Leon wrote:

| You may be thankful that you did not go. Those that went with
| tools and equipment very often left broke and in debt. There were
| several interviews with those that came to help, not because of
| the work that they were doing but because of their stolen
| equipment. Tractor trailers and all.

I'm not - and in fact I'm more than a little ashamed that I didn't
just load up and go anyway. There was (as in every disaster) a very
real need for communications. I'd already had enough experience with
tornado and flood operations to know that.

There's always a danger that equipment can "grow legs" and vanish, but
my entire station can (almost) easily tuck into a car trunk, and I've
discovered that "Danger - High Voltage" stickers work wonders as a
deterrent to the casual laying on of hands. :-)

FWIW, I've never had a piece of equipment stolen at an emergency
operation site - and I've never owned any that was more precious a
human. It was an acceptable risk.

--
Morris Dovey
DeSoto Solar
DeSoto, Iowa USA
http://www.iedu.com/DeSoto/