[aerohead]

*If a flare was long-lived,Earth would have an opportunity to intersect it once every 27-days,due to the Carrington rotation of the Sun and Earth's orbital path.
*The flare would have to lie within the plain of the eccliptic to have any chance for the intersection to occur.
*At any other latitude,it would pass either 'above' us,or 'below' us.
*The Coriolis effect of the Sun's rotation would distort the flare into a Parker spiral,complicating even more, any prediction as to whether or not an intersection would occur.
*Depending upon the trajectory of the flare,Earth's magnetospere would have a chance to shunt some of it's energy,depending on latitude.
*Between the Carrington Event and now,Cold War R&D has provided for 'hardening' of electronics and electrical devices, which centered on fear of Electomagnetic Pulse (EMP) from nuclear detonations.It could be,that a similar event today,might not produce the disruption experienced before.
*While watching an episode of 'Flying Wild Alaska' a solar storm momentarily knocked out radio and GPS electronics.The pilot just flew on with inertial navigation.Within a few minutes,both radio and GPS were back online.