Businessman who built bunkers for Mark Zuckerberg and Andrew Tate says he's inundated with requests: 'I've never seen anything like it'
“Do you want a bomb shelter or a tornado shelter?” asks Texas entrepreneur Ron Hubbard. “Anti-bombs”, for 10 people, answers a client from Florida, reports AFP and La Libre.
“We have seen a strong increase in demand since the start of the Iran war, mainly in the Gulf countries,” Hubbard, 63, told AFP in an interview. “Ironically, we opened our offices in Dubai on February 26, 48 hours before the start of the war; the timing was ideal, allowing us to meet the demand,” he added.
Atlas Survival Shelters, the company Hubbard runs from the small Texas town of Sulfur Springs, received calls from Qatar, Pakistan and Dubai in just one morning. In Dubai, a client wants a shelter that would allow him to survive for five years.
Despite assurances from President Donald Trump that the US attack on Iran would be short-lived, the constant bombing has many people in the Gulf wishing for a safe haven.
“Demand for this type of product is at an all-time high, we've never seen anything like it before,” Hubbard said.
Americans are buying more and more bunkers
To meet demand from foreign markets, Atlas licenses local companies, and when a contract is concluded, part of its staff moves to the site to supervise the work, which allows to reduce costs.
But the demand doesn't just come from bombed countries. It also grows in the United States.
In the factory yard, about 20 shelters, similar to steel containers, are ready to be shipped. Another forty orders are in production, and Ron Hubbard estimates that in the next two months alone his company could achieve a turnover greater than that of the past three years combined.
Atlas is currently working on a bunker for Andrew Tate, built one for YouTuber MrBeast, another in California for Kim Kardashian, and billionaire Mark Zuckerberg also commissioned a project from Hubbard, assembled by a local company. They had all placed their orders long before the war began.
How much does a basic bunker cost
A basic shelter, designed so that four people can stay underground for up to a week in their garden and withstand bombings and radiation, costs about $25,000.
The most sophisticated ones, designed to survive for years, can cost several million dollars, depending on the amount of food, energy and water stored.
“It depends on whether you're preparing for the end of the world or Armageddon, or whether you're preparing for a rain of rockets, as most Israelis did,” explains Hubbard, who emphasizes that they provide shelters for all possible scenarios.
Structures can be built from concrete directly on site or fabricated from metal in the Texas factory, then delivered to the customer.
“A fallout shelter only needs to be one meter deep. It's not the fallout itself that protects you from radiation, but the earth and concrete that covers it,” he explained to AFP.
“But I like to go as deep as possible and go down two or three meters underground in case there is artillery fire,” he added.
Comfort waiting for the end of the world
The shelters are equipped with a sealed main door and a decontamination room where people can shower if they have been exposed to a contaminated environment.
Depending on the budget, the interior can resemble that of an apartment: living room with TV, bedroom, kitchen, laundry room, bathroom. Some shelters also include a room for storing weapons.
The idea is for it to be connected to a power source, have backup batteries, store and filter water, and have an internet connection.
In the event of a power failure, the ventilation system of the bunker can be operated manually with the help of a hand crank.
“No one thinks that someone is crazy for needing an air raid shelter anymore, especially given the uncertain future that awaits us,” concluded the businessman in the interview with AFP.
