Will, what I mean is that perhaps guild members could lend a hand at repairs and what have you, not only of bridges but also of land structures that may have been heavily damaged. By educate, I mean be there and help people to understand what 'repair's to these old bridges will in the end do more harm than good. For those bridges that remain, they are in a dangerous position as well intentioned folks might make faulty repairs, not understanding the dynamics of the old timber bridges.
I do not think 'what can the guild get out of this' but rather, how can our expertise and experience be of use to the people in the whole region in repairing things.
Let's look at a past example to illustrate my point, post WWII Germany, many of the old buildings needed repairs very badly to survive. So they were given repairs, but with modern materials and methods. These were often time 500 year old timber framed structures. In the end, for so many of these structures, faulty repairs ended up destroying them.
Let's learn from this, and when we are faced with recovering from a disaster like this, let's do it right!
I realize not much can be done at this point, but it does take time to plan and organize and what have you. Now might be the time to start thinking about things like this.
I find it somewhat unfortunate that around the time when it might be plausible to do this, I may be leaving the country for an extended period.
DLB
