How Do I Keep My Family Warm?

Last winter we had quite a few major wind/snow storms. The winds reached 85 miles per hour one night! It was a bit frightening to sit in a quite home in the middle of the night, hoping a tree wouldn’t crash into our window. In the morning that followed, that major storm was over in our town, but across the state, it was still raging. People were losing power where the wind storms had caused massive rolling blackouts. It got me wondering, how in the world are those people staying warm in the middle of winter with no heat? So I decided to do a little research on my own to protect my family from any such disasters. 

First of all, dress warmly to conserve as much body heat as possible. If it is extremely cold, your bed is a good place to stay. Cover up with as many blankets as possible. Sleep with your family huddled together this way. You can also purchase space blankets that are very inexpensive and lightweight. They are made to keep heat trapped under them, and will help to keep your body temperature at a more normal level. 

There are ways, other than electrical heating units, that can be used to warm your home. Safety is extremely important when trying to use alternative heating methods. You should not burn anything in your home larger than an average candle, unless you have good ventilation to the outside. Possibilities include fireplaces, camp stoves, a wood, gas or oil heater, or a gas run hot water heater. 

The best way to stay warm in your home is to confine the heat source to one room. Make sure it is ventilated properly for the heat source you are using. Choose a room on the side of your house that won’t have a majority of the winds blowing on it, and a room with smaller windows. If you have a basement, the earth may act as insulation in the winter.  Keep the doors to your heated room closed at all possible times. Cover the windows with heavy bedding to prevent drafts. 

If you can’t stay warm in your house by following these suggestions, pack up and go! Find a shelter with a generator that can keep you safe. Don’t forget to take your 72-hour kits with you.

The number 3 is a magic number when it comes to emergency preparedness. You can survive for about 3 hours without shelter, about 3 days without water, and about 3 weeks without food. So, to keep with the magic number, we should try to find 3 ways to deal with each of those situations.

For shelter, there may be circumstances where we can shelter in place and use our home as a shelter. Other times we may be stuck in our cars. Keeping some basic items in our car in case we need to use it as a shelter can be life-saving. Some water pouches, survival food bars, hand warmers, emergency blankets, a Ready candle, and waterproof matches can help us keep warm in a winter storm situation. And what if a major earthquake made sleeping in your home impossible? Consider a backpacker dome tent or even a tube tent plus emergency sleeping bags.

Next is water. You can store a lot of water in your home by using the 30 gallon barrels and then adding the water preserver so you only have to change the water every 5 years instead of every year. You can also think about portable water in case evacuation becomes necessary. The 5 gallon stackable water containers are great for this purpose. And what if you had access to water, but it was contaminated? Think about potable aqua and an MSR miniworks water filter. The miniworks can filter up to 500 gallons of water, so it is a great tool to invest in.

Last is food. Survival food bars are compact enough to store in your car or even in your desk at work. You can store MREs and freeze-dried pouches in your 72-hour kits. And the #10 cans of freeze-dried food are terrific to store in your home for longer term food storage.

Emergencies and disasters don’t always happen how we plan, so by taking steps to resolve these 3 essential issues in at least 3 ways, you can feel secure in your emergency preparations.

I recently took a winter survival course and learned how well emergency blankets actually work!  Originally invented for NASA, the reflective material of the blanket reflects up to 90% of your body’s heat to keep you warm!  I learned that it could even prevent hypothermia and post-traumatic syndrome.

During some of the winter simulations I went through, I used my emergency blanket several times and was pleasantly surprised at how warm it kept me.  I noticed a warm feeling within seconds of wrapping the blanket around me.  Instead of my body heat escaping into the air, it stayed within the emergency blanket and radiated back at my skin.

Not only is the blanket waterproof, but it is windproof too.  This is important when it comes to how warm the emergency blanket will keep you.  Even through wind simulations during my survival course, I found that the emergency blanket kept me warm.  Because the blanket material is windproof, my skin kept its insulating ability and I was able to keep myself warm just from my own body heat.

After going through the survival course, I will never go without including one in my car or backpack.  I recommend them to any outdoorsman and believe every car and home should have several within reach.  You never know when an emergency can come up and having one of these blankets handy just might save your life!

Emergency blankets may not seem like a big deal, but they can be really important, as I discovered recently.  Yes, you may have a couple lying around at home and one in the car, but is that enough?  No…you should have an emergency blanket for each member of your family and they’re inexpensive enough to have them in different places too!

We’ve always kept an emergency blanket or two in our car, thinking someday we may need them.  But, as we discovered during our unusually cold and long winter this year, only 2 in the car was not enough!

On our way home one night from visiting some family friends in the country, our tire went flat and it was too cold (5 degrees below 0) and too dark for my husband to change it safely.  Fortunately we were able to get some roadside assistance, but we didn’t have much gas left in the car so we decided to wait with the ignition off; hence no heat.  We were so glad we had our emergency blankets on hand, but with a family of 4…2 wasn’t enough!

Luckily, we only had to wait for about an hour for a tow truck to show up, but my husband and I gave the only 2 emergency blankets we had to our children while we waited, and only wished we would have had enough for all 4 of us!  Now we stock 4 emergency blankets every place we frequent because we now know the importance of each family member having their own!

Sure, we all know what space blankets are. You know, those thin sheets of what seem to be “aluminum foil” that we all have neatly tucked into our emergency supplies for, well, emergencies? Whether you call them space blankets, emergency blankets, or sheets of tin foil we keep warm under in an emergency, they all serve the same purpose. Or do they?

Did you know that space blankets (so named because they were invented for NASA’s space program), even though they are so small and thin, can be used to help out in many emergencies beyond just keeping you warm? These space blankets are designed to help reduce heat loss from a person’s body, and help retain up to 90% of your body heat. For that same reason, you can also use a space blanket as a ground cover while camping. If you lay the blanket/blankets down on the inside of your tent, not only will it provide a protective barrier to the inside of the tent floor, but it will also add a bit of extra warmth in the tent itself! It will reflect the heat from you body back up to you, and also prevent moisture from coming up through the ground your tent is on. (Space blankets are waterproof, by the way.)

Space blankets are made of pure aluminum vapors that are deposited onto a very thin and sturdy film material. This means that, because of the aluminum in the blanket, it makes for a very good reflective surface. If you are stranded in an emergency situation, use your space blanket as a reflective shelter that will be able to attract the attention of your rescuers for miles around. I have also read that they can be used to build solar ovens!

Space blankets are so small and easily affordable. They can fit neatly into your pocket on a day hike. They can even be reused again and again. Because of all the advantages and uses of a space blanket, you should have them available to you and your family in your 72 hour kits, your glove compartment, and even your purse. You will be grateful to have one when you need it!