With Middle East in flames, Texan bunker maker sees business boom

President Ron Hubbard poses for a portrait at the Atlas Survival Shelters factory in Sulphur Springs, Texas on March 7, 2026. Since the war in the Middle East began nearly two weeks ago, the phone at Ron Hubbard’s bomb shelter company Atlas Survival Shelters in Texas hasn’t stopped ringing. Foreign and US clients are rushing to buy his bunkers, seeking refuge in case of air raids, nuclear fallout or apocalypse.

Since the war in theMiddle Eastbegan nearly two weeks ago, the phone at Ron Hubbard’s bomb shelter company in Texas hasn’t stopped ringing. With theUnited Statesand 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, told AFP 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.” But 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. Tornado shelters are seen outside at the Atlas Survival Shelters factory in Sulphur Springs, Texas on March 7, 2026.

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A basic backyard bunker housing four people underground for up to a week while shielding them from bomb blasts and radiation costs around $25,000. More sophisticated models, designed for years-long stays, can cost millions of dollars depending on how much food, energy and water they are stocked with. “It depends if they’re preparing for the end of the world or Armageddon or they’re preparing just basically for a barrage of missile fires as mostly the Israelis have,” Hubbard said.

His bunkers can be built from concrete directly on-site, or fabricated from metal at his facility in the town of Sulphur Springs in rural Texas, and then transported to the client. A nuclear shelter only needs to be three feet deep because “it’s the earth and the concrete on top of you shielding you from the gamma radiation,” Hubbard explained, adding that he usually tries to build them six to ten feet underground to allow for protection from artillery fire.

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