| 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