Google Solid State Circuit Breaker. Then do some reading
Carrington event was a CME producing charged particles which is a vastly different form of EMP than say a gamma ray burst. Unfortunately, both are types of EMP and public conflation of the two is rampant.
Do you think a CME can impart a higher charge to a piece of electrical transmission equipment than a lightening strike?
In the event of a CME people may have to replace their power strips and some electronics. I keep most of my valuable electronics connected via $140 UPSs which incorporate a solid state circuit breaker. Any UPS with line conditioning has one. “Click-click” and it’s over.
The worst thing that can happen in a CME is ppls houses will catch fire as their power strips blow past all their breaker wires and catch fire. I saw that happen to a cheap, Chinese power strip during a 2004 CME event.
You need to read up on the 3 kinds of EMP. Here’s a short explanation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_electromagnetic_pulse
What those worried about EMP are concerned about is the E1 pulse, which takes place in literally nanoseconds, far faster than surge protectors can react. You are making the mistake of believing that the E2 pulse, which is most similar to lightening - and can be protected against in pretty much the same way, is all that there is to EMP. It definitely is NOT. Read the article.
About twenty years ago lightning hit our Microwave Tower and due to uneven grounding in our building it hit the small T-1 level DACCS (Digital Access Cross Connect System) that I maintained. I ended up replacing 22 blown circuit boards over two days, living onsite straight through the outage. Replacement circuit cards were overnighted from Texas and hand delivered from locations in nearby states. A grounding team flown in from Texas found a difference of potential between our signal ground and common ground. They ended up reworking the grounding for the whole site, even grounding the chain link fencing in a ring with thermite welding.
I remember WWV universal time stations on HF radio used to broadcast Solar activity warnings.
Much more is known about EMP, Solar Events, and even lightning than any layman could ever imagine.
Yes, a CME is a low frequency event and as you point out it might fry cheap surge protectors (or might not). It will probably fry transformers and take down parts of the grid.
EMP can do that too. But EMP is more likely to be high frequency, and with enough energy it will fry small electronics. Designing the weapon to create enough energy is nontrivial.