From my military service, I understood the risks from a nuclear attack EMP, but I had not done much reading on how a naturally occurring EMP from the sun could take out our electrical grid for weeks, months and in some cases perhaps years.
You can read more from this Lloyd's of London report: Solar storm risk to the North American electric grid.
The key issue I see is the interdependencies that are linked to electrical power. Our water and waste water systems, for example, won't function without electrical power, let alone all the other aspects of our modern society.
And, of course, EMP is not the only threat. NBC News aired a segment last weekend about physical threats to our electrical grid, especially transformer stations. This is the first detailed popular media account that I've seen about the attack on a substation in Silicon Valley that happened last year. That really got people's attention! Special briefings were conducted here on the West Coast for other electrical system purveyors and law enforcement following the attack.
