It's a pretty questionable source.

The tone is too sensationalistic for me to take seriously.

It's called the Carrington event.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_storm_of_1859

On September 1–2, 1859, one of the largest recorded geomagnetic storms (as recorded by ground-based magnetometers) occurred. Aurorae were seen around the world, those in the northern hemisphere as far south as the Caribbean; those over the Rocky Mountains in the US were so bright that their glow awoke gold miners, who began preparing breakfast because they thought it was morning.[5] People in the northeastern US could read a newspaper by the aurora's light.[7] The aurora was visible as far from the poles as Sub-Saharan Africa (Senegal, Mauritania, perhaps Monrovia, Liberia), Monterrey and Tampico in Mexico, Queensland, Cuba and Hawaii.[8]

Telegraph systems all over Europe and North America failed, in some cases giving telegraph operators electric shocks.[9] Telegraph pylons threw sparks.[10] Some telegraph operators could continue to send and receive messages despite having disconnected their power supplies.[11]

...disrupt a few systems. Of course, not as much as what a "1859" would do.

Sounds like the tales of the million-watt A.M. border blaster radio stations on the Mexican side of the border. The operators there would turn off the flourescent lights, only they stayed on anyway.

Especially if you have a hybrid.

would be a different matter, particularly likely the closer one was in from the perimeter of an affected area. However, info is very soft because so many factors would be involved.

A real issue guaranteed for those cars that ran would simply be having enough gas to get home if necessary, detouring around blockages, swinging by to pick up family, etc., some trips over ensuing days to find food and water. Pumps would not be working, and accessible supplies would probably be used up practically as fast as food in the markets. Just-in-time stocking means very little inventory of anything would be on site (or in an entire city or county) when deliveries ceased. Most cars that ran initially would continue only until they ran dry.

Various nations are believed to be developing or have developed nukes specifically for high-altitude EMP detonation, including us, but a weapon put together with materials available on the black market could be very devastating, just likely less controlled and efficient.

out a major trading partner, but how about Daesh or that nut in North Korea, or others? If it's possible, and it is...

In a pinch, if there are no other pumps available, you could also use the mechanical fuel pump in an old truck. They would be unaffected by any electromagnetic event.

Just be the first to help yourself, and get the hell out of there.

of gas, not for surrounding neighborhoods dependent on their cars just to pick up a quart of milk in normal times. If deliveries stop, they will stop. No more. And everyone has a hose -- and a screwdriver to puncture above-ground gas tanks with too, for that matter.
And those who are the first, have only until that one tank runs out.

That's why laying in some extra supplies is good. Home would the best place to shelter for the vast majority of people, and gas hopefully won't be needed as long as home is adequately stocked.

time ago my husband did agree to keep its tank full, not let it drop down or go old. Another easy preparedness thing since it's hardly ever driven; it has a really pumped-up engine and is a major gas guzzler. But it's there.

It was a real hoot to discover recently that this beat-up old work horse has become "cool" or whatever terms are used by its admirers across the generations. Not exactly a '57 Buick, but this IS the South and it IS a pickup.

Year i was born. If i had the kind of money where the cost of a classic car wouldn't matter i would have a Wildcat or LeSabre convertible from 1956.

IIRC, the '54 was the car of the year and they were basically the same all 3 years.

We used to drive a 1973 Electra. Had a trunk big enough to live in.

We'll just nuke the shit out of the Sun. It'll be yooooge.

That Doomsday Preppers show is a real hoot to watch. At the end of each episode, the experts explain how infinitessimally small the chance is of whatever they fear is going to happen.

their fears and exaggerations, and the low probabilities.

..."prepper", they are considered crazy to be preparing for TEOTWAWKI. And a solar event like Carrington is one of the things that preppers consider when preparing.

and we all thought they were insane with their predictions.

There was a staggering amount of old code in the system (written in COBOL, etc.) that would have gone haywire, some of the problems quite subtle and hard to find.

Quite a few systems did choke on Y2K, even after extensive code reviews and testing.

If an 1859 level event doesn't collapse the system, it will be because we made adequate preparations.

Secretly I cheer for any catastrophe that nudges us in the direction of a better society, held back only by the knowledge that our current society is increasingly brittle and that the people most hurt by any collapse would be the least deserving of the consequences.

of reviews and coding for many of our commercial applications. We knew we could do it and that eve we had systems monitoring across the world for any hiccups. There was not one.

I had some people tell me after Y2K that none of the extensive work we did was needed. I told them bullshit! Zillions of people worked very hard to make the transition a success. It is today, extremely brittle. I don't think most lay people have any conception of how fragile a technological society we live in.

Small ones not only happen often, but our grids are under constant daily attack, and an eventual serious grid disaster as a result of enemy attack or solar activity is not only NOT an if but a when, where, how bad, and perhaps how many.

BTW, the third national GridEx exercise was scheduled for November 18-19, but like the others the results are being kept quiet. The vast majority of us are dependent for our lives on outside supplies of water, food, and in many regions at different times of year energy, and the government itself says we really, really need to plan to take care of ourselves when supplies fail. Most rural dwellers aren't in any better shape food-wise; and in fact, vital supplies and eventual restoration of power will go first to densely populated areas.

Even a lousy three-week period in, say, the RFC zone and parts of the adjacent ones, of no water from the taps, food in most homes and stores effectively gone in 5 days, toilets that don't flush (but would be used anyway), and winter temperatures in homes with no alternate heating source would lead to thousands of deaths, at the least depending. Many who would die or do poorly without medications also have no real backup supply. Projections for the increase in deaths as each week passes are scary, and we should be scared.

How about if the WECC region went down in August?



Why not put in over time a 6-month supply of food, water, and medicines with 1-year-plus shelf lives that are routinely consumed anyway, including salt and vitamins? Just pick up extras with each shopping? If even a quarter of us did, an entire region would end up far, far better off than now. As it is, the average home has less than a week's food, almost no water, and in the cities maybe 2-3 days of food. (Can't fill up the bathtub before the pumps stop running if you're at work 20 miles from home when the power goes off.) How would typically scattered families communicate?

BTW, those lightweight- plastic bottles of water at the grocery store leak pretty easily over time. Buy thick, sturdy ones and store them in the crawl space, or side yard, back shed, under the bed after putting plastic risers on the legs, wherever, and mostly forget them except to add more. Same with rice --lasts practically forever if bugs and moisture are kept out. We're in Florida now, and I haven't followed my own advice down here, but we do have several bags on the bottom shelf of the freezer.

Keeping, say, 3 bottles of ordinary chlorine bleach on hand, replacing each as it's used, for water purification is extremely cheap and easy-peasy for someone who doesn't want to fuss over "what probably will never happen." About 15 drops, or something, per gallon, then letting sit for a while is extremely effective. At least 3 large bottles because you'll want extra to help the neighbors stay healthy too.

Buy sturdy plastic bags, and at first warning double a couple up and put them in a designated toilet -- before someone uses one that can't be flushed, or shouldn't be when water is a problem. Potty chemicals and even camping portapotties are good things to have, but bags that can be tied up and taken away to bury will accomplish most of it.

Easy, sensible stuff for anyone, without becoming an official "Prepper," but at very least it'll keep some here from some unfortunate region(s) from spending long hours in FEMA lines getting handouts. It's also a duty to ourselves and our communities not to let very foreseeable disasters turn us into needy victims.

"I don't think most lay people have any conception of how fragile a technological society we live in." Eventually something will happen and it will be a major wake up call and I hope it's not too late. Just here under normal conditions, for example, we get many fluctuations in the power grid. I like the summary you sent. I saved it.

Thank you, btw. Given the realities, this subject should be brought up for discussion more often. Stories of wingnut-degree "preppers" seem to have given even sensible disaster preparedness a bad name.

At the place I worked most aspects of production, quality control, inventory, and distribution were highly automated. We had some training in doing things manually should the unthinkable happen, but damn, it was slow and I'm absolutely certain the military would have had first dibs on everything; maybe for the simple reason they'd probably be the ones delivering fuel for the monster Caterpillar standby generators. Sorry, grandma.

I always liked it when the generators were being tested. The entire building vibrated like a big ship, and you'd get occasional whiffs of diesel exhaust. I'd had some great adventures on ships.

We live in a place where large food grade plastic shipping containers are easily available 55 gallon barrels, 330 gallon IBC totes, the sorts of containers products like bulk olive oil or jams and jellies are shipped in.

Washed out using biodegradable soap, wash and rinse water used in garden, they are great for storing water.

My parents are artists, not preppers of any sort, but they live in a place where they drink and bathe in the water that falls on their roof, and buy food from local farmers. Civilization could be collapsing and I can easily imagine them going a few days thinking their satellite dish is broken. Okay, I exaggerate, but not much. They actually get their news from the local internet guru who lives in the same community because he is a prepper.

I guess the only downside of that would be nuclear war. Radioactive fallout was a huge concern during the dark ages of open air nuclear weapons testing.

made sure the transition went okay. I just knew that people like you were working on it. Of course.

Interesting comments from the medical equipment side, Hunter. So many preppers seem to foolishly assume governments at all levels would just disappear, same with the military.

We're not nearly as self sufficient as your parents, but we're wintering here in an isolated place by a pond and marsh in rural Florida, and sometimes we don't turn on communications for two or three days. So I understand the "exaggerate, but not much." It's not uncommon for me to be shocked into reconnecting by the realization that amazing things could have happened in the world while the big news here was that the sandhill cranes tore up our screens again.

Water's 25 feet away here, but up in Georgia the nearest natural water is a lake a couple hundred yards down a steep hill, so we really should have a couple of those containers ready to rig up at the downspouts. I've thought of it but never got in action. That dying of thirst was not a concern would be no comfort in the middle of a heart attack.

That's a rather simplistic way to look at mere contingency plans.

When people do it, they're considered nutcases. That was my point.
When people do it, they're considered nutcases. That was my point.
When people do it, they're considered nutcases. That was my point.
When people do it, they're considered nutcases. That was my point.



When people do it, they're considered nutcases. That was my point.When people do it, they're considered nutcases. That was my point.When people do it, they're considered nutcases. That was my point.When people do it, they're considered nutcases. That was my point.



When people do it, they're considered nutcases. That was my point.
When people do it, they're considered nutcases. That was my point.
When people do it, they're considered nutcases. That was my point.
When people do it, they're considered nutcases. That was my point.
When people do it, they're considered nutcases. That was my point.
When people do it, they're considered nutcases. That was my point.



When people do it, they're considered nutcases. That was my point.When people do it, they're considered nutcases. That was my point.When people do it, they're considered nutcases. That was my point.When people do it, they're considered nutcases. That was my point.When people do it, they're considered nutcases. That was my point.When people do it, they're considered nutcases. That was my point.When people do it, they're considered nutcases. That was my point.


When people do it, they're considered nutcases. That was my point.When people do it, they're considered nutcases. That was my point.


When people do it, they're considered nutcases. That was my point.
When people do it, they're considered nutcases. That was my point.
When people do it, they're considered nutcases. That was my point.
When people do it, they're considered nutcases. That was my point.

and an occasional Yahoo story appears every once in a while. Odds are it will happen once in a millenium, though...better stock up on those candles

I put my money on nothing catastrophic during an extreme space weather event. Someone is making some serious money on all the contract to replace new equipment and upgrades to safe guard against this.

"prediction" crops up with astonishing regularity. All of the communications satellites will be fried. The entire infrastructure will stop working. And so on and so forth.

How is it they are never right?

but this is the kind of protection needed in the event of nuclear war-generated electro-magnetic pulses, which would have exactly the same effect. With the addition of the radioactive fall-out, of course.

The whole "solar event" could be cover for far more sinister planning.

Bet you a quarter.

Of course, since the whole economic system would collapse and the internet wouldn't work, i wouldn't actually have to pay you if you're right.

Kind of cheating, ain't i?

If the internet, and all of civilization, collapses, collecting that will give me a reason to go on.

Ok, 28 cents it is!

I suppose a plan of some sort should be in place for every possible far fetched cataclysm.

Doesn't mean anyone thinks the chances of it happening are anything but beyond remote.

A serious solar flare can knock out many things, not just communication satellites, but GPS (never mind stuff on Earth itself) and if GPS bit the dust, a LOT of things will go with it, and I don't just mean getting lost in Boston.

Further, as we move to automated driving, there are just more and more things at stake.

I'm fully supportive of taking preventative measures.

They had been waiting for an excuse to openly promote the Dark Age, and Obama's opposition was too much to resist