Bracing for the Big One Has Its Price at Quake Fair

Paranoid paradise could be found Wednesday in the Arco Plaza subterranean shopping center in downtown Los Angeles, where a couple of dozen vendors were cashing in one of the city’s greatest collective fears: EARTHQUAKE!

They came with solutions to every earthquake phobia imaginable, and then some.

Afraid of running out of batteries? For $40, you could buy a flashlight-radio that plays for 30 minutes on 200 cranks of its plastic arm.

Shattered glass? For $120, you could have your patio doors coated with a shatterproof film.

Too weak or scared to turn off the gas meter? No need to worry. For $415, an automatic valve will do it for you.

The one-day event was entitled the Second Annual Downtown Earthquake Preparedness Action Council Earthquake Education and Vendor Fair. Private vendors paid $100 for a booth, from which they attempted to peddle their wares to office workers and other lunchtime strollers. At noon, a couple of hundred people browsed through the merchandise.

“When there has been a recent earthquake . . . it really is good for us,” said Jeannie Rothfuss of Marathon Medical Corp., where earthquake kits have been a big seller since the Bay Area quake last October. “People are more aware.”

Sponsored by the Downtown Earthquake Preparedness Action Council and the Arco Plaza Merchants Assn., the quake fair also included exhibits by government agencies and nonprofit groups, including the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the American Red Cross.

More than anything, though, the fair offered testimony to entrepreneurial ingenuity.

“We like to offer choices in every area,” said vendor Crystal Snedaker of Simpler

Life Emergency Provisions, a family-run business in Hacienda Heights. “Our new item today is the four-in-one tool. It is a wrench that shuts off the gas, shuts off the water, pries open doors and digs through debris.”

All for $19.95, plus tax.

Another booth pitched Velcro “Quake Grip” fasteners ($12 a dozen), intended to prevent computers, pictures, flowerpots or television sets from taking flight during the Big One.

Steve Ballenberg was hawking a 14 1/2-pound duffel bag for $150. He promoted it to passers-by as “the state-of-the-art” emergency kit and passed out brochures in front of a four-panel screen displaying all 62 items in the kit. A hand-printed sign tacked to the screen boasted: “As Seen on CNN and ABC News.”

“Where is the food?” asked one man, his fist stuffed with brochures from Ballenberg’s competitors.

“The kit does not include food,” Ballenberg responded. “Food is a discretionary item.”

The man walked away.

Nearby, office workers crowded around Dave Wallace of Survivor Industries Inc., who was shouting “Have a drink on me!” and passing out small silver foil pouches filled with water. Wallace handed out several hundred water samples--one woman grabbed six of them--and said it is a marketing gimmick that never fails.

“It is a great credit card,” said Wallace, who sold his entire stock of $12 emergency “starter units,” a box with water, food and a light blanket.

One woman, 79-year-old Gohar Medz of Boyle Heights, refused the water. She told Wallace she didn’t want to carry it back home. Medz said she was downtown for a dental appointment and dropped by the fair to talk to someone about her gas meter.

Medz considered buying one of the automatic gas valve shut-off devices, but changed her mind after visiting the Southern California Gas Co. table.

“I have big heavy trucks that go by my house all the time,” she said. “It feels like an earthquake. The thing would be going off all the time, and I’d be calling the gas company to come out.”

She then checked out a special wrench that several vendors advised she could use to shut off the gas herself. But when a saleswoman asked for $8.50, Medz turned away.

“I am not going to pay that kind of a money for a wrench,” she said. “I’ll go home and find a piece of pipe that does the job.”