‘No one knew what to do’: power cuts bring chaos, connection and revaluation of digital dependency

People share their experiences of Monday's massive power outage across Spain, Portugal and parts of France that upended modern life

It felt like chaos," said Inigo, a doctor at a hospital in northern Spain.

With no electricity from noon on Monday, the building's emergency generators were kept for the critical areas, leaving staff without access to patient data, broken communications due to no telephone signal or email, and colleagues unable to carry out some of their duties, he said.