> I wonder if the U.S. would fare much better.

No, not really. My wife and I are in an ARES organization and a CERT group, and we get training by the local fire dept. and briefings by local OES people. I live in the San Francisco Bay Area, and I'm assured by one and all that if we get hit by a big one, we can count on no help for at least a week, be prepared to survive without help for a month.

After every overseas disaster, people ask what they can do to help. Each of those people is an individual. Young persons want to go over and _do_ something since it takes the bureaucracies too long to get there. It turns out the best thing for an individual to do is to donate cash to their favorite charity that's doing relief work.

My suggestion to people who want to go do something is to join a volunteer organization now. My wife and I volunteer with our organizations, the fire captain knows us, the cops at local towns know us because they work with us at street fairs, fund-raising runs, and so on. When we show up after a quake (assuming we're alive and uninjured), the captain knows what we can do, so he'll be able to put us to work. He knows what we can do because we've worked with him since before he was a captain. Knowing the volunteers is very important. People chose volunteers they know.

If you have a neighborhood CERT, get involved with the group; take their training. If you want, join the Red Cross as a volunteer. One of our friends flew from here to New Orleans and various other disaster zones and set up telephone banks for the Red Cross; someone else had found a location, ensured electricity, water, toilets, food, etc. The organizations know how to respond, know what the local needs are, and know how to meet those needs without getting their own people hurt or killed. The organizations know how to get their people in there with their own food, lodging, and care. That's why they take a week or so to show up - they're fielding everything they need not only to supply the needy but to supply themselves. The Salvation Army has a group of ham radio operators (SATERN) that don't need to be deployed - you can be a ham in your own home and volunteer to pass health and welfare traffic to and from the disaster scene. You can operate from the disaster area and provide local communications to disaster workers at the site.

But you have to be a trained volunteer with the organization so they know what you can do and can use you to their best interests. Volunteer now and be ready when the quake, tornado, hurricane, flood hits here in the states.