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An Exercise To Model a "Solar Radiation Katrina"
Hugh Pickens writes in with an update on the warnings we discussed a year back about the dangers of a "solar Katrina." Now NPR is reporting on a tabletop exercise mounted in Boulder, Colorado by government workers attempting to model the effects of a worst-case solar electromagnetic storm. "...an exercise held in Boulder, Colorado, has investigated what might happen if the Earth were struck by a solar storm as intense as the huge storms that occurred in 1921 and 1859 — a sort of solar Katrina — and researchers found that the impact is likely to be far worse than in previous solar storms because of our growing dependence on satellites and other electronic devices that are vulnerable to electromagnetic radiation. 'In many ways, the impact of a major solar storm resembles that of a hurricane or an earthquake,' says FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate, except that a solar Katrina would cause damage in a much larger area — power could be knocked out almost simultaneously in countries from Sweden to Canada and the US. In the exercise, the first sign of trouble came when radiation began disrupting radio signals and GPS devices, says Tom Bogdan, who directs the Space Weather Prediction Center. Ten or 20 minutes later electrically charged particles 'basically took out' most of the commercial satellites that transmit telephone conversations, TV shows, and huge amounts of data we depend on in our daily lives. But the worst damage came nearly a day later, when the solar storm began to induce electrical currents in high voltage power lines strong enough to destroy transformers around the globe, leaving millions of people in northern latitudes without power."
What does a solar flare have to do with Katrina?
Katrina was just another boring hurricane, like all the others that hit the southern US every year, with the following exceptions:
1) It hit one of the most corrupt cities in the entire country, with the possible exception of Chicago and NYC, so none of the disaster "preparations" worked because the upper class criminals siphoned off all the funds.
2) Everyone left the coastal cities except the lower class criminals and the folks so dumb that they lived underneath sea level but "couldn't" leave.
So what does that have to do with a solar flare? It would affect entire hemispheres not just one corrupt city. Nowhere to evac to anyway.
It would probably resemble the great NYC power outage more so than any weather phenomena.
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
How much extra money should I give up in taxes and how many more personal freedoms should I relinquish before my government will make me feel safe?!?!?!?
I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own.
Every adult in NOLA had a lifetime to work to escape or to prepare for disaster. Gulf hurricanes are no surprise, and there is no reason except sentiment ("I love my slum!") to cling to the vulnerable parts of New Orleans.
"but if they could afford a safer place they'd choose it."
Don't underestimate denial and stupidity. Most of the folks on the bottom of society aren't there by accident.
"This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."