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  • Narrator: During the Cold War, the US government

  • built numerous missile silos in secret locations

  • across the country.

  • Many sit empty and useless today.

  • But there's one in an undisclosed location

  • north of Wichita, Kansas,

  • that has taken on a new purpose.

  • Welcome to the $3 million doomsday-proof condo.

  • Larry Hall: It's not the luxury that drives the cost,

  • it's the caliber of the infrastructure

  • and the threats you're protecting against,

  • and, most importantly,

  • the duration that you can be off-grid for.

  • Narrator: It's 15 stories deep

  • with walls up to 9 feet thick

  • that can withstand a direct nuclear impact.

  • In 2008, Larry Hall bought the property for $300,000.

  • Hall: We said, "Hey, if we're gonna build

  • a high-end bunker, I'd hate to, like,

  • need protection for two years

  • and only have designed it for one and a half years."

  • So we said, "What would we have to do to make

  • this place capable of sustaining people indefinitely?"

  • And that turned out to be quite a cost-driver.

  • Narrator: Hall's team spent nearly $20 million to turn

  • the missile silo into a secure shelter for 12 families.

  • They installed three redundant power supplies,

  • three separate water sources and a water filtration system,

  • aquaponic farming, and hydroponic food.

  • Then, with the help of a consultant,

  • the team developed a plan to deal with

  • the human factors of off-grid living.

  • Hall: You need to make life as normal as it can be

  • because subconsciously, your brain

  • keeps track of abnormal activities.

  • Narrator: The team added a swimming pool,

  • gym, rock climbing wall, movie theater, dog park, and more.

  • Hall: What you really wanna do is make sure

  • that people feel productive, so you're gonna need

  • everyone to be working four-hour workdays,

  • and every 30 days, people will rotate jobs

  • so you don't have any single points of failure

  • and everybody knows how to do all of the jobs there.

  • Narrator: The infrastructure is designed

  • to sustain 75 people for five years.

  • The idea was so popular that every unit sold

  • before construction ended.

  • The project is just one example of success

  • in the growing survival market.

  • Announcer: The basement box-type shelter

  • is stronger, larger, and more comfortable.

  • Outdoors, you can build an earth-covered shelter,

  • which affords the best protection

  • against blasts, fire, radiation, and radioactive fallout.

  • Narrator: Doomsday prepping isn't a new idea.

  • In the '50s and '60s, houses were built with bunkers,

  • and shelters started popping up during the Cold War.

  • Today's preppers have plenty of survival shelter options.

  • They can choose from converted shipping containers

  • to houses designed to stand up to natural disasters

  • to survival communities with country club amenities.

  • Doomsday preppers can also prepare for emergencies

  • with a multitude of survival products

  • ranging from water filters and freeze-dried food

  • to gas masks and emergency power sources.

  • Hall: They worry about world events and natural events

  • and the things that they see in the news more frequently.

  • People that call and worry about things like

  • a global economic collapse,

  • there's people that worry about the flu.

  • Every flu season that comes around,

  • people worry about some type of a global pandemic.

  • It just seems like anything that could translate

  • into a larger dilemma could present itself as a problem.

  • Narrator: And market activity backs that up.

  • Sales spikes occur after natural disasters.

  • For example, Mountain House, a freeze-dried food

  • distributor, reported that sales of food made

  • to last for 25 years increased fourteenfold

  • after Hurricane Katrina.

  • Fears about the economy and foreign relations

  • are heightened during major elections

  • and commonly cause sales to jump.

  • In the week after Barack Obama's re-election,

  • one website sold $400,000 of prepackaged meals,

  • which depleted the company's inventory.

  • Doomsday Prep, a store in Georgia,

  • reported a 15% growth in year-over-year sales

  • since Donald Trump's election in 2016.

  • Hall: It's kinda funny how it seesaws

  • with who's in the White House.

  • When the rhetoric was hot and heavy

  • between Trump and Kim Jong-un in North Korea,

  • there was a real big spike in phone calls.

  • Narrator: Prep and Save, a survival equipment store

  • in California, reported similar spikes.

  • The store saw a 200-400% increase in business

  • in the days following the threats.

  • The size of the market is difficult to calculate.

  • But in 2012, public spending on emergency prep

  • was estimated at $500 million

  • and an additional $1 billion from the government and NGOs.

  • The fears driving these purchases

  • aren't as rare as you might think.

  • An estimated 35% of Americans believe an event will happen

  • that will lead to the end of the world.

  • Hall: All of our owners have been self-made millionaires

  • by definition, and they're from all walks of life.

  • They like the concept of having this safe harbor,

  • and then they also comment about

  • what peace of mind they get from owning it.

  • It's like they had this worry that they weren't

  • consciously aware of, but after they bought it,

  • they realized that they feel like a burden has been lifted.

  • Narrator: To meet demand, Hall and his team

  • are building a second silo that's three times

  • the size of the original.

Narrator: During the Cold War, the US government

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