0:00
Let me bring you an update coming from some of the authorities in Spain and Portugal about this massive power outage in both countries
0:08
The mayor of Madrid is warning people just to stay off the roads and stay where they are, wherever that is
0:14
and to only call the emergency services if it is truly urgent, not just ringing them for information
0:21
Shops and restaurants in Madrid were plunged into darkness just before midday our time
0:28
In Portugal, police say traffic lights are down. They're down all over the place
0:32
The metro in Lisbon and Porto is closed. The head of Spain's electricity network said earlier
0:38
that restoring power could take between six and ten hours. Fortunately for those people in Andorra and parts of France
0:48
that seems to be being tackled more readily. And in the Balearic and Canary Islands
0:54
so the likes of Tenerife and the likes of Mallorca, Menorca, Ibiza have not been affected. So let's hope it stays that way. Teachers are talking about
1:04
teaching in the dark, making sure that the kids have food, not having any knowledge about how to
1:09
get home, being told to stay off the streets, big sporting event, Madrid open, tennis tournament has
1:14
been suspended. People wondering whether to get in cars and go and get home or get to wherever
1:21
they feel they need to be. Let's get the latest on this from Simon Calder, travel correspondent
1:26
for the independent. And we'll hear from somebody, a British man, affected by it in Lisbon in a
1:31
moment. Simon, what do we know about what's going on? Well, we do not know what caused this
1:37
but it very very clear Sheila what the effects are I estimate there are at least half a million British people on holiday in Spain and Portugal at the moment Spain being by far our most popular destination for
1:52
British holidaymakers abroad. Portugal also being very popular. And the aviation ytics company
2:00
exerium are saying that they reckon 100,000 seats on over 500 flights going from the UK to Spain and
2:10
Portugal today same number coming back so that is a vast number of people if I can talk through
2:16
perhaps you've mentioned things like the metro system that's been a problem in Lisbon in Porto
2:22
in Madrid and in Barcelona. Also, Spain has by far the biggest high-speed network
2:29
of any country in Europe. Dozens of trains, for instance, just on the line between Madrid and Barcelona
2:36
suddenly came to a halt in the middle of nowhere. But I guess it was for the Metro users
2:41
on trains suddenly stranded in the dark underground, or indeed on the platforms underground in the dark
2:48
would have been the worst problem. And of course, if they then managed to get back to street level and thought, oh, I'll take a cab
2:55
they could well find that they've got gridlock because of the traffic lights not working
3:00
Well, you do have to worry, don't you, if it does go on for six to 10 hours or more
3:04
heading towards darkness again, of course, people out on the streets or coming out onto the streets
3:10
thinking, shall I chance it in the car, losing their temper? You know, you can imagine how it
3:15
might go. I mean, it's a difficult one to manage, isn't it? Well, very difficult and risky
3:20
Well it is but if you listening to LBC on one of the costas the biggest problem you might encounter is that when you come to settle your bill for drinks and lunch the card machine isn working and you scrabbling around to find actual cash euros
3:37
So if you are there, then staying put is a good idea. I'm looking at the disruption to flights and already British Airways has cancelled a round trip from London Heathrow to Lisbon and back
3:51
EasyJet's done the same with a flight from Bristol to the Portuguese capital
3:56
Madrid, the main problem seems to be long delays, an hour or two at the very least, getting off the ground
4:03
Interesting, Sheila, you and I talked when Heathrow shut down, if you remember. It was the first thing that came to mind when it happened
4:10
Well, on that day, there was one power, there was an electrical fire
4:15
The airport took the decision completely to close. clearly whatever they've got at Lisbon, at Madrid, at Barcelona, they've got better backup
4:24
because flights have been continuing throughout but just with long delays. Actually the holiday airports of Faro in Portugal, Alicante and Málaga in Spain not so badly affected
4:36
and as you've been saying the islands, the Balearics, Mallorca, Ibiza, Menorca and the Canaries
4:43
Tenerife, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote and so on, not badly affected at all, except dozens of flights
4:49
to and from mainland Spain have been cancelled as a result of this. And if I may just mention
4:54
lots of people getting in touch saying, I'm in Spain, I'm in Portugal, I've got a flight back
4:59
later. What if I can't get to the airport? Well, I've asked all the airlines whether they're going
5:04
to give anybody any flexibility At the moment I got no confirmation that they will do so I afraid When we spoke about Heathrow which was bad enough given the scale of impact it had on the millions of people who were trying to get around the world via heathrow or many
5:20
hundreds of thousands i don't know what the exact figure is but um you know we we a little anyway
5:25
speculated on whether some kind of foul play uh was part of it and that is now being investigated
5:31
one way or another we'll find out but this is such a huge scale failure you do have to wonder
5:38
what the heck could have caused it. Well, it is all too easy when these things happen
5:44
to immediately imagine that the work perhaps of some foreign power might be behind this
5:50
I think that's probably, there's more chance of that being the case in this situation
5:57
because you can imagine critical national infrastructure like this in both Spain and in Portugal
6:04
There will be multiple fail-safe protections, and those appear comprehensively to have failed
6:12
And it's led to absolute misery for millions of people, including a good number of British travellers
6:19
And I would imagine a great deal of concern for parents whose kids are at school. Because, again, you know, if your school is around the corner from you, fine, you go and collect your kid, you come back
6:28
But lots of older children travel good distances on buses, trains, trams
6:34
to get to school and it looks as though they might not be able to get home for hours and hours on end
6:39
oh sure really serious concerns um all of this stuff we are so dependent on urban transport to
6:47
run normally uh if it suddenly shuts down then uh there are all all manner of mayhem stress
6:53
upset risk it's a horrible situation exactly as you say
