When Bernard Jones Jr. and his wife, Doris, built their dream home, they didn鈥檛 hold back. A grotto swimming pool with a waterfall for hot summer days. A home theater for cozy winter nights. A fruit orchard to harvest in fall. And a vast underground bunker in case disaster strikes.
鈥淭he world鈥檚 not becoming a safer place,鈥 he said. 鈥淲e wanted to be prepared.鈥
Under a nondescript metal hatch near the private basketball court, there鈥檚 a hidden staircase that leads down into rooms with beds for about 25 people, bathrooms and two kitchens, all backed by a self-sufficient energy source.
With water, electricity, clean air and food, they felt ready for any disaster, even , at their bucolic home in California鈥檚 Inland Empire.
鈥淚f there was a nuclear strike, would you rather go into the living room or go into a bunker? If you had one, you鈥檇 go there too,鈥 said Jones, who said he reluctantly sold the home two years ago.
Global security leaders are warning nuclear threats are growing as weapons spending . At the same time, private bunker sales are on the rise globally, from small metal boxes to crawl inside of to extravagant underground mansions.
Critics warn these bunkers create a false perception that a nuclear war is survivable. They argue that people planning to live through an atomic blast aren鈥檛 focusing on the real and current dangers posed by nuclear threats, and the critical need to stop the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
Meanwhile, government disaster experts say bunkers aren鈥檛 necessary. A Federal Emergency Management Agency 100-page guidance on responding to a nuclear detonation focuses on having the public get inside and stay inside, ideally in a basement and away from outside walls for at least a day. Those existing spaces can provide protection from radioactive fallout, says FEMA.
But increasingly, buyers say bunkers offer a sense of security. The market for U.S. bomb and fallout shelters is forecast to grow from $137 million last year to $175 million by 2030, according to a market research report from BlueWeave Consulting. The report says major growth factors include 鈥渢he rising threat of nuclear or terrorist attacks or civil unrest.鈥
Building bunkers
鈥淧eople are uneasy and they want a safe place to put their family. And they have this attitude that it鈥檚 better to have it and not need it then to need it and not have it,鈥 said CEO Ron Hubbard, amid showers of sparks and the loud buzz of welding at his bunker factory, which he says is the world鈥檚 largest, in Sulphur Springs, Texas.
Hubbard said COVID lockdowns, and the outbreak of have driven sales.
On Nov. 21, in the hours after Russia鈥檚 first-ever use of to attack Ukraine, Hubbard said his phone rang nonstop.
Four callers ended up buying bunkers in one day, he said, and more ended up ordering doors and other parts for shelters they were already building.
Hubbard said his bunkers are built for all disasters.
鈥淭hey鈥檙e good for anything from a tornado to a hurricane to nuclear fallout, to a pandemic to even a volcano erupting,鈥 he said, sweeping his arms toward a massive warehouse where more than 50 different bunkers were under construction.
A loaded shotgun at arm鈥檚 length and metal mesh window shields to block Molotov cocktails nearby, Hubbard said he started his company after building his own bunker about 10 years ago. He says callers ask about prices 鈥 $20,000 to multimillions, averaging $500,000 鈥 and installations 鈥 they can go just about anywhere. He said most days he sells at least one bunker.
Under Hubbard鈥檚 doomsday scenario, global tensions could lead to World War III, a situation he is prepared to live through.
鈥淭he good news about nuclear warfare,鈥 he said, 鈥渋f there ever was any, that it鈥檚 very survivable if you鈥檙e not killed in the initial blast.鈥
He鈥檚 not wrong, say U.S. government disaster preparedness experts.
"You want to go to your most robust building鈥
鈥淟ook, this fallout exposure is entirely preventable because it is something that happens after the detonation,鈥 said Brooke Buddemeier a radiation safety specialist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, where the U.S. government designs nuclear weapons. Buddemeier and his colleagues are tasked with evaluating what could happen after an attack and how best to survive. 鈥淭here鈥檚 going to be a fairly obvious nuclear explosion event, a large cloud. So just getting inside, away from where those particles fall, can keep you and your family safe.鈥
Buddemeier and others in the U.S. government are trying to get Americans 鈥 who decades ago hid under desks during nuclear attack drills 鈥 educated about how to respond.
After a deadly and deafening blast, a bright flash and a mushroom cloud, it will take about 15 minutes for the radioactive fallout to arrive for those a mile or more away from ground zero, said Michael Dillon, a scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
鈥淚t鈥檚 going to literally be sand falling on your head, and you鈥檙e going to want to get out of that situation. You want to go to your most robust building,鈥 he said. In their models, they estimate people may need to stay inside for a day or two before evacuating.
The government鈥檚 efforts to educate the public were reinvigorated after .
, which was sent to cellphones statewide just before 8:10 a.m., said: 鈥淏ALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND TO HAWAII. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL.鈥
For the next 40 minutes there were traffic jams, workers running into and out of buildings, families huddling in their bathrooms, students gathering in gyms, drivers blocking tunnels, all in an attempt to seek shelter, without any clear idea of what 鈥渟eek immediate shelter鈥 actually meant.
Today the federal government offers a guide to prepare citizens for a that advises people to find a basement or the center of a large building and stay there, possibly for a few days, until they get word about where to go next.
鈥淕ently brush your pet鈥檚 coat to remove any fallout particles鈥 it says, adding that the 15-minute delay between bomb and fallout allows 鈥渆nough time for you to be able to prevent significant radiation exposure.鈥
Jeffrey Schlegelmilch, who directs the FEMA-backed National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University, said 鈥渢he scenarios of a nuclear detonation are not all or nothing.鈥
If a small number of weapons detonate rather than all-out war, he said, sheltering inside a large building to avoid the fallout could save lives.
"Underground bunkers aren鈥檛 going to protect people鈥
Nonproliferation advocates bristle at the bunkers, shelters or any suggestion that a nuclear war is survivable.
鈥淏unkers are, in fact, not a tool to survive a nuclear war, but a tool to allow a population to psychologically endure the possibility of a nuclear war,鈥 said Alicia Sanders-Zakre at the .
Sanders-Zakre called radiation the 鈥渦niquely horrific aspect of nuclear weapons,鈥 and noted that even surviving the fallout doesn鈥檛 prevent long-lasting, intergenerational health crises. 鈥淯ltimately, the only solution to protect populations from nuclear war is to eliminate nuclear weapons.鈥
Researcher Sam Lair at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies says U.S. leaders stopped talking about bunkers decades ago.
鈥淭he political costs incurred by causing people to think about shelters again is not worth it to leaders because it forces people to think about what they would do after nuclear war,鈥 he said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 something that very, very few people want to think about. This makes people feel vulnerable.鈥
Lair said building bunkers seems futile, even if they work in the short term.
鈥淓ven if a nuclear exchange is perhaps more survivable than many people think, I think the aftermath will be uglier than many people think as well,鈥 he said. 鈥淭he fundamental wrenching that it would do to our way of life would be profound.鈥
That鈥檚 been a serious concern of Massachusetts Congressman James McGovern for almost 50 years.
鈥淚f we ever get to a point where there鈥檚 all out nuclear war, underground bunkers aren鈥檛 going to protect people,鈥 he said. 鈥淚nstead, we ought to be investing our resources and our energy trying to talk about a nuclear weapons freeze, initially.鈥
Next, he said, 鈥渨e should work for the day when we get rid of all nuclear weapons.鈥
Year after year he introduces legislation pushing for nonproliferation, but looking out his office window at the Capitol, he said he鈥檚 disappointed by the lack of debate over what will be a $1 trillion expenditure to build and .
鈥淭he stakes, if a nuclear weapon is ever used, is that millions and millions and millions of people will die. It really is shocking that we have world leaders who talk casually about utilizing nuclear weapons. I mean, it would be catastrophic, not just for those that are involved in an exchange of nuclear weapons, but for the entire world.鈥
McGovern pushed back against FEMA鈥檚 efforts to prepare the public for a nuclear attack by advising people to take shelter.
鈥淲hat a stupid thing to say that we all just need to know where to hide and where to avoid the most impacts of nuclear radiation. I mean, really, that鈥檚 chilling when you hear people try to rationalize nuclear war that way,鈥 he said.
Nuclear war was far from a couple's mind when they went house-hunting in Southern California a few years ago. They wanted a home to settle down and raise their family, and they needed extra garage space. They spotted an online ad for a home with at least eight parking spots. On the basketball court, there was a metal hatch. Beneath it was a bunker.
This was Jones' former home, which Jones said he put up for sale for family reasons.
The husband, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of concerns about his family's privacy, went ahead and bought Jones' home, bunker and all. They aren鈥檛 particularly worried about nuclear war, and haven鈥檛 spent a night in the bunker, but they have stored food and medical supplies down there.
鈥淲e have told some of our friends, if something goes crazy and gets bad, get over here as fast as possible,鈥 the husband said. 鈥淚t does provide a sense of security.鈥
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Mendoza reported from Sulphur Springs, Texas, and Livermore, California.
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The Associated Press receives support for nuclear security coverage from and . The AP is solely responsible for all content.
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Additional AP coverage of the nuclear landscape:
Martha Mendoza, The Associated Press
