I moved to Los Angeles in the summer of 2019, and within the first month of living here, there were the Ridgecrest Earthquakes. These quakes were nothing too serious, but it did lead to several calls from my worried parents thinking I was going to fall into the Pacific Ocean. My dad insisted I prepare for a quake, and did hours of research. He ordered me the "Essential Get-Home Pack" and demanded I unpack it while FaceTiming him.
I must say, both my father and I were very impressed. The kit came in a high-quality backpack and had several stickers in the box (perfect for a water bottle). The gear inside the backpack was plentiful and well organized. I was blown away by the quality of the gear, the stuff all seemed pretty heavy-duty and rugged, and gave the impression that it might actually work in a disaster situation! I was expecting an assortment of low-quality plastic stuff from amazon repackaged into a backpack, but this was not the case with my kit! My german father decided to go with Cascadia for this exact reason, and if the quality is good enough for a German, then you know the kit is impressive! (If you're wondering, yes, the first thing he did when he visited me in LA, he went through it very, very carefully)
The only issue I have with the kit is that my inner child wants to play with all of the toys inside of it whenever I lay eyes on the backpack, and fighting the urge to is not easy. Though the mask did come in very handy during the COVID Pandemic.
