‘Our top search term is nuclear’: US bunker sales soar as anxiety over Russia rises

Amid Russia's war on Ukraine and a global pandemic, pressure is once again building to think about how people can protect themselves during a crisis

Gary Lynch is the CEO of Rising S Company in Texas. When I first visited his warehouse in 2018, I watched his crew assemble, deliver, and bury a handful of bunkers in people's backyards every month. The bunkers are thick plate steel boxes that are welded together like a giant Lego set - the size of the bunker limited only by a client's resources.

Sales, he says, have spiked 1,000% since that time as anxieties around the pandemic, civil unrest, climate change and war have driven more buyers to his company.