Doomsday shelters line Kansas missile silo

AFP/YahooNews ^ | 4/9/12 | Joe Lambe

[Kartographer]

Tucked deep beneath the Kansas prairie, luxury condos are being built into the shaft of an abandoned missile silo to service anxious -- and wealthy -- people preparing for doomsday.

So far, four buyers have plopped down a total of about $7 million for havens to flee to when disaster happens or the end is nigh. And developer Larry Hall has options to retro-fit three more Cold War-era silos when this one fills up.

"They worry about events ranging from solar flares, to economic collapse, to pandemics to terrorism to food shortages," Hall told AFP on a tour of the site.

These "doomsday preppers", as they are called, want a safe place and he will be there with them because Hall, 55, bought one of the condos for himself. He says his fear is that sun flares could wipe out the power grid and cause chaos.

[Carriage Hill]

Thanks.

I’d also be concerned that an enemy’s ICBM is still aimed at it, from years-ago targeting codes, even though it’s not an ‘active base’, anymore.

[NTHockey]

“Fixed fortifications are a monument to man’s stupidity.” General George S. Patton

[driftdiver]

Patton had an army, I don’t.

[MasterGunner01]

These underground missile sites, silos, and communications shelters had full NBC (nuclear, biological, chemical) protection. In cases of heavy contamination, there were CO2 scrubbers (like nuclear submarines) so that the occupants could recycle their own air and be completely independent of outside contaminants.

These sites were also hardened to stop serious ground attacks. There was always at least one escape tunnel or manhole to get out if the main entry was blocked. Entrance was through heavy blast doors that were designed to resist nuclear explosions. There were containment areas (”kill zones”) built into the entry so that attackers could be stopped and neutralized.

I've always thought that such Cold War relics would be great for SHTF scenarios. Because many of the communications shelters weren't decommissioned until the 1990s, these are the sites most likely to require the least work. The shelters have about 7,800 square feet of living space, are steel re-bar reinforced concrete at least two feet thick, and located at least six feet below ground.

There are several problems: (1) how much work is required to make the site habitable and (2) the site location [how far away is it from where you are].

Unless the habitation systems (fuel, power, HVAC, lighting, sewer, water) were operational, you could spend a small fortune making the place livable.

The other problem is accessibility on a short notice. You have to be able to get to your shelter and that could be a problem if it is far away or there is a panic and breakdown of society.

Once these issues are addressed, these site are totally self-contained and very secure.

[wita]

“I almost cried”.

Are you sure about that?

All of the alert facilities I was locked up in over time, are also imploded just by the passage of time. Oops not quite, I think the bomber alert facilities at Minot, and Ellsworth are still in existence. Physically anyway, but not as alert facilities.

The only question in my mind is what they did with the crew capsules. I don’t recall those being part of the destruction. Around here the buildings above ground are still there complete with fencing.

[OldMissileer]

When they decommissioned the Titan II sites they blew up the Head Works. That is, the Silo Closure Door area thus rendering the site useless for launch. The launch Control Centers were left intact. Some sites had the Long Cable-way (the underground tube giving access from the Control Center to the Silo/Missile) destroyed while many were left intact.

The Minuteman Launch Facilities (where the missiles were) were blown up entirely and covered in. The Launch Control Facilities were stripped of everything that could be recycled. The underground capsules had ALL metal removed. Even the plate steel liner of the capsule itself was torn off the concrete.

Once that was accomplished the remaining empty concrete “egg” was filled with sand. There is nothing left but those “eggs” and they someday could be mistaken for very large, deep, septic tanks.

[LoveUSA]

Understand what you're saying.

I wasn't resorting to class warfare. I was just making the frustrated point that I'm too busy trying to survive now what this nuclear holocaust of a government is putting us through than to spend my days trying to sink a double-wide in my backyard.

Didn't know I was exercising class warfare rhetoric. Glad I failed. : D

[RavenLooneyToon]

Rather, there is no reason to rule out a nuclear strike.

[bolobaby]

Well - more of a comment for Bitsy, really, but she recovered nicely.

But you’ve got the “trying to survive NOW” thing right. I should be doing so much better than I am given my income. Why am I not getting ahead? My wife and I don’t spend frivolously. Hell, my wife buys more clothes at Goodwill than anywhere else... and I pull in a six figure salary.

WTF?

[snowrip]

If society collapses or the zombie apocalypse starts, I’m thinking that anyone in a fortified bunker isn’t going to really give a damn when the “local authorities” come knocking.

[snowrip]

Second wave of what?

Hyperinflation? Biological terrorism? Power grid collapse? Race war? Financial market collapse? Plague?

These bunkers were meant to protect people from a host of issues that would collapse society, not neccessarily from global thermonuclear war. Even if we went to war with Russia, there would be no “second wave” of ICBMs, because Russia no longer possesses the cabability. Even if they struck first, any reserve strike capability they possessed would be held to counter a strike from a US ally, not to launch on targets that have been empty for 40 years. Sheesh.

[RavenLooneyToon]

So buy a shelter in case of something other than a thermal nuclear war? I would think the idea behind having a shelter would include nuclear war as a distinct possibility.
There would not only be a second wave, there would be third wave and more. Russia is not the only possibly hostile nuked up entity. Some of these entities actually know how to fight a war with reckless abandon and without mercy.
They have no false illusions about nation rebuilding.

[MrB]

That’s cause the “S” is slowly, gradually “HTF” right now.

I’m trying to follow the Spirko motto -

“helping you to live a better life, when times get tough, or even if they don’t”.

Everything you do to “prep” should be making your life better now, and improving your freedom now, not just “in case”.

[snowrip]

Russia is the only country with the ability to hit the midwest, which is where these silos are located.

But if you knew anything about nuclear delivery systems, you would know that.

[RavenLooneyToon]

You are right I have never worked on Nuke Delivery systems, perhaps you could educate me?

You mean the Chinese can lift two tons to an escape velocity of 7 miles per second (Mach 31) with the Long March 3 rocket and not be able to hit Kansas with a MIRV (I think that stands for Multiple Independent Reentry Vehicles) compliant payload?

I am but a simple man with little knowledge of the Chinese ICBM (doesn't that mean Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles ?)systems such as the DF-5A with a range of 8000 miles or the land mobile DF-31A with a range from over 5000 miles.

Being but an un-knowledgable idiot, I am sure the Chinese don't have nuclear warhead ready submarines that could hit Kansas from a thousand miles off our coast, or simply over run say the country of Panama and hit Kansas from a mere 3,300 miles away with a few MIRV tipped DF-31As.

Certainly these primitive people have never mastered Rocketry beyond black powder and could never master APCP(umm doesn't that stand for Ammonium Perchlorate Composite Propellant) or the liquid fuels used for their space programs.

No doubt the seventh grade level Calculus required to plot a targeting solution involving a ballistic trajectory would be far beyond them.
Certainly the 400 to 500 nukes they have are no wheres near enough to actually launch a second strike. Thank you for the heads up, I feel much safer now.