What is an Emergency Shelter?

by BenSpark

Any temporary shelter setup to protect people from hazardous elements can be called an emergency shelter. Emergency shelters are provided to people who have lost their homes or places where they lived due to a natural calamity, war or disease. In some cities and towns there are permanent emergency shelters. These are managed by private organizations and are used by people who may have lost their home in a fire or any other disaster.

Any construction that is erected to provide people temporary shelter can be termed as an emergency shelter. The most common type of emergency shelter used is tents. International organizations keep stock of tents and send them wherever emergency shelters are required. Schools, colleges, churches, and halls have also been used as emergency shelters. During the Second World War, tube train stations were used as emergency shelters.

An emergency shelter can be made from a variety of material. In a jungle or wooded area, branches are cut and placed in the ground and leaves are spread over the top as a roof. This may be one of the crudest forms of an emergency shelter that can be constructed.

If people have to live for an extended period in an emergency-shelter, then prefabricated homes may be constructed. A prefabricated home can be assembled fast and provides better relief against the elements than a tent. An emergency shelter can also be built using empty bags filled with local soil and placed in a circle. Poles are placed across the top, and are covered with a tarp or plastic sheet.

Earth mixed with straw and water is then plastered onto the tarp. The door and windows may be made by using salvaged doors and windows or placing a scrap wooden beam across the opening and hanging a scrap sheet of cloth, tarp or any other material.

These types of emergency-shelters were constructed in Pakistan after the 2005 earthquake.

An emergency-shelter has to be constructed from the material available at the emergency site. The emergency-shelter has to be safe, protective and cheap to construct. Women and children suffer the most in an emergency and require immediate shelter. Therefore, before any relief can arrive in an emergency, the materials available at the emergency site must be used to make emergency-shelters.

You cannot expect people to sit out in thunderstorms, hurricanes, cyclones and wait for the aid to arrive. Fallen trees, branches, salvaged materials from collapsed homes and buildings have been used to make emergency-shelters. People have been using their common sense and available materials to setup emergency shelters.

There are a variety of emergency-shelters that have been made during an emergency across the world. China has had massive earthquakes and floods and the government has had to provide emergency shelters to people. The United States witnessed a devastating hurricane that left thousands of people homeless. There again the government and aid agencies moved in to provide emergency shelters. No single standard of emergency shelter is there that is constructed. You have to build an emergency shelter with whatever material is available.

Michael Andereson is a safety expert. You can buy good quality emergency shelters and get huge discounts on them at http://www.hughes-shelter-systems.com

Emergency Shelters and Decontamination

by BenSpark

In workplaces where potentially hazardous materials and substances are dealt with, decontamination is a prerequisite and for that purpose, there have to be proper arrangements for the safety and well-being of the workers. There are different kinds of decontamination equipments available that fulfil an array of different purposes. Emergency shelters are also built in workplaces where decontamination equipment is available within easy reach of the people in case of accidents.

Emergency-shelters can be temporary as well as permanent. The kind of emergency-shelter that is present in a place depends upon the usage and requirements. There are temporary emergency-shelters that can be deployed in a matter of minutes on any kind of terrain. The benefit associated with these kinds of emergency-shelters is that they are time tested and are guaranteed to be able to withstand any kind of weather and temperature conditions. Compact kind of decontamination equipment is available for emergency-shelters, which is designed keeping in view the quick deployment needs of some emergency shelters.

Emergency-shelters are compact and have portable structure with a lightweight. Some of the factors enable the easy deployment of these structures. These emergency-shelters are ideal to be used as decontamination centres. Emergency shelters are quickly inflatable and can be setup anywhere.

Emergency shelters are equipped with certain decontamination capabilities and ensure state of the art performance along with reliability. The sizes of emergency shelters vary and some are large with separate sections for males and females, while there are others that are relatively smaller.

Emergency shelters are internally equipped with compact showers and other kinds of equipment necessary for decontamination purposes.

Internally integrated ergonomic hand sprays are available in many emergency-shelters and these are very useful for decontamination in case of non-ambulatory casualties. The material of emergency-shelters is such that it is resistant to corrosion and chemical resistant enabling the shelter to last for a rather long time.

There is ambient lighting in emergency-shelters due to the material designed for the very same purpose. The connectors in emergency-shelter enables easy plumbing that can be done with gloved hands. The showers provided internally in the emergency-showers usually require no installation and the number of showers and sprays present in an emergency shower depends upon its size and its manufacturer.

With any kind of emergency shower, it is important to provide proper instructions to the people regarding the handling and operation of the shelter. This is because in case of emergencies, it can be a great inconvenience if someone doesn't know how to go about handling an emergency shelter and the internal equipment.

Emergency shelters should not be deployed in areas that are far from the work area. Rather, it should take one second to approach an emergency shelter so that there is as less time, as possible for the injury to leave its harmful effect. When getting an emergency shelter, the requirements should be kept in view and the emergency shelter should be bought accordingly.

Michael Andereson is a safety expert. You can discuss with him to know how to make disaster relief shelter at http://www.hughes-shelter-systems.com

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