So it’s no surprise that this compound-built in 1951 during the Atomic Age fervor-has a cement-block bunker buried beneath it. ![]() Undergrounded: Way out in the Mojave Desert, the Joshua Tree area has been favored by rugged individualists and preppers for decades. Scouring nationwide listings, we found five homes for sale outfitted with underground shelters. And as climate events continue to wreak havoc across previously “safe” parts of the country, these underground environments are a hedge against calamity. In the Midwest, they can provide protection from devastating tornadoes. How many shelters remain tucked away in private homes is anyone’s guess.But the bunkers’ recent resurgence isn’t simply about geopolitical concerns. Only a handful of such bunkers are still maintained in the state, including those in its emergency operations centers and another, reportedly, in the leaky tunnels beneath the State House in Annapolis. Most public shelters were dismantled, their medical supplies donated to local fire departments for training aids and their stale foodstuffs - more than 2,600 tons of high-protein biscuits in Maryland alone - were buried in landfills or fed to pigs. The cramped sanctuaries built to provide refuge for two weeks (while radiation abated) morphed into playrooms, pantries and man caves. ![]() Over time, tensions with the Soviet Union eased and, by the end of the decade, talks had begun to limit the number of long-range missiles on both sides. “I’d prefer to die like a man on the face of the earth, with a last look at the sun, rather than like a rat in an underground box made of reinforced concrete,” wrote Ivor Kraft of Baltimore.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |