Coronal Mass Chaos

Coronal Mass Chaos

The ground rumbled, rocking me from sleep as the fourth fire truck screamed past. I rubbed my face with my hands then leaned over the front seat to turn on my battery-operated police scanner.

That’s odd, nothing but static. It’s so dark outside. What happened to the street lights? There must be a power outage.

I put the keys in the ignition and powered up the radio. No music on any of my usual stations. I selected “search” and caught the end of the annoying alert buzz of the emergency public broadcast system.

“At 4:45 am. North America was struck by a severe solar flair, knocking out power to all major cities on the East Coast. Stay tuned for more information. Repeat…”

I shut off the radio, unzipped my sleeping bag, grabbed my gym bag and coat, and stepped out onto the street. Dawn was just beginning to illuminate the sky as I locked my truck, looking around to see if anyone might be watching. Twice I’ve had to scare off would-be car thieves while living in my truck.

Rush hour traffic was well underway when I walked to the metro line nearest Columbia University. Huh, I was greeted by a dark and empty subway entrance. I’ll just have to walk. The roads had already turned into a parking lot. Six blocks later I was at the 24-hour gym where I still had two months left on my membership. I went inside to find Frank Morrison sitting behind the reception desk with a flashlight fumbling with putting batteries in an old portable radio.

“Morning Frank.”

“Morning Nick. Sorry, but the gym is closed. We only have emergency lighting.”

“Yeah, something about a solar flair knocking down the power grid. Listen, I have a job interview this morning and I need to clean up. Any objection if I use the shower?”

“Oh, alright, here’s an extra flashlight.”

Thankful for the light, I stripped down and stepped into the shower. Fortunately, I rinsed the shampoo out of my hair before the water pressure began to fade and turn off entirely. I had to dry shave, ouch. I brought the flashlight back to Frank.

“How long have you been living out of your car, Nick?”

“It’s a truck and you mean how long have I been homeless? Three months. I was laid off after the summer wildfire season. Fortunately, I have a job interview at the firehouse today.”

“Oh, good for you. So why don’t you move in with your parents while you’re looking for a job?”

“They were both killed in a traffic accident.”

“Oh… sorry Nick. Um, did they leave you anything to help you through this tough time?”

“Yeah, it wasn’t much. I gave it all to my sister. With two kids and no husband, she needed it more than I did.”

“You’re a good brother Nick. I put new batteries in this old radio and they say a massive solar flair hit us. The sun farted and ripped out a critical mass ejection, killing our power grid or something like that.”

“Something like that. Everything is down, including the subway. On the way here, I noticed burnt power lines and melted transformers in the few places where above-ground electric lines still exist. I’ve got to get going, job interview, you know.”

“Good luck. I’ve been hearing sirens all morning. I doubt there’s anyone at the station.”

“I’ll go anyway. Maybe I can volunteer to do something at the firehouse like make sandwiches or answer the phones.”

“You checked your phone lately? I don’t have any service.”

I took out my phone and turned it on.

“Nope, I have zero bars. The cell towers must be out as well.”

“Yeah, what will people do if they can’t play with their phones all day?”

“They might have to talk to each other. You know your water pressure is out of service?”

“No way! How are we gonna flush the toilet? You know things are getting bad if you can’t even flush the toilet. I wonder how long the power will be out?”

“I know it will take some time to replace all those transformers and burnt power lines. Maybe the water company has backup generators so they can start pumping water again,” I said.

“How much time do you suppose it will take them to fix the power grid?”

“No idea, but when I was fighting wildfires upstate, it took as long as two weeks for the power company to fix and replace the burnt lines and turn the power back on. This is an enormous city and it might take months to get everything back online. They’ll focus on critical infrastructure first, like hospitals, emergency services, and communications facilities. I’ll see you tomorrow, Frank.”

“Yeah, good luck on the job thing.”

I hustled back to the truck, knowing I’d have to change clothes fast and walk the 20 blocks to the firehouse. I opened the canopy window and lowered the tailgate. Fortunately, my friend Tony gives me the unsold pizzas after closing each night. I had six stowed in the truck. I picked up a box, settled on the tailgate, and started eating.

“Bark, bark, bark!”

Startled, I looked toward the sidewalk where a stray dog stared up at me.

“Hey there, girl. Where are your guardians?”

“Bark!”

Laughing, I said, “I see you’re homeless like me. I can tell by your tummy you’ve had puppies. Where are you hiding them?”

“Bark! bark!”

“Right, OK, you need some breakfast. I think I’ll call you Lucy. Here you go Lucy, Enjoy.”

She gobbled up the first piece, then looked up, insisting on more. I obliged.

“Gees, Lucy, you’ve already had half a pizza. Come back later and I’ll give you more.”

I folded up the box and seeing she would get no more handouts, trotted down the sidewalk toward the park.

“Cute little dog. I bet her puppies are adorable.”

I found my suit folded away nicely in a garment bag. Normally I would change in the bathroom at the corner restaurant where I know the owner, but they were closed. There were too many people walking by for me to just change while standing behind the truck, so I dressed as well as I could while sitting in the passenger seat. Have you ever tried to change your pants while in a car? It isn’t easy.

I turned the radio to the emergency public broadcast system and heard, “Stay in your homes, public transportation is stopped until further notice, telephone systems are down, including cell phone towers. Authorities are directing the public to stay inside. Only essential emergency personnel are permitted to be outside. Keep the streets clear for emergency vehicles only. The city is experiencing many fires, and the authorities require the roadway to be clear.”

There was a brief pause and then it repeated.

“This is the emergency broadcast system. This is not a test. At 4:45 am. a severe solar flair struck North America knocking out power to all major cities on the East Coast. City water and sewer services are currently offline. There is no estimate of how long the power will be out. Stay in your homes…”

I switched it off, pulled out my keys, and locked the door as I left.

“Slam, bang, crash!” A cascade of glass spilled onto the sidewalk in front of a jewelry store across the street from me. One guy in a hoodie climbed inside and unlocked the door, letting in four more similarly dressed people.

“Looters!” someone shouted behind me.

“Call the cops,” said another voice.

“How? The phones don’t work,” replied the first voice.

It happened about halfway to the station and I kept walking, knowing there was nothing to be done about it just now. Closer to downtown, the crowds became thicker and more desperate. Traffic clogged the streets forcing ambulances to drive on the sidewalks. As I pushed my way through the wall of bodies, I heard a mounted police officer say, “Marshal law is now in effect. Return to your homes immediately unless you are essential personnel. Only firefighters, police, medical workers, or utility workers are permitted outside.” He repeated this several times, but it didn’t appear to be having any effect. I entered the firehouse and went inside. The fire bays were empty except for the Chief’s pickup. Shiny red with glistening decals topped with a rack of emergency lights and antennas. The place looked and sounded deserted. I heard a radio squawk down the hall and headed there.

Chief Rand Caldwell was standing at a whiteboard, marker in one hand, radio in the other.

“Excuse me, Chief Caldwell, I’m Nick Fillmore, a firefighter applying for the job opening.”

“Sure, sure, sit down. I have my hands full right now.”

“I can write information on the whiteboard while you handle the radios if you’d like, sir.”

“I read your resume and you come with high marks. Sure, sure, you keep track of the action and I’ll work the radios.”

“This is Unit 12. We’ve run into a problem, Chief. The hydrant is dry. Is there any chance you can get them to divert water to our location?”

“Negative Unit 12. They aren’t able to make that happen. You will need to go to, let’s see…” He looked at the whiteboard and then said, “Hydrant 276 copy?”

“Copy hydrant 276 Unit 12 out.”

“In New York, we have 218 firehouses with a lot of pumper trucks. They can pump 1,000 to 2,000 gallons per minute, but the tank only holds 500 gallons. Unless we can find a charged hydrant, we’re limited to 500 gallons, and that doesn’t last long.”

“So, there are only a few working hydrants in the city?” I asked.

“Yes, the water plant has backup generators that supply those hydrants. I wish they could supply them all. I tried to get them to fix the problem, but I’m just a small fish Division Chief reporting up the chain of command.”

“I see. So what do you know about the root cause of this problem?”

“Sure, Headquarters briefed us on it yesterday. The sun burped out an enormous bubble of energy called a Coronal Mass Ejection. This pushed billions of tons of particles away from the sun towards us. Most of the time, it’s not a problem because it usually misses us. I have it in my notes here someplace…”

He shuffled through papers on his desk.

“Ah, here it is. When a large solar storm hits the Earth, it can cause a geomagnetic storm which changes the Earth’s magnetic field. Our electric power grids can pick up these electric currents overloading the system, causing large-scale power outages. This can interfere with communications and electronic gear and the systems they rely on, like GPS, cell phone reception, internet, radio and television, banking, air traffic, and emergency response communications. My notes say a solar flare interfered with radio communications all over China in 2011. Solar flares disrupted GPS navigation in 2017. And, I even remember this, back in 1989 Quebec Province in Canada lost power for nine hours. So these things can cause serious damage. The guy said in 1859 a solar storm created what was called the Carrington Event, in which telegraph lines caught on fire and telegraph operators experienced electric shocks. It also disrupted railroad signals. Unfortunately for us, the people at NASA predicted a direct hit, anticipating it would be ten times worse than the Carrington Event. From what I’m seeing, it’s a lot worse.”

“They were sure slow telling the public. The first I heard about it was over the emergency broadcast system this morning and I listen to public radio and other news channels all the time.”

“Sure, sure, the scuttlebutt has it the politicians were worried about widespread panic and wanted to keep the information on a need-to-know basis only. I get it because I stopped at the store and bought some extra toilet paper for the firehouse on the way back from the meeting.”

“If the power company knew about it far enough in advance, they could have temporarily shut down the power grid until the danger passed,” I said.

“I don’t know son, I imagine it takes a long time to do it and people would be screaming if you turned off their power without telling them about it first.”

“Ok, but now they’ll be screaming louder for longer because I know firsthand it will take weeks if not months to bring the power back on in this city, and who knows how much damage the power generation equipment and substations sustained?”

“I know you’re right. We won’t be able to buy a gallon of gas or get fresh groceries because the power is out. This will affect millions of people disrupting the water supply, sewer operation, and trash pick up to name a few obvious issues. The hospitals are going to have their hands full with staggering health issues before this is over. I have hot coffee in my thermos. Would you like some?”

“Thanks Chief, I’ll take you up on the offer.”

“Oh, and by the way, you’re hired. After your shift here today, be back tomorrow at 8 am.”

“Thank you, Chief Caldwell.”

“Sure, sure.”

On the way home, if you can call a pickup parked on the street home, I met a Nurse Practitioner. He was sitting outside the ER looking at a long line of ambulances waiting to drop off patients. Yazid Abbadi his name tag announced.

“On break?”

“Yeah, it’s a zoo in there.”

“I bet. I’m a firefighter and we’re having a tough day too.”

“You know it’s going to get much worse. Right?”

“How so?”

“For starters, unless we get clean water and sanitation back online, people are going to die. Look at what happened in Gaza. Thousands of people suffered from dehydration because of contaminated drinking water which caused severe diarrhea. Dysentery is ugly and particularly hard on infants. Then there are things like cholera, measles, and upper respiratory infections. The same thing is going to happen here.”

I left depressed. When I arrived at my truck, I pulled out another box of pizza and, like magic, Lucy appeared.

“Bark, Bark!”

“I suppose you’re here to collect your half of my pizza?”

“Bark!”

“Here you go, girl. It looks like we’re all going to live the homeless lifestyle for a while.”

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