Roscommon student left in the dark in Portugal

Earlier this week large parts of Spain, Portugal and some parts of France were affected by a massive electricity cut.

Local people and tourists alike were literally left in the dark on Monday as officials worked to understand what caused the blackout.

Roscommon Town student Seán Óg Daly was in the Algarve, Portugal when power went out.

A TY student at Roscommon Community College, he found himself having to walk 10 kilometres back to his accommodation.

This was his experience: “I was recently in the Algarve in Portugal when a power outage struck the country causing millions to be without power, water and Internet.

“I had gone for a walk around the area of Quinta Da Lago. My phone was without service and I was unable to contact anyone so I went to the nearest hotel to see what the situation was and charge up my phone. There I learned that an incident in Southern Spain had led to parts of Portugal, Spain and parts of France being without power and other facilities. I was unable to call my family or a taxi to get home so I decided to walk back to the AirBnb we were renting. I spent about one hour and twenty minutes walking back, nearly ten kilometres before I made it back.

“The house was also without power and a national emergency had been declared. We discovered that the Four Seasons Fairways, a nearby resort, had generators and so we headed there to have dinner and charge up our phones and other devices.

“We spent a good few hours there, playing ping pong, snooker and pool until at around 9.20 p.m. when power came back on.

“The whole experience brought back memories of Storm Éoywn and the chaos it caused. It also highlighted the serious problems with power grids in Europe that need to be addressed if we are to prevent another incident like this from happening.”