Lets be honest here and not confuse the desire to erect and use large
antenna structures to facilitate DX'ing and other radio pursuits with
the proposition of providing 'emergency communications'. I would
guess that 99.9% of the ham population never has or ever will provide
the types of 'emergency communications' to which you refer in support
of the erection of large towers and antenna arrays in deference to
zoning restrictions. Even while a vast majority continually chase the
holy grail of possessing a 'Big Gun' signal on the air. The argument
sounds great till you actually tune around the bands during normal,
every day activity and maybe once in a while during a real emergency.
What you hear is the daily 'playing' of big gun radio operation.
Excessive power, excessive bandwidth used and nothing short of
electronic bullying/boasting of my signal is bigger than your signal.
When an emergency does occur a relatively small number of big gun
stations (usually located away from the big cities on large tracts of
expensive, desirable out of the way land where restrictions and
covenants do not even come into play) handling the brunt of the
communications. And a few passersbyes who may just listen or possibly
check in to alternate 'controll the onlookers' nets, so they can tell
their buddys and the uninitiated that they were helping out with one
disaster or another before they get bored with the whole thing and
move on to the latest must have dx or contest contact.

Lets be real. Nothing wrong with Dx'ing and Contesting or any other
facet of the hobby. But know that these are the real reason behind
many off the cuff fan the flame posts in support of knocking down
zoning rules and not a 'real' desire to provide an at the ready
emergency communications setup.

Been around long enough to know that truth!