Larry Bearg was working from home one hot October day, when his Bernal Heights house began to shake. He ran outside in time to get a first-hand look as the Loma Prieta earthquake toppled buildings throughout San Francisco and, armed with some food and wine, he climbed up to Bernal Heights Park to watch as fires spread throughout the Marina district.
His home wasn’t damaged, but his power and phone service were gone for days. “I wished that I had had a battery-operated radio,” he said.
Now co-owner of Planet Organics, a grocery delivery service with headquarters on Sonoma’s Riverside Drive, Bearg is still thinking about earthquake preparedness, but this time from a consumer’s point of view.
“I knew I needed to have a kit, but I never got around to making one,” he said. “I started asking around the office and no one had. Nobody wants to do it because putting them together is a real pain.”
An idea was hatched, or as his staff referred to it, “another one of Larry’s crazy ideas.” Along with the locally sourced, organic meats, produce and grocery items, Planet Organics would stock earthquake survival kits that are – by definition – anything but organic.
The nonperishable vacuum-packed food bars and purified water in his kit are good for five years before they need replacing; the space blankets, ponchos and latex gloves could last a lifetime.
Best-case scenario: You won’t have to use them. Worst-case scenario: They’ll keep you going for three days until you can find something better to eat.
Calling on the same skills he uses to find local artisan farmers, Bearg found Muskie Jones, whose Vallejo-based company makes Easy Survival Kits. Planet Organics carries the backpack version that comes stocked with first aid kits, crank- and solar-powered flashlights and radios, work gloves, duct tape, face masks and light sticks in addition to the U.S. Coast Guard-approved high-calorie food bars.
It’s a three-day basic kit “designed for quick evacuation and easy portability … that we encourage our customers to customize,” Jones said. With corporations and disaster organizations as his typical clients, he was “happily surprised” to get an order from Planet Organics.
Bearg bought the first two kits for himself, but hoped the idea would catch on with the same Bay Area people who sign up for burdock root and baby bok choy. So far sales have been steady.
“I figured that we could make it easy for people, and over the holidays people were actually buying them as gifts,” he said.
Later this month, Planet Organics will debut its 2,000-square-foot retail store at its warehouse, 19449 Riverside Dr., Suite 100, open seven days a week from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Under the yellow awning, shoppers will have access to all the company’s fresh and packaged goods, including the earthquake kits.
Easy Survival Kits backpacks come in three-day kits for two or four persons, $89 or $119 each. They include:
• 2,400-calorie emergency food bars
• Emergency drinking water packs
• Family plan cards
• Space blankets
• Ponchos
• First aid kits with waterproof matches and face masks
• Wet wipes and tissues
• Whistles
• 12-hour light sticks
• Battery-free flashlights and radios
Among the extras recommended by The American Red Cross are:
• Canned ready-to-eat foods such as soups, meats, fruits and vegetables
• Special food for pets, infants or people with special dietary needs
• Sturdy shoes, warm clothing and sunglasses
• Documents such as wills, bank account numbers and birth certificates
• Feminine supplies
• Prescription medications
• Cash or travelers checks
