It’s that type of service that the super-wealthy want at their disposal. Of course, some opt to take matters into their own hands.
Arnold Schwarzenegger’s array of Hummers can help him and his family make it to the freeway. Or a $300,000 custom, armor-plated Mercedes-Benz G-Wagen with bulletproof windows and tires is another option. But neither vehicle will get you through traffic. That’s where an Airbus Super Puma helicopter and a Gulfstream G650 private jet come into play.
OK, where to go then? If you’ve neglected to build safe rooms or a shelter system at your second (or third, or fourth) home, an entrepreneur has thought of that.
Robert Vicino launched Vivos, a network of hardened, deep underground, private and community survival shelters in the United States and Europe for millionaires to escape to. He promises, “life-assurance for virtually every catastrophe.”
Vivos boasts that its shelters have deluxe bathrooms, kitchens, dining rooms, spacious lounges and exercise areas.
The epitome of underground shelters, however, may be the “Survival Condo” project that is under construction and expected to open at the end of the year in Kansas. We can’t tell you exactly where in Kansas because the developer, engineer and software designer Larry Hall, is keeping the precise location a secret.
What isn’t a secret, however, is that his project involves the remodeling of a hardened, underground structure that used to be an Atlas nuclear missile silo.
Units in the silo have been completely sold out, Hall says in a press release, while plans are already underway to begin work on a second silo. Along with the usual luxury amenities, the facility is designed to self-sufficiently accommodate 75 people for five years, with nine-foot-thick concrete walls and an outer dome that can withstand winds of up to 500 miles per hour, according to Survival Condo.
The architectural rendering of the structure looks like a stack of casino chips, with the circular silo filled in with one floor of condo floors on top of another. One full floor, covering an area of about 1,820 square feet, costs $3 million.
“In the event of a major disaster, economic collapse or whatever the future may hold, there is one common concern that Larry and his tenants share, and that is the ability to protect themselves and their families when the government is no longer able to do so,” the company says in a press release.
Still, for most emergencies it’s best to stay put where you are—with or without a safe room or bunker. Hence, it’s worth thinking through logistics. Insurance is a huge factor. Flood and premium coverage is not usually included with mainstream home insurance policies. Art, jewelry, auto collections and other valuables should prompt additional protection. Software and important document backup also warrant close attention.
Virtual safes are smart protection against loss or theft. Virtual safes allow users to upload files in any format, including audio and video, to a secure server and keep them stored indefinitely.
Wells Fargo was a pioneer in offering the service as far back as 2008 after its research showed how inconvenient and nonsecure customers’ personal storage solutions were. Fidelity launched its version of a virtual safe deposit box last spring. And tech giants such as Cisco Systems are touting data protection and recovery management services along with secure communication networks specifically designed for disaster operations.
It should come as no surprise that while techie gizmos and preparedness bling such as kits and such are en vogue, it’s the “bang” that is getting a lot of the bucks: Guns and ammunition stockpiles are “over the top,” according to preparedness advisors.
“Whereas a typical family might acquire a pistol or a shotgun for home defense, I have seen families that are stockpiling tens of firearms and thousands and thousands of rounds of ammunition. Yeah, to the extreme,” says Smernoff.
No amount of billionaire prepping on Earth, however, can top what entrepreneur Elon Musk calls his “Plan B” in case living on this planet is no longer viable: settling Mars.
Space travel via Musk’s SpaceX, Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin, may be the ultimate high-net-worth status symbol, according to The Guardian newspaper.
Meanwhile, hints of readying for the end of the world as we know it can be seen closer to the ground—on the fashion show runways in fact: Camouflage was all the rage at the autumn Paris fashion shows. It can’t hurt, I suppose, to look good in times of trouble, too.
Helping The Most Vulnerable
David Eisenman is an internationally recognized expert in disaster research and an associate natural scientist at the RAND Corporation. In addition, he has joint appointments in the David Geffen School of Medicine and the Fielding School of Public Health at UCLA. For the past 15 years, he has researched ways to improve community resilience to disasters and how different groups of society respond to emergencies (for example, the poor versus the wealthy).
Eisenman has found that while catastrophes do not discriminate, certain segments of the population are more vulnerable outside of the income spectrum: the elderly and disabled. Many municipal response programs do not account for these groups, he says. During Hurricane Sandy, for example, many elderly residents in New York City were stuck on the high floors of apartment buildings with no means to get down, get safe or get supplies.
That’s why Eisenman is a big believer in customizing every step of disaster preparedness, from planning to supplies.
Elderly people may need prescription medicines. Disabled individuals may need specialized evacuation procedures. And when it comes to emergency kits, geography nullifies a one-kind-fits-all supply of products. If you live in Beverly Hills, Calif., you aren’t going to need to worry about staying warm as much as you would in Greenwich, Conn. And if you live on Fisher Island, Fla., you are going to have to worry about seawalls and sandbags, whereas you are going to need a shovel, sand and rock salt if you live in Aspen, Colo.
Eisenman advises, “Make preparedness actions as easy and frictionless as possible. Believe it or not, it’s still not easy. People are given lists of things to buy, but they are not of similar value in preparedness—for instance, having water versus having clothing in Los Angeles for an earthquake. Water is lifesaving; clothes are not. But then storing enough water (I recommend a gallon per person per day for at least a week if not three weeks for a catastrophic earthquake) is just not made easy.”
Indeed, getting people to take action is perhaps the biggest obstacle in emergency preparedness, according to Eisenman. Solution? “Make preparedness a social, community thing—something you see your neighbor doing at the block party, for instance,” he says.
Are you paying attention, people living on the most expensive block in Manhattan: East 70th and East 71st Streets between 5th Avenue and Park Ave?