Doomsday Bunker Sales Soar With 700 Percent Rise as Rich Prepare for 'Apocalypse'
Manufacturers of high-end doomsday bunkers report that sales have risen as much as 700 percent since 2015 as the wealthy prepare for "the Apocalypse."
CNN reported Tuesday on several of the more luxurious bunker options, and profiled some of the main companies behind the bunker survival business.
Gary Lynch, general manager of Texas-based Rising S Company, claimed that 2016 sales for custom high-end underground bunkers grew by 700 percent compared to 2015.
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What is more, overall sales have seen a 300 percent growth since November's U.S. presidential election in which Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton.
Rising S Company, for instance, offers plate steel bunkers, which can last for generations and store a minimum of one year's supply of food.
CNN reported that "while some want to bunker down alone, others prefer to ride out the Apocalypse in a community setting that offers an experience a bit closer to the real world."
Others, such as Robert Vicino, a real estate entrepreneur and CEO of Vivos, which builds and manages high-end shelters, noted that today's bunkers are becoming very different from the 20thcentury Cold War era models.
"Your father or grandfather's bunker was not very comfortable," Vicino said.
"They were gray. They were metal, like a ship or something military. And the truth is mankind cannot survive long-term in such a Spartan, bleak environment."
Doomsday bunker sales previously rose in 2012, ahead of the supposed "Mayan apocalypse" that was based on some interpretations of the ancient Mayan calendar, which was supposed to hit on Dec. 21, 2012.
David Morrison, senior scientist at the NASA Astrobiology Institute, said back then that he was receiving stacks of emails from people so afraid of a coming Apocalypse that they were considering killing themselves in advance.
Vicino added that more than 5,000 Americans booked places in their shelters, and revealed that his company was expanding operations in Europe.
Steve Cramer, one man who reserved a doomsday bunker spot for his family, said, "We're not crazy people: these are fearful times. My family wants to survive. You have to be prepared."
Television shows such as "Doomsday Preppers" on National Geographic enjoyed a record number of viewers when it premiered in February 2012, exploring — or cashing in — on people's fears of the End Times.
Taking on a more political dimension, III Arms, a firearms manufacturing company, revealed back in January 2013 that it was building a fortified, self-sustaining community in Benewah County, Idaho.
The "Citadel" project, as it was named, was aimed at people who share the company's views about "patriotism, pride in American exceptionalism, liberty as defined by the Founding Fathers, and preparedness to survive man-made or natural disasters."
"Marxists, socialists, liberals and establishment Republicans will likely find that life in our community is incompatible with their existing ideology and preferred lifestyles," the website added.
