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Coronavirus Escape


((PKG)) DOOMSDAY BUNKER
((Banner: Doomsday Bunkers))
((Reporter: Lesia Bakalets))
((Camera: Yuriy Zakrevskiy))
((Adapted by: Martin Secrest))
((Map: Edgemont, South Dakota))
((Main characters: 1 female; 1 male))
((Sub character: 1 male))
((NATS))
((Banner:
A former US Army base has been converted into a private bunker
‘survival community’
Tom and Mary Soulsbay moved to their ‘Vivos xPoint’ bunker
during the pandemic))
((Courtesy: Tom and Mary Soulsbay))
((Tom Soulsbay, Bunker Owner))
((Mary Soulsbay, Bunker Owner))
We sold our home in July of last year in preparation for a
retirement and moving out here, so we could work on the bunker
to build it out until the virus started spinning up. Then we
realized, because of my age and because of some health
compromises that Mary has, we’re both high risk and we decided
to exchange four million neighbors for, I don't know, 30 neighbors
within the same radius out here.
((NATS))
((Courtesy: Tom and Mary Soulsbay))
((Mary Soulsbay, Bunker Owner))
I felt safe when I got here. It's just a peace you don't understand.
It's so quiet and peaceful here and the bunker is phenomenal. I
mean, when you go in there, it's just like you feel really safe. I do,
I feel safe.
((NATS))
((Robert Vicino, Founder and CEO, Vivos xPoint))
So, yeah, these things will withstand just about everything. The
concrete is one to two feet [30cm to 60cm] thick. It varies
depending on the top to the sides and the dirt just is added
protection but the concrete itself is enough.
((NATS))
((Courtesy: Tom and Mary Soulsbay))
((Tom Soulsbay, Bunker Owner))
This is our home away from home or it will be once we get it filled
out. Not a whole lot to see now. It’s just it's a huge mess in here.
I can show you the corner where we have some of our equipment
set, our electric equipment set up and the corner where we have
a bunch of tools and some water treatment equipment.
((Tom Soulsbay, Bunker Owner))
Yes, you’d call it ‘under construction.’ It’s a colossal mess inside.
We've just started putting up the first walls. I've been out here
working full time, but then working on the bunker in the evenings,
it requires additional planning, that's for sure. Because if you
realize that you need a box of nails, the very closest box of nails
is an-hour round trip to go get it. And if you need to do
something, get something more, something bigger or more
complex, it's a four-hour round trip to get it, minimum. And we're
both country people, I’ll call us. We were both raised in the
country. We were both in situations where there weren't a lot of
people around, where we had family nearby. And the hustle and
bustle of the city and all of the complexities of getting to and from
work and all that other stuff you have to do to be a city dweller,
are things that neither of us have really ever been fond of in our
lives. ((NATS))
((Tom Soulsbay, Bunker Owner))
We've been camping for years, you know, explicitly to get away
from all of that, to go to places where it's quiet, where there aren’t
a lot of people.
((NATS))

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