Preparing for the worst? US bunker maker claims big demand in Middle East

Since the war in the Middle East began nearly two weeks ago, the phone at Ron Hubbard’s bomb shelter company in Texas has not stopped ringing.Foreign and US clients are rushing to buy his bunkers, seeking refuge in case of air raids, nuclear fallout or apocalypse.With the United States and Israel pounding Iran, and Tehran retaliating with strikes across the region, Hubbard has seen demand for his product soar, mostly from Gulf nation clients in Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.“You can imagine how many people are thinking ‘I wish I had a bomb shelter’,” Hubbard, 63, said in the office of his company, Atlas Survival Shelters. “The respect and the demand for the product is really at an all-time high right now like I’ve never seen it before.”Tornado and other shelters at the Atlas Survival Shelters factory. Photo: AFPBut with Iranian missiles hitting US targets in the Middle East and violence on the rise domestically, Americans are also worried. One recent morning, a client from Florida called Hubbard to inquire about a bomb shelter for 10 people.