I agree.

What I found during the hurricane was that most people I know were very capable and handled it fine on their own. These people rejected any offers of help.

The only situation I found where someone would have needed help would have been in a catastrophic situation. In which case the neighbors would have been there first anyway.

I'll give you an example. A friend of mine had a surplus of goats because the restaraunts weren't taking delivery (obviously). Goats = fresh meat. But, my food stores were never taxed to the point where it was actually worth pursuing. My cell was not working, so I let Blast know through this forum (thanks wildman800) but he didn't need it either. Would additional infrastructure helped me communicate this better? Well, maybe to some other people in the Houston area... but I don't know those people at the moment and see below about that.

I do think that calling trees would be a great idea, but would work best when created among like minded individuals.

One thing I've seen other forums try to do is to have regional subforums. These mostly serve as a way for local people to get to know each other, as well as to discuss local issues.

On other forums, its a place where newbies can feel more comfortable introducing themselves and making a first post, even though they don't have much to say. It establishes an immediate common ground that may be lacking otherwise.

If someone wanted to petition Doug Ritter to try something like this, it could be an interesting experiment.

Backyardchickens? Every time I think that I have seen it all!

well, sometimes I need to ask a question about my chickens.

I was happy to get the eggs when Ike came and the grocery stores were not convenient to get to.

Don't knock backyardchickens. It's pretty handy.