Well, this might be interesting........
“In 1977, a CME knocked out a communications satellite and silenced pagers all over the world.”
http://www.exploratorium.edu/eclipse/cmes.html
1989, same thing. We lost power and phones for 6 hours in Western Massachusetts.
On 13 March 1989, the voltage of Quebec’s power grid began to fluctuate alarmingly. Seconds later, the lights went out across the entire province. Some 6 million people were without electricity for nine hours. Within two days, NASA had lost track of some of its spacecraft and the northern lights were glowing in the sky south of London.