It's ironic that while I was considering a very similar concept for Haiti: constructing timber frame "house kits" with donated materials and labor and shipping them on a small barge (100 tons) pulled by diesel workboats, it never occurred to me the same could be done for tsunami victims.
Obviously the barge as transportation in my plan would have to be a container ship, but as Will T put it, how many containers full of 2x4's do you think the U.S. will be sending over the next months/years? Some of those could be containers of timber frames.
Since there hasn't been any post containing "hard numbers" for shipping costs, I'd suggest shipping should be consider a "high-risk" issue and some dedicated effort assigned to study the feasibility and/or mitigating the risk as it could really sink the plan.
Would it be reasonable to have several shops in an area working from the same plans each build a bent, or rafters, or sills, etc? Send a shipping container (driven by trucking volunteers?) to collect the pieces and haul it to a rail/port facility and have the "trial fit" be when the container is unpacked at the destination? Given that I'm all book knowledge I defer that question to those of you experienced enough to know.
As far as volunteering goes, I know a real nice guy with a bandmill (and I've got an Alaskan + Stihl 066), and there are still tons of nice white oaks down from Hurricane Isabel in my area of Virginia. I'd be willing to attend a South East guild event for building. What I lack in framing experience I make up for in web programming/database work and would be willing to help with organization and logistics needs.
This is probably the worst natural disasters in my lifetime and I'm ready to roll up my sleeves help those who can't help themselves.
