About the Author

“Jack Babbage” is a semi-retired computer engineer. As an analyst, manager and educator, his writing credentials include hundreds of technical papers (disaster recovery and contingency planning, being one of his specialties). The “Babbage” part of his pen name is in honor of Charles Babbage, inventor of the first computer. The “Jack” part of his name comes from being a Jack of All Trades.

Outside of work, Babbage has sailed the Pacific, camped in the deserts and mountains of the Southwest, and competed in archery tournaments using equipment he fashioned himself. He is an amateur “living history” researcher. His knowledge of electronics extends to being a licensed ham radio operator. Along the way he’s dabbled in everything else from Auto maintenance to Zombie eradication.

Babbage’s interest in preparedness goes all the way back to elementary school, where he won first place in a fire-safety contest. A few years later, he gained a deeper appreciation of emergency preparedness when he began to sail. Planning for self-reliance is something every ocean sailor must learn, and his uncle taught him well.

Since then, as a California native, Babbage has experienced first hand the damage caused by the 1971 Sylmar Earthquake, the Whittier Narrows quake in 1987, and Northridge quake of 1994. Babbage’s ancestors hail from San Francisco and Chicago, cities legendary for widespread disasters (the Great Quake of 1906, and the Great Conflagration of 1871, respectively.) Most recently, Babbage’s relatives in Florida had to evacuate inland, chased out of their home by the category 5 hurricane Matthew, which killed over 100 people as it swept through the Caribbean on its way up the East coast.

All of this history and personal experience has given Babbage a healthy respect for emergency preparedness. As a voracious reader of preparedness books, and as a seasoned analyst and hands-on experimenter, he’s learned how to separate the good from the bad, the facts from the fiction, the myths and misconceptions from the truly essential and useful. Babbage brought all of this experience and his technical writing skills to bear in putting together this encyclopedia for your benefit. He hopes you find his effort worthwhile.