When All Hell Breaks Loose: Stuff You Need to Survive When Disaster Strikes

by Cody Lundin

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  UNDERSTANDING AND COOPERATING WITH THE LAWS OF PHYSICS THAT GOVERN HEAT LOSS AND GAIN WILL ALLOW YOU TO ASSESS THE OPTIONS YOUR IMMEDIATE ENVIRONMENT HOLDS AND MAKE INTELLIGENT DECISIONS ABOUT WHERE AND HOW TO CONSTRUCT A MAKESHIFT SHELTER FOR YOUR FAMILY.

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  Anytime you can utilize a structure that is pre-existing, you will save calories (energy/food), water, and time. All are very precious commodities during a survival situation. While in the wilderness you may choose to modify a pre-existing group of boulders for shelter; in urban and suburban environments, thousands of shelter options exist just waiting for you to take advantage of them. Understanding and cooperating with the laws of physics that govern heat loss and gain will allow you to assess the options your immediate environment holds and make intelligent decisions about where and how to construct a makeshift shelter for your family.

  Every shelter on Earth manifests itself as one or both of the following categories: a protective barrier and/or an insulative barrier. A nonpermeable protective barrier can shield the user from rain, wind, and sun, but it has no insulation value in itself. An example of a protective barrier would be a tarp, a wind-breaking jacket, teepee, or the roof of your house. An insulative barrier is composed of dead air space and excels at trapping and stabilizing the radiant temperature of an object. Insulation in your thermos can keep the cocoa hot or the Kool-aid cold. An example of an insulative shelter would be crawling into a pile of leaves, wearing a loosely woven wool sweater, or hanging out in an Inuit igloo. While a fluffy wool sweater is wonderful to insulate you from cold outdoor temperatures by trapping the metabolic heat created by your body, it sucks when it's windy as the wind blows right through the unprotected insulation. By forcing in colder outside air, the wind blows away the boundary layer of heat that was trapped next to your skin. By putting on a wind-breaking jacket (protective barrier) over the fluffy sweater (insulation) one can achieve comfort. You could wear several fluffy sweaters that would eventually act together as a protective barrier, but, of course, it would impede your mobility and you would look like the Michelin man. My wickiup described below, much like the above-mentioned igloo, was composed almost entirely of insulative materials. I simply used a lot of these materials and stacked them on top of each other to allow my "insulation" to shed rain or wind. Your house features the protective barriers of a roof and walls, while having insulation (fiberglass or foam) added between the protective barriers. Two protective barriers side by side but not stuck to each other will create a small amount of insulation due to the dead air space created. This dead air space can be enhanced by adding other improvised insulation as explained in the improvised sleeping bag section coming up. What is required to shelter your tribe, whether it's a protective barrier, insulation, or a combination of both, will depend on what aspects of conduction, convection, radiation, evaporation, or respiration threaten to kill your family.

  Tarps

  A tarp is a piece of waterproof or water-resistant material with grommets (circles of metal or plastic) anchored around its perimeter that allow it to be tied and suspended in many different configurations. Depending upon the need of the survivor, tarps eliminate, reduce, or enhance convection and radiation. If folded up many times for use as a sleeping pad or something else, they can also help minimize conduction.

  There are few shelters that offer more multiuse options than the tarp. Lighter-weight tarps, like many backpacking tents, are extremely portable in case your crisis forces you to hit the road. Tarps can be set up in a number of ways, depending upon the weather and climate needs of the moment. They can be strung up to repel blistering summer sun or shield their occupants from driving winter wind and snow. They can be used as a ground cover (if the ground is rough, you might accidentally put holes in your tarp) or to collect and hold rainwater for drinking. Tarps can be folded to create an improvised backpack to carry everything from firewood to babies. In short, the tarp is a miracle membrane that repels wind, snow, rain, and excess sun—virtually any weather condition that Mother Nature can throw at you—and it does so in a lightweight, portable fashion, cheaply, effectively, and with a minimal amount of effort from the user.

  I lived in the woods in a cone-shaped brush shelter, or wickiup, for a few years. It was made from blanket load after blanket load of pine needles and debris laid upon a framework of ponderosa pine poles. To shed rain, I kept the angle of my more-than-two-foot-thick walls fairly steep. Working by myself, it took several days to complete. While I would have lacked the insulation value given by the debris, had I used a tarp, my home could have been completed in a few hours. Such is the power and adaptability of any durable, waterproof, protective barrier.

  Tarps come in a variety of materials and sizes, from four-by-six feet to ten-by-twelve feet and much larger. You can choose from those made from ungodly heavy canvas to relatively light and compact rip-stop nylon or woven plastic. Even rolls of black or clear plastic can be used with added modified grommets. The weight and bulk of the tarp depends on the thickness of the material and how much is used. To be fair to the canvas junkies, I have an eighteen-foot teepee that weighs less than forty pounds. If spread out on the ground, its material would make a few ten-by-twelve tarps. On the flip side, I've also seen heavy canvas "cowboy bedrolls" that weigh more than ten pounds and cover only one sleeping bag.

  What kind of tarp you choose will depend on what you're using it for. Almost every household has a cheapo woven plastic tarp in the garage. It's used for everything from covering the winter woodpile to lying on when you crawl under the car to change the oil. Ultraviolet radiation will eventually eat every tarp (and teepee, and wall tent, and yurt) known to humanity. How quickly it gets eaten depends on the type of material, if it's been treated with a UV-protective coating, the strength of the solar radiation, weather, and how long it's been exposed to the sun, to name a few conditions. What kind of tarp you buy and how much money you'll spend should be determined by how important it will be to your family's overall shelter needs.

  Homemade Grommets

  Tarps have grommets placed at each corner and along the lengths of each side, an inch or so from the edge of the material. A separate piece of durable cord (rarely included with the tarp) should be tied through each grommet, giving you the design control to set the tarp up in many different configurations. I like to use parachute cord or some other camping store knockoff variety. Don't use poor-quality cord, as it will get easily damaged, especially in heavy winds when your tarp tries to become a kite. Some quality tarps have grommets made from loops of nylon webbing that are sewn directly onto the tarp itself.

  Rolls of plastic and even Tyvek® house sheeting can be made into tarps by adding improvised grommets. Although commercial grommet kits are available at the store, you can also wrap a rock or some other semiround object in the plastic itself wherever you need a grommet. To keep it solidly within the plastic, tie the rock off soundly at the base with the same piece of cord that will act as the tie-down. To increase its strength, you may want to double or triple the plastic by folding it before you add the rock. Commercial tarps that inevitably rip out or lose a grommet can be dealt with in like fashion. For smaller space blankets, I've duct-taped corners and pushed a large safety pin through the duct tape for an improvised grommet. Cord can then be threaded through the safety pin for tying off.

  Tents

  Much like tarps, but without the extreme versatility, tents provide an easy home away from home. They can also be set up within the house if the need should arise. A major advantage to tents over tarps is their supreme ability to block out bugs! Survivors living in a tick-infested or mosquito-laden hell might trade their firstborn child for a tent if no other shelter is available. Don't underestimate the nightmare some bugs can create if you're forced to camp out in the backyard.

  Tents come in a wide variety of styles, sizes, and qualities. Some hardcore, two-person mountaineering tents cost hundreds of dollars and are built to withstand near-hur
ricane-force winds. Some discount-mart tents are so cheaply made that they will rip at their seams with little provocation. You don't need to break the bank when purchasing a tent, but don't buy a cheapo one either. The tent should primarily be considered "survival gear" and reserved for such an occasion, but you may lightly use it for other family outings as well.

  Some tents look like domes, others like squares, some are triangles, and some are shaped like a geometry class acid trip. The shape you choose should be easy to assemble under stress and durable in crummy weather. Some tents are huge, allowing the entire family to hang out and dance, while others are small enough to have a fart linger far too long. The king-size family tents are nice but not very portable if you're forced to evacuate by foot or by bicycle. Some fancy backpacking tents are incredibly lightweight and are smaller than a loaf of bread when broken down for packing. Analyze your needs and decide which style and size would work best for you.

  Space Blankets

  Space blankets are not truly blankets at all as they contain no dead air space. They do, however, excel at reflecting radiant energy or "heat" from long- and shortwave radiation. Space blankets normally come in two varieties. The smaller version, when folded, is about the size of a pack of cigarettes. It's extremely shiny and made from aluminum-coated Mylar plastic that supposedly reflects up to 80 percent of your body's radiant heat. Its incredible shine factor also excels at signaling for rescue in full sun. The larger, heavier-duty version, while not as reflective as its smaller cousin, is much more durable. (There is also a new version of a space blanket on the market that is quieter and much more durable than the first type I mentioned. It claims to reflect up to 90 percent of radiation but, if anything, looks a bit less shiny than the former. I have used this version and the older space blanket version side by side with nearly identical results.)

  The larger blankets are constructed of a tougher woven material and have grommets in the corners. Some models feature a built-in hood, thereby protecting the all-important head and neck area when worn poncho-style. Although smaller than a tarp, they're useful for shelters, ground cloths, windbreaks, or as a simple body wrap. On summer desert survival courses they are the only shelter I carry, as they work great for escaping sudden monsoon thunderstorms and provide just enough reflected warmth for reasonable comfort and sleep despite plummeting nighttime temperatures. Heavy-duty space blankets have only one reflective side, the other side being one of several color choices. Purchasing the blaze orange or red model will serve dual duty as a signal panel to make you more visible to rescuers.

  Space blankets have the power to reflect a fire's warmth toward you or blistering desert sun away from you, thus they assist in regulating body temperature in virtually all climates. They can be used to line homemade solar ovens for cooking food and disinfecting nonpotable water, and they can be taped over the inside of windows in your home, office, and vehicle to reflect away unwanted solar radiation during hot temperatures. I have reflective bubble insulation, available at most hardware stores, between the roof and the headliner of my vehicle. As short- and long-wave radiation penetrates inanimate objects, the shiny insulation reflects hot summer sun away from the car and helps trap wanted internal heat during the winter months. Space blankets can also be used as liners for improvised insulation nests for cook pots, which are described in the cooking chapter. Being an impermeable barrier (they're a vapor barrier, so know their limitations!), they also shed rain, snow, and wind.

  While most smaller blankets are flimsy, noisy in the wind, and too small for many applications, such as covering an entire person, this handy piece of gear reflects radiant heat, is lightweight, compact, easily accessible, cheap, and has many, many uses for the urban survivor.

  Wall Tents, Teepees, Yurts, and Such

  These guys are basically tents on steroids, and I've owned and spent time in all three. Most are made from heavier canvas that's UV-treated for longer life in the outdoors. Sunforger is a type of canvas that's supposed to be the bomb in sunny weather. My-eight-hundred-dollar wall tent was made from Sunforger canvas. It sported a ten-foot-long rip after being up for less than fifteen months. The particular maker fixed their product for free, minus shipping, and upon looking at my trashed tent, stated that the canvas looked several years old. After telling him my story, and wondering why he didn't keep the lot number for the canvas to identify the poor quality of material, he said he would make it right with me, as repairing bad canvas is a joke. Although it has been nearly four years now, I'm sure he'll follow through on his promise someday. The bottom line on tents that don't support making a fire inside them is this: when it's 20 degrees F (minus 5 degrees C) outside, you will hate life in your tent, no matter how much you paid for it.

  My yurt (a Mongolian structure) worked great and I lived in it for three years in a friend's backyard. While these shelters are more expensive and less portable than tents, all of them come with options that allow you to either have a fire inside or install a woodstove for heat.

  Teepees are cool but the poles are a hassle and they are extreme overkill for a disaster scenario.

  Improvised Tents

  So called "tube tents" can be improvised from two fifty-five-gallon drum or barrel liners or large-capacity lawn and leaf bags. Drum or barrel liners are available at hardware or discount stores and usually come in clear or black plastic. These liners are much larger than the usual lawn and leaf bag (thirty-nine-gallon capacity) and are created from a thicker "mil" plastic for a tougher product. Simply cut the end out of one of them and duct tape the two together. Plastic and all other fabrics or materials that are completely waterproof (as opposed to water-resistant) are vapor barriers, thus they don't "breathe" and will collect the moisture exhaled from your lungs and the perspiration lost by your skin. This rising moisture collects on the surface of the plastic and can drip all over you or freeze and drip all over you later when it thaws, thus getting your clothing, gear, and spirits wet. If condensation is a problem, do your best to vent out this moist air however you can. If condensation is a serious problem, you can also vent the end of the tube tent that you're not using as an entrance or completely cut the end out.

  Improvised Sleeping Bag

  An improvised sleeping bag can also be made from two fifty-five-gallon drum liners and newspaper. The plastic bag provides a protective barrier while the newspaper provides insulation or dead air space. Put one drum liner inside the other and stuff the void between the two barrel liners with crumpled up newspaper or something else that will provide insulation. Condensation from the vapor barrier you are creating can be minimized by creating a series of small puncture holes in the inner barrel liner with a pencil or pen. This will let some of the water vapor out and into the void between the bags. The exterior barrel liner can be treated the same way, as eventually the newspaper will get soggy from the water vapor.

  When making the sleeping bag, it helps to have one person stand up inside the plastic bags, holding them up and apart, while a second person stuffs the void with crumpled newspaper. The "collar" or entrance to the sleeping bag where the two barrel liners come together can be duct taped in key places to hold in the newspaper. Refrain from completely sealing the collar with duct tape as it will breathe to let water vapor escape and allow oxygen in. Also, keep your head out of the bag when sleeping, as a tremendous amount of water vapor is given off by your breath.

  Recreational Vehicles [RVs], Trailers, and Automobiles

  I have lived in a few vehicles and trailers over the years and there are pros and cons to doing so. Having a house that moves can be handy when needing to evacuate an area, but in certain disasters with high winds they can become a death trap. For those who are inexperienced with building shelters or have a seeming lack of materials with which to do so, these vehicle options, running or not, will provide some semblance of home when conventional housing is not an option.

  Be careful during cold weather not to burn fuel inside these improvised shelters where the danger of
carbon monoxide poisoning can manifest itself. During times of hot weather without conventional air conditioning, it may be cooler beside your vehicle under a tarp that is suspended from the vehicle itself or from surrounding anchor points. Vehicles that can be moved should be relocated under vegetation or other natural or man-made shade sources that will substantially cool down the inner environment of the vehicle itself. You can heat your vehicle in cold weather if you orient the vehicle's main windows to face solar south. RVs, trailers, and automobiles that are not needed by your tribe can be a welcome relief to neighbors who have lost their shelter options in the aftermath of a disaster.

  Alternative Heating and Cooling Methods for Your Home

  I have stressed repeatedly the need to thermoregulate body temperature along with how much time and money Americans spend to assure room temperature in the home. The "temperature of your room" can be a nasty wakeup call to a lack of preparation when your home is severed from the grid with no options for heating or cooling. The following are choices that will give you greater control in regulating a comfortable temperature when conventional methods fail.

  It's Too Cold in the House! The Art of Keeping Your Home Warm

  (Warning! There are many heat-producing items that can be brought into the home when it's chilly—and some of them could kill you and your family from carbon monoxide poisoning. The dangers of toxic carbon monoxide appear in detail later in the chapter, so don't skip it. Also, any fuel-burning heat sources pose the risk for fire danger. Have a quality fire extinguisher on hand at all times and make sure that it's rotated and replaced or serviced on a regular basis.)