Perhaps you might read URL:
http://mrtmag.com/mag/radio_hams_rescue/index.html
Where over 2,000 "showed up" and were used

Just a snipet

In the days following Katrina, the Coast Guard, American Red Cross and
Federal Emergency Management Agency all put out calls for volunteer hams to
provide communications because cell sites were inoperable, and public-safety
communication facilities were overwhelmed because of the loss of repeater
towers. In one instance, hams were instrumental in the rescue of 15 people
clinging for life to a New Orleans rooftop. In Alabama, amateur SKYWARN
weather nets kept the National Weather Service apprised of conditions
throughout the state. In hard-hit sections of Mississippi, hams running off
generators and with makeshift antennas were the only means of communication.


--
CL -- I doubt, therefore I might be !






"Jan" wrote in message
...

"Caveat Lector" wrote in message
news:tzQ%f.36088$bm6.29340@fed1read04...
And are very active and instrumental during emergecies


If hams *do* show up at emergencies now a days, they
are promptly asked to leave and not disrupt professional
disaster relief efforts.