System wipe! Will Steam recover my games?

Unfortunately, as I get sick with a nasty cold, so does my laptop.
I might have to do a system wipe to fix things, and I have quite the few games on Steam! I was wondering if Steam will recover if I wipe my machine and all of my data will still be there, is this just a fantasy?
Unfortunately, nothing is backed up -- to my knowledge, that is -- on my computer. Isn't Steam a Cloud and thus completely separate from harm?
I might have to do a system wipe to fix things, and I have quite the few games on Steam! I was wondering if Steam will recover if I wipe my machine and all of my data will still be there, is this just a fantasy?
Unfortunately, nothing is backed up -- to my knowledge, that is -- on my computer. Isn't Steam a Cloud and thus completely separate from harm?