When I was an electrical engineer building emergency wireless communications networks, I learned about the importance of having backups—sometimes the hard way, with a 3 a.m. phone call reporting a system is down and the backup system didn’t kick in.

So, how 'bout this weather we're having, huh? You're probably rolling your eyes right about now about how lame that opening sentence was, and nobody could blame you. But it's actually a valid question.

We’ve been all too familiar with natural disasters lately.