Illustration of a CME particle cloud blasted from the sun impacting Earth and creating aurora (in actual photo of aurora as taken by an astronaut on the space station). Courtesy of SOHO. Original image can be found at http://soho.nascom.nasa.gov/gallery/images/aurora01.html
The March 13, 1989 Quebec blackout, the result of a major geomagnetic storm, caused a $6 billion loss to the Canadian economy.