This is an As Told To essay based on a conversation with Josh Jordan, a Texas-based engineer who founded Houston Bomb Shelter, which constructs private emergency shelters. It has been edited for ...

Then we flash back to construction as [Walt] takes us through all the steps required to build your own basement shelter. As he says, it’s a project that could be attempted by almost anyone ...

A 72 hour survival test of a typical family in a bomb shelter ... Our deepest anxieties may underlie an impulse to build these shelters, says Stephen O’Leary, author of Arguing the Apocalypse.