Most people are stocking up on hand sanitizer and toilet paper, but the super-rich have adopted more extreme measures to ward off the coronavirus – including preparing doomsday bunkers, according to reports.
Robert Vicino, founder of Vivos Group — a California-based firm that builds underground shelters — said his company has seen a surge in sales of such bunkers since the crisis erupted, according to the Guardian.
In Indiana, the company has converted a Cold War bunker into a fortified refuge for 80 people — and is offering space in hundreds of bunkers in an abandoned World War II ordnance depot in South Dakota.
The concierge company Quintessentially said one of its members had actually converted his home into a “military-style bunker” and was asking his visitors to show records of their movements and contacts.
In Kansas, the Survival Condo offers the well-heeled accommodations inside a 15-story-deep retired missile silo that once housed Atlas missiles and was built to withstand nuclear strikes.
Survival Condo owner Larry Hall bought the obsoleted silo in 2008 and converted it into a state-of-the art residence that offers “virtual windows,” a gym, pool, movie theaters, shooting range and a five-year supply of food and water, according to Vice.
“The mission is to protect residents from a whole wide range of threats,” Hall told Vice. “Everything from viral or bacterial threats and chemicals to volcanic ash, meteors, solar flares and civil unrest.”
On its website, Survival Condo lists a full-floor suite package for $3 million.
“This ‘Package’ is much more than just a ‘Survival Condo Unit.’ This ‘Package’ includes mandatory training, a three-year per person food supply, fully furnished and custom designed interior, special equipment for registered members, computer access to condo systems, and much more,” it says.
One Saudi customer decided to add an underground mosque and a concealed, James Bond-style helicopter hangar, Vice reported.
Sales have been so brisk during the coronavirus outbreak that one person saw a unit online this month and bought it sight unseen four days later, Hall said.
“We’ve never had this many people schedule site tours in such a short period of time,” he told Vice. “There are a record number of requests to tour the facility. It’s unprecedented and we’ve noticed a sense of urgency and a seriousness that wasn’t there before.”
Another outfit, Atlas Survival Shelters, also has seen a spike in sales of its units — the cheapest of which goes for $35,999 — but also of food, according to the outlet.
“Supplies are sold out. There is nothing to buy and no suppliers to refill supplies,” company CEO Ron Hubbard told Vice.
In addition to bunkers, the ultra-wealthy also have been taking their personal doctors or nurses on trips and demanding private coronavirus tests, according to the Guardian.
“This has led to huge demand from very wealthy people asking if they can pay for private testing,” Mark Ali, medical director of the Private Harley Street Clinic in London, told the news outlet.
“Unfortunately, we are unable to offer testing, as the (National Health Service) has said all tests should be done centrally,” he added.
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