What do you do if you own an airline, and watch the devastation from hurricane Katrina on TV? You go searching for your very own bunker where you can safely house your important computer systems and 200 staff members in the event your city gets hit next.
The bunker is located in Montgomery, Texas, and was built by a wealthy Taiwanese businessman with a fear that the Russians or Soviets would attack the US with nuclear missiles. Ling-Cheih Kung made his money in the 70’s with the now defunct Westland Oil company. When oil companies went bust in the 1980’s, Mr Kung lost the title to his property (and bunker) and it sat unoccupied for almost 20 years.
The building itself is 50 feet below ground, and the area occupied by Continental is over 2000 square feet. If the Houston metro area is going to be hit by a category 3 hurricane, they move their IT operations to the bunker facility.
The bunker and surrounding buildings are owned by the Westlin corporation, who spent a small fortune renovating the facilities, and bringing Internet connectivity to companies renting space underground.
Continental Airlines moved into their spot in 2006, after just several months of construction. Some of the more notable parts of the building are jail cells, a decontamination shower (for washing off the radiation), and 2 pagoda shaped entry buildings, complete with gun turrets.
Moving into this facility shows some pretty clever thinking by Continental, and just 2 years after they moved in, Hurricane Ike hit the Texas coast. Thanks to this facility, Continental staff hope to get their operations back on schedule as early as Sunday morning.