An elderly lady takes several plugs from the Ibiza Hardware store. Why so many? “Because of the big blackout”. She is very clear about it and develops a whole theory around it: “Yes, you see. If they cut off the electricity, one of the first things we’ll notice is that when we turn on the tap, the water won’t run. They won’t be able to produce it, they won’t be able to pump it. So I’m going to fill the bathtubs and the sinks at home. I don’t want to run out of water. I don’t want to run out of water.
The hardware store ownder in Vila say that they have been going “crazy” for weeks . Or they have or will soon run out of stoves, hotplates and heaters that run on gas, as well as flashlights and batteries. And all this after Austrian Defence Minister Klaudia Tanner warned that the “big blackout” will happen: “The question is not if there will be one, but when,” she said, and urged the people of the central European country to stock up on candles, flashlights, batteries, fuel, batteries, canned food, water…
The “big blackout” in Ibiza
The echo of this warning has reached Ibiza from the Alps, despite the fact that experts insist that Spain is unlikely to run out of electricity for a long time, as the energy system in our country is quite different to Austria’s. Even so, the frenzy has taken hold of part of the Pitiusa population, who do not want to be left with two candles and are taking to the hardware stores to hoard products that will allow them to survive several days without electricity.
The woman who has just bought the plugs to fill the bathtubs in her house tells Juan Roselló, owner of the hardware store Ibiza, that she has it on good authority that, in addition, generators are selling like hot cakes for the houses in the countryside. What Roselló is selling like hot cakes are the stoves (with a single burner): he only has one left, which hangs on a wall. But he’s starting to run out of torches: “I ordered 50 last week. People have gone half mad. The supplier told me I was the third to call him that day”. He has the batteries that are left on the display wall, nothing more. They’re flying out. Event he little 12-volt bulbs from the old pocket torches (the new ones have LEDs): people have rescued them from the box of memories and want to have spares for them. Just in case. They are also in short supply in his shop.
For the full article, please visit Diario de Ibiza website here.