The Doomsday Shelter

The Daily Mail reports on yet another developer planning on transforming an old missile silo complex into shelters to survive the apocalypse (whatever form it may take). 

Built to withstand an atomic blast, even the most paranoid can find comfort inside concrete walls that are nine feet thick and stretch 174 feet (53 meters) underground.

Instead of simply setting up shop in the old living quarters provided for missile operators, Hall is building condos right up the missile shaft.

Seven of the 14 underground floors will be condo space selling for $2 million a floor or $1 million a half floor. Three and a half units have been sold, two contracts are pending and only two more full units are available, Hall said.

For now, metal stairs stretch down to connect each floor but an elevator will later replace them. The units are within a steel and concrete core inside the original thick concrete, which makes them better able to withstand earthquakes.

Hall is also installing an indoor farm to grow enough fish and vegetables to feed 70 people for as long as they need to stay inside and also stockpiling enough dry goods to feed them for five years.

The top floor and an outside building above it will be for elaborate security.

Other floors will be for a pool, a movie theater and a library, and when in lockdown mode there will be floors for a medical center and a school.

Complex life support systems provide energy supplies from sources of conventional power, as well as windmill power and generators.

Giant underground water tanks will hold water pre-filtered through carbon and sand. And, of course, an elaborate security system and staff will keep marauding hordes out.

The condo elevator will only operate if a person's fingerprint matches its system, Hall said. Cameras will monitor a barbed-wire topped fence and give plenty of warning of possible intruders. Responses can range from a warning to lethal force.

The article includes graphics showing the proposed layout and design of the different levels. Cost is $1 million for a "half-floor" condo, and $2 million for a full floor.

Cool as the concept is, I see these as a suckers bet. First, how do these people propose to get to an old ICBM bunker in the middle of Kansas in the middle of an emergency so dire that they need to hole up in such a structure? Second, I suspect that the first person (or family) in will also be the last one in. And, in this case, that will probably be the staff members.

The ironic part is, in the event of a full-scale nuclear attack (unlikely as that is), the silo these are built in would probably still be targeted ... just in case.