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For years, scientists have warned that we are due for a major earthquake. But getting Californians to buy earthquake insurance was a difficult sell — only around 10 percent of households in the state have it.

Then came the natural disasters of 2017. Glenn Pomeroy, chief executive of the California Earthquake Authority, the nonprofit organization that oversees the insurance program, says that fires and mudslides in California, the flooding in Houston, and the earthquakes in Mexico all helped persuade many more Californians to sign up.

Last year the earthquake authority saw a record increase of 90,000 new customers, compared with an average annual increase of 7,000 over the previous decade.

The “horrible run of natural catastrophes,” Mr. Pomeroy said in an interview, “crystallized people’s thinking about the need to be protected.”