Bomb shelter sales rise amid tensions with North Korea

The bomb shelter business has boomed as President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un have exchanged threats, raising the possibility of nuclear war.

Ron Hubbard, president of Atlas Survival Shelters in Montebello, California, said he expects to sell 1,000 shelters this year at prices averaging $25,000 each.

Demand for bomb shelters in Japan is so strong that Atlas opened a sales office in Osaka and is preparing to open a Dallas production plant with 400,000 square feet of space, largely to manufacture shelters for Japanese customers.

Atlas offers 15 types of shelters but focuses on a single-family model made of corrugated steel that sells for $25,000. It is a flexible product that can be luxuriously furnished or maintained as a no-frills “man cave.”

Another California-based maker of bomb shelters called Vivos sells shares in condominium-style underground bunkers. Vivos said it has sold out shares at $35,000 per adult for an Indiana bunker with capacity for 80 people.

Murchison, Texas-based Rising S Shelters also has seen a spike in sales in both Japan and the United States. The company’s general manager, Gary Lynch, said Rising S has sold 67 bomb shelters abroad this year, mainly to Japanese customers, up from nine in all of 2016.

The most popular model made by Rising S is a 500-square-foot bunker with steel reinforcement for $120,000. Included in the price is an NBC (nuclear, biological, chemical) air-filtration system. But the price doesn’t include the cost of underground installation or overseas shipping charges.

Rising S also markets confidentiality. The company has denied rumors in tabloid publications that it is building a bomb shelter for Kanye West and Kim Kardashian. [Miami Herald] – Mike Seemuth