Exclusive | Californians race to buy earthquake preparedness kits after devastating Venezuela quake
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Californians are scrambling to stock up on earthquake preparedness kits after last week’s devastating quake in Venezuela, triggering a surge in orders for disaster supplies across the Golden State.
Mina Arneo, co-founder of More Prepared, said the company’s backpack-style emergency kits are flying off the shelves, with families and individuals driving demand.
“I’m sure that it has something to do with some of the earthquakes, not just Venezuela, but there’s been some in Japan and other places. So, I’m sure that’s some of the reason why it’s happening,” said Arneo.
Chris Rydell, owner of Echo-Sigma, said his company has seen a sharp uptick in demand for its emergency survival products. “It’s definitely natural disasters, or the turmoil with Iran [that] has been the biggest motivator lately for getting prepared, because people are nervous about what’s happening in our world out here,” Rydell said.
Rydell said that quakes abroad often rattle residents at home. “A lot of times earthquakes happen somewhere else, it makes Californians nervous, and they end up buying, food and water and other necessary,” he said, adding that the recent earthquake in Venezuela has triggered new demand.
The company’s most popular product among Californians is its “get-home bag,” a one- to three-day emergency kit, currently listed at $289 on its website. The kit includes sleeping bag, food rations, multi-function radio and acrylic signaling mirror along with a dozen other necessary items during an emergency.
Echo-Sigma fulfills around 50-100 orders in a month and 20% of the sales come from California customers. “When the earthquake like that in Venezuela hits, it spikes our sales for about two weeks,” he said. “We’ll jump an extra 15–20% immediately for the week or so after the disaster happened.”
Most customers, he noted, are reacting to fear rather than planning ahead: “They buy because they’re scared, they don’t really buy because they are proactive but because they are reactive.”
At SOS Survival Products, based in Van Nuys, California, reports a clear spike in demand following recent quakes.
“We definitely have seen an increase,” said owner of the company, Jeff Edelstein. He has been in the business of disaster preparedness for the last 37 years.
He said that any major event like the earthquake in Venezuela or anywhere in the country “triggers a rush of orders.” A 5.6-magnitude earthquake rocked Northern California June 24, with tremors felt near Redwood Valley.
Edelstein described customers as largely “reactionary,” saying interest typically surges for a week or two as people watch devastation abroad and hear warnings about how California should prepare. “People have short term memory. They remember it for a while and then move on to the next thing. It’s going to be 6 years since the Ridgecrest earthquake sequence of 2019 and people hardly remember that. “
He said some buyers are “scared” while others are “just waking up that they have been meaning to do it for years.”