Doomsday condos in old missile silos

Real estate developer Larry Hall is converting Cold War missile silos in Kansas into condos for "preppers" who are getting ready for total and complete societal breakdown due to natural disaster, terrorism, economic collapse, pandemic, or a good ol' fashioned apocalypse. Several buyers have already paid $7 million for their luxury shelters inside the shaft of the silo. From AFP:

(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.

"Doomsday shelters line Kansas missile silo" (AFP)

SurvivalCondo.com

• [autark]

  doesn’t military grade security deny the preppers their dreams of blowing away their former neighbors themselves?

  • [vonbobo]

    military hardware, but I’m not so sure there are actual military personnel? Everyone in the silo will be trained to do every job. What happens if the designated number of “military security” folks get sick? The civi’s will have to step in anyhow, so they might as well own that role from the start- remote weapons and all! :)

    • [Warren_Terra]

      Also, what’s the deal with the “military security”? Are they typical American security guards, that is to say very badly paid? Because if so I can’t see why they’d accept the rule of the people who paid millions to live like kings.

• [coop]

  “He 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…”

  Yeah right. Good luck finding the energy for that…

  • [Dan Hibiki]

     reading the article it’s Wind powered and currently feeding off the grid. Very lame.

    I would have thought some Radioisotope thermoelectric generators or Traveling wave reactor burred under ground somewhere. That should give them a ton of power for at least two generations with no maintenance required.

    Just stock up on water chips.

    • [BombBlastLightingWaltz]

      dehydrated water chips. 

  • [Phil Hazelton]

    it’s fine – they have a G.E.C.K.

• [Brainspore]

  …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.

  Or more likely, keep the first 7 people who get there fed for 50 years. Why keep the door open for everybody else when you could each have a floor all to yourself?

  • [vonbobo]

    Everyone shares in the maintenance jobs. I wonder what the minimum is required to run the silo? A more troubling issue is going to be these owners turning their backs on their loved ones when they jet off to the silo? If an owner of two spots shows up with 10 people demanding to be let in, what happens then? What if half of the people aren’t there already and it looks like they wont make it there?

    Or what if the doomsday is a virus, is there an interim quarantine for late arrivals?

    Oh my. What a wonderful way to live out the remainder of your life.

    Another interesting thing is that the silo will be sold out to less than capacity, to make room for doomsday babies!

    • [jwkrk]

      “What happens then?” … “Hilarity ensues.”

  • [grimc]

    Hell, I’d wouldn’t give it 50 days before everybody would need to have a floor to themselves.

• [ndrake]

  I hope they name it Vault 101

  • [skyhawk1]

    Reminds me of Level 7. 
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Level_7

    • [jwkrk]

      Ah, someone else who remembers that novel.  Excellent.

    • [BombBlastLightingWaltz]

      add to must read before dying list. Thank you.

  • [Stickarm]

     I hope they name it Vault 187 and they only let you in if your name is Gary. …Or they just need to be sure they have at least one guy named Gary, anyway.

• [odacrem]

  This stuff is fascinating!

  Here is a related and interesting piece that the folks at The Verge put together on the subject: http://www.theverge.com/culture/2011/11/1/2525857/2012-survival-condo-at-the-end-of-the-world

• [sam]

  Hugh Howey will be interested to hear about this.

  • [Hugh Howey]

    Haha! I’m surprised Boing Boing didn’t link to their Wool review! :D

    • [Kevin Mills]

      Wool was awesome.  When does the next installment come out?

      • [Hugh Howey]

        Next week!

        April 19th on the Kindle. Another week or so for the physical book. End of the month, everywhere else!

    • [Tom White]

      I just finished reading the Wool Omnibus. You are awesome!

    • [phlavor]

      Loved all the Wool books. Can’t wait for the next one. You had so much detail, you should consult for this guy.

• [brianary]

  It looks like it was designed using plans from an old Life is Hell comic.

• [Amorette Allison]

  Where are they going to find the water/sewer/power for this multi-million dollar multiplex?  I lived near the Church Universal and Triumphant when they were building shelters under Yellowstone Park.   They also had all sorts of plans, none of which actually took into account what life would be like after this disaster they were waiting for.  Mostly what they accomplished was screwing up the water table and dumping diesel fuel into it.

  • [David Kopelman]

    After Elizabeth Clair Prophet died, did that whole thing kind of fade away, or are they still up there in their fortress?

• [jennybean42]

  Isn’t this the plot of that series Wool that Mark suggested on Gweek awhile ago?

• [vonbobo]

  Essentially a doomsday weapon, re-purposed to survive doomsday.

  Fear indeed.

• [angusm]

  It’s like a multi-story food court for zombies!

• [thecardcheat]

  Husband: “Honey.. where’s the key for our Doomsday condo” (wife carefully looking through her oversized LV bag) Husband: Honey.. please hurry, that mushroom cloud and the ravaging hordes are getting closer” Wife: ” Now I remember! So I wouldn’t lose it I left the key with the maid.” (REM’s “It’s the End of the World as We Know It” starts playing, as we fade into the “prepper” servants in the doomsday silo dancing and partying). …and I feel fine.

• [TimRowledge]

  Zombie larder. Fresh brains in a convenient storage locker.
  C.f. “sub-urbs” in the Posleen war stories.

• [Nadreck]

  Will the mainframe that runs the place be called GlaDOS or “The Red Queen”?

• [Rory Santino]

  I like that he insists they not report where the site is when any of the old Atlas sites is easily looked up on Google Earth or Wikipedia. Good luck keeping that secret… Additionally, your solar/wind power will easily give you away if you are providing enough energy to keep these people in the life of luxury you appear to be promising. Water will also be problem, as the aquifer in that region is rapidly dwindling – hope you remember well drilling equipment, as you will need to keep drilling deeper and deeper. Lastly, be careful, as the Air Force was known to be not too careful in disposing of _extremely_ toxic chemicals related to fueling and maintaining those rockets. I wouldn’t want to stick around those silos for too long, let alone eat any plant or animal grown there… I’ll take my chances above ground, thanks.

  • [FeRD]

    I like that he insists they not report where the site is when any of the old Atlas sites is easily looked up on Google Earth or Wikipedia.

    Ah, but you see, that’s all part of the cunning plan!

    “Real estate developer Larry Hall of SurvivalCondos.com has presented us with a bit of a poser. We do not know what Atlas missile silo his rag-tag band of paranoiacs is planning to hide in. But we can soon find out…” *

    (Cue quick-cut video montage: hand-held footage of strike team raids on Atlas sites, one after the other. In each video, the team breaches the silo perimeter and, gaining access to the main shaft, are seen lobbing a suitcase-sized package into the interior. A final look back, shot while departing the site at breakneck speed, artistically frames the receding silo against a dark, moonless night sky. Seconds later, a massive explosion tears through the main hatch before rocketing hundreds of feet into the air.)

    * — (Apologies to the fine Monty Python chaps.)

• [UncaScrooge]

  Woe betide the unwary traveller who chances upon one of these complexes. You’ll be captured and harvested for viable human sperm. You’ll say, “line ‘em up!”, with a smirk on your face, but you’ll be milked surgically.

  Also: Psychic mutant dogs.

  • [Bevatron Repairman]

    As long as I don’t have to wear any of that creepy face paint.

    • [David Kopelman]

      I like how they never showed the screamers…

• [Aaron Swain]

  …and if there is any irony left in the world, they’ll tear each other to pieces.

• [Rock Hardwood]

  The whole “fuck everyone else” concept of prepping and then this commune life of living & sharing together…  just seems so..  not compatible.

  This actually might be a better idea for a budding cult.

  I wonder what it would be like, these thousands of isolated pockets of a dozen or so people coming together after 50 years, how things like manners, religion, speaking..  how all those human & cultural norms would change from group to group.

  Hell, one family, 50 years in a bunker , a few cross-eyed tater-heads would be seeing Sunlight for the first time.

• [TombKing]

  I will side with Penn&Teller on the doomsday stuff from the Bulls*** show on it. All the scenarios have like 80 to 95 percent of humanity dying out. I will play the odds and stick with enjoying the time I have here.

  That said looks pretty cool not sure how all that luxury will hold out when things hit the fan.

• [Donald Petersen]

  Once again, hard times flush the chumps!  $7 million in sales so far?  Man, I’m in the wrong line of work.  I’d happily sell off all the space available in my own hardened silo, if I had one, even if it did make me likely to be portrayed by William Sanderson in the inevitable movie adaptation after all the tenants ate each other once they inadvertently locked themselves in like the kids in Matinee.

  Hey, maybe I can talk them into casting Ian McShane instead.

  Edit: Hey, anyone have a realistic idea of how much cubic footage it would require to grow enough fish & veggies to feed 70 people for, say, five years, if we account for the fact that imperishable dry goods will cover most of the rest of their diet?

  For that matter, how much space and energy will be required to process all their waste?

• [arbitraryaardvark]

  reminds me of “a boy and his  dog.”

• [grimc]

  I watched the “Preppers” show on NatGeo last night, and came away concluding:

  - Doomsday cults are doomsday cults, whether they’re a large group of Nike-wearing, shaved-head computer programmers hoping to catch a ride on a comet or a family of five that secretly dig a hole in their suburban garage to build an 8′ sphere they think they can live in when The End comes
  - “Preppers” is far more of a “how to” show than a documentary look at a subculture
  - NatGeo magazine needs to run as far away from NatGeo TV as it possibly can

  • [kringlebertfistyebuns]

    While “Preppers” is amusing, it’s not really a representative slice of the preparedness movement.   Problem #1: If you have a bunker, you’re really not supposed to tell anyone about it – particularly not a TV show.

• [evanplus]

  honestly this looks awesome, I don’t know why everyone’s so down on it. I’d live in one now if it were properly furnished.

• [James B]

  I wonder if the folks that already put $7M on one of these know something the rest of us don’t?

• [Iaminnocenttheblood Ofthisjust]

  Don’t know if I’d really invest in one…

  First off, let’s say it’s WTSHTF….

  1.  If they CHEAT you and even IF there is a missile silo there, it’s not renovated, who can you sue?

  2.  Let’s say they keep you out anyways, total spirit of “Anarcho Capitalism” again any law to stop them from just shooting you, grabbing your gold and feeding your body to the zombies?  “Rrrrggg thaaannnk  youuuu… Sssseeee?  Weee chasseee toooo gatee, you killl for ussssss….”

  3.  In case of such a moment, the various governments will go ape sh-t.  they’ll be willing to fufill “MAD” and make sure NO ONE’s “Utopia” comes to pass if theirs is thwarted, so they’ll let the nukes fly.

  4.  Due to a number of traitors, most notably Ames, the “Russkies” DO have the nuclear silo’s area codes.  Think they’ll go “Oh, the USA says it decommissioned one, we trust them!”?  And look up the “Dead Hand” which they probably do NOT control…

  5.  Even if you are in and it’s only the 99% out to lynch the 1% I don’t think I’d have to waste time typing how easy it’d be even with armed guards to turn it into a death trap.

• [Warren_Terra]

  Can we install cameras, tell these freaks doomsday is here and they mustn’t emerge, and watch what happens after they seal themselves off in their Fortress Of Solitude?

• [pjcamp]

  There you go! Pack all the wingnuts in a can and slap on the lid.

• [Halloween_Jack]

  This reminds me strongly of the survivalist bunker in Robert McCammon’s Swan Song, basically his version of Stephen King’s The Stand only with nuclear war replacing the superflu as the precipitating catastrophe. The developer of the bunker cuts as many corners as he can, ending up with a concrete infrastructure that’s crumbling as soon as it’s built, on the assumption that it will never be used and that he won’t be sued if it ever is. I think that you can guess what happens next.

• [Ian Brewer]

  A good a place as any for a bunch nutters with more money than they know what to do with. Can we weld the hatches shut after them?

• [JMB98115]

  Are psychological tests required to occupy?

  Because I can’t imagine the joy of 62 anti-government freaknuts and one true psycho being locked in.

  I would totally pay $19.95 to access those webcams.

• [Ryan Lenethen]

  Brought to you by Vault Tek!

  Just don’t get the one installed with tranquility loungers!