On Monday, at around midday, my ceiling fan stopped spinning. We had also lost the wifi, lights, fridge and, somewhat alarmingly, phone signal. As snippets of bemused conversations drifted up from the street below it became apparent first that the whole neighbourhood had lost power, and then gradually that all of Valencia had. And then that Spain and Portugal were in a blackout. With no internet and thus no work to keep me busy, I ventured out to see what had become of the world.

I expected the apocalypse, but what greeted me was quite serene.The street terraces were packed, the local park was full of sunbathers and children playing, and the absence of traffic lights made motorists uncharacteristically cautious. Many of my Valencian neighbourhood’s smaller, less tech-dependent fruit and veg shops were open and bustling. When I tried to buy courgettes and peppers, I ended up playing a convivial game of “guess the weight” because the shop’s electronic scale was out of action.

While the disruption was extreme – especially for people caught travelling or trapped in elevators – it seems my experience was far from unique. The general public across the peninsula managed to stay calm, and this attitude, coupled with preparedness and quick, coordinated action by the Portuguese, French and Spanish authorities, prevented an emergency from turning into an all-out catastrophe.

Investigations into the root cause of Monday’s outage are ongoing, but current signs point to a combination of weather anomalies and fluctuating energy supply. Many were quick to point the finger at a cyber-attack by hostile foreign powers, but there is currently no evidence to back this up. However, these kinds of attacks are increasingly wielded against businesses, who can often struggle to save face and regain trust as a result.

As the world takes stock of Trump’s first 100 days in office, we would do well to heed the words of Melissa Butcher. In this illuminating article, she takes a look at Amy Buller’s 1943 book Darkness Over Germany to find out how ordinary Germans made difficult decisions about whether to stay or go during the early days of Nazism, and draws stark parallels to her own interviews during Trump’s re-election campaign.