Bruce Beach and his bomb shelter, Ark Two
Stateside, Silicon-Valley types and one-percenters are spending huge bucks to keep themselves and their loved ones safe. Dwight Bulloch owns Calgary-based Bridon Solutions, whose
motto is “Helping Canadians obtain high-quality survival sup- plies since 2009.” Bulloch says business is easily double what it was fi ve years ago. Mostly, he caters to “preppers,” i.e., men and women preparing for the big meltdown. Preppers tend to rein- force their homes. They also hone outdoor survival skills. They oſt en buy special freeze-dried storable food, vehicles, guns and ammo. Bomb shelters, too. Reasons for pre-doomsday shopping are clear. These are
anxious times. The melting ice that disinterred Camp Century is proof positive that the planet is changing rapidly. Radical armies and North Korea are threatening the West with nukes. On January 26 of this year, the BBC made the following statement: “Scientists say the world has edged closer to apocalypse in the past year amid a darkening security landscape and comments by Donald Trump. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists moved the minute hand of the symbolic Doomsday Clock from three minutes to two-and-a- half minutes to midnight.” Since Donald Trump’s election, sales of underground bunkers
have leapt approximately 300%. Exhibit A: Vivos is a California startup that turns old fallout
shelters into condominiums for preppers who think they can spend their way to post-apocalyptic splendour. On offer from Vivos, in South Dakota, are 575 “bomb-resistant bunkers that can comfortably sleep 10 to 20 people each,” writes The Telegraph. The bunkers go for US$25,000 for a 99-year lease, with a US$1,000 annual maintenance fee. (Lessees pay for plumbing, electrical and air-fi ltration systems.) Instead of life insurance, Vivos sells “life assurance.” In Vice
magazine, Vivos CEO Robert Vicino says his clients include a top surgeon, a colonel in the US military and a movie star. Most tend
42 | CPA MAGAZINE | NOVEMBER 2017
to be, he says, conservative types who don’t trust the government to deal with a disaster. Here’s Vivos’ pitch for a unit it called Vivos Indiana: “Like a very
comfortable 4-Star hotel, this massive shelter is tastefully and comfortably furnished and decorated, completely outfi tted, fully stocked with food, toiletries, linens, medical supplies, a one-year supply of fuel, a deep-water well, NBC fi ltration systems, geother- mal heating and cooling, bedroom suites, full-size showers and bathrooms, a theater area, dining area, lounge area, exercise equipment, kennels, a garden area for fresh vegetables, laundry area, abundant storage areas, ATVs, bicycles, tools, a workshop, security devices; and just about everything else that may be needed to ride out virtually any catastrophic event. You only need to bring your personal clothing and medications. We’ve thought of everything else!” In Kansas, an Atlas missile silo that has been rendered into post-meltdown luxury homes is called Survival Condo. A top-of- the-line penthouse unit will set you back about US$4.5 million. It can be completely customized, but standard equipment includes an indoor pool, an indoor shooting range, hydroponic food and, of course, military-grade security. Not coincidentally, the under- ground entranceway to Survival Condo looks a lot like the gateway to Beach’s Ark Two. Clyde Scott is president of Texas-based Rising S Co., specializing
in fallout and tornado shelters that come in 18 models, ranging in price from US$10,000 to, he says, “the sky’s the limit.” (A rumour — that he will neither confi rm nor deny — has it that Kanye West and Kim Kardashian have ordered a shelter from Rising S.) And, he says, he now includes Canadians among his customers.
“I sold two in Montreal last week but most have come out of Toronto. I have a dealer setting up soon in Red Deer, Alta., one in Saskatchewan and a few in BC.” Scott comes up to Canada for, he says, the great duck and goose hunting.
Photos: Roger Lemoyne
Newspaper + Book: Bruce Beach
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