Texas

Texas Community Goes Underground for Doomsday Prep

Developers say they'll have enough food, water and electricity to live off the grid for a year

There's a group of North Texans preparing for impending doom. But they're not just stockpiling guns and provisions.

They'll have underground bunkers, tunnels and even a DNA vault.

Make no mistake, they plan to live in luxury and style.

Ector, Texas, is a tiny, single-traffic light town most see only from the highway. But the pace in the century-old city is about to pick up. Just past the post office, work is now underway on a unique new neighborhood called Trident Lakes.

It is a $300 million project being built on 700 acres just west of Ector, with an emphasis on safety and sustainability.

Over the next few years, fields of grass will conceal 400 underground bunkers, a tunnel system and even a vault to store DNA.

It's all part of a plan to prepare for any impending doomsday.

"You get life assurances for when stuff really gets bad, but while you're at it you live in a five-star resort waiting for that doomsday," said Trident Lakes spokesman Richie Whitt.

Developers are sparing no expense.

The plan includes three white sand lagoons, a gun range, golf course and a polo field. There will be a massive, solid-marble fountain at the entrance that rivals any in Las Vegas, according to Whitt.

"It'll be one of the largest water features in the world when it's done," he said.

Reaction to the development has been mixed, Whitt said.

People think "probably that it's another one of those doomsday cults that are stocking cans and burying their money out back, when we're so far from that," he said.

It's also far away from any major metropolitan area — one of the reasons developers picked the property.

"It's out of what security experts will say is the threat zone," Whitt said.

Developers say they'll have enough food, water and electricity to live off the grid for a year. They expect the first residents to begin moving in by early 2018.

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