long term shelter

[Dick Fischbeck]

> Subject: Re: Emergency shelter vs temporary housing
> 
> Some more thoughts on this one:
> 
> I'll try to go through and summarize some of the points you all raised
> in a later messge.  A few additional things occurred to me after
> reviewing the discussion.
> 
> 1) We probably need to clearly distinguish "emergency shelter" from
> "temporary housing".  The news reports that continue to come out of
> Pakistan make it very clear, even having some decent tents would help
> prevent the horrible illness and death in that situation.
> 
> 2) Perhaps the concept of a community storm shelter(s) has a place
> here. Years ago, an area church was the one well-built structure in
> the area where people would go during a bad storm, not just for
> spiritual reasons, but for physical protection.  Some trailer parks in
> the US are now required to provide tornado shelter for their
> residents, although tornados come and go very quickly.
>   If the world is going to spend millions and even billions on "aid",
> perhaps if the earthquakes, hurricanes, etc. are going to be more
> routine now, some thought will be given to more long term solutions.
> I don't know if it makes sense to think about earthquake resistant
> structures (how would a concrete dome(s) do?) in places like these
> remote villages in Pakistan or not, but they might elsewhere.
> 
> As far as emergency shelter, I started a mental list of what one
> needs, realizing as I went how easy it is to overlook important issues
> until its too late.  The pluses and minuses of domes vs. various other
> structures can be considered - for both Em. shelter and temporary
> housing.
> 
> Protection from:
> Wind - Anchorage, impact resistance
> Rain, hail, snow
> Cold
> Fire
> Heat/Sun
> Humidity
> Insects, rodents, birds, reptiles, monkeys, other animal issues?
>   (I'm told the round shape of domes really frustrates bears in
> Alaska. Even when left unoccupied for long periods of time, domes seem
> immune to their attack.  The bears go around so many times looking for
> an entrance they wear a path in the ground and eventually give up and
> leave.)
> Noise, sound?
> Flood?
> Toxic gases, odor?
> 
> Livability
> Cleanliness, sanitation issues?
> Sectionability for quarantine/illnesses
> 
> Logistics
> Ease of assembly, relocation
> Deliverability, storeability -fold/knock down
> Reuseable, disposal, conversion of materials from Emergency use to
> Temporary Housing.
> 
> Comments on additions, deletions and changes to the list welcome.
> 
> -Dan G.

This is great and very thought list of criterion for long term shelter. In other words, we might
say we need an ultra-low-cost, light weight, fire+bug+rot+earthquake-proof structure. The
interesting thing is pretty much everyone everywhere needs something like this and they don't need
to wait for a disaster to understand this.  

Here's a picture of a playing-card model of a barrel dome I am working on. I plan to build one out
of corrugated steel which is available a home depot.

http://www.freewebtown.com/randome/dual.element.barrel.jpg

Here is an earlier version of a barrel dome.

http://www.freewebtown.com/randome/barreldome1.jpg



		
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