Consider the graphic produced by the Army regarding Nuclear Survivability (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d3/EMP_mechanism.GIF). Now multiply that and include Canada. You have millions of square miles.
As far as info on the 2003 storm, Google is helpful, or Bing. Also consider though that the storm in 1989 left 6 million without power. BUt regarding 2003, here is a summary from "The Sun Today:"
On this day in 2003 (October 28), the Sun unleashed one of the largest and most geoeffective solar storms of the modern age (and consequently, one of the most studied). The eruption was part of what became known as the Halloween storms; two weeks in October and November of that year when two massive sunspot groups produced unprecedented solar activity. The SOHO satellite watched the events unfold. On October 26th, Active Region 10486 had grown to over 10 times the diameter of the Earth and could be seen with the naked eye from Earth. Two days later the region was directly inline with our planet when it released a flare with the energy of fifty billion atomic bombs. The accompanying coronal mass ejection (CME) raced past SOHO at a phenomenal 2300 kilometers per second! Most CMEs take 2 to 3 days to cross the 150 million kilometers between the Sun and the Earth. This one made it in less than 18 hours. The impending cloud of charged particles would have been too much for even the SOHO spacecraft, a satellite which was designed to study the Sun. The operators put many of the instruments (including the one I was using for my PhD research!) into safe-mode rather that risk them getting damaged. Systems on Earth were not so fortunate. Many satellites in earth orbit began behaving erratically. Airlines redirected polar flights to below the Arctic circle, resulting in major delays across the US. Additionally, planes were instructed to fly at much lower altitudes (25,000 ft instead of 35,000 ft) where the thicker atmosphere protected the passengers and crew from harmful radiation, but also resulted in millions of dollars of additional fuel being used.
In other parts of the world, the situation wasn’t much better. Power grids in Sweden were overloaded resulting in prolonged blackouts. Power consumption at two nuclear stations in New Jersey had to be reduced to prevent similar disruption.
“As far as info on the 2003 storm, Google is helpful...”
I see this, for instance: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coronal_mass_ejection
No mention of 2003, nor power outages. Nor do I remember anything like that in ‘03 myself.
You said millions of people were without power in N.E US and Canada.
Seems like I’d remember that.
So I tried “2003 solar storm” and found this on CNN:
“Airline navigation systems and satellite phones are feeling the effects of unexpectedly turbulent solar weather, but no widespread problems were reported Friday when a cloud of superheated gases reached Earth’s upper atmosphere”
Anything else?