2 Weeks Ago, a Huge Solar Flare Almost Knocked Out Power Nationwide … Which Could Have Caused Nuclear Meltdowns from Coast-to-Coast

Posted on August 4, 2013 by WashingtonsBlog

Whew … That Was Close

We’ve sounded the alarm for years that a large solar flare – like the one we had in 1859 – could cause worldwide nuclear meltdowns … and numerous other problems.
2 weeks ago, we just barely dodged the bullet.
Washington Examiner reports:

The earth barely missed taking a massive solar punch in the teeth two weeks ago, an “electromagnetic pulse” so big that it could have knocked out power, cars and iPhones throughout the United States.
Two EMP experts told Secrets that the EMP flashed through earth’s typical orbit around the sun about two weeks before the planet got there.
“The world escaped an EMP catastrophe,” said Henry Cooper, who lead strategic arms negotiations with the Soviet Union under President Reagan, and who now heads High Frontier, a group pushing for missile defense.
“There had been a near-miss about two weeks ago, a Carrington-class coronal mass ejection crossed the orbit of the Earth and basically just missed us,” said Peter Vincent Pry, who served on the Congressional EMP Threat Commission from 2001-2008. He was referring to the 1859 EMP named after astronomer Richard Carrington that melted telegraph lines in Europe and North America.
“Basically this is a Russian roulette thing,” added Pry. “We narrowly escape from a Carrington-class disaster.”
Pry, Cooper, and former CIA Director James Woolsey have been recently demanding that Washington prepare the nation’s electric grid for an EMP, either from the sun or an enemy’s nuclear bomb. They want the 2,000-3,000 transformers in the grid protected with a high-tech metal box and spares ready to rebuild the system. Woolsey said knocking out just 20 would shut down electricity to parts of the nation “for a long time.”
But Washington is giving them the cold shoulder, especially the administration. Woolsey told Secrets that some in Congress are interested in the issue, but the administration is just in the “beginnings” of paying attention.
***
The EMP effect is not rare. One occurred in Canada in 1989, knocking out Quebec’s electric transmission system. And North Korea is reportedly testing a device to attack the U.S. with an EMP attack.
The trio appeared at an event in Washington this week, but Pry said getting the nation’s leaders interested in the issue is difficult and educating the public about EMP hard too. “The education curve isn’t going up fast enough,” he said.

It would cost a pittance to protect our nuclear plants from such a flare.
But it’s hard to get politicians’ attention when they’re focused on throwing money at corporate welfare queens, insane military and security boondoggles and pork, harmful quantitative easing, unnecessary nuclear subsidies,  the failed war on drugs, and other frivolities.