Planning to build a bunker if your candidate loses? Here are some tips

Luxury Bunkers

In this Monday, Aug, 12, 2013 photo, the interior of an Atlas Survival shelter made of galvanized corrugated pipe is showcased at the plant in Montebello, Calif. The City Council in Menifee in Riverside County has approved a controversial ordinance that will allow residents to build underground bunkers on their properties. Survivalist types spend big money on these state-of-the-art, luxury shelters. But city officials are concerned about toxins in the soil, earthquakes, structural stability and whether police and first responders will be safe responding to emergency calls coming from people hiding out underground. Plus, they say, underground rooms could conceal criminal activity, such as drug manufacturing. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

(Damian Dovarganes)

If you're expecting the apocalypse should your candidate not win on Tuesday, maybe a fully stocked, underground bunker is moving higher on your list of must-haves.

A Google search of the word "prepper" brings up more than 6 million hits. Websites of all persuasion are ready to share information and products tailored to surviving whatever personal apocalypse the reader has in mind. Survival bunkers are big with most of those sites.

Underground

Various prepper websites place the cost of an underground, 2,500-square-foot, reinforced concrete bunker at $30,000 for a basic shell to $60,000 for a similarly sized shelter with amenities like mechanical ventilation, bathroom, kitchen and multiple rooms. Some luxury bunkers have been priced at millions of dollars.

Concealment underground, for both its protection from blasts up to and including nuclear devices and concealment from ravaging hordes above, is a primary concern on many prepper survival websites. Having 8 to 10 feet of earth over the bunker seems to be the average recommendation.

Secrecy

Keeping the construction and existence of the bunker secret, even from friends and neighbors, is recommended for security. That can be difficult to pull off with earth-moving equipment working on an urban or suburban lot, so many sites recommend purchasing land in more remote locations or in shared prepper community sites.

A common recommendation is for only those people who will occupy the shelter to know of its existence.

An escape tunnel separate from the main entrance to the bunker and hidden, according to one prepper website after another, is a bunker essential often overlooked by newbies. However, when something heavy has fallen over the main entrance or the bunker is under assault from some outside force.

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Make enough room

Despite the escape tunnel, claustrophobia will be a very real and very constant concern in your bunker under the ground. For a group shelter that will be occupied for more than 24 hours, FEMA recommends 60 square feet per person if single beds are used or 30 square feet for bunk beds.

Additional space will be needed for bathroom facilities, kitchen facilities, air and water systems, storage of food, water and other supplies, common areas, and more.

Lighting and ventilation

Almost by definition a bunker won't have windows, which means no natural light will be entering the space. Artificial lighting, and more of it than most of us might expect, will be needed to make the bunker livable. Power sources will be needed to keep those lights shining, and for every other powered device going into the bunker.

You'll probably want to breathe clean air occasionally in your bunker and for that FEMA recommends a filtered ventilation system that will provide at least 15 cubic feet of air per person per minute.

The system should have at least two vents leading to the surface, as well as several decoy vent tubes that do not connect to or indicate the location of the bunker, again for concealment and security.

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Food and water

Potable water is the second most urgent need in the bunker. FEMA and many other authorities recommend having a gallon per person and pet per day on hand or the ability to obtain that amount of water.

Storage of hundreds of gallons of water inside the bunker is one option, although it's an option that eventually will run out without resupply. Water filtration systems, water purification devices, wells, cisterns and rainwater collection systems are offered as alternatives and supplements.

Food will not be as urgent a need as air and water in the bunker, but eventually your tummy is going to start rumbling. To that end, long-term storage of food will be another concern in stocking the bunker.

Canned foods from the grocery store can be part of the plan, particularly if regular rotations are made to use from and replenish existing supplies.

Bulk items, like rice, pasta, dried beans, salt, sugar and flour, in sealed, waterproof containers are recommended as a means to extend and vary the bunker menu. Some prepper websites calculate needs for a year of bunker life in tons rather than pounds of items like rice and beans.

Moving up the foods storage hierarchy, MREs - Meals Ready to Eat - and dehydrated and freeze-dried meals are long-term storable, easily transportable in their individual seals, require no cooking or simple hot-water cooking for consumption and, to some, taste like they have those other characteristics. Many prepper websites recommend those as fill-ins and extenders for the meal plan, and when mobility is a concern.

Regardless of the form of the food supply, planning should look at calories rather than servings. Recommendations come in at 2,800 calories per day for teenage and adult males, 2,200 for teenage and adult females, and 1,400 for children 13 and younger.

Hygiene and medicine

Personal care items, like toothpaste to maintain healthy teeth and soap for the body, also require some planning if you're serious about living in a bunker. For example, if a person goes through a tube of toothpaste every two weeks, 26 tubes will be needed for one year.

Do you have any idea how much toilet paper you use in a week? Or dish soap? Or every other consumable that goes into daily life?

For long-term bunker living, a simple drug store first-aid kit is not going go very far. If a worst-case scenario comes to pass, broken bones, poisonings, and other serious injuries and illnesses likely will need to be addressed.

And, the list continues through things like tools, supplies for repairs on all the bunker's systems, books and other entertainments, and even writing materials and musical instruments. Weapons, ammunition, and maintenance and repair supplies and gear likely will be on the list for any serious preppers.

Currency

Have you considered gold, silver and other rare commodities for exchange when the bunker doors are opened? Or commodities, like viable seed for growing food, that could serve your own needs as well as being valuable trade and barter items?

An entire industry has grown around supplying preppers, some of whom have been willing to spend more than $100,000 on their preparations. Among prepper websites, 20 percent of annual income going into supplies, equipment and systems is commonly discussed.

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