Prepare For The Mega Flare!

Although we've dodged the severe solar flare bullets for the passed 100 years the threat of a MEGA flare are still very real. So real is this threat that FEMA along with other agencies and countries have recognized the seriousness of the solar threat and over the past year or so have begun stepping up their efforts to educate themselves on how to prepare for an incoming direct hit from a MEGA flare and how to go about handling the possible long term effects on civilization.

An intense geomagnetic storm began on February 25, 2010, during a particularly cold weather outbreak in the Northeastern U.S. and Northern Europe. Significant electric power grid problems occurred, and a massive power fluctuation affected the transmission grid. Within one hour, cascading power outages were reported throughout the eastern and mid-Atlantic U.S. and eastern Canada.

Power stations reported numerous generator step-up transformers and transmission transformers out of commission, with projected replacements and repairs taking weeks and even months. This raised immediate concern of a critical infrastructure collapse with loss of water distribution, sewage disposal, hospital care, phone service, and fuel resupply. Satellite outages were reported, and cell phones experienced significant service disruptions.

Significant problems were also reported in Northern Europe. Power outages were reported in large areas of southern Sweden, Scotland, Northern England, and the upper tip of Northern Europe. The power outage's effects on international air transport and financial markets were widespread.

The extreme geomagnetic storm lasted for 24 hours, ending late on February 26. Full recovery of the U.S. power grid is expected to take six months. Many populated areas are expected to be without power for weeks or months.

Here is the .PDF from FEMA on a workshop they had on February 23 and 24, 2010 in Boulder, CO. inwhich the above external text was taken:
Managing Critical Disasters in the Transatlantic Domain: The Case of a Geomagnetic Storm - Workshop Summary

NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center released this statement back in 2009:

Although its peak is still four years away, a new active period of solar storms will be the weakest since 1928, predicts an international panel of experts led by NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center and funded by NASA. Despite the prediction, Earth is still vulnerable to a severe solar storm.

Solar storms are eruptions of energy and matter that escape from the sun and may head toward Earth, where even a weak storm can damage satellites and power grids, disrupting communications, the electric power supply and GPS. A single strong blast of "solar wind" can threaten national security, transportation, financial services and other essential functions.

The panel predicts the upcoming "Solar Cycle 24" will peak in May 2013 with 90 sunspots per day on average. If the prediction proves true, Solar Cycle 24 will be the weakest cycle since number 16, which peaked at 78 daily sunspots in 1928, and ninth weakest since the 1750s, when numbered cycles began.

The most common measure of a solar cycle's intensity is the number of sunspots-Earth-sized blotches on the sun marking areas of heightened magnetic activity. The more sunspots there are, the more likely it is that solar storms will occur, but a major storm can occur at any time.

"As with hurricanes, whether a cycle is active or weak refers to the number of storms, but everyone needs to remember it only takes one powerful storm to cause huge problems," said NOAA scientist Doug Biesecker, who chairs the panel. "The strongest solar storm on record occurred in 1859 during another below-average cycle." The storm shorted out telegraph wires, causing fires in North America and Europe, sent readings of Earth's magnetic field soaring, and produced northern lights so bright that people read newspapers by their light. A recent report by the National Academy of Sciences found that if a storm that severe occurred today, it could cause $1-2 trillion in damages the first year and require four to 10 years for recovery.

As the world economy becomes more reliant on satellite-based communications and interlinked power grids, interest in solar activity has grown dramatically.
(excerpt from www.noaanews.noaa.gov...)

NASA has already began warning the international community as you can read in this article:
Nasa warns solar flares from 'huge space storm' will cause devastation

With the current solar maximum set to peak sometime between December 21st, 2012 thru May 2013 the urgency to begin preparing for a direct hit from a MEGA flare is real and the governments of the world realize it.
So should YOU!

Approach preparation as if you're going on at least a 6 month camping trip. Of coarse, first and foremost is having at minimum a 6 month supply of water & food for you and your family. Remember, there's the chance that the electrical grid will be down for months or more and our public water supply is run on electricity so there would be no water from your faucets, no flushing of your toilets, and little to no distribution of water to the public by FEMA due to trucks not being able to refuel their gas tanks because the gas pumps are also controlled by electricity.

Propane fuel is relatively cheap and can help with heating up outdoor gas grills to cook food. Again, have at least a 6 month supply.

Finally, protection for your family is essential for survival in such a scenerio where people who weren't prepared begin looting homes for food and water...YOUR food and water!

Other preparations are required but the two I stated are the most important for providing and protecting you and your family. Call this fear-mongering or paranoia if you want but realize this is a real possiblity and scientists and governments are finally taking it seriously. So should you.

As always it's "hope for the best, prepare for the worst", and if the governments of the world are preparing for a total collapse of civilization, and they are (see: Doomsday Seed Vault) then we need to take our own survival into our own hands instead of relying on others to provide for us.

We learned our lesson the hard way --during an ice storm a few years ago in NE Texas. Since then, we have prepared ourselves for the possibility that we may someday have to exist without electricity and all the comforts we have come to rely upon. If the power grid goes out, we can survive by growing our own crops, hunting and fishing.

I'm glad this one wasn't a direct hit but it does emphasize how active the sun has been getting. We might not be so lucky over the next year or two...

reply to post by AstroBuzz


S & F.

I don't think it's fear-mongering to recognize a potential threat to our society and consider the implications and responses; something does not have to be a "clear and present danger" to warrant careful consideration.

A strong flare dead on could knock us back to the days of horse and buggy travel. Anyone looked under the hood of their car in the last 20 years? All those little electronic boxes could suddenly let all the "magic blue smoke" out and stop working.

And that's just the tip of the iceberg. All those big urban areas would soon eat through the supplies on store shelves, and then they'd have to pack it in and leave; there would be no more trucks loaded with food delivering to the cities for quite some time.

It would be the barter system again, and mostly within a modest area of travel; as far as a horse or your feet can take you in a day or so. I might shoot two rabbits and three squirrels and trade them for fifty pounds of cornmeal, grown locally.