Nothing prompts people to prepare for a natural disaster like a brush with one, a truism reinforced when a pair of earthquakes rattled southern California this month.
In the aftermath of the tremors, which sparked fears of a major quake like the one that killed thousands in San Francisco in 1906 and another that caused $10 billion in damage in 1989, sales surged at Los Angeles-area companies that sell emergency kits, earthquake fasteners, and food and water with a lengthy shelf life.
“Whenever there is an event that makes news, it creates that top-of-mind awareness and reminder to people who have been meaning to get that kit or take that action to secure my home that they should be doing before it happens,” said Jeff Primes, president of Ready America, which manufactures disaster-preparedness products.
“It’s easy enough to find the products, and it’s not very expensive,” Primes said. “You don’t have to spend a lot of money. You don’t have to be a hard-core prepper, but at least get ready for the first 72 hours.”
Customers of the Vista, California-based firm, which sells to big box stores like Walmart and Home Depot, as well as online through Amazon, are reporting 10 to 20 times their normal demand after the quakes. The first, a magnitude 6.4, hit Southern California on July 4, and the second, a magnitude 7.1, struck July 5.
Driving the alarm among California residents is the short period of time between the quakes, coupled with the barrage of news coverage that followed.
“If the news just keeps covering it at night, day after day, then people are aware and say, ‘I need to get prepared for the next disaster,’” said Michael Christensen, president of EarthquakeStore.com. “There’s a significant uptick in business in the immediate wake. As soon as the earthquake hits, the orders come flying in every minute.”
Christensen’s online store, headquartered in Burbank, California, began selling earthquake valves that automatically block the flow of gas in 1999. He says he has seen business increase 50 times from a typical month. With a high volume of orders coming in, the store has a two-week backlog for assembling emergency kits, which include food, water, and First Aid supplies.
The kits, the valves, and earthquake alarms are EarthquakeStore.com’s three top-selling items.
Earlier this year, the city of Los Angeles rolled out its ShakeAlertLA app to notify users in Los Angeles County of an earthquake that crosses a specific size threshold. The system, developed by the U.S. Geological Survey, is designed to give users advance warning — as much as 70 seconds — of an earthquake of at least magnitude 5.0 or level 4 on the Modified Mercalli Intensity Scale and warn them to drop, cover, and hold on.
When the two earthquakes shook parts of southern and central California this month, however, the system failed to alert Angelenos, as they didn’t top magnitude 5.0 in Los Angeles, the threshold for an alert. The city is located roughly 100 miles south of the epicenters near Ridgecrest, California.
The dearth of notifications prompted an outcry on social media, and the city said it will lower the threshold for future warnings.
The ShakeAlert app is the first public one of its kind in the U.S., an illustration of how technology can help people in quake-prone areas and a valuable tool for “government and large facilities” like hospitals, where a 30-second warning can be crucial, Primes said. But “as a consumer, to protect my family, if I have 30 seconds, there’s not a lot you can do other than drop and hold on. It’s too late to do anything about water and food.”
At Ready America, customers are stocking up on three-day emergency kits and drinking water, communications equipment such as radios, and fasteners, which secure furniture, appliances, and wall-hangings.
Christensen, meanwhile, suggested people buy food and water with a five-year shelf life, enough to sustain a family of four for seven days, and stressed that relying on technology alone is not a recipe for success.
“Technology is just giving you the warning that it’s on the way and to brace yourself,” he said. “It’s not really preparing you for after the earthquake hits.”
