This is just one of the dozens of potential humbling experiences that could impact our community, our state, our nation, or our world.
Excerpt from "Day of the Dogs" by Doug McIntosh.
"At one moment in time everything we depended upon to make modern life possible failed. Electrical transformers started smoking and then exploded. Overhead power and telphone lines caught fire from the intense EMP surge, just like Telegraph lines had in 1859. We had a large CME in 1859 which had many of the same effects as the 2013 one had. The only difference was the scope and scale of it. No electrical grid back then. No satellite based communication systems either. We dodged the CME bullet in 1859 since we weren't advanced enough to be destroyed. We were advanced enough in 1989 when a CME surge took out the electrical grid in a large part of Canada. The grid went down in winter and cuased great chaos until it was evetually restored some time later. We should have learaned from that. We should have prepared for a repeat. We did not; since we did not we were caught with our pants down the next time it happened.
"Not that some of us were unaware of the EMP threat. Unfortunately, we felt that the threat would come from nuclear missiles fired from either North Korea or Iran. This blinded us to the real threat of EMP, a massive CME from the Sun. The Internet was full of EMP stories and several popular fiction books had been written. Perhaps it was the "Boy Who Cried Wolf" syndrome all over again. We had made it through both Y2K and December 21st, 2012 without incident and so we relaxed. Secure in our arrogance, obsessed with our economic and political problems until the last week of March 2013. It was then the Internet came alive with stories about two massive Coronal Mass Ejections from the Sun. The first one was an X 63 and the second one was an aftershock of X 56. Scientists claimed the first one would hit the earth and take out Europe to the Urals in Russia and Africa, North and South America and the Mid East. The second one would hit twelve hours later and take out Asia, Australia, China, Siberia and the Pacific Islands. We were facing a global take down of advanced energy powered nations in a matter of a few days. The only reason it took that long, some five days, was the CME was so huge it slowed down. Scientists couldn't explain this, although it did give us time to contemplate our doom.
"We were probably the first advanced civilization to know the exact date of our demise: April 1st, 2013 at 11 a.m. Pacific Standard Time. This story is an eyewitness account of that final week of civilization. I still find it ironic our collapse happened on April fool's Day.
"Some would say God was judging us, or maybe the Universe was taking us down a notch for our pride. I think we were merely the target of a random natural solar cycle, which has come before and will come again. For all our pride and self absorption we were not done in by anything we did. We did not nuke ourselves to death, or commit ecological suicide, or be dstroyed by the favorite mantra called Global Wrming. Our pride was humbled by the Sun belching.
"In the grand cosmic scheme of things our demise was a case of solar indigestion. Our advanced society was belched back into the 18th century. Given what happened, all the deaths and misery cause, it is best to not add additional guilt upon us few miserable survivors. I like to believe it wasn't personal. We were arrogant and now we are not."