ride out a tsunami with a survival podWe wrote about this survival pod designed to withstand any type of disaster back in June 2016 when we first heard about it. Now, we heard on a radio program on NPR that the first customer in the United States has bought one and it is now deployed in Ocean Park, Washington.

Jeanne Johnson lives in Ocean Park, which is just north of the Oregon border. It is prime tsunami country. Some parts of the Oregon-Washington coast, like the sandy, flat peninsula where Johnson lives, offers no high ground protection. Sometimes, there are bluffs right behind the coastal zone. So if you’re walking along the beach and happen to be in one of these spots when a tsunami hits, there might not be time to get out and up to high ground.

Johnson’s survival pod is sold by Mukilteo, Washington-based Survival Capsule LLC. Her pod is designed for 2 people, while other models are designed for 4 people. The company has sold 8 other pods to people in Japan. The pods are made of aircraft aluminum and the 2-person pod is about 4 1/2 feet in diameter. Two tiny windows like portholes would allow you to see out around you while you are strapped in. It comes with air tanks and drinking water bladders. A ceramic heat shield on the inside makes it suitable to protect users from other types of disasters too, such as fires.

Yes, it sounds claustrophobic! But, says Johnson, the alternative is not surviving because you have nowhere to go and you drown, or not surviving because you are caught in the panic of crowds all trying to get away. In the pod, you might be bobbing around for a while and having “the ride of your life,” but at least you would be protected right where you are. She keeps her pod in her garage.

How much are you willing to pay for this protection? The 2-person pod starts at $13,500 and the 4-person pod starts at $17,500. Other pods are available to hold 6, 8 and 10 people.  If you live in a place prone to wildfire or tsunamis, or earthquakes, or tornadoes, and you have a family that you don’t believe you can evacuate in time, this could be an excellent insurance policy.

Photo of Jeanne Johnson from kuow.org by Tom Banse/Northwest News Network 

Photo of pod from survival-capsule.com

The “survival pod” is a unique capsule designed to withstand any type of disaster. At least, this is what inventor and CEO of Survival Capsule, Julian Sharpe, claims.

The survival pod is made of metal, is covered in an aircraft-grade aluminum shell and is lined with a ceramic thermal blanket. It fits two people and comes furnished with harnessed seats, medical kits, air tanks, food and water.

Survival pods are being marketed as structures capable of riding out anything, including a tsunami, hurricane, earthquakes, storms or other major natural disasters. The key is jumping into them quickly enough to avoid the danger.

Sharpe explains that the capsule’s goal is to help people “ride out the tsunami rather than evacuate.” The invention is meant to be “installed in people’s garages or on a flat roof and tethered to a solid structure, meaning the capsule then becomes your shelter during the post-tsunami phase.”

Additionally, Sharpe describes the survival pods as a time-saver for rescue teams so that it can “allow them to focus on the critical casualties.”

Julian Sharpe studied at Loughborough University before pursuing a career at British Aerospace. He looks forward to seeing his invention become a life-saving aid.

As Daily Mail reports, the survival capsule features two small porthole windows so the occupants can see what’s going on around them. There are safety seating with four-point harness straps, storage space (sufficient for a 5-day supply per person), water storage, basic internal light, GPS (Global Positioning System), air supply tanks, solid, watertight marine door (opens from inside and outside) and marine standard window.

The capsule is said to be an alternative to families instead of “safe houses.”

Preppers can get these survival capsules in different sizes; they range from “two-person capacity, for family homes, all the way up to a 10-person capacity, which could be used for businesses and schools.”

If you want to go all out, the capsules can be customized to include surround sound music and the addition of a toilet.

Costs for the survival pods haven’t been revealed by the company, but pre-orders are being taken on its website.

Image courtesy of Survival Pod.

What’s in your wallet? Odds are good whatever it is can’t afford a spot in one of these posh post-apocalyptic hideouts.  They’re only available to those who have dropped  thousands of dollars to book a reservation. You’ll be slugging it out with the rest of us topside, punching your neighbor’s teeth out to get your hands on a 4-pack of batteries at the looted out Rite Aid down the street.

If you could afford the reservation fee ($50,000 for yourself, another $50,000 for your spouse, and $25,000 for the kid) you’d be safe and secure in the deluxe underground bunkers created by Vivos Group. Better empty the life savings now; spots are filling up fast.

Recently profiled on Vice, Travel Channel, and CNN, and Forbes this multi-million dollar project is gaining attention, and investors.

They call themselves “the ultimate all-risk protection and life assurance solution for high net worth families”.

What’s inside? They’re fully outfitted with generators, storage areas, and private lounges, ensuring that anyone willing to pay up has one year of savory beef roasts in the oven and pillow-top mattresses while the rest of the world watches the brittle bones of their loved ones fall to ashes.

Don’t worry, well-strapped Europeans can still scamper underground should catastrophe strike. Vivos Europa One offers sumptuous safety for only 34 well to do families.

Think you’ll save your cash and hunt down the hidden Hiltons after catastrophe instead? Good luck.

The locations of these high-society digs are top secret, all the better to keep the roving mobs of the poor and destitute from finding the comfortable caches. The rich rest easy though; upon completion the bunkers will be less than 100 miles from many of America’s largest cities, meaning wealthy urbanites will only need to survive the drive.

Vivos Group claims it will be peace, love, and harmony for weeks on end after the reinforced hatch is pulled closed for the final time, finally closing the wealthy off from the ragged, bothersome proletariat masses.

Robert Vicino, founder of Vivos Group, claims that experienced law enforcement and military professionals are among those who’ve reserved the sacred spots. These tough guys will presumably keep their protective prowess, fending off the blithering nutcases banging on the door to threaten the dainty movie stars cuddled within.

Vicino brushes away any concerns of social and emotional breakdown in the ritzy hideaways by only selecting applicants that can fill the required roles in a polite society. Detention cells and tribunals will help to keep the peace, assuming the privileged guests are willing to ignore years of opulence and allow a judge from Queens to admonish them for taking one too many Sprites from the mini bar.

The Vivos website claims that “The collective abilities and skills of like-minded members helps assure the long-term survival and well-being in a post-apocalyptic world.” Looking past the severe lack of data collected from post-apocalyptic worlds required to reinforce such a claim, a million-dollar high stakes selection process wreaks of science fiction camp to the highest degree. 

Seemingly ripped directly from the pages of the prophetic novel World War Z, in which high-end Hollywood elites and fat cat CEO types find the familiar power structure quickly reversed in the wake of a zombie apocalypse, Vivos stands to make piles of cash without providing any facts, figures, or reliable data to support their validity.

If we keep considering popular culture as a reference point, the only people who spend millions of dollars to carve out spacious caves filled with control panels, aquariums, and lounge chairs are the supervillians James Bond tussles with in his spy adventures.

Is it money well spent? If what you’ve been reading sounds the least bit enticing, then probably so. To quote the Vivos website again, “…a small backyard shelter would be a lonely existence, virtually impossible to defend and survive in”. If you’d rather rub elbows with 20 or so fellow elites in an underground Bond villain’s apartment rather than in a shelter created and outfitted by your own hand, than the expenditure is worth it.

Photo Credit: Vivos Group