{"id":283,"date":"2009-04-20T05:37:00","date_gmt":"2009-04-20T05:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/survive2012.com\/news\/2009\/04\/space-storm-alert.html"},"modified":"2011-07-01T15:00:07","modified_gmt":"2011-07-01T05:00:07","slug":"it-is-midnight-on-22-september-2012-and","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/survive2012.com\/news\/2009\/04\/it-is-midnight-on-22-september-2012-and-283.html","title":{"rendered":"Space Storm Alert"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote><p>It is midnight on 22 September 2012 and the skies above Manhattan are filled with a flickering curtain of colourful light. Few New Yorkers have seen the aurora this far south but their fascination is short-lived. Within a few seconds, electric bulbs dim and flicker, then become unusually bright for a fleeting moment. Then all the lights in the state go out. Within 90 seconds, the entire eastern half of the US is without power.<\/p>\n<p>A year later and millions of Americans are dead and the nation&#8217;s infrastructure lies in tatters. The World Bank declares America a developing nation. Europe, Scandinavia, China and Japan are also struggling to recover from the same fateful event &#8211; a violent storm, 150 million kilometres away on the surface of the sun.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Rather catastrophic stuff for a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.newscientist.com\/article\/mg20127001.300-space-storm-alert-90-seconds-from-catastrophe.html\">New Scientist article<\/a>! However the reason they are reporting it is because the threat is very real indeed. They are referring to the same <a href=\"http:\/\/survive2012.com\/news\/2009\/03\/nasa-impact-of-solar-flare.html\">NASA report<\/a> I mentioned in early March, that highlights the current scenario &#8211; overloaded, out-dated power grids, and a sun that from time to time sends storms our way. Put the two together, and add in our extreme dependence on electricity, and you have a recipe for disaster.<\/p>\n<p>Although it could happen at any time, the peak of the solar cycle offers up more opportunity, hence the 2012 date in the scenario quoted above.<\/p>\n<p>Fortunately on a personal level, this is one disaster that you can survive by having a backup power supply, and plenty of food and water available. Folks in the countryside will have it easier, if they are prepared.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">To me it is extraordinary that the USA isn&#8217;t doing everything in their power to upgrade their power grid <\/span><span style=\"font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;\">today<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">. <\/span>Could they get caught out, due to lack of sensible preparation and precaution, like with Katrina??<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It is midnight on 22 September 2012 and the skies above Manhattan are filled with a flickering curtain of colourful light. Few New Yorkers have seen the aurora this far south but their fascination is short-lived. Within a few seconds, electric bulbs dim and flicker, then become unusually bright for a fleeting moment. Then all the lights in the state go out. Within 90 seconds, the entire eastern half of the US is without power.<br \/>\nA year later and millions of Americans are dead and the nation&#8217;s infrastructure lies in tatters. The World Bank declares America a developing nation. Europe, Scandinavia, China and Japan are also struggling to recover from the same fateful event &#8211; a violent storm, 150 million kilometres away on the surface of the sun.<br \/>\nRather catastrophic stuff for a New Scientist article! However the reason they are reporting it is because the threat is very real indeed. They &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,146,129],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nasa","category-power-grid","category-solar-storm"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/survive2012.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/survive2012.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/survive2012.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/survive2012.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/survive2012.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=283"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/survive2012.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1593,"href":"http:\/\/survive2012.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283\/revisions\/1593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/survive2012.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/survive2012.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/survive2012.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<!-- WP Super Cache is installed but broken. 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