Several times a day, but I should clarify that you would still need to be fairly close, say 50-100 light years away, and then also be directly in the path. I think Eta is the closest binary capable of producing GRB and it’s 7500 light years or more and offset 45 degrees so we wouldn’t be in the path anyways. Universe is a big place.

EDIT: I only have the most rudimentary of knowledge in this area, and even that’s a stretch. I would verify.

GRB. Just have to be in the path, and the Ordovician extinction, which is very different from the other big 5 bears a lot of the signs it happened almost half a billion years ago.

Won’t matter to us if it does, it’s not close enough to do any damage. Models suggest 25-100 light years is when you should be concerned about supernova. Betelgeuse is significantly further.

Oh I’m sure it’s something like that. I just like saying “this has happened before” for dramatic effort.

Kind of makes you wonder if that isn’t what all the “useless” sequences in our dna are because this has all happened before

Monopsony too in some cases

Those transformers for substations take a few weeks to replace when circumstances are business as usual, which means a slow but steady replacement of equipment as it fails. Not in a situation where exponentially more need replacement all at once. Under those conditions, combined with the transportation issues you correctly point out, those months could become years. That puts a huge burden on those generators that keep critical services running. Fortunately, any planning for that is unnecessary since those generators will be dead within a week after using up the accessible reserves of fuel. Realistically, plan on no more then 3 days of emergency power backup…all reserved for critical systems like hospitals, fire services (which will be working overtime), water treatment, etc. Which brings up another issue, water supply is regulated and kept separate from waste water systems through large electric pumps. Once those pumps stop, the water supply becomes contaminated. We would see some pretty horrible diseases resurface quickly. Finally refrigeration loss for more then a month is a death sentence for diabetics, measured by the number of bottles they have of penicillin and the drastically reduced shelf life. 90 days would be generous if it happened during the winter. Much, much less time if it’s during the summer. Along with no food, after the initial neighborhood bbq, no water, no gas, no electricity, and limited to no communication with anyone beyond walking distance, things would get very bad very quickly. You paint an accurate picture, but I can’t see how an event like this wouldn’t come close to extinction level for the affected area.

Key words to focus on: high current and safely replacing

If you’re unsure of what a multimeter is, call an electrician or a buddy who is familiar with testing voltage.