A Solar Storm Almost Led The US To War With The Soviet Union

a reply to: Kandinsky

My house is insured against falling planes, their parts and even passengers / ice, no joke. Not that I thought I need it, it was in the package already. But if a racoon or marten get´s into your roof, you´re on your self, I learned.

a reply to: Kandinsky
The backup diesels I´ve been seeing when inspecting fire detection systems (they intervene with the backup systems), were all underground at level 2 or deeper. There are huge tanks down there, the leakage sensors alone take up a small room. I think those would be relative* safe.

They are disconnected from the grid and if they startup (makes hell of a rumble if a V24 turbo charged diesel starts up.
*The oil of the motor is always prewarmed. Hint. So it´s connected somehow to mains, again. Here we are again. Nothing is realy safe. And let´s not talk about the controllers that trigger the motor, who are also connected to mains.

A manual hand-start without battery power might be possible if you find a way to rotate the crank fast enough (this thing takes up the room of a small house..)
Edit: I forgot, it´s technically two V12 with clutches on both side of the generator.

a reply to: verschickter

It's as if we'd collectively turn a blind eye to the risk because it's statistically unlikely to occur. I mean it's considered inevitable on one level and yet we haven't had a big one for decades. Who wants to spend budgets and raise taxes to prepare for a worst-case scenario that might not happen for centuries?

And it could happen today.

Likewise, holidays and updating the furnishings take precedence over stashing away a diesel generator (as you mention) in a Faraday caged area. Maybe an FM/AM radio would be useful too? At some point, local govt/territorial army etc would be looking to get organised.

I'm going to check out whether cars would be affected. You mentioning Faraday cages reminded me that cars are Faraday cages on wheels. I want to double-check it

originally posted by: Kandinsky
Other buildings could use Faraday cages built in to their structure and then I wonder if they'd still have problems when the rest of the area hasn't?

I forgot to adress that in my upper post. Not really concentrated today. Most industrial buildings (at least here) are casted concrete. Those walls are full of iron and although not designed to act as a faraday shield, could prevent damage. As long as there is enough iron and it´s interconnected (you can bet if it´s more than two floors). Those irons are also earthed.

Don´t know about tower like buildings (like WTC, it was definitly not casted in contrete all around, it was girders).

Maybe an FM/AM radio would be useful too? At some point, local govt/territorial army etc would be looking to get organised.

As long as you don´t rely on the ionosphere like HAM-radio. It´s always a good advice to have a FM/AM radio receiver with either a crank and or batteries.

a reply to: verschickter

Given the two choices; I reckon life after a solar flare (CME) would be measurably more tolerable than life after nuclear warfare. We'd be set back to an unpredictable degree and the world in general would be OK.

In some ways, it might even do us good to rebuild the infrastructures and be simultaneously humbling. We could collectively take it as a smack on the head with the rolled up newspaper of Mother Nature.

a reply to: Kandinsky
The "first world civilization" will face the most problems. Those who never saw nature or posses useful skills will have a hard time. It will escalate pretty quickly. Those with skills and able to work will face those who have nothing left to offer than violence to get food.

a reply to: verschickter

I guess we'd all struggle in ways we can't predict today. Yep, urban societies would be worse off with all that overcrowding and competition for resources like aid, fuel, food etc. More dependent on infrastructure too.

Rural folk might get by too as long as farmers had access to the fuel economy. Dairy cattle seem tech dependent and the chicken industry is definitely reliant on electricity. If fuel lines were stalled or throttled because of power failures, the knock-on effects could be profound.

Lots to consider there. Glad we're all still here to shoot the s*** about it and no buttons were accidentally pressed back in the Cold War.

a reply to: Kandinsky

Yeah finally back to topic. But I agree, in some way it´s more bearable then full grown nuclear exchange. I mean, power would be out anyways for some days. I worry about the nuclear power plants. I definitly don´t trust the one around my corner either.

Imagine a Dr. Strangelove kind of scenario when a crazy general finds a loophole. Bat# crazy and don´t get me started of some sort of "doomsday"-device, that may really exist. If MAD is not enough.