Account

Featured SnoMan Article: Introduction to Emergency Survival Shelters

Share

SnoMan recently posted a great article on his site. It reiterates the basics that many of us have read, heard, and discussed before. He's always producing great content, be sure to check his site out. I liked one particular part of this article which you can read below:

Understand Your Immediate Shelter Needs

There are four primary considerations in determining your emergency shelter needs: purpose, environment, physical condition, and materials on hand.

  • Purpose of a shelter. Always, always keep in mind the purpose of your emergency shelter; you only need to provide basic protection from the elements. If the threat is rain, spend your energy stopping most leaks. If the threat is cold, focus on insulation. If the threat is heat, focus on shade and ventilation. Once you’ve abated the major environmental threat, move on to the next item in your overall plan. Don’t waste time and energy perfecting something that’s good enough.
  • Environment. If you’re supremely lucky, you’ll be stranded in an environment that resembles the garden of Eden — food will grow on trees, cold, clean water will bubble out of the ground, you’ll find mossy patches four feet thick for your bed, and the temperature will hover around 80 degrees Fahrenheit day and night. Bet against it, though. Just in case the garden of Eden is hard to find where you’ll be traveling, you should be prepared for a less benign environment. Whenever you travel, it is vitally important to have some information about the weather forecast.
  • Physical condition. If you’re in good condition, you can be more aggressive, take a little more hardship, take a little more calculated risk. If you’re injured, sick, or malnourished, your weakened condition means you’ll have less tolerance for exposure. You’ll have to be more careful to provide warmth, to stay dry, and keep your stress level down. Understand your capabilities and limitations.
  • Materials on hand. As always, your best bet is to have a well-stocked everyday carry bag. Ideally, you’ll have a ripstop poncho with grommets — you can tie this down for immediate shelter from wind and rain. In five minutes, you have a life-saving shelter. Barring that, consider what you do have, whether it’s snow, leaves, evergreen boughs, bamboo, banana leaves, whatever.

Read the full article HERE.

 

-The Berkey Guy

No comments yet.

Leave a Reply