“The exercise was held from May 8 to 9, 2024, at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, and at a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) site in Denver, Colorado.”
Article refers to a PDF of the report it’s based on:
https://www.jhuapl.edu/sites/default/files/2025-04/Space-Weather-TTX-Report-Summary-v3-FINAL.pdf
I’m not a doomsday prepper, but stuff like this makes me want to sequester some gear…
I have an old safe where i keep some old tech and power banks - just junk really but the Faraday is enough for any solar flare and i think it looks cool. Not sure what good that would do if all cell towers and satellites are fried though. Even fiber is unlikely to operate as I imagine most switches are not secured.
Last time I did research on this I came out entirely unconvinced of value of prepping here. Just the usual water, gas stove and bags of rice is really best bet and invest everything else back to local communities because economies of scale kicks ass.
Do you replace the power banks to keep them charged to 70%? Maybe also add some ham radios and walkie talkies to the stash.
Yeah it’s a safe in my office and I often go back to it for small projects so the stuff mostly works and in good contion just instead of a plastic box its a big ol’ iron safe as a lazy precaution and decoration.
One note on safe as a Faraday though is that it has to be a full metal without any rubber seals as any gaps will leak so an old safe is often perfect for this. It also needs to be closed so you want to disable the lock as it’s pita to use otherwise and you’ll never touch the devices there.
As you pointed out key to sustainable tech is that it has to be used from time to time as if you just put it away in a basement or something it might as well be as good as dead.
you cab use it unless you have it.
get what you need, take what you want.
Note: “Would Be a Catastrophe” even back when the agencies involved in mitigating the disaster still existed.
Oy. I really don’t want to see what happens when we’re faced with an actual challenge. This is… yikes.
It’s all right, Trump will redirect the solar flare by drawing a new line on a chart. Plasma is very accommodating as everybody is well aware.
I would get a case of beer and go to the library and read until the internet was back on. You can’t stop my escapism that easily.
I think it might take a little longer to get everything back up and running than you’re anticipating. Also what library haven’t they all closed down now?
lol we couldn’t even prepare for fascist takeover of the country. why tf would anyone think we’d be prepared for a solar firestorm
Invest in metal stoves and big tents today!
I’m glad this threat is at least starting to be taken seriously. As an amateur radio operator, I got incredibly interested in how the weather on the sun affects radio propagation and power management here on Earth.
Better a CME than an EMP just simply because there is at least some time to prepare for a massive CME. Whereas an EMP has absolutely no warning whatsoever.
In the event of a massive CME off-grid homes and buildings are likely to fare much better because they are not connected to the power grid. The problem comes with long transmission lines where incredibly large charge differentials can build up over distance. shorter wires can’t build up nearly the same amount of charge differential.
Edit: I feel it’s important to mention that grid tie systems are going to be just as vulnerable as on grid because you still have the grid actually physically connected to the building.
It’s worth noting that even though a building might have solar, the systems usually disable themselves in the event of a blackout to prevent back feeding into the grid.
That’s known as a grid tie system and my edit mentions that. The only way it’s going to help is if the grid is physically disconnected from the building as in the wire is not connected to the building at any point.
Unless I’m missing something here, thats what an LVD should do, and anyone grid-connected with solar should have.
During a normal power outage, you’re right. That does keep you isolated on your own island. But in a case like this, the voltage is likely to spike to incredibly high levels on wires that aren’t meant to carry it and cause arcing and possibly fires. That’s why you want to be physically disconnected.
Got it, at that point (extremely high voltage) you’d need suppression at the panel. Which I would hope people have inline, but not expect like an LVD.
That wouldn’t be an off grid building then.
Im starting to think the fermi paradox is based around what philosophy it follows. “Efficiency” like lean or robustness like six sigma.
If a transmissions company tried to spend money preparing for a disaster like this, their shareholders would sue them into the ground and lobby to make it illegal to acknowledge the existence of the sun.
I mean, having a tested and proven DR/BCM plan is kind of an important part of being a serious business…
