Solar scientists have diagnosed that event as basically a GEOS X-Class solar flare that had flooded all sunward facing parts of the Earth with a huge magnetic flux wave. The flare acted much like an EMP attack - but instead of attacking a single country it was a natural event that happened across the whole hemisphere facing the sun.
The Carrington Event of 1859 made telegraph machines catch fire. Can you imagine what that would do today? In a flare that powerful every electronic component on the sunward face of the Earth could get fried: Every vehicle, every appliance, every gas station pump, everything would be gone. Half the planet could be knocked back to pre-Industrial times in 60 minutes.
>> Half the planet could be knocked back to pre-Industrial times in 60 minutes <<
Not exactly. You’re confusing the effects of a Carrington Event with the effects of a nuclear EMP.
A nuclear EMP would knock out the power grid and almost all devices that depend on solid-state electronics. But it’s thought that a Carrington Event would mainly destroy the power grid, while leaving most solid-state devices OK.
Still, just stop for a moment to ponder what would happen if the power grid stopped working. Water not pumped, gasoline and diesel not pumped, all Internet-related activities stopped, food shipments halted. Civil order would break down, as food riots swept the nation. We’d be lucky if even 10% of the population could survive.