Comment by cyberax

> They won't affect your phone or laptop, but transformers along the longer ranges of the grid are unprotected.

They actually are. Protection against lightning strikes and atmospheric electricity is a part of the design for the high-voltage lines.

CMEs might cause enough additional load on the lines to cause them to trip if they are close to failure already, and this is well-recognized and can be mitigated by load-shedding early.