In part one of this article, I outlined the process I used for the exterior of my home to create a hidden retreat for my family, and maybe a few lucky friends, should we experience some event in the nation which would precipitate the need to “go underground” for a short time.
With the exterior of our home finished, and the basement retreat fully camouflaged from possible intruders, looters, or those looking to pillage and do harm, I turned my attention to outfitting our basement retreat into a space converted to provide shelter, defense, and storage.
The only true access point to our basement is a single staircase leading down from the first floor. The door to our basement is in a short hallway with four other doors leading to various other rooms in our home. I created a quick-assemble false closet to install behind the door leading to our basement, matching the closet contained within another doorway in the same hallway, and hopefully good enough to fool anybody attempting to loot our home.
The stairway leading into the basement dead ends into a wall at the bottom, and anybody entering the basement needs to take an immediate left turn at the bottom of the stairs, and make another left turn to enter the main portion of the basement. Basically, a person makes a complete 180 degree turn at the bottom, and then enters the largest portion of the basement. This section of the basement is about 25 feet wide, and runs the entire length of our home, twenty yards or so, and then another section meets it from the left. Essentially, the basement is configured in an “L” shape, and anybody entering the basement would be entering from the top portion of the “L”.
The stairway, due to the fact anybody entering the basement needs to immediately turn to enter, creates a natural choke-point which limits the number of people who can enter the main basement space—a nice feature, perfect for creating a defensive setup.
To take advantage of this funnel, I decided to build a false wall at the far side of the basement, facing the stairway and entrance to the basement.
I built the wall six feet from the original back wall of the basement, and the wall runs the same width as the section of basement visible when a person enters the basement from the stairs. One side of the wall is open, for easy access—and the window leading to the area below our deck is now behind the new wall as well.
I built this wall using concrete blocks to make it appear as the normal end of the basement, and when constructing the wall I left five slots, each 6 inches by eight inches, for firing positions. With these slots, I can stand behind the cover of the wall and fire out into the open section of the basement, and most importantly—the bottom section of the staircase. From these slots in the wall, one person can cover every inch of the main section of basement effectively, and with more then one person firing from behind this cover we now have crossing fields of fire. As only one, maybe two, people can squeeze into the basement from the stairs at the same time, this creates a killing zone right at the basement entrance.
The concrete blocks also would provide adequate cover should somebody toss a flash-bang or fragmentation grenade into the basement from the stairway.
To further give the appearance that this new wall is a natural part of the basement, I lined the floor in front with boxes, toys, and other junk we keep in the basement.
The rest of the defensive preparations for the basement were simple changes. To augment the defensive position of the new wall, I also cut out a section of riser in one of the steps—the vertical part of the step—at shoulder height. This wooden board can now be removed quickly from underneath the stairs and used as another position to fire upon the landing at the bottom of the stairs. I also painted the front wall of the basement white–the portion that would be immediately to the rear of anybody entering the basement–to create a better silhouette picture and provide easier target acquisition.
To also further disorient anyone entering the basement, I placed two large strobe lights on either side of the basement, shining toward the stairway entrance, but until I’m able to rig these lights up on a battery system they may just be useless if the power grid goes down.
Now that I have the two entrance points to the basement covered defensively, it was time to lay in supplies of food, bedding, communications, ammunitions, and weapons. This process was pretty self-explanatory.
Our food stores are a continuing, on-going process, with the goal to build up to a minimum of a one year supply. This consists of a combination of canned goods—both from the grocery store and freeze dried #10 cans from Costco, MREs, and other long-term storage food items.
Water, also, is a continuing and ongoing process. With a goal of having one gallon per person, per day, the amount of water needed for a long-term event is daunting to say the least. Every week I purchase at least one 5 gallon plastic water dispenser from the local grocery, and I keep these stored in the coolest, darkest portion of the basement. I have also built a rain-barrel, and eventually I will have this feed down into the basement with the use of PVC piping and a clamp system.
I currently have a Sawyer 4-in-1 filter, which can be used to filter any water gained from the rain-barrel or other outdoor sources if needed, and I also have a Steri-Pen for backup. The Steri-Pen is effective and easy, but I use it strictly as a backup due to its fragile nature and battery usage.
The shorter section of the basement—the lower portion of the “L” shape—is the living quarters, and this section has been partitioned off from the main section of the basement using steel cord and curtains. Most of the food and water is also stored in this section of the basement. This section of the basement also faces the open side of the new wall, providing quick and easy access to the defensive positions and means of escape from the window well leading out below the back deck.
With the current setup, I figure up to ten adults could stay here for up to a month, but the cramped quarters would not be large enough to accommodate this many people for longer periods of time.
I also have G.O.O.D. packs prepared and ready for each member of my family. I have obtained and enlarged maps, both street and topographical, of an area 100 miles around our home—with designated routes of escape, alternative routes, and possible destinations should our home become a non-viable place of shelter.
Our weapons, another process of continual growth and upgrade, are pre-positioned, along with an adequate amount of ammunition, in our defensive positions and ready to go at a moments notice.
I have also laid in a stock of supplies that include medical kits, saved prescription medications, batteries, flashlights, radios, a C.B. radio, and all of our tactical gear. I had to get rid of a great deal of junk to create room for all of these things, but the proceeds from the garage sale of items we no longer used purchased a number of supplies that made the entire effort worth our time.
My biggest fear during this process of creating the “Disappearing Suburban Basement” was my neighbors on either side. I often wondered if they might find it strange that my window wells were suddenly gone, or that my house now appeared different then the home they were used to seeing from their windows—but the reality is most people are too caught up in their own lives, their own dramas, to really notice or care what you are doing. Not once did anybody ask me about the window wells, or the construction I was doing in and around our home.
Today, I feel totally secure that the people who live in close proximity to me have absolutely no idea of the preparations I’ve made—and in a catastrophic event secrecy will be perhaps the greatest tool of survival.
My basement, and my plans, continue to grow and evolve—and while I’m now confident that I can ride out most major events in relative safety for a short period of time, the lessons I’ve learned creating my hidden bunker have opened my eyes, and opened my mind to even bigger and greater ideas—and I’m excited to begin my next project using the knowledge I’ve gained in the time since I started this journey.
For those of us who don’t have the means to become remote and remove ourselves from the mainstream of society and larger population centers, the need to become creative and use the things you already have available is critical—and it could very well be the difference between life and death. I encourage everybody to make a list of your needs, your wants, and then take an inventory of what you have available currently, then fashion a plan. Don’t wait, thinking that eventually you may be able to move to some far off location—make your plans as if some event could happen tomorrow—because, the reality is, it can.