There was a discussion of a Carrington event on another board. There was a government study a few years back that cited the danger to the large transformers at power plants. The estimated loss is over 300 of the transformers. One factory in Muncie, Indiana used to build them. Yesterday I found on the internet that the equipment was sold off and the building is now used to manufacture railroad locos. AFAIK, we no longer build large transformers in this country. That complicates a recovery tremendously now that those transformers are built overseas. The study says that the power in some areas may not be restored for a time period ranging from months to years.
We have about 1200 of those transformers in the U.S. They take 3 years to build after receipt of order. None are on order. There are no spares. A Carrington style event would wipe out 1/3 of the transformers...mostly in the northern tier states where the magnetic field provides less shielding from a CME impact.
My home is in that red spot in southeast Idaho. We already have power outages during significant thunderstorm activity. Our fresh water is pumped from sub-surface wells using electric pumps. If the power fails, we'll be making regular trips to the river to gather what we can. Purification will be necessary.