Chapter 14

Throughout history, people have endured being crowded together while living and sleeping on hard surfaces. In times of war and privation, people have lived in such conditions for much longer periods than would be necessary for shelter occupancy due to fallout.42Realistic basement-shelter-occupancy tests conducted by research contractors for the U.S. Office of Civil Defense (now the Federal Emergency Management Agency) have shown that modern Americans can live and sleep for two weeks on a concrete floor. In some of these tests, only 8 square feet of floor space was provided for each person; only pieces of corrugated cardboard 3/16-inch thick lessened the hardship of sleeping and sitting on concrete.13

Nevertheless, shelters should be adequately furnished whenever possible, for these reasons:

The father of the previously described Utah family of six knew that the members of his family would be most uncomfortable and probably would have sore backs if they spent the required 72 hours of continuous shelter occupancy huddled on the floor. (Their shelter room was only 3-1/2 feet wide and l6-1/2 feet long.) So this family took with them from home four folding chairs and two pieces of plywood (each 21 inches wide by 6 feet long) tied as part of the load on top of the family car. Four small wooden boxes served as food containers during the drive to the shelter-building site. In the shelter, the boxes were used to support the ends of two narrow plywood bunks (Fig. 14.1).

The family's system of sleeping and sitting in shifts worked reasonably well. There were discomforts: the adults found the two plywood bunks too narrow, and the plywood was so hard that all the family members used their sleeping bags for padding rather than for needed warmth on chilly nights. The father and oldest son, whose turn to sleep was during normal waking hours, had trouble sleeping in such a small shelter while the lively 4-year-old son was awake.

Note that in the shelter pictured in Fig. 14.1 the earth walls are covered with plastic from trash bags. Covering earth walls with plastic or bed sheets makes for a cleaner shelter, with less earth falling in the faces of people who sleep on the floor. Bedsheets on the walls make a shelter brighter, but are flammable and a potential fire hazard. The plastic film prevented the earth walls from drying and crumbling as a result of the hot, dry desert air pumped through the shelter during the day.

Benches with overhead wooden bunks are shown in Fig. 14.2. These were installed in a Small- Pole Shelter 6 feet wide with a ceiling almost 7 feet high.

A well-designed expedient shelter should be as small as practical, with all space used very efficiently. The builders should make the heights and widths of benches and bunks as specified in the detailed shelter drawings, such as those for the Small-Pole Shelter given in Appendix A.3.

Serious difficulties can result from failure to use specific dimensions that may appear unimportant. For example, in field tests at Fort Bragg, N.C., 48 airborne infantrymen, working only with hand tools, cut pine trees and built two 24-man Small-Pole Shelters in less than 24 hours.43 The men did not think it necessary to use the specific dimensions when they made the furnishings. As a result, they built the benches too high and the overhead bunks too far below the ceilings. This error forced the men to sit for hours in hunched positions. Even these able-bodied young men would have developed very sore backs and would have wanted very much to leave their shelters if they had been forced to sit in a bent-over position for days.

Figure 14.2 shows a good example of the importance of using dimensions which have been thoroughly field-tested when building essential parts of a shelter. Note the small air-exhaust opening above the girl lying on the overhead bunk at one end of the shelter.

This opening led to a small, chimney- like, air-exhaust duct made of boards, with its cross- sectional area as specified in Russian civil defense handbooks for natural ventilation of small expedient shelters. With such a small air-exhaust opening- only 4 square inches (10 square centimeters) per person a fully occupied shelter of this size would soon become dangerously overheated in warm or hot weather, even though a good low-pressure expedient shelter-ventilating pump (a KAF or a Directional Fan) were to be used. A much larger air-exhaust opening is needed. See Appendix A.3.

On the last night of the Utah family's shelter stay it was clear that the six members would win the cash bonus offered them for their 72-hour occupancy of the shelter starting immediately after they completed building it. Therefore, the author showed them that night how to make boat-shaped hammocks out of bedsheets. (Any strong cloth of the right size can be used.) They were shown how to hang these short, yet stable, hammocks securely from poles of the shelterroof. With three members sleeping in hammocks, two on the plywood bunks, and one on the floor, all six could sleep at the same time. Figure 14.3 shows part of this sleeping arrangement.

In a shelter this size without bunks, hanging four short hammocks at slight angles to the length of the trench would permit four occupants to sleep comfortably. An additional two persons could sleep on the floor. In the Utah family's shelter, the floor was made comfortable by covering the damp earth with pieces of polyethylene cut from trash bags, then placing strips of shag rug over the plastic.

In shelters with ceilings at least 6 feet high, one hammock can be hung above another. In a SmallPole Shelter that is 6 feet wide, a greater number of people can sleep or sit comfortably at the same time if Bedsheet-Hammocks and Bedsheet-Chairs are used rather than benches or a combination of benches and overhead bunks. Figure 14.4 shows how BedsheetHammocks can be used like double-deck bunks.

Detailed instructions for making a BedsheetHammock and a Bedsheet-Chair are given at the end of this chapter.

In an evacuation during a real crisis, carrying comfortable folding chairs and the materials to make wooden bunks would not be advisable. If the family car were loaded instead with an equivalent weight of additional food and clothing, the members' prospects of surviving would be improved. But in an actual crisis evacuation, a family planning to occupy a shelter with a strong roof should take along a bedsheet for each member. The other lightweight Items described in the instructions for making a Bedsheet-Hammock and a Bedsheet-Chair also should be carried. By following the instructions at the end of this chapter, a comfortable hammock can be made and quickly converted to a comfortable suspended chair when not needed for sleeping.

Hammocks hung high off the floor and above other sleepers must be strong, securely suspended, and cupped so that it is impossible to fall out accidentally. This is why the instructions emphasize using a double thickness of bedsheet and folding the cloth so as to make the hammock boat-like, with high sides.

In a cold shelter, keeping warm in a hammock is somewhat difficult. Easily compressible materials, such as those used in a sleeping bag, are squeezed so thin under a person's body that they lose most of their insulating value. Pads of newspapers about an inch thick, protected by cloth coverings, will reduce heat losses. The best insulation is a quilt, fastened to the underside of a hammock by attaching it with rows of stitches every few inches and at right angles to each other.

Figure 14.5 shows a Bedsheet-Hammock that had been quickly converted into a Bedsheet-Chair and hung near a shelter wall. It occupies less than half the floor space used by the two hammocks shown in the preceding illustration. If a reclining seat is desired, the two support-points on the ceiling to which the chair-arm cords are attached can be located farther out from the wall.

Enough padding material should be placed in the bowl-shaped seat of a Bed sheet-Chair to make it rather flat. Extra, clothing or a folded blanket can be used. The three cords suspending the chair should be adjusted for length so that the sitter's feet can rest on the floor and the edge of the chair seat does not press on the undersides of his thighs. (Such pressure cuts off circulation. During the London Blitz of World War 11, many of the people who sat night after night in shelters on folding chairs with canvas seats developed serious leg conditions. Authorities later prohibited bringing such chairs into shelters.)

CAUTION: To prevent skin infections and other diseases from spreading, a person's hammock or chair should not be used by others. This precaution is particularly important if the shelter is hot and its occupants are sweaty.

A. How to hang the hammock:

A Bedsheet-Hammock may be quickly converted into a comfortable Suspended Bed sheet-Chair so that a shelter occupant can sit comfortably, yet occupy less floor space during the daytime. Follow these steps: