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How You Can Build A Shelter From Scratch With No Tools?
Survival Institute
Survival Institute

How You Can Build A Shelter From Scratch With No Tools?

by
April 11, 2017

If you are a prepper, or even considering prepping, then you’ve thought about what you need to do to be able to survive in a disaster situation. So, you’ve probably thought about your bug out bag, a vehicle packed (at least partially) and ready to go, food stored, and maybe a bug out location with supplies already ready to go.

Good thinking and good moves.

But what happens if you can’t get to your bug out location? What if you can’t get to your already-built cabin in the woods? What do you do to provide shelter from the elements of a snow storm or other time of bad weather?

You have to improvise.

In this light, it could be useful to have some idea of what you’re doing.

The first thing to think about is that, when you have to evacuate quickly, look for a wooded area. Why? Many reasons such as the likelihood of animals for food and the plant growth being an indication that water is available or will be through rain. For our purposes, however, a wooded area has lots of “natural resources” which you can use to built your improvised shelter.

Once you are in the wooded area, look for a fallen tree or log with an open area underneath. You’ll want to test it for stability because, if it is rotten, then you don’t know how much water and weight it will withstand before collapsing, and that’s not something that you want to happen when you’re underneath it.

On a side note, if you have the time and a practical way to dig, you could consider digging out some space underneath a fallen tree to make it workable for shelter purposes.

Once you’ve found a good log to work with, you’ll want to gather branches which can be leaned against that log which will be the support framework for the other materials which you will cover the shelter with.

Once you’ve set up this support framework, you will gather longer grasses to lay across the sides and across the top of the shelter. The purpose of these grasses is to cause water to run off the sides of the shelter as opposed to into the shelter where you (and anyone else with you) will be. The idea here is to keep you dry.

All-in-all, if you’re in a good, “resource rich” area, you can probably accomplish all of this within an hour or two as a practical way to keep your family out of the elements as you plan your next move to survive a disaster situation.

To give some clarity to this process, you can watch this video:

What other suggestions do you have for creating an emergency shelter? Tell us below.

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