A basement is an underground room.
The basement is the room that is located in an underground sector of a building . It is, therefore, an environment that develops below the ground or surface .
For example: “In the basement of the house we keep old toys and memories,” “Grandpa Rubén turned the basement into a games room,” “The young woman was kidnapped for eight days in the basement of an abandoned house.”
Characteristics of a basement
Due to its location, the basement has very limited natural lighting and a high level of humidity . Furthermore, it is common for its temperature to remain stable compared to other corners of the house . This means that the basement is traditionally chosen to store wines and certain foods .
Basements can also be used to store rarely used objects, tools or souvenirs . In this sense, they can function as repositories . A family may find it useful to bring to the basement what they use infrequently, leaving the space in the rest of the rooms of the house for objects and artifacts that they use on a daily basis.
Basements can be used as shelters.
a refuge
In some countries , basements are also used as shelters in the event of environmental disasters . A home built in a tornado zone may have a basement that, in the event of a phenomenon of this type, allows the family to take shelter: the wind can damage the structure of the house, but not the underground environment.
When the basement serves as a shelter , it is common to store non-perishable food in it that allows subsistence without having to go outside for a time.
Survival kit for a catastrophe basement
There are many commercial products that provide everything you need to deal with a natural disaster or war . Needless to say, with exceptions, we are talking about items that are sold like any other, that are part of a business and not a disinterested movement.
In general, the most popular format is that of large backpacks , with various components specifically designed to deal with a desperate situation without the possibility of moving. A product of this class could be a backpack with a 30-liter capacity, with more than one hundred items inside to allow four people to survive for a period of three days. Among its accessories there could be: magnifying glass, mirror, thermometer, flashlight, compass, solar flashlight, solar radio, first aid kit, basic kitchen utensils, isothermal blankets, folding container and food portions, as well as a mobile phone charger.
Since water is the fundamental element for our survival, it is also one of the main points when designing a kit to take to a basement in case of a catastrophe . A product that has become very popular is the so-called LifeStraw , a filter capable of taking contaminated water and transforming it into drinkable water, with a simple aspiration by the user. In this way, any source of stagnant water can become a resource to live another day.
In addition to personal hygiene items, the first aid kit and food, we must not forget that it is also necessary to have some products to relieve tension and fight against the stress typical of a situation of confinement in a basement or bunker . Depending on the case, books, magazines and board games may be enough; Spending a moment of leisure in the middle of a catastrophe may seem like an irresponsible attitude, but it is actually a healthy way to act if the solution to the external problem is not in our hands.
Just like games, we should always have notebooks and pencils in the basement, as they can help us express our experiences through writing or drawing, as well as to create a message that we can pass through a crack in the event of a collapse.