Apocalypse Entrepreneur Offers $3m Bunkers
Sky News goes inside the luxury boltholes - with jacuzzis and a cinema - being offered to millionaires preparing for the worst.
Monday 22 December 2014 23:02, UK
If the world comes to an end in 2015, where will you run to? You could consider a survival bunker, deep underground in a converted nuclear missile silo in the middle of America.
Doomsday entrepreneur Larry Hall has spent years building the ultimate in survival hideaways and gave Sky News special access to his completed complex.
He sells to up-market 'preppers' - part of a growing group of Americans preparing for imminent catastrophe.
They believe the world could soon end through natural disasters, terrorist attacks or economic collapse, and they don't believe their government will protect them when society falls apart.
"Let's look at their track record," Mr Hall told Sky News. "How would you rate the US Government's performance in Hurricane Katrina? How would you rate it for Hurricane Sandy? I wouldn't be giving them any stellar grades."
Mr Hall has installed his 'survival condos' in converted nuclear missile silos. Built in the cold war in the Kansas countryside they are 200 feet deep with walls of reinforced concrete nine feet thick.
There are eight floors of luxury apartments, each storey offering 1,800 square feet of luxury living space for up to 10 people, with jacuzzi baths and designer kitchens.
Some 70 people could live for more than five years in the complex supplied with its own electricity, water and stored food.
One silo is sold out. Mr Hall has begun work on another, catering he says to people who have thought about the future and don't like what could be coming.
"What if the Ebola outbreak becomes more widespread? What if there really is a dollar collapse and there's a global economic collapse? What would happen?
"The answer is for all of those situations is varying degrees of unrest. So this property gives them the ability to get some quality of life assurance."
An underwater fish farm and hydroponically grown crops will feed the colony of millionaires through the apocalypse. A large underwater pool and spa, rock climbing wall, shooting range and cinema give them things to do.
The complex boasts military-grade security. Numerous long range cameras sprout from the top of the bunker. A security control centre underground can see dangers coming from miles away.
A sniper nest and two armoured personnel carriers could deter unwanted attention from post-apocalyptic marauders.
"People will go door-to-door looting," Mr Hall said. "And they're going to go and get what they're looking for. When you get here you get to a place that's nuclear-hardened."
For those who think it'll be a world worth living in, the next silo's already under construction. Nuclear-hardened, luxury underground living, yours for $3.1m (£2m) a floor.
:: Dominic Waghorn meets the preppers in The Doom Boom, tonight at 9.30pm on Sky News.