The Dreaming and the physical world suddenly became one, with the physical world utterly changed by the contact. Technology, the product of humanity's dreaming, was wrecked. Forests began to grow in deserts while mountain ranges began to slide into oceans. And areas that had been strong in magic -- the Badlands, the Smoky Mountains, Stonehenge, the Himalayas -- were shattered like glass. Some animals died, others thrived, some were changed.
A small group of people caught up in the creation of the Wasteland were protected from the storm in Tokyo. In New York, Wonder Grunion's power saved him, but was burned out in the process. In Seattle, Ramrod survived the aftermath as the storm passed over and through him, his magic-null nature providing no resistance with which the energies could react.
Only Ramrod and Radian ever explored the world after the cataclysm, with Ramrod staying on the American continents. And when Radian plunged through the looking glass and into the past to prevent the cataclysm from ever occurring, Ramrod's memories of the time he spent in the Wasteland were almost completely lost, with only traces remaining to tease his subconscious. Radian alone remembers the Wasteland completely, and so far, she's not talking about it.