When you read of a crisis, whether it’s a hurricane in your host country, a tornado in your passport country, or a shooting in another country, it’s a good habit to ask yourself what you can do, not just to help alleviate the crisis but also to ensure that you and your family would be safe in a similar situation. You’ll find, as you do, that steps you take to protect yourself from one emergency situation often help protect yourself from a different one.
Today, I want to share an exceedingly simple step I’ve taken which would be useful in any emergency, whether it’s a fire, tornado, car accident, tsunami, shooting, or earthquake. It’s a small actions that will improve your odds in any crisis: buy a bunch of space blankets and stash them everywhere.
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What a space blanket is
Space blankets—also known as emergency blankets, weather blankets, mylar blankets, first aid blankets, safety blankets, heat sheets, shock blankets, and thermal blankets—are specially designed blankets made from extremely strong but thin plastic coated in a thin layer of aluminum (supposedly smaller than the width of a human hair). The result is a “blanket” that is extremely small, foldable, and light, but which reflects 80-97% of radiated heat.
What that means in normal English is that space blankets reflect almost all of your body heat back to you, thereby keeping you warm enough to survive in an emergency. Space blankets are thus warmer than a typical quilt or blanket while simultaneously being thin and small enough to fit into your pocket. This makes them ideal as an emergency back-up blanket; they’re warm enough to keep you from getting hypothermia, but small enough that you can always have one with you in case of emergency. While sleeping under one may not be as comfy as your grandma’s quilt, they’ll keep you alive and that’s what matters in an emergency.
How to prepare space blankets for an emergency
Obviously, you need to buy the space blankets before an emergency happens in order for them to help you in a crisis.
The good news is that they’re widely available and cheap—between $1 and $3—so I encourage you to buy a bunch. At minimum, have one for each member of your family, but they’re small enough and cheap enough that I encourage you to buy enough that you can take care of your neighbors in an emergency.
Keep in mind that emergencies can and often happen when you’re away from home, so you’ll want to store them in a variety of places, especially if you’re away from home. Thankfully they’re small, cheap, thin, and light, so you can stash some in your car, in your ebike, at your office, in your diaper bag, and in your backpack or briefcase. That way, no matter what happens or where you are, you’ll be ok. Also, since space blankets can be lifesaving in a medical emergency, make sure to put them in every first aid kit you have.
Since they’re cheap and light, there’s not much downside to having them everywhere; if you never need one, you’re only out a few dollars and a few ounces, but if you need one, you’ll save a life. So even though the risk of a plane crash is ridiculously low, I pack one in my carry-on for each member of my family. They’re cheap, small, and light, so why not carry it if it could save a life?
One thing to keep in mind: space blankets can degrade if they get wet or are exposed to heat or direct sunlight—so store them in a cool, dry place and check them every year or so to make sure there are no cracks or peeling.
How to use them
Survivalists love space blankets for their diverse uses and if that’s your thing (or you enjoy hiking), there’s lots of cool things you can read about ways to use space blankets. But for our purposes here—surviving the cold—the answer is quite simple: wrap yourself in the space blanket with the shiny side facing outwards. Then tuck it in everywhere you can—the blanket only works as well as it traps heat, so you don’t want air to be able to get out anywhere. Covering your head will keep you warmer, but it may be impractical (a hat is probably better in most situations).
Keep in mind that the blankets are waterproof, so if you are sweating or breathing inside the blanket, the trapped moisture can condense and cause you to lose heat when you get wet. If you’re in that situation, make sure the blanket has a small vent/gap so water vapor can escape.
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