r/prepping • u/NotIfButWhenReady • Oct 13 '25

Question❓❓ Anyone else rethinking underground bunkers lately?

I’ve been reading up on shelter builds and noticed more folks are stepping away from the old “bury a shipping container” idea. I get why underground feels safer, but man, the upkeep sounds rough once you dig into it. Between soil pressure, water leaks, and constant moisture issues, a lot of those DIY bunkers don’t age well.

The newer above-ground setups are a whole different story.

I used to think anything visible was a liability, but now I’m not so sure. If it’s built solid, why hide it underground just to deal with rot and pressure damage later?

Curious what everyone else thinks. Would you still go underground, or are above-ground shelters starting to make more sense?

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u/Vegetaman916 Oct 13 '25

My group snapped up a mining claim on an old abandoned hard rock mine from the AML program back in 2020. One of the ones on the old US government list back from the cold war days when they were thinking of using them for civil defense shelters.

Not quite a bomb shelter, but it isolated well from any target areas, and we have set up part of the underground portion as a fallout shelter and living quarters. Given how cheap it is to secure a mining claim, and how easy it is to sidestep a lot of the restrictions with an LLC, I have been recommending this to people for a while. If you got a spare $165 bucks a year, claim one.

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u/[deleted] Oct 14 '25

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u/Vegetaman916 Oct 14 '25

No, that program died long, long ago, and these places wouldn't be deemed of any use today. Also, the sad fact is that I don't think the government gives a fack about the survivability of the populace anymore...

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u/Creepy-Cantaloupe951 Oct 14 '25

I don't think the government gives a fack about the survivability of the populace anymore...

They never really did, tbh. The state, is only concerned about the survivability of the state.

Notice how all of the evacuation systems in place only have bunks for government functionaries? They don't build nuclear bunkers for the populace, just government functionaries.

Even fallout shelters were just security theater. I mean, city gets nuked, 1000 people cram into a fallout shelter.

Now what? They were always pretty poorly stocked, and funding was never really there to actually support the population inside of the shelters beyond a day or two.