“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
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.
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?
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.
CMEs are not solar flares.
You know those stories where the world is reduced to a post-apocalypse after a natural event? What if that’s only what happens in the US, and the rest of the world recovers with ease due to extant rescue services?
If it wasn’t for the stupid Darrel Dixon show, my head canon of the walking dead only affecting America would still stand.
They literally just walk, and it would be pretty obvious that everyone is infected after the first year or so of people dying from the flu and shit. Any country with competent leadership could have squashed the zombies in a couple months.
After experiencing the covid-19 outbreak I am now fully convinced that a zombie apocalypse is feasible, there would be people denying the existence of the zombie virus, just going to the infected an getting bitten because they wanted a pizza or something, that and people just drenching themselves in bleach or something because they heard that keep the zombies away from some dude online. Stuff like that.
Stuck having to go to work in a zombie apocalypse because you’re an “essential worker”.
Isn’t that the case in the 28 X later series? Like England fell to a zombie apocalypse but the rest of the world is doing fine?
Wellllll the implications of the ending of 28 weeks later is that the rest of the world had a reprieve but are fucked eventually…
Any country with competent leadership could have squashed the zombies in a couple months.
True but you underestimate people stupidity.
Imagine the zombie rights guests on a Joe Rogan podcast.
Exactly
Yeah we need to stop giving dumb idiots microphones
I’ve always thought that if I’m in a zombie apocalypse im just gonna carry super soakers filled with hydrogen peroxide
…and simply agrees to never, ever, set foot in North America.
I’m in.
Not sure, though, how this ploy would work out for our fine fellows in South America, Mexico, and Canada, the ones currently belabored with being the closest neighbours to The Wastelands.
Not sure, though, how this ploy would work out for our fine fellows in South America and Canada, the ones currently belabored with being the closest neighbours…
Fuck Mexico, I guess.
My sincere apologies, Mexico is definitely on the good list.
Just uhhh… Build a wall, I guess?
I remember a Tumblr (maybe) post with a similar concept, but about Australia and the Mad Max series.
Oooh, so that’s why apocalyptic movies are almost always only US oriented
There are A LOT of BIG countries with big electric grids in the world today. Which countries GRIDS get hit the worst depends on which side of the Earth is facing the ‘hit’. Could the West (US, Brazil) or Europe or the East (China, India).
It is a little more complex than that. You cannot only consider how big is a country or how big is its grid.
If the Europe would be hit by a solar storm, assuming that not all of it was hit we can recover the grid in about a month and the blackout would not be longer than maybe a week.But a solar storm would destroy also everything else, so how big is the grid is really irrelevant when you basically have every other piece (excluded the few hardened enough) destroyed.
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.
That wouldn’t be an off grid building then.
As an amateur radio operator, The high bands get wiped first! 80, 160, not so much (no ionosphere? ground wave still works. Easy to throw up a long wire … afterward). Hams (esp. ARES) will become VERY IMPORTANT for a LONG time when it happens. Field Day is a good way to prep for aftermath. (Gear can go into metal containers to escape parts damage until afterward.) Portable generators (best without a lot of electronics on them) will be needed to re-charge the batteries!
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 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.
the Faraday is enough for any solar flare
Faraday cages are useful. But CMEs are not solar flares. They are very different (though sometimes loosely correlated) phenomena.
I don’t think it will matter. We need modern logistics to produce and get food to people. Without that 90% of people will starve in the first few months.
It’s good to have supplies for regional disasters and events that only last a few weeks or months. But if the national grid is going to be out for a year or more and things like fuel and food can’t be transported and stored at key locations then it’s all going to shit.
you cab use it unless you have it.
get what you need, take what you want.
They said we weren’t prepared for a pandemic, either.
Shit we gotta fix this.
Don’t look up
Man you know it’s bad when you’re rooting for this or a civil war or nukes. Just to reset everything. I’m so over being an American.
If it makes you feel better, even if you migrate to another country and gain citizenship, you still have to pay income taxes to the US.
You won’t have to pay anything unless you’re pulling in the equivalent of >$126,500 USD in foreign income. Then you’re taxed on what you make above that. My H&R Block lady here in Germany told me all about it when I file every year. And boy howdy is fuuuuucking stupid that I’m having to file US taxes every year. I could stop, but then everything falls apart for me.
This is news to me and so fucked up for a country that considers itself “land of the free”. I hate it here.
If you want to renounce your US citizenship to get away from that onerous requirement, you have to pay a fee (about $2k) and also get screwed on a lot of US taxes on investments (forcing you to treat all capital gains as realized, for example). Part of my definition of freedom is that you don’t have to pay someone money for permission to leave.
That $126,500 number refers to the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion (FEIE), but it’s not a hard threshold below which you’re totally off the hook. U.S. citizens abroad still have to file a tax return if their income exceeds the standard filing requirement (around $14k+ for single filers). And the FEIE only applies to earned income, not investment income or retirement income. It’s not automatic, you have to qualify under the bona fide residence or physical presence test, and file the right forms (like Form 2555) to claim it.
Even if you’re making well under $126k, you still have to file, and you might owe something depending on your situation.
I’ve filed for 7 years straight and never owed a cent. Oddly, got a little back, 2 years straight. Might have been the covid money, which even more laughable as I didn’t set foot, much less work, in the US for the entirety of the pandemic. Single, no property or other taxable assets and no additional sources of income outside my monthly paycheck from my Euro employers. If I, me broke that $126k threshold, then I’d have to pay something. Getting there. Let’s see if the USA doesn’t collapse on itself first*
(* I hope not.)
If the country has a bilateral tax agreement with the US and your income is not high by middle-class standards, you can deduct the foreign tax from the US tax. Foreign tax is typically higher if you’re anywhere in Europe of the developed world (leaving out the Gulf countries and Saudi Arabia). You still have to file in the US, which is an inconvenience and an expense, but you’re unlikely to be double-taxed.
good thing we got rid of fema in 2025 then
im just not gonna worry about the sun
It’s gonna get you!
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…
Prior to Trump and his saboteurs getting into office, US grid operators were pretty good at planning for these events.
