I read that a big enough flare could put the whammy on the grid.

And you read this where? The internet?

What I can tell you is that there is no "The Grid".
Here in NoAm, there's actually 2 major grids and 3 minor grids.
The majors: Western and Eastern (Which also encompass BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba)
The minors: Quebec, Alaska and Texas.
So, and not that it can't happen, the entire continent won't go dark because an ACInterconnection goes dark. Unlikely that all 5 would suffer the same fate for the same amount of time, as well.

While this doesn't diminish the unpreventable and unpredictable series of events that follow when a "disaster" befalls the masses of half a country (and a third of another).
There may be the option of just "relocating" for a spell, until your side of the country gets power going again.
Or you could move to Texas, where even if they get hit with "The Biggie", their output is already much higher than the rest of the country and would probably notice a moment of rolling brownouts, but unlikely to trigger a full scale grid meltdown.

Not to diminish the power of solar flares either.
I mean, after all, a sun is eating it's planets somewhere in the universe. I just don't think it's us....yet.