April 28th, 2025, it's 11:30 AM in Lisbon, Portugal.
I am deep in conversation with a quantum physicist on Zoom, when suddenly...
The wifi cuts out.
Quickly, I switch to my phone. Strange, but operational above all, I manage to finish the call.
I rush downstairs to check the routeur and electrical panel.
Complete darkness.
My partner is out, so I decide to inspect outside.
Neighbors don't have electricity either. And share the same confusion. I catch one that was just coming out of his car. He tells me: "I was in the center of town, there's no electricity in the whole city".
Something is definitely off.
I quickly call my partner, and tell him to get back home.
I check the news: nothing.
Official websites, radio, silence from the authorities.
The only live updates I find are on X.
I understand that it's not just Lisbon, it's the whole country.
Not just the whole country, it's also Spain.
Not just Spain, but also parts of France.
No official explanation, no coherent information.
Something isn't right. At all.
Within 30 minutes my partner is home, still no electricity.
Our phones and 5G networks are very slow... but still functional.
I send a message to my emergency contact.
Within an hour, the networks are also falling. No calls, no SMS, no whatsapp, no X. Nothing.
Total black out.
Our emergency bag is ready, and intuitively I say to my partner "if within 12 hours we don't have clear explanations of what's going on, we'll leave". So we start packing some complementary stuffs.
I step outside to assess the situation and observe: queues at the local Lidl (supermarket), panic buying of... toilet paper and bottled water... while others casually set up picnics in the grass, as if nothing happened!
Two parallel worlds on a single street.
I'm thinking:
"Lucky I'm in Portugal... if this was happening in Paris there would already be riots in the streets".
The lack of transparency from authorities, simultaneous collapse of multiple essential infrastructures, all of this does NOT sound right to someone trained to identify the signals.
We handle the day, without electricity and thoughts running: ATMs are not functionning, airport and all transportation are stuck, hospitals too...
We're ready to leave early morning if it's not getting back to normal.
Luckily, but strangely too, at 10:30 PM, electricity is back.
Like nothing happened.
Until this very day, the explanation of this exceptional event are UNCLEAR (and if you don't believe, just do your research, that's not the point of this piece).
After this event, I reversed engineered my own reaction, but also re-analyzed coldly all the signals.
From there, I created a protocol... for next time.
(btw, a similar event happened in Czech Republic last week).
The objective of this protocol is to provide a reliable, rapid-response framework to prevent cognitive paralysis and optimize personal safety.
Below you'll find the breakdown of the three type of ruptures you will be able to detect easily, clear indicators to observe, and actions required.