Nope, this isn’t about the television show 48 Hours.  This is about the book by the same name written by our friend Bill Forstchen.  As many of you know Bill is a neighbor here in the town of Black Mountain and author of the NY Times bestselling “One Second After” series, or as he refers to them; the “John Matherson Series” in reference to the main character in the trilogy.  But for most, “One Second After” is the seminal book that got the world to wake up to the frailty of our power grid.

In this more recent book, the threat to our grid isn’t from terrorists looking to do us harm, but rather a natural phenomenon of major proportion.  We’ve all heard of solar flares, and a few of us know of coronal mass ejections (“CME’s”), but most people have no idea what they are and what they do to our wired world.  NASA routinely turns the International Space Station and private companies reposition satellites away from our Sun during these events in an effort to limit damage to sensitive electronics.  Fortunately, our world is protected by a magnetosphere which usually deflects these bursts of radiation from the Sun which can be visually enjoyed as the “Northern Lights”.  However, in 1859, a major CME/Solar Flare erupted and fried the burgeoning communications systems of the day, mainly telegraph lines.  Scientists in upper echelons of government and academia concede that if an event equal to that were to occur today, our dependence on wireless communications and sensitive electronics in everything from pace makers to smart watches would likely be fried.  In fact, in July 2012, the Sun experienced an equally sized event, however, fortunately for us, the Earth wasn’t in its direct path.   Daniel Baker of the University of Colorado wrote a paper for NASA on the event and said that had it occurred two months earlier, we’d have been fried.

Fortunately, there is a solar observatory satellite that monitors the Sun’s activity and depending on the type of event, we might have two to three days of warning.  Its this premise that starts 48 Hours in which the characters must decide what to do knowing that within 48 hours their lives, and the majority of humanity could be lost.  Is there a way to save some?  If so, whom?  Should the public be warned since there is nothing that can be done to stop it, and therefore allow people to go about blissfully unaware?  If they’re warned, would panic ensue?  Would anyone even want to live on a planet that has been doused with such extreme radiation?  Sounds like science fiction, but this is a very real possibility as it has happened before; just not in our lifetimes.  Hopefully the next time one occurs, it won’t be as strong as the 1859 event, but it could certainly foul up our electric grid or communications.  That alone could be enough to throw our daily lives a curve ball, and if you’re not at least minimally prepared, it could be a disaster for your family.  So take some minimal steps to be prepared for such a thing.  Don’t necessarily mean purchasing a self-contained farm here in the mountains, but do something.  If you have the ability to do more such as acquiring a bugout property, then we’re here to help you in that search.