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Basic Guide to Shelters Easy Guide for Choosing the Best Shelter for Survival

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© A Basic Guide to Shelters: Easy Guide for

Choosing the Best Shelter for Survival

Short Guide for Choosing the Best Shelter for

Survival

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. What Kind of Shelter Do I Need? ............................................................................................ 3

2. Basement Shelters ..................................................................................................................... 5

3. Storm Cellar Shelters & In-ground Shelters ........................................................................... 6

4. Shelter Rooms & Above-ground Shelters .............................................................................. 8

5. Bomb Shelters & Bunkers ...................................................................................................... 10

6. Sheltering from Floods ........................................................................................................... 12

7. Using Snow for Sheltering ..................................................................................................... 15

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1. What Kind of Shelter Do I Need?

Depending on the region you live in, and the range of possible

disasters you wish to prepare for, there are a variety of emergency

shelters you can purchase or construct to better prepare yourself.

You may not be in the market for a post-nuclear holocaust

bunker, but you may very well be living in an area that is at risk

from floods, severe storms, earthquakes and tornadoes or other

natural disasters. While you can’t prepare for every possible

scenario, you can ensure that you and your family have adequate

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shelter from the most common natural disasters in your area.

In this short guide we’ll explore some of the basics of tornado and

severe weather shelters, ranging from reinforced basements to in-

ground and above-ground shelters.

I’ll also touch on some tips and suggestions for those who are

interested in constructing a more bunker-like shelter.

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2. Basement Shelters

The basement is the de facto shelter location in many homes,

chiefly because it is built below (or semi-below) ground level.

When there’s nowhere more secure to take shelter, your

basement really can be your best bet, especially in the case of a

tornado or other extremely windy event.

If you’re building your house and intend to use the basement for

shelter purposes, reinforced concrete walls are one surefire way to

add further security to your future shelter. For increased flood

protection, you can also build your basement or renovate it with

waterproof materials and reinforced storm windows.

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3. Storm Cellar Shelters & In-ground

Shelters

A storm cellar or an in-ground storm shelter can be invaluable in

areas where you’re at risk from tornadoes or other severe weather

with high wind speeds.

When that wind starts picking up, there’s hardly anywhere safer

than your own little hidey-hole in the ground. In-ground storm

shelters can be built or bought, and are frequently made of

concrete reinforced with rebar. Steel constructed storm shelters

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can also be bought and installed, oftentimes as conveniently as

within your own garage or just outside your back door.

If you’re building your own house, an in-ground storm shelter can

be incorporated into your building plans with little additional

effort and minimal cost.

Many homeowners throughout the Midwest have had in-ground

shelters on their property for decades and they swear by them.

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4. Shelter Rooms & Above-ground

Shelters

For the sake of convenience, or in the event that you or your

family members need a shelter in an easy-to-access location,

there are a variety of premade, above-ground shelters available.

Alternatively, a room in your house can also be turned into a

dedicated shelter room or a closet can be used to house a

portable, premade shelter.

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Premade, above-ground shelters come in a wide range of sizes,

and can be set up in your back yard or in your garage.

If you live in an area that is at risk of regular or major earthquakes,

incorporating a shelter room into the design of your house can be

an especially useful precaution. Along the West Coast of the

United States and throughout the so-called ‘ring of fire’ in the

Pacific Ocean, there are many areas that are prone to regular

earthquakes, and they aren’t always small ones.

Indeed, the 7.1 magnitude earthquake that struck Japan and

caused the crippling Fukushima nuclear disaster, happened along

the same ‘ring of fire’ that stretches along the West Coast, and it

followed an earlier earthquake of 9.0 that struck in the same

region.

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5. Bomb Shelters & Bunkers

For those who like to be prepared for just about everything, the

bomb shelter / nuclear fallout bunker may be worth

consideration.

This endeavor is not for the faint of heart, as bomb shelters can

range in price from a few thousand dollars and a lot of DIY work,

to the kind of stuff you hear about celebrities building for tens of

millions of dollars, and everything in between.

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If you have the know-how to build it yourself or money is no

object, though, you can create your own bomb shelter, zoning

and planning paperwork aside.

Your typical bomb shelter can be built from reinforced concrete

and/or steel and other materials, but the golden rule is that

you’ve gotta bury that sucker. And bury it deep, typically 3 ft. or

deeper. If you’ve identified a likely target for nuclear attack within

your area, the location and depth of your bomb shelter will be all

the more important as you’ll want to consider how to avoid

radioactive fallout.

After a nuclear attack, you may need to stay in your shelter for

upwards of two weeks, so sufficient food, water and medical

supplies are another essential.

When building your shelter, pay special attention to the location

of any water mains, sewer lines or electricity cables that may be

buried on your property. You’ll also want to take precautions to

waterproof your shelter if possible, in order to avoid the shelter

being damaged by flooding.

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6. Sheltering from Floods

If you have the option of buying a home on high-ground or of

building your own home on higher ground, this is one of the best

ways to protect your home from potential future floods.

Building on high ground isn’t always an option, though, and

sometimes floods can get so bad that even if you did build on

higher ground, you weren’t able to build high enough to escape

the water.

Worse still, most insurance policies consider floods to be

uninsurable acts of God, so when serious flooding happens in a

residential area it can be especially devastating.

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With the help of modern science, barriers designed for effective

flood protection have been developed to suit a wide variety of

needs.

From literally building your house out of flood-damage resistant

materials to renovating an existing property for better flood

control and protection, there are many options available to help

you better flood-proof your property.

Permanent flood barriers with built-in flood gates are one option

where flooding is frequent or recurs during certain times of the

year. If your chief priority is the flood-proofing of your home

rather than your whole property, then doors, windows and other

entryways into the house can be renovated with flood-proof glass,

specialized UPVC flood doors, and even the walls and siding of

the house can be adapted to allow for the easy installation of

additional UPVC boards as in the FloodArc.

Alternatively, you can also protect your property or other

important tracts of land from flood-waters with the use of

portable flood barriers.

Portable methods such as the Floodstop barrier, the Rapidam or

the AquaDam can all be erected quickly to protect against

incoming floodwater, with an average height of 1 – 2 yards. These

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portable methods are designed to fill up with the rising

floodwater, effectively fighting water with water.

One more source of floodwater in the home, which is somewhat

nasty and often overlooked until after the fact, is the sewer that

connects to your toilets. During particularly bad floods, many

people have found themselves ankle-deep or worse in sewer

water that has been backed up into their homes from their toilets.

You can avoid having this happen to you by simply having a

sewer non-return valve installed for your property. More

sophisticated valves may even incorporate a pump action to allow

you to continue using and flushing your toilets during a flood by

pumping the waste out against the pressure and flow of the

overly full sewer pipes.

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7. Using Snow for Sheltering

Aside from providing you with drinking water, snow can be used

in a very different way in a survival situation. You can actually

build yourself a storm shelter, a snow burrow, so to speak, or an

Igloo, just like the Eskimo.

Realistically speaking, building yourself an Igloo is pretty hard

work and you can succumb to hypothermia while you’re at it,

especially if you aren’t physically fit or don’t have the skills and

the necessary tools.

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It’s pretty hard work piling up a huge mound of snow, letting it

settle and digging out your shelter in the interior. It will exhaust

you quickly and that can be fatal in a survival situation.

The most efficient way to protect yourself from the cold outside is

to bury yourself into a nice hole in the snow; it’s relatively easy

and works like a charm. We kid you not – wolves in the Arctic

regions do this to protect themselves from the winter storms if

they need to.

You will have to dig yourself a snow trench shelter, not too high

and not too wide, so it will be heat up from what your body

generates.

A large shelter is more difficult to heat up, naturally, so only make

the space a little bigger than your body. Making a larger-than-

necessary shelter can be a fatal error when it’s very cold outside,

because it will actually steal your body heat instead of conserving

it.

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