Preparing to take on any type of disaster
Emergency supply sales have escalated since recent wildfires
Michael Skyler has devoted his life to disaster preparedness. He founded the Disaster Supply Center, a store that specializes in survival kits and gear. He has run the business with his wife, Mona, for 23 years. One thing that always frustrated him was how hard it was to get people to take survival preparedness seriously. Not anymore. “Back then, people weren’t so concerned. Now it’s in the news daily. Earthquakes, fires, shootings, global warming. The frequency of the disasters here and across the world has gotten people aware, and they are starting to act on that awareness,” said Skyler, who is in his 70s and lives in San Rafael. “You realize it can happen to you. The more you can do to be off the
grid, the better off you’ll be.”
Amid escalating threats of natural disasters, and in a polarized political climate rife with discord, it can feel like danger is coming at us from all sides. Many Bay Area residents such as Skyler are responding by grappling with whether they are prepared for a worst-case scenario in a chaotic world. If a wildfire raged through our urban environment or a violent clash between political extremes sent residents scurrying for cover, they want to be ready to hunker down and ride it out.
Sales of emergency kits have risen five-fold nationally in the aftermath of the West’s wildfires, according to SOS Survival Products.
Bay Area disaster preparedness consultant Roland Karste has seen business rise by 20 percent since the fires. The Northern California Red Cross has seen an uptick in sales of emergency kits and classes. First-aid kits have become one of Amazon’s best sellers in the health care category. And at Oakland’s Alameda Army Navy Surplus store, demand for water filtration kits, emergency food and gas masks is up.
“Whenever there is a new threat, people take new precautions,” owner Saif Raniji said. “The important thing is that you don’t want to have regrets. You don’t want to look back and think that someone died because you weren’t prepared.”
People have their own definition of being prepared, from those who stash away a little food and water “just in case” to those who adopt the tools of hardcore “preppers” who are ready to survive a total breakdown in social structure and services. They want to make their own safe haven.
“It can quickly spiral of out control. In a big earthquake, you also get fires. The water lines are broken. There’s no power, no water, no ATM, no gas,” said Karste, a disaster preparation
consultant who works with Bay Area companies, cities and schools. “It’s pretty sobering. You spend a lot of time planning your vacations. You need to spend equal time and energy on what you will do in a disaster. Emergency responders may not be able to get to you for a while.”
Tom Templeton knows that. He can build a water filtration system with a bucket, some sand and a few lumps of charcoal. The Silicon Valley engineer has stockpiled about 100 cans of baked beans, 100 pounds of charcoal and a boatload of pasta, rice, flour and dehydrated fruit and vegetables from his garden. Though he’s got survival skills worthy of MacGyver, he doesn’t like being called a prepper.
“When you say prepper, people think you’re a weirdo. I’m not planning for the apocalypse. I’m not a nut job and I don’t have a crossbow,” said the 65-yearold Fremont resident, who belongs to the Bay Area Casual Preppers/Survivalists group on Facebook. “I’m just a prudent guy and I like to be prepared. A lot of the population is conditioned to be taken care of. I want to be able to take care of myself and my family.”
Templeton grew up in a remote part of Wisconsin where extreme winters
made stockpiling supplies the norm. He spent time in the Army, where he learned to hike with heavy packs, and, as an engineer, he spends a lot of time calculating risk.
“I’m a detail-oriented guy,” said Templeton, who has backups for his backups. “It’s about risk analysis. You have to assess what could go wrong. You always need a contingency plan. That’s second nature for an engineer.”
Earthquakes, fires, pandemics and civil unrest are on his list of concerns. He runs 3 miles a day to maintain a level of fitness so he can get home from his office on foot in a disaster. He admits many folks think he’s crazy, but he sees preparing as the rational thing to do in a volatile world.
Cole Smith-Crowley also would prefer to take precautions now than panic later.
“It is a bit silly to live in a world where floods, earthquakes, fires, power outages, unemployment, currency devaluation and civil unrest exist and then assume that somehow it will never happen to you,” says Smith-Crowley, 28, a law student at UC Hastings who lives in San Francisco and is a member of a Liberal Preppers group on Facebook. “Seeking some element of control over your life in a
situation where you would be deprived of it makes sense.”
Smith-Crowley, like many progressives, said he has felt more marginalized in the era of Trump. He joined a liberal preppers group because he believed his civil liberties are not as safe as they once were.
Fears of civil unrest are driving business for Skyler, who specializes in durable survival kits that meet his standards for quality. At home, his supplies include water purification, dehydrated food, a firstaid kit, solar radio, flashlights and solar panels that can recharge his personal electronics for at least one week. He likes to store stuff right near the front door of his condo in case he needs to grab and go.
“Civil unrest is a big deal right now. You’ve got racism, you’ve got economic inequality and the hate groups are on the rise. It could disrupt the flow of our basic necessities.” said Skyler, who has spent years refining his gear. “I’ve got the complete setup.”
Smith-Crowley wishes he had more survival gear but he lives in his van, which makes finding space for supplies a bigger challenge. But he does have the basics: 72 hours worth of food and water, a fire extinguisher
and a trauma kit. He’s also participated in Community Emergency Response Training. When he has the time and money, he plans to add extra gas tanks and water storage. He fears many millennials have no contingency plans in a crisis.
“A lot of people my age are already hanging on by a thread,” he said. “So they either don’t expect a disaster to change much or they don’t expect to be able to make it out of a disaster.”
Many people, of course, have taken the time to stash some supplies together in the garage even if they don’t have an elaborate crisis plan in place. But others remain woefully unprepared for a disaster. As Lawrence D. Dietz, spokesman for the American Red Cross Northern California, puts it: “Perhaps it’s denial, perhaps it’s short attention span, perhaps life gets in the way.”
Thia Boggs is one of those people. A mother of one who lives in Martinez, she plans to get a “go bag” together, though she just hasn’t gotten around to it.
“In spite of driving right by a grass fire less than 10 miles from my home, I still haven’t even begun to prepare for an evacuation,” the 48-year-old said. “I also lack the worry gene. I simply can’t get worked up over the possibility of bad things happening to me. I don’t think I’m immune to the natural tragedies of life, I just don’t believe that I, or any of us, have much control.”
While there is no way to guarantee survival in a catastrophe, experts say knowing that you can take care of yourself in a pinch will make many people feel safer.
“It’s up to you,” as Skyler puts it, “This is about the survival of your family. You’ve got to take responsibility into your own hands.”