There is a disturbing new fad among America’s rich and famous that should scare the rest of us to death. Billionaires, movie stars, and other wealthy individuals are building elaborate, luxurious and heavily-fortified survival bunkers.
The world’s richest man; Microsoft founder Bill Gates, has huge shelters under each of his homes, Robert Vicino told The Hollywood Reporter. Vicino; the head of a bunker builder called Vivos described some of his company’s creations for the entertainment trade publications.
Bunkers with Spas and Bowling Alleys
The most elaborate includes a 37-room, 9,000 square foot bunker in California’s Napa Valley north of San Francisco built for an “unidentified Academy Award winner.” The $10.28 million bunker’s amenities include a bowling alley, sauna, home theater, Jacuzzi and a shooting range.
Another Napa Valley fortress for the rich contains four escape tunnels and a “safe house” disguised as a horse barn. A $10 million facility located north of the American city of Minneapolis contains two 1,000 square foot bunkers and 300 feet of tunnels.
The most elaborate bunker is a $100 million subterranean mansion that contains a pizzeria and a day spa. The bunker is being built on America’s East Coast for an unidentified venture capitalist by Vivos’s competitor Strategically Armored & Fortified Environments (SAFE).
The Rich will inherit the Earth
The most ambitious survival facility for the wealthy is Trident Lakes 50 miles northeast of Dallas. When it is completed in 2018, the $300 million development will feature 400 underground survival condominiums surrounded by a 12-foot wall with watchtowers.
Amenities at the country club development will include a tunnel system; underground greenhouses, jogging trails, white sand beaches, stables, polo fields, shooting ranges, a driving range, shops, helipads, restaurants and a DNA vault, The Herald Democrat newspaper reported.
Trident Lakes is designed to be self-sufficient and survive for up 200 years, its CEO Jim O’Connor told The Houston Chronicle. Despite that it is being billed as a country club community and a five star luxury resort.
Finally there’s the most ambitious billionaire prepper of all, Elon Musk. The Tesla Motors and SpaceX founder is planning to found a colony on Mars to ensure the long term survival of the human race.
No specific reasons for these preparations by the rich and famous are mentioned but such fears as ISIS, tensions between the United States and Russia and the United States and China, civil unrest, growing income inequality in the United States, class warfare, the Zika virus and the presidential election were mentioned.
One has to wonder if the rich and worried know something that the rest of us do not. Perhaps we should follow their lead and begin our own preparations.