Key points
- Previously, only the wealthy built bunkers
- Increasing number of working class people constructing bunkers now
- Collective spending on bunkers nearly $11b over 12 months: NYT
ISLAMABAD: One-third of American adults are prepping for a doomsday scenario, citing fears of nuclear war, pandemics, financial collapse and civil unrest.
Americans of all backgrounds are increasingly concerned with protecting themselves, spending a collective $11 billion over 12 months, according to the New York Times.
Companies that offer bunker construction services are thriving.
Americans are building bunkers, secret panic rooms and even homes with moats that can be set on fire.
Atlas’s bunkers can include parking spaces, gyms and greenhouses. At a site near Dallas, an underground tunnel will connect the bunker to the client’s home.
Wealthy clients
Ron Hubbard, the chief executive of Atlas Survival Shelters, runs one of many companies that designs and builds bunkers for wealthy clients, according to the US publications. His business is booming.
According to Hubbard, more working-class people now want to buy his bunkers.
“Now we sell a bunker that’s only $20,000,” Hubbard said. ‘‘They’re for the guys making $60,000 a year. They drive Chevy pickup trucks, not Ferraris.’’
Hubbard is not the only entrepreneur taking advantage of this trend.
Leasable bunkers
At a former munitions depot in South Dakota, a company called Vivos Group has repurposed 575 storage buildings into leasable bunkers.
Customers pay $55,000 up front for a 99-year lease, plus an annual fee of $1,091.
The structures come empty and without plumbing. Vivos is fighting numerous lawsuits, including those of two tenants who say they were wrongfully evicted. The company claims they violated their lease agreements.
Some Americans are also bolstering their fortifications at home. To capture down-market customers, companies are designing smaller, more affordable installations, like secret gun closets and panic rooms, the New York Times reported.
