The world of disaster preparedness lost a valuable asset Monday with the passing of John Solomon, author of In Case of Emergency, Read Blog. Solomon, a journalist and true champion of personal disaster readiness, died of complications from leukemia. He was 47.

Solomon will be remembered as a crusader for empowering members of the public to help themselves during all stages of disaster. Making disaster knowledge accessible and easy to understand was among the many strengths of his blog, which never hesitated to have fun as well as inform.

"John was both an important ally and critic of emergency managers,” Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Craig Fugate said in a statement. “He pushed all of us to always do more to engage and prepare the public—and set the standard for what it meant to be part of our nation's emergency management team."

Solomon began blogging about preparedness in 2008 as he began to research his similarly named, In Case of Emergency, Read Book. While he hoped to use the blog as a way to collect and share background for the book (which is not yet published), it soon took on a life of its own.

Along with Solomon’s own insights as an everyday Joe learning to be prepared, the blog is a trove of resources and interviews with emergency preparedness players big and small. His excellent “What Should We Tell the Public?” series features opinions from the likes of Fugate, former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, New York Emergency Management Director John Gibb, and many more.

More information on Solomon and how he became involved in communicating preparedness can be found in his obituary in the New York Times.