10 AMAZING DOOMSDAY BUNKERS AND BOMB SHELTERS

10 Amazing Bunkers and Bomb Shelters to Ride Out the Apocalypse
By Robert Grimminck, Toptenz, 14 August 2016.

If an all out nuclear war happened, many places in the world could be wiped off the face of the Earth in the blasts. Unlucky survivors would die slowly from radiation or in nuclear winter. It’s a nightmarish scenario, and just one way humanity could be doomed. We could also be killed off by disease, environmental problems, and asteroids, just to name a few extinction level events. Because there are so many ways humanity could end on any given day, some people have built, or are in the process of building, some amazing bunkers and fallout shelters.

10. Atlas Survival Shelter

To start off, we thought we’d go with the working person’s luxury bomb shelter. Atlas Survival Shelter’s Galvanized Corrugated Pipe bomb shelter starts at about US$49,000. The pipe is 32-by-10-feet and it can comfortably house three or four people. It has one bedroom plus extra bunks, a washroom with a shower, and there is storage under the floor so you can store up to a year’s worth of food. The tube, which has its own air filtration system and is powered by solar panels, protects the inhabitants from bomb blasts, and nuclear, chemical and biological disasters. Finally, any exterior components, such as the lid of the escape tube and solar panels, are hidden and nearly impossible to see unless you know what you’re looking for.

What’s interesting about the Atlas system is that multiple tubes can be connected together to make much bigger complexes. For example, they have a complex that holds 80 to 90 people. Check out the video above for one of the “higher end” models sold by Atlas.

9. Silo Home

The aptly named Silo Home was built over an Atlas F missile silo that was constructed during the Cold War in the Adirondack Mountains in Saranac, New York. The home that sits over the silo looks like a normal 1,800 square-foot cabin. The bunker, which is protected by walls that are three feet thick, is connected to the ground floor via a spiral staircase.

The subterrain area has two floors. The 2,300 square feet of living space includes a jacuzzi, a kitchen, a dining area, and an entertainment room. There are even windows with fake light that simulate sunlight. The Silo Home is also full of potential because there is lots of room for more renovations. There are nine levels, equaling 12,000 square feet, that are still unused.

8. The Caverns Suite

Have you ever seen the Grand Canyon and thought to yourself, “That looks comfortable enough to sleep in”? Hopefully not. But if, for some reason, you’d love to sleep there, there’s actually a luxury suite 200 feet below ground in the Grand Canyon Caverns in Peach Springs, Arizona, that was once a fallout shelter.

The caverns were discovered in 1927 by a woodcutter named Walter Peck. Accounts vary, but apparently Peck either fell or nearly fell into it. Peck thought that there might be gold in the caverns and quickly bought the land. When he found out there was no gold, he made it a tourist attraction, and led tours around the caverns. Since then, it’s had several owners and has been used in different ways. Notably, during the Cuban Missile Crisis it was used as a bomb shelter that could house 200 people. Some of the relics of its days as a fallout shelter can still be found there, such as dehydrated food.

In 2001, it was purchased by a group of friends who converted the remnants of the bomb shelter into a luxury suite that is 220 feet by 400 feet, with a 70-foot ceiling. To stay at the “oldest, darkest, deepest, quietest, and largest suite room in the world” for one night, it costs the first two guests US$800 and then US$100 for each additional person, and it holds up to six people. However, if it were needed for a bomb shelter, 2,000 people could survive in the caverns for several weeks.

7. Subterra Castle

Located in the Kansas hills, about 25 miles west of Topeka, Subterra Castle is a mansion that was created from a missile silo that once held an 82-foot Atlas-E rocket. Ed Peden and his wife, Dianna Ricke-Peden, bought the silo in 1984 for US$40,000 and did a tremendous amount of work on it. They converted it into an underground mansion before moving into it in 1994. The silo has four bedrooms and two baths, there is a music room complete with a stage, domestic and commercial kitchens, a library/study, and a hot tub.

Ed Peden loves giving tours of his home to school groups, television crews, and anyone else who wants to see the bunker. Just make sure you let him know ahead of time.

6. Girard B. Henderson’s Bomb Shelter

If you were to look at this Las Vegas home from the street, you probably wouldn’t think much of it. It’s fairly mundane, just a two-story house that looks like it was built sometime in the 1970s. However, 26 feet below the house is an amazing Cold War fallout shelter that’s connected to the house by an elevator. The shelter comes complete with fake scenery, which includes fake trees and fake rocks. There’s a garden of sorts, which has a four-hole putting green, two jacuzzis, a sauna, a dance floor, a bar, and a barbeque that is in the shape of a rock. Oh, and a swimming pool, of course.

There are three bedrooms and three bathrooms. Finally, the lights can be adjusted to imitate different times of the day. There are even some twinkling stars to imitate the night sky. The shelter was installed in 1978, and the original owner, Girard B. Henderson, former director of Avon who died in 1980, had the décor reflect the era in which it was built. There are pastels everywhere, and the kitchen is pink. The house was listed for US$1.7 million in 2013, but it is unclear if it was ever purchased.

5. The Facility

Built in 1969 in Tift County, Georgia, but renovated to new government standards in 2012, the Facility (as it has been nicknamed) is a privately owned fallout shelter. It sits on 32 acres, and above it is 2,000 square feet of commercial space and a caretaker’s home. 45 feet below is the bunker with three-foot cement walls that can withstand a 20 kiloton nuclear explosion. The bunker has four 600-square foot apartments, each have two bedrooms, a bathroom, kitchen and dining area.

It also has five staff bedrooms, because what’s the point of surviving the apocalypse without someone to clean up after you? Other amenities include a 15-seat home theater, a library, a conference room, a first-aid room, a commercial kitchen, an HVAC system, and environmental monitoring sensors. The Facility went on the market in 2015, but it’s probably out of your price range unless your name is Bill Gates.

4. Luxury Survival Condos

In 2008, Denver based developer Larry Hall bought a 174-foot deep former nuclear missile silo near Concordia, Kansas. He converted it to a large bunker made up of individual condominiums. Besides the condos, the bunker has a swimming pool, a library, a 17-seat movie theater, and a hydroponic vegetable garden. To fortify the bunker, there are two armored doors weighing 16,000 pounds each, and the bunker has its own security force. Each resident is also given five years’ worth of freeze-dried and dehydrated food.

The silo can house up to 75 people, and there are full units and half units. A full unit is 1,820 square-feet with nine foot ceilings and costs US$3 million, while half-units cost US$1.5 million. Hall also provides armored pickup for the residents within 400 miles of the silo, which is designed to protect its inhabitants from war, terrorist attacks, disease, and many other disasters.

Amazingly, by 2012, Hall had completed construction and sold all his units. He is currently trying to develop two more silos.

3. Vivos Indiana

In a secret location near Terre Haute, Indiana, is a luxury fallout shelter built by doomsday bunker builder Vivos. The Vivos Indiana shelter is built out of a Cold War communications facility that was designed to withstand a 20 megaton blast within a few miles of the bunker. Their website says they are not near any nuclear targets.

Inside the bunker, 80 people can be housed. Amazingly, at the time of this writing, there are only 10 spots left. If you’re interested in securing your spot, as of August 2016, it will cost US$50,000 per adult and US$35,000 per child. The one-time cost includes enough food that all residents could live underground for a year. As for the accommodations, they are about on par with a 4-star hotel, but obviously freeze-dried and dehydrated foods have a tough time competing with resort food. However, it does have a movie theater, dining area, gym, and the condos are lavishly decorated.

Amazingly, Vivos Indiana isn’t the only project taken on by Vivos. In fact, they have a much bigger bomb shelter called…

2. Vivos Europa One

Located in the German village of Rothenstein, Vivos Europa One is one of the most secure structures in the world, and the accommodations are supposedly on par with a five star resort. Originally, the bunker was built as a weapons storage by the Soviets in the 1970s. When West and East Germany merged, Germany inherited the bunker that was built on a mountainside, and planned to store weapons there. However, when they found out they couldn’t do that without violating international treaties, they sold it in an auction. It was eventually purchased by Vivos, who set to work converting the 227,904 square-foot silo into a giant doomsday bunker.

Another unique feature is that above the bunker there is an above ground component that’s 43,906 square-feet. It consists of offices, warehouse buildings, and a train depot. Protecting the bunker is the mountain into which it’s built. There are three doors that are nuclear blast and radiation proof, and the bunker has its own private security force.

The bunker can hold up to 6,000 families and most individual condos are 2,500 square-feet. It’s also possible to build a second level, so your condo can be expanded to 5,000 square-feet. The bunker can also house a small zoo, and has room for genetic storage. For entertainment, there are pools, restaurants, theaters, and gyms. There’s no price listed on their website, but for one of the safest and swankiest fallout shelters in the world, we’re guessing you won’t be bumping into too many Philosophy majors or list writers there.

1. The Oppidum

Dubbed “The World’s Largest Private Apocalypse Shelter” by Forbes, the Oppidum is found in the mountains of the Czech Republic and is a bit different from the other shelters on this list. People who buy bunkers here can also live above ground on the massive 323,000 square estate. Should there be a reason to get into the bunker, they would go to their secret corridor, which is sealed off by a blast proof door. This allows the residents to reach safety in under a minute.

The bunker is designed for billionaires, so despite having a ton of square footage, there are only seven apartments. Residents can live up to 10 years underground. For the residents of the seven apartments, there’s a movie theater, a spa, a swimming pool, and a library.

There was no cost listed, and in order to even visit their website you need a code. Surprise, surprise, we don’t have one.

Top image: Rendering of The Oppidum. Credit: Ig0nima via YouTube.

[Source: Toptenz. Edited. Top image added.]