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Why Americans Are Buying Underground Bunkers

Fear of the future is driving sales of fortified, blast-proof homes, and some families are already taking up residence

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Why Americans Are Buying Underground Bunkers
Inside the bunker, a set of doors leads to an underground ornamental garden. (Andrew Chamings/New Lines)

It’s nearly 100 degrees on the edge of downtown Las Vegas when I pull up to a seemingly ordinary, terra cotta-walled home with a few palm trees in its dusty yard. As I walk the gravel driveway on Spencer Street, the strip’s fake Eiffel Tower punctures wispy clouds on the horizon; beyond it, the sandstone of Red Rock Canyon shimmers in the sunlight. I pass an 8-foot tree stump. Then I notice vents in the dirt around the yard and a rock formation that looks like the mouth of a cave.

Out from the house steps Frankie Lewis, a 60-year-old with large hoop earrings and an even bigger set of keys. She smiles and nods toward the stump. “That’s not real,” she says, with the raspy voice of someone who has enjoyed their years in Las Vegas. The stump, she explains, is made of cement and is actually a chimney. The rocks mask an escape hatch. The vents provide breathable air for a hidden lair below.

She takes me into the house, where two oak-paneled doors inside the entryway open to reveal a steel elevator. Lewis leads me into it. A sensation like claustrophobia comes over me as we sink 30 feet down, below the desert floor.

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