Dr. Charlotte J. Hiatt has been a professor at California State University, Fresno since 1984. She has consistently been recognized for her outstanding teaching. While pursuing post-doctoral work at the University of Minnesota during the summer of 1985 she developed an interest in disaster recovery planning for information systems. Since then she has been conducting research, making presentations, and publishing papers in this area. The intent of this manuscript is to provide a foundation for anyone interested in understanding the basic principles, terminology, and strategies of disaster recovery planning. The material presented includes a comprehensive accumulation of sample documents and the synthesis of broadly dispersed disaster recovery related information.