Friday, October 28, 2011
Building Plan B
With the start of AMC's The Walking Dead and the Occupy (you fill in the blank) movement, a healthy market for "Plan B" activities is developing. One such fabricator of Plan B structures is Vivos. California-based entrepreneur Robert Vicino has created the first fallout shelters modeled on a cooperative, building two massive complexes in Indiana and Nebraska, with plans for three more in Wyoming, New York, and the Carolinas. Each facility will typically house 1,000 individuals - - which includes private quarters with beds, a bathroom, and a kitchen, as well as access to a communal living space. Prices start at $35,000. Although the word Vivos is Latin and means alive, the music on the promo-video could be the sound track for a remake of Dr. Strangelove. They also boil it down to the simplest of marketing messages - - "It wasn't raining when Noah built the Ark."
If communal living is not your thing, Radius Engineering offers a backyard Plan B for the starting cost of $112,000 (with the heart of non-communal living being based in Texas, not California). The backyard version holds eight and includes a kitchen and shower. Walton McCarthy, the company's president and the author of Principles of Protection, hermetically seals his ovoid pods eight feet below the surface. Each is equipped with a 400-gallon septic tank, two generators - - one diesel, another operated by hand crank - - and an internal air-filtration system that blocks radioactive gases and agents of chemical and biological warfare. A custom-dug well supplies fresh water. Figure on six-months before supplies run out - - or the remaining 99.99999% knock the door down.
And the demand - - Radius reports a 1,500% increase in sales from five years ago.
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