering to many<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cNot knowing what\u2019s going on is the worst part,\u201d said Lucia Prisco, 57. The last two five-liter water bottles were snapped up at a store in Lisbon, Portugal\u2019s capital, where he worked. \u201cIt\u2019s the first time we\u2019ve experienced something like this.\u201d<\/p>\n Soon after the electricity was cut, long lines started to form outside ATMs. Traffic lights and electric road signs stopped working, the Spanish traffic authority noted on X, asking residents to \u201cavoid driving as much as possible\u201d \u2014 though many could not get access to the message.<\/p>\n Shortly after the blackout, footage in the Spanish news media showed scenes of chaos in Madrid. With no traffic lights working, vehicles blocked the city\u2019s wide, leafy avenues, and the traffic police improvised, doing their best to keep things moving. By late afternoon, commuters had ditched their vehicles, choosing instead to walk.<\/p>\n Streets and squares were filled with people on foot. The Spanish news media was awash with anecdotes: Train passengers, stranded for hours in the middle of nowhere, had climbed down from their carriages and were sitting beside the tracks, in the sunshine, waiting to be rescued.<\/p>\n In the Spanish city of Valencia, emergency services had been rescuing people from elevators all day. By 9 p.m., the Valencia City Council announced on social media that everyone who had been trapped in elevators had been freed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n But the blackout sent major institutions into crisis-management mode. Hospitals in Spain had to run on generators. Portuguese banks and schools shut their doors, and Portugal\u2019s Council of Ministers declared an energy crisis in order, it said on social media<\/a>, \u201cto ensure priority in restoring electricity to essential services such as hospitals and telecommunications.\u201d The Madrid Open tennis tournament was suspended, the ATP Tour said<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Prado Museum was packed when the lights went down across continental Spain. At the time, a Spanish television crew was recording a show inside the building. Its cameras captured the ensuing confusion, showing bewildered tourists and schoolchildren being ushered out of the building by museum staff, who were concerned for the safety of some of the nation\u2019s treasures, including works of art by Francisco Goya and Diego Vel\u00e1zquez.<\/p>\n Train travel was disrupted throughout Spain. Renfe, Spain\u2019s national rail company, wrote in a post on X<\/a> that trains had stopped operating at all stations. Subways in several cities, including Valencia<\/a> and Madrid<\/a>, were also halted<\/p>\n Later, the country\u2019s transportation minister, Oscar Puente, said on X that railways would remain closed all day.<\/p>\n Joe Meert, a geology professor at the University of Florida, was celebrating his 30th anniversary with his wife, Michelle. But the train they were on stopped suddenly on the tracks in a rural area somewhere between Madrid and Valencia, he said in a phone interview.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n After three hours, he said, the dining cart was down to just beer and a few soft drinks.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are out of water,\u201d Mr. Meert, 67, said, as he watched some riders step down off the train and walk toward a tractor where a farmer was delivering water. The train staff was walking from car to car delivering news, since the loudspeaker no longer worked, he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThe last thing we heard was there was no news,\u201d Mr. Meert said. <\/p>\n On Monday night, Prime Minister Pedro S\u00e1nchez of Spain said 35,000 passengers had been trapped on about 100 trains. But later, people on only 11 trains, in more inaccessible places, still needed to be rescued, he said. Mr. S\u00e1nchez said in his news conference that normal service would be restored by Tuesday, adding, however, that \u201ca long night lies ahead of us.\u201d<\/p>\n