Chapter 5 · Basic skills · 23 min read
Shelter: protecting yourself from the weather
In almost any emergency, the weather kills you before hunger or thirst does. Cold, wet conditions cause hypothermia even at 50 °F (10 °C); the sun and extreme heat cause heat stroke within hours. A shelter does not have to be pretty: it has to keep you dry, at the right temperature, and off the ground. This chapter covers improvised shelters in the wild, the car as shelter, and how to turn your home or apartment into a shelter when there is no electricity.
The essentials · if you only have a minute
- Choose the site carefully before building: away from channels that flood, dead trees, and unstable slopes.
- Smaller is better: a shelter barely bigger than your body holds more heat.
- The ground steals more heat from you than the air does: insulate yourself with at least 4–6 inches (10–15 cm) of dry material, and more if it is cold.
- A tarp or poncho and 30 feet (9 m) of cord solve most shelters: carry them in your kit.
- If you get stranded in your car, stay in it. In cold weather, run the engine 10 minutes per hour with a window cracked open and the exhaust clear.
- Without electricity at home: live in a single room, and never use fire or generators indoors for heat.
- In extreme heat without air conditioning, go to a cooling center: the heat inside a house or apartment can be deadly.
In this chapter
5.1Choosing the site1 min read0/115.2Improvised shelters3 min read5.3Insulating yourself from the ground1 min read5.4The car as shelter2 min read0/45.5Your home or apartment as a shelter without electricity2 min read0/25.6More shelters you can build10 min read0/55.7Common mistakes1 min read0/85.8Planned campsite: how and where to put everything5 min read0/10
Chapter sources (1)
- 1.FM 21-76 Survival, cap. 5 (Shelters) — Departamento del Ejército de EE.UU. 2.Winter Weather / Power Outages — Ready.gov — https://www.ready.gov/winter-weather y https://www.ready.gov/power-outages 3.Winter Storm Safety: stranded in a vehicle — Vermont Emergency Management — https://vem.vermont.gov/ 4.Avoiding Carbon Monoxide Poisoning — CDC — https://www.cdc.gov/natural-disasters/psa-toolkit/avoiding-carbon-monoxide- poisoning.html 5.Turn Around Don't Drown — NOAA / National Weather Service — https://www.weather.gov/safety/flood-turn-around-dont-drown 6.Extreme Heat — Ready.gov — https://www.ready.gov/heat 7.Ciudad de San Antonio, Office of Emergency Management — https://www.sa.gov 8.CPS Energy — https://www.cpsenergy.com ; ERCOT — https://www.ercot.com 9.ATP 3-50.21 Survival (2018) y FM 3-05.70 Survival (2002), capítulos de refugios (shelters) — Departamento del Ejército de EE.UU.
