There are Monday that are more Monday than others and that of April 28, 2025 will lead several medalters for a long time. From 12.32 of noon, the capital as a war for survival, where the analog world was imposed on technology; The coins won the cards, the radio to the mobile and the gasoline to the optical fiber. Gasoil’s structure groups saved surgical operations and allowed to open elevators doors with trapped people. And as it dusk, the flashlights and candles monopolized the prominence. At least sales of these products swept supermarkets.
On the street of General Díaz Porlier, Carrefour closed the main fence. A national radio said there were looting in the Goya area, so the goal door was lowered, while a dependent attended through the mesh where the products delivered and collected the coins. Mainly, customers were older people who lived nearby. Almost everyone took water bottles and some other, cans of sardines and tuna. “I don’t know, I’ve caught the first thing that could be needed and since the toilet paper did not fit by the gate …” Carmen Fuentes joked. Some fast food stores closed when running out of products, while the National Police regulated traffic.
“What do I miss how today? A radio,” replied a young woman as she moved her finger frantically over her mobile. “And a car,” added her friend. “Let’s see how I now get to Torrejón,” he said at the end of a tail to enter the Avenida de América exchanger that arrives several downstream streets.
As soon as the electric cut occurred, the large communication knots in the capital: the stations like this one of Avenida de América, those of Chamartín, Atocha … began to be filled with people who came out of the subsoil from detainees of metro detainees and trains that were not going to come out. With suitcases, briefcases or purchase cars, thousands of people filled the sidewalks and stores. At the same time, fast food chains or supermarkets partially closed the accesses. In the restaurants, groups of chefs dressed the same waited with crossed hands to return the light. In the few stores that were open, without electricity, without alarms, without cameras, everything was eyes to try to avoid robberies.
At the same time, the traffic that initially managed calmly the absence of traffic lights, gradually complicated. The squares of Columbus or Manuel Becerra were filled with cars, while the arteries that surround the city of the M-40 to the M-30 closed the tunnels and the National 1 became a large parking lot with rows of vehicles.
On Avenida de América and Francisco Silvela street buses evacuated people, while long lines were waiting to fill them again. Those who managed to climb traveled without air conditioning on buses that advanced through a city without traffic lights. Inside, a certain tranquility. Some remembered previous situations: Filomena, Pandemia … but this was new.
Meanwhile, on the asphalt, two worlds set their hands. On the one hand, the youngest frantically moved their finger on the phone and the elderly walked again with the transistor stuck to the ear. “Barajas has Luz, they say it is cyber attack, the Basque Country has returned the light …”, an old man sang to those who stopped in front of him.
In the princess hospital the blackout was lived with relative normality. The operating rooms continued to operate with structure groups, although the emergency plant was partially dark. “At first you think it was only in our office, but messages from Cáceres, Alicante, Zaragoza began to arrive and realize that the blackout is throughout Spain,” said Carlos Moreno, an employee of an insurance office. “Then you go down to the street and see that everything is the same … Then someone said Portugal, France … it seemed the end of the world,” he added next to the door of his office near the Paseo de la Castellana.
Three hours later, the subway was a kind of sleeping beast in the middle of an apocalyptic panorama. One of the mouths of the Plaza de Colón continued with the doors open. No ladder worked, but the tourniquetes allowed access. Finally, upon arriving at the platform, there was only an empty car with the doors open and the alarm on.
In the Plaza de Colón all the conversations looked like: “Now how do I return to three songs,” a woman wondered, “this is Putin”, he could hear his partner, “” I hear you, do you hear me?
At the doors of Zara de Conde Peñalver half a hundred people gather in front of the entrance fence because the wifi works and the voice has run. “What happened?”, “When does light come back?”, “Is all Spain?”, “And France? Questions and more questions from office workers and young people wanting to get home. Information was a good as precious as water
In other areas of Madrid such as Goya or Malasaña, the End of the world He filled many bars and terraces taking advantage of the good weather. The sun and beers removed drama in the morning. So the greatest despair between those who waited for the sun The arrival of electricity was to find coins in their pocket or at the bottom of the bag. In one of these terraces of Felipe II square, a radio sounds on a table. There are only two people next to the transistor, but dozens of pending ears. The old man repeats out loud: “That Sánchez is going to speak, there is also light in La Rioja, which maybe it is due to an overload …”.
An hour later, the president of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, accepted that he had requested the Community of Madrid, as well as two other communities. This measure delivers the command to the Ministry of Interior. And there was still no light.
