When All Hell Breaks Loose Part 5

Researchers have found that under neutral conditions as much as 40 percent of the heat loss from a naked human body stems from convection! Add wet clothing and/or strong winds to the scenario and the percentage climbs dramatically.

Radiation Radiation is the act of losing or gaining heat (energy) through, well, radiation. There are two types of radiation we're concerned with. Terrestrial, or long-wave radiation, emanates from fire, a human body, or just about anything else on the planet having a temperature greater than absolute zero or minus 460 degrees F (minus 273 degrees C). Radiated body heat is truly the emission of electromagnetic energy in infrared wavelengths of which the body is both emitting and receiving. Curling up in the fetal position reduces your radiant heat loss by 35 percent when compared to a person standing with arms away from their sides. Radiant heat loss is a force to be reckoned with as it accounts for around 45 percent of the total heat loss from a nude body in neutral conditions. Surfaces that are good at absorbing radiation are also good at giving it off.

Shortwave radiation emanates from the sun and varies in its intensity according to the time of day, alt.i.tude, lat.i.tude, surface reflection, atmospheric pollution, ozone levels, and season. Most ultraviolet radiation bathes the Earth at midday, 80 percent between the hours of 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. and 65 percent between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Radiation from sunlight can heat a person in three ways, directly on the skin, reflected off particulate matter in the atmosphere, and reflected off the ground, and, unlike long-wave radiation, it is absorbed to a greater extent by darker-colored clothing and skin pigmentation. In hot climates, all can lead to dehydration and hyperthermia if not properly managed.

HOW Your Body GAINS Heat

DESt.i.tUTE DON BODY TYPE: Larger surface-area-to-volume ratio superior at eliminating excess heat

A: Direct Solar Gain [Radiation]

B: Breathing through Nose Limits Water Loss [Respiration]

C: Hot Wind [Convection]

D: Reflected Particulate Matter Solar Gain [Radiation]

E: Nicotine: Diuretic, Constricts Blood Vessels, Increases BMR F: Insulation from Hot ground [Conduction]

G: Ground Reflected Solar Gain [Radiation]

H: Alcohol: Diuretic, Impaired Judgment, Increased Blood Viscosity Dest.i.tute Don loses heat through: I: Increased Heat Loss through Wet Clothing [Evaporation]

HOW Your Body LOSES Heat

TED THE TRANSIENT BODY TYPE: Larger volume-to-surface-area ratio superior at minimizing heat loss

A: Cold Wind [Convection]

B: Alcohol: Diuretic, Impaired Judgment, Increased Blood Flow to Skin C: Increased Heat Loss through Wet Clothing [Evaporation]

D: Insulation from Cold Ground [Conduction]

E: Reduced Insolation [Incoming Solar Radiation]

F: Water Loss through Breath Respiration]

Ted the Transient gains heat through: G: Food [Metabolic Heat]

H: Fire [Radiation]

Evaporation Evaporation is the act of losing heat (energy) through the conversion of a liquid to a gas. The princ.i.p.al way your body loses heat in a hot environment is the evaporation of water, in the form of sweat, from your skin, as well as a small amount of evaporative cooling gained from exhaled moisture. To get the job done humans have 2.6 million sweat glands, more than any other mammal. Staying in wet, sweaty clothing after overexerting in winter cold will place you one step closer to death through increased hypothermia.

Respiration Respiration is the act of losing heat (energy) and water vapor through the respiratory surfaces of the lungs by breathing. The air you inhale must be humidified by the body to saturation in order to be used efficiently. When this vapor is exhaled, the resulting evaporative heat loss at high alt.i.tudes can rival sweat as a cooling factor. More typically, however, respiration heat loss is minor when compared to the others above. A tremendous amount of water can be lost through the breath, especially in extremely cold temperatures. Cold, dry air breathed into warm, moist lungs pulls out as much as two quarts of water daily in minus 40 degree F (minus 40 degrees C) temperatures. In some instances, the same conditions destroy the cells lining the respiratory tract.

Critical Clothing In a cold weather situation, the simplest means of staying warm is to trap your body's metabolic heat by using insulation or dead air s.p.a.ce in the form of clothing, adding or subtracting layers as changing temperatures dictate. In addition, physical exercise, fire craft, shelter, and calorie-rich foods all help to keep the body's core temperature at a lively 98.6 degrees F (37 degrees C). Cold muscles work more slowly and with less efficiency, greatly r.e.t.a.r.ding the ability to perform seemingly simple tasks for survival.

Conversely, in a hot weather situation, indigenous peoples wear long, flowing woolen robes in extreme desert temperatures for a reason. Your skin is the largest organ of the body, and if you burn it, you severely compromise your body's ability to cool itself as even moderate sunburn causes a decrease in the responsiveness and capacity of the sweat glands. Clothing is the easiest method to use to protect your skin from direct solar radiation from the sun, as well as radiation reflected off particles in the atmosphere and the ground. The most important factor in determining how a fabric will repel ultraviolet radiation is the tightness of the weave, followed by its color and whether the fabric is wet or dry. Specialized, sun-protective clothing is becoming more common and manufacturers have developed various strategies to keep out the sun's rays including tightly woven nylon, chemically treated cotton, cotton/synthetic blends, clothing bonded with ultraviolet-radiation-absorbing devices, and chemical s.h.i.+elds added to laundry detergents.

In hot weather, when ambient temperatures are near or above normal body temperatures, to limit heat loss through vasodilation, your body relies on one main mechanism to cool itself called sweating. Sweat is 99 percent water with a pinch of sodium chloride (salt) and pota.s.sium and is the only way your body cools itself when subjected to elevated external temperatures. The conversion of a liquid to a vapor requires a certain amount of energy or heat, called the heat of vaporization, and is directly responsible for wicking away the high temperatures that threaten to kill you from hyperthermia. Even though sweat contains only a paltry 1 percent sodium chloride, long-term sweating without the ability to replenish that salt poses serious physiological problems, which is a major reason to store salt as part of your food storage program. People acclimated to hot weather produce more sweat, but with a lower concentration of lost salts.

Sweat glands are found in the skin in concentrations from 650 to 4,000 per square inch and occur most abundantly on the forehead, scalp, face, neck, front and back portions of the trunk, and the top of the hands and forearms. The face and scalp alone account for 50 percent of the body's total sweat production! In fact, the only skin areas that don't have any sweat glands are the lips, nipples, and external genitals. Sweat via evaporation cools the skin and, with it, the blood flowing through it. The cooled blood returns to the body's core via the veins where it picks up more heated blood and returns it to the skin's surface for cooling. Any liquid evaporating from the skin will work to cool the body, so don't be shy about soaking your clothing in sc.u.mmy, nonpotable water, although make sure it's free from chemicals, pesticides, and other skin irritants.

A TRIED-AND-TRUE ACRONYM FOR WEARING WINTER CLOTHING IN BOTH CITY AND COUNTRY!.

C = keep yourself and clothes CLEAN O = avoid OVERHEATING L = wear clothes LOOSE and in LAYERS D = keep DRY *

High water-vapor pressure, more commonly referred to as humidity of 70 percent or higher, severely restricts the evaporation process. Regardless of how much water you have available, if your body can't rid itself of excess heat you risk dying of dehydration and hyperthermia. Personal humidity levels close to the body's surface may elevate by wearing poorly ventilated clothing, as it reduces airflow over the skin. High humidity levels cause sweat to simply drip off the skin instead of evaporating. People in humid environments commonly experience the need to towel off several times after a shower or bath due to these elevated humidity levels. Be forewarned! Hot temperatures combined with high humidity levels are voracious killers and are responsible for summer heat waves that wipe out hundreds of people. Not only does proper clothing insulate you from the heat and cold, it also allows the sweat upon your skin to evaporate slowly and efficiently, making maximal use of whatever water you already have within your body.

The Layering System Using the layering system, clothing for both hot and cold environments can be categorized into three sections: base layer, insulation layer(s), and environmental layer(s). Base layers are used against the skin, trapping air close to the body. They should be made from a fabric that insulates while transporting (wicking) water vapor away from the body and should be nonirritating and nonconstricting. Insulation layers are added or subtracted as outside temperatures warrant between the base and environmental layers. The environmental layer protects against outdoor elements such as wind, rain, snow, sun, and brush and should be lightweight, durable, loose fitting, wind and water resistant, and able to easily vent excess moisture buildup. Water-resistant and waterproof fabrics are two different concepts, as the former "breathes" to a certain extent to let generated body moisture escape. The latter is a vapor barrier and, although useful in some applications, requires advanced thought and the right conditions to be used successfully. Telling the difference between the two fabrics is easy. Put your hand on the outside of the material. Put your lips to the fabric and blow on the fabric from the inside out. If you can feel the air from your breath on your hand, it is water-resistant material.

All clothing systems for any climate involve dead air s.p.a.ce or insulation. Clothing insulation is measured in clo. Technically, one clo is equivalent to the amount of insulation needed to keep a seated person comfy in an air temperature of 70 degrees F (21 degrees C) with a relative humidity of less than 50 percent, and an air movement of .2 miles per hour. Simply put, a common business suit provides one clo of insulation. Insulation is much more effective when worn in several thin layers as opposed to one thick layer, as this allows you to adapt not only to changing temperatures by taking off or putting on clothing, but the air s.p.a.ce between the layers of clothing insulates as well while adding no weight, bulk, or cost to the user. The layers should resist moisture acc.u.mulation, and increase in size so as not to constrict the body when worn on top of one another. They also need to be easy to put on and take off and pack in case of a pending evacuation.

Your clothing, especially the extra clothing you pack in a bug-out kit (a portable emergency kit containing vital gear when needing to evacuate an area, Chapter 22), should be adaptable to all types of circ.u.mstances. Your clothing should block the sun's ultraviolet rays, keep you both warm and cool, and also be bug-resistant, quick drying, durable, and nonrestrictive. The layering method allows you to add or subtract layers of clothing at will in response to your increasing or decreasing metabolic output and the environmental temperatures at hand. This ability to fine-tune your wardrobe helps minimize sweating-out your clothing through overexertion. Insulation filled with frost and water does little to keep you alive, thus venting excess moisture in cold conditions is of paramount importance. Actively venting excess perspiration from clothing and moderating physical activity in the first place has several advantages. Your clothing insulation layers stay drier and warmer when activity ceases, clothes remain cleaner longer, and you achieve a lower metabolic rate, which conserves precious energy and water. The ideal scenario in the cold is to regulate clothing layers and activities to allow you to operate at peak performances without wasting water and energy to sweating or s.h.i.+vering.

In hot climates, clothing protects you from direct radiation from the sun, hot winds, and scorching ground temperatures. Loose layers of the appropriate material grant protection from the sun and increase airflow while slowing the evaporation of sweat for superior cooling. The ideal scenario in the heat is to regulate layers and physical activity to allow you to operate at peak performances without wasting energy while achieving protection from the sun and making maximal use of your sweat for cooling.

Properties of Clothing Materials The type of material your clothing is made from can directly affect your ability to successfully thermoregulate your core body temperature. The following are brief descriptions of the more common fabrics that have withstood the test of time. The properties described below are just as applicable for blankets and sleeping bags.

Cotton Cotton is hydrophilic, meaning it transfers sweat from your skin to the material itself, thus it's horrible at "wicking" wetness away from skin. In fact, cotton loves moisture and will become damp simply when exposed to humid air. Once wet, it feels cold, loses 90 percent of its insulating properties, is a drag to dry out, and wicks heat from your body twenty-five times faster than when it's dry. Because of this, wearing cotton clothing in the wintertime is a death wish. Yet, in scorching summer deserts, it's my fabric of choice for precisely the same reasons. Cotton also has decent abrasion resistance and blocks out a reasonable amount of UV radiation from the sun.

Polypropylene Polypropylene resists absorbing moisture as it's hydrophobic, meaning it transfers moisture from the skin across the fabric itself to other clothes or the air so it actually dries from the inside out. This quality makes it great at wicking sweat away from the skin, thus it's popular as a base layer with outdoor recreationists. Polypropylene feels soft and is relatively cheap and easy to care for. Wear it for a few days in a row however, especially if you exercise, and you will reek something awful, especially in a confined shelter. Being synthetic, polypropylene easily melts to skin when exposed to heat so be careful around fires, candles, stoves, and other heat sources. Polypropylene's most insidious disadvantage, ironically enough, comes from its superior wicking abilities. It wicks moisture away from the skin so well that the wicking action uses more body energy (calories) from the survivor than other fabrics. Because of this, polypropylene should only be worn when there are ample food supplies and when energy losses are not critical.

Wool As wool is animal hair composed of hollow cells that trap air, it's a poor conductor, thus an exceptional insulator. Its natural crimp and elasticity contribute to its superior insulating properties. Wool is hygroscopic, which means it readily absorbs moisture but suspends the water vapor within the fiber itself. While any moisture in wool or other fabrics decreases its insulation value, wool can absorb 35 to 55 percent of its weight in water before "feeling" cold and wet. Although it's tedious to dry out, wool retains more heat as it dries than synthetics. This fact, combined with a slower wicking rate, allows wool to use less body energy than polypropylene.

Various breeds of sheep produce various types of wool so not all wool is garment quality. A wool fiber under magnification looks like a heavily barbed spear tip. Aside from allergies, cheap wool and poor manufacturing techniques will cause wool to itch like crazy when in contact with your skin. Wool is inherently flame r.e.t.a.r.dant and won't melt to your skin when exposed to heat sources so it's safer and more forgiving than synthetics if you are using fire to dry out damp clothing. A real boon to the urban survivor is the fact that wool is able to neutralize many types of acids and chemical bases, helping to prevent the buildup of germs. On the down side, wool is bulky when compared to synthetics, thus requiring more s.p.a.ce in your shelter or bug-out pack.

Polyester Polyester is by far the most widely used material in clothing. Polyester pile fabrics, common in backpacking and camping stores, are good insulators, can absorb a fair amount of water without feeling cold, and are hydrophobic. The fibers themselves can be woven into many different thicknesses providing both insulation and wind-stopping abilities in a product that is more compact than wool.

Nylon Nylon, especially rip-stop nylon, is tough stuff and is commonly used in the design of environmental layers from coats to jackets of all kinds. Tight weaves work well at repelling wind and water and can be made waterproof through various coatings available at outdoor stores, albeit at the expense of breathability. Nylon is also extremely compact and lightweight and the little water it does absorb evaporates quickly. Your environmental layer is critical, as a wind of merely nine miles per hour can reduce the effectiveness of your clothing's insulation by 30 percent. In addition to the wind chill, mixing wet clothing along with the "bellows" effect produced by walking and your clothing insulation can be compromised an unbelievable 85 percent!

Down Down's compressibility, loft, and weight-to-warmth ratio are legendary-when it remains dry. Unfortunately, down is hydrophilic and sucks even more than cotton in cold, wet environments, losing virtually all of its insulative properties, and it is a booger to dry out.

To summarize, the gross motor skill art of putting on and taking off layers of clothing to regulate body temperature is amazingly simple, requiring very little practice, calories, and water from the survivor. Knowing the virtues of clothing is truly a family-friendly survival skill in which all can partic.i.p.ate, from the very young to the very old. In short-term cold-weather survival, the divine simplicity of layering correctly even eliminates the necessity of firebuilding, which is a fine and complex motor skill that requires plenty of physical dexterity and prior training, precious time, calories and water from the survivor, dry tinder and adequate fuel, an ignition source, a safe spot to build, and constant monitoring. In a pinch, it's possible to improvise insulation from nature depending upon the environment. Leaves, pine needles, dry gra.s.s, plant fibers, moss, and other material may be available. Urban landscapes as well will present several options for improvised insulation such as the stuffing in chairs, sofas, vehicle seats, carpeting and carpet pads, and others.

Alternative Shelters Unfortunately, your home may be completely or partially destroyed after a major disaster. This would be everyone's worst nightmare, even during temperate weather, but imagine the destruction happening when it's very hot or very cold outside. Thus the need to have some kind of alternative shelter should rank very high on your survival list. Major earthquakes in other parts of the world have happened during the peak of winter. Many people who had initially survived the quake itself died from hypothermia due to a lack of shelter.

If your home experiences a disaster, check for structural damage before entering the home, if you choose to reenter it at all. Make sure it's not in danger of collapsing. Ultimately, this inspection will need to be done by a professional. Some members of the family, especially kids, might not want to go anywhere near the house if they have been traumatized by the disaster, for fear of the house collapsing or triggering some other kind of nightmare. If you do decide to reenter your home, make sure to turn off any outside gas lines and let the house air out for several minutes to remove potential escaping gas. When entering the home, don't use open flames as a light source. Instead, use a battery-operated flashlight or some other nonfuel-burning light source.

If you live in a hot or cold environment, the primary motive for your shelter should be the thermoregulation of your core body temperature. Even temperate locations get chilly after rains or in the evening hours. Now that you're hip to the physics of how your body loses and gains heat by convection, conduction, radiation, evaporation, and respiration, don't place your alternative shelter in a dumb spot. Consider your shelter as a "body" as well as it, too, will be subject to the same laws of physics. If you attempt to shelter your shelter, so to speak, you'll get more bang for your buck as you'll gain more comfort with less effort and save wear-and-tear on your shelter. It's very common in the Southwest to see amazingly intact Indian ruins that are hundreds of years old. Without exception, the better-preserved ruins were built under basalt overhangs or in caves, thus the native person's shelter was sheltered.

UNDERSTANDING AND COOPERATING WITH THE LAWS OF PHYSICS THAT GOVERN HEAT LOSS AND GAIN WILL ALLOW YOU TO a.s.sESS THE OPTIONS YOUR IMMEDIATE ENVIRONMENT HOLDS AND MAKE INTELLIGENT DECISIONS ABOUT WHERE AND HOW TO CONSTRUCT A MAKEs.h.i.+FT SHELTER FOR YOUR FAMILY.

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 a.s.sess the options your immediate environment holds and make intelligent decisions about where and how to construct a makes.h.i.+ft 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 s.h.i.+eld 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 s.p.a.ce 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 (fibergla.s.s 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 s.p.a.ce created. This dead air s.p.a.ce 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) anch.o.r.ed 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 s.h.i.+eld 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 fas.h.i.+on, 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 unG.o.dly 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 fas.h.i.+on. For smaller s.p.a.ce 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 h.e.l.l 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-hurricane-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 cla.s.s acid trip. The shape you choose should be easy to a.s.semble 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. a.n.a.lyze your needs and decide which style and size would work best for you.

s.p.a.ce Blankets s.p.a.ce blankets are not truly blankets at all as they contain no dead air s.p.a.ce. They do, however, excel at reflecting radiant energy or "heat" from long- and shortwave radiation. s.p.a.ce blankets normally come in two varieties. The smaller version, when folded, is about the size of a pack of cigarettes. It's extremely s.h.i.+ny and made from aluminum-coated Mylar plastic that supposedly reflects up to 80 percent of your body's radiant heat. Its incredible s.h.i.+ne 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 s.p.a.ce 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 s.h.i.+ny than the former. I have used this version and the older s.p.a.ce 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 s.p.a.ce 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.

s.p.a.ce blankets have the power to reflect a fire's warmth toward you or blistering desert sun away from you, thus they a.s.sist 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 s.h.i.+ny insulation reflects hot summer sun away from the car and helps trap wanted internal heat during the winter months. s.p.a.ce 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 s.h.i.+pping, 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 ha.s.sle 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 s.p.a.ce. 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 a.s.sure 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.) South-facing Rooms: Looking for Naturally Warm Places in the House My entire home is heated by the common sense of pa.s.sive solar design. As I write this, regardless of current freezing outdoor temperatures and snow on the ground, sunlight is streaming through south-facing windows and is being absorbed into my stone floor for an inside temperature of 70 degrees F (21 degrees C), with no need for other heating methods. While you might not live in a home that was designed to be heated by the sun, you can certainly modify rooms in your home to take advantage of this free energy source after a grid meltdown.

When it's cold but sunny outside, all south-facing rooms with windows will be warmer than most others. The lat.i.tude and seasonality of your location will influence how far south the sun will appear before and after the zenith of the winter solstice. Simply put, the sun will be lower in the southern sky at noon for the winter season. The lowest it will appear is on the winter solstice in late December. After this, the sun will appear slightly higher until it peaks out at its highest point on the summer solstice in June. Along with the proximity of your neighbor's house or garage, trees and vegetation, and other obstructions, the width of the overhangs of your home's roof will determine if winter suns.h.i.+ne enters the windows. In ancient Rome there was a "sun law." It protected everyone from jerks who would have otherwise built a structure blocking sunlight from reaching a residence.

The Romans built their famed bathhouses facing solar south for a reason. Find out which direction your house is oriented. The sun rises in the east and sets in the west. South-facing rooms with windows will heat up during winter months from sunlight entering the window(s). This shortwave radiation from the sun turns to long-wave radiation when it enters the room. Since the wavelength of the radiation has been increased, it has a problem exiting the window, thus much of the heat is trapped within the room. Individuals unknowingly experiment with this phenomenon during summer temperatures and kill their pet or child by leaving them in the car in direct sunlight with the windows rolled up.

South-facing windows should remain closed but free from drapes or anything else that will impede sunlight from entering the room, including dirty windows. If the sunlight can s.h.i.+ne upon an object that has great thermal ma.s.s, such as a concrete, stone, tile, or brick floor, so much the better. Thermal-ma.s.s resources are typically high-density materials that are slow to absorb and release heat. When thermal ma.s.s is heated up by suns.h.i.+ne or any heat source, it will store the heat and re-radiate it back into the room during colder nighttime temperatures. Periodically watch the sunlight track across the room during the day and move obstructions such as area rugs, chairs, or tables that prevent the sun from directly striking thermal ma.s.s areas. When it gets dark, cover your windows by drawing the drapes to help hold in the stored heat. Extra window insulation can be improvised with towels or bedding hung in successive layers, if desired, for greater dead air s.p.a.ce. Remember to uncover the windows the next day to allow spent thermal ma.s.s areas to again recharge with solar radiation from the sun.

Marvelous Microclimates: Creating a Home within Your House When it's G.o.d-awful cold inside your home and you lack conventional methods of heating, you will naturally retreat to the warmest room or rooms in the house. In this case, bigger is not better. Smaller rooms with good solar gain and insulation are much easier to heat than larger rooms. Rooms with high ceilings will cause the spiders to be comfortable while you freeze your b.u.t.t off below. When it's cold, think like a squirrel and create a small, cozy microhabitat that effectively thermoregulates core body temperature. The squirrel doesn't care about impressing the Joneses with s.p.a.ce and flash. In cold temperatures it builds a nest that allows it to get inside with just enough room to wrap its fluffy tail around its body for added insulation. There is no wet bar, Jacuzzi, or back porch. In cold weather your McMansion is a detriment, not an a.s.set, when it's pulled, kicking and screaming, from the grid and no other power source is available to heat its tremendous volume.

Block off a "warm room" from the rest of the colder house. Close doors or hang blankets in door openings to seal in as much of the warmer air as possible. If you do have an alternate heating source within the room, don't seal it up so tight that you all wake up dead from carbon monoxide poisoning. Make sure that the room has adequate ventilation. s.p.a.ces under doors can be c.h.i.n.ked with extra clothing or towels to prevent cold air from seeping into the room.

Covering Windows with s.p.a.ce Blankets and Plastic Long- and shortwave radiation penetrates through objects. If drapes and extra blankets are used for insulation on windows when the sun goes down, s.p.a.ce blankets can still be taped on the inside of windows to reflect heat back into the room to help retain warmer inside temperatures.

Don't forget that dead air s.p.a.ce (insulation) and reflected radiation are two different things. You can also achieve dead air s.p.a.ce by taping clear plastic over the outside of your windows, sort of an improvised storm window. Clear roll plastic comes in a variety of thicknesses, "mils" or millimeters. The thicker you go, the tougher the plastic, but it will also be more opaque. This opacity will cut down on solar gain entering the house from south-facing windows. When I teach students how to make solar stills to gather water in the desert, there is a difference in the amount of radiation that reaches the still (thus creating water) if we use six-mil plastic as opposed to using four-mil plastic. You might consider using six-mil plastic for its durability on windows and openings that don't have any solar gain value and use the thinner-mil plastic on south-facing windows or don't cover them with plastic at all.

Playing House with Sofa Cus.h.i.+ons, Blankets, and More Remember when you were six years old and tore apart the living room furniture to make forts? The concept of many outdoor survival shelters improvised from limbs and leaves is to make a small shelter that can be heated by the survivor's body heat alone. Sofa cus.h.i.+ons, extra blankets, sleeping bags, linen, or clothing can be used instead to create sleeping coc.o.o.ns or smaller shelters within your warm room to help regulate body temperature. After you're done laughing, re-read the section explaining how the body loses and gains heat by conduction, convection, and radiation. With these basic concepts in mind, coupled with your predicament and the resources you have on hand, improve your situation, like the squirrel, by decreasing the surface area and volume of your room. This super-small and insulated fort might only be appropriate for sleeping, but it will be warmer when filled with your family than the room itself. Camping tents can also be set up in homes to serve a similar purpose.

Getting High and Snuggling The average human body generates 300 BTUs of heat each hour. Mittens, where the fingers are touching and enjoying the radiant heat from each other, are much warmer than gloves, where each finger is forced to heat itself. Get the entire family to sleep next to each other if necessary, and invite the dog and the cat as well. By doing so, you will create a "creature" that has a much larger volume-to-surface area ratio, excellent for staying warm in the cold. Many times on my outdoor courses, modest students freeze their a.s.ses off the first night, only to pig pile the second night. Your family can be modest or it can be warm; the choice is yours.

Cold air sinks. Sleeping up higher will put you closer to warmer air, yet use common sense so that you don't fall out of bed and break your neck. Although a floor can be insulated from colder conductive ground temperatures, it's still on the floor where the majority of cooler air pools. After a day's worth of solar gain, if you have a two-story house, see if upper rooms are warmer than the downstairs. Lofts in homes are notorious for becoming blazing hot while the rest of the house stays at room temperature.

Alternative "Fuel Burning" Heating Options Fireplaces Many newer homes have faux fireplaces, some with "electric" or gas logs, designed only for looks and ease of operation. Since they are slaves to the grid, these types of fireplaces function only when you have an external energy source. Fireplaces are horrible at retaining heat in the first place, as most of the heat value goes up the chimney, but they certainly beat freezing your b.u.t.t off. Luckily, the long-wave radiation created by the fire strays far from the source and radiates out into the room, regardless of its inefficiency. The megapolis of Phoenix, Arizona, often has air quality alerts during the winter season, which blissfully isn't much of a season, in which all wood-burning efforts at heating a home are banned. It's doubtful that this law would be enforced in a catastrophe, yet the ability to breathe trumps keeping warm.

If your home has a real fireplace, get it ready for action even if it's not normally used. DO NOT fire up the hearth after years of nonuse or neglect and expect your safety to be intact. Chimney fires caused from creosote buildup, bird nests, squirrel homes, and other odd things can and will burn your house to the ground. Don't risk becoming homeless and further stretch already tapped rescue teams. I'm pleading with you here: if you are even remotely thinking about using your fireplace as an emergency heat source, have it inspected by a chimney sweep at least once per year! If you're feeling especially cheap at the thought of hiring this out, consider the pricelessness of your family's comfort and safety during a very scary time. Once your chimney is clean from soot and debris, inspected for leaks to prevent carbon monoxide poisoning and cracks that can let sparks escape into the attic and burn down your home, make sure you have fuelwood on hand to meet your needs and the necessary fire-starting devices to keep the situation lit and burning.

Woodstoves I adore woodstoves, even the older inefficient models. There is something very satisfying about not being beholden to the grid during cold weather when needing to obtain a comfortable indoor temperature. Some newer models use surprisingly little wood to achieve long-lasting indoor comfort. I have used many woodstoves in a variety of living situations. They are much more efficient than fireplaces, as the metal of the stove itself has more heated surface area for allowing the long-wave radiation produced from the burning fuel to saturate the room. Oxygen levels can be strictly controlled, especially in newer woodstoves, thereby making fuel last longer and burn more completely. Models with electric-powered blowers to increase efficiency should not be counted upon for obvious reasons. Many homes have pellet stoves, which burn prepackaged, combustible pellets instead of regular firewood. Some pellet stoves will not allow their owner to burn anything else if the pellets run out. Find out which boat you're sitting in and have an ample supply of pellet fuel on hand if this is your only option for obtaining heat. Conventional woodstoves have the adaptability to be able to burn anything, from lumber sc.r.a.ps and brokenup chairs and tables to dead tree limbs, a serious a.s.set in a survival situation.

Homeowners who choose to install a fireplace or woodstove after the fact are looking at paying a considerable amount of money. Of the two, it's usually cheaper to install a woodstove, as woodstove pipe goes together quickly as soon as a safe route is created for it to vent to the outside. If your home does not currently have a fireplace or woodstove, and you would like to add one, check around and consult a professional before doing so. If your fireplace or woodstove is not professionally installed, you risk burning down your house. Your local woodstove dealer should be able to answer any questions you have about models, installation, accessing firewood, and local regulations regarding the installation and use of your stove or fireplace.

Buying Firewood. . .or Improvising It All species of wood have different BTU counts (British Thermal Units). A British Thermal Unit is the amount of heat required to raise one pint (or pound) of water up one degree F (.556 degrees C) or the energy it takes to completely burn one large strike-anywhere kitchen match. In my part of the country, juniper (Juniperus osteosperma and others) and several species of oak (Quercus species) are routinely harvested and sold as firewood. Although both make great firewood, oak contains a higher BTU count (approximately 35 million BTUs per cord) and thus contains an energy value greater than the same amount of juniper wood (approximately 25 million BTUs per cord). Because of this energy difference, oak is more expensive. Although our surrounding forests are filled with giveaway dead or dying ponderosa pine trees from bark beetle infestations and drought, it's not a sought-after fuelwood as the BTU count is only 17 million per cord, and the resinous, low-heat conifer creates more creosote than the other woods. When push comes to shove, don't get hung up on these details. For your intentions, all of them will work to heat your house.

Most firewood is purchased in a measurement called a cord. A standard cord of firewood is a pile measuring eight feet long by four feet wide by four feet high for a total of 128 cubic feet of fuel, give or take due to the air s.p.a.ces caused by the size and straightness of the pieces, how they're split, and how the wood is stacked. These differences can cause the total wood volume in a cord to fluctuate by seventy or eighty cubic feet or more.

Several factors will determine how much a cord of wood will cost (if it's available in your area at all). Forest closures due to drought, the species of wood, whether it's split and/or delivered, whether it's "green" or "seasoned" and ready to burn, and the current demand for the product influence the price. If you're buying firewood for a "just in case" emergency, saving money by buying green wood that has been recently cut might pay off. If Murphy's Law hands you a series of minus 20 degree F (minus 5 degree C) temperatures in your living room days after your purchase, you can still get the wet wood to burn by splitting it into much smaller pieces and adding them intermittently to a strong heat base of burning fuel, although it's a ha.s.sle. Burning green wood is not optimal; it is harder to start and maintain and it burns with less heat than dry wood, which causes more creosote to build up in the chimney. If you want to gather your own firewood, obtain the necessary permits to access public lands, get your equipment (axes, saws, chainsaws, splitting mauls, etc.) in good working order, and be ready for hard work.