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Interesting concept -- it keeps the assistance on a local, peer-to-peer level without big brother's FEMA nose getting under the tent. The question I have is who pays the out-of-towners for travel, time, etc. getting to and responding to their sister city? And how do they get there if roads, bridges, etc. are down (as I recall, the responders to the MS Gulf Coast had to literally hack their way through forests downed on roads leading to the coast)?

Training can be done for 3 weeks in the spring - each city sends 40 emergency workers to it's sister city where officers "fill in" for each other. Since they're working each other's shifts, there's no pay loss for either city. Each city pays it's own people - it's a wash. On how to pay emergency workers during an actual emergency ... that's a hard one. I have no idea. What do you think?

And how do they get there if roads, bridges, etc. are down (as I recall, the responders to the MS Gulf Coast had to literally hack their way through forests downed on roads leading to the coast)?

I've been through several hurricanes (one direct hit) and it's not as bad as usually portrayed by the media (I'm sure you're shocked here...) Anyway, Walmart keeps information on how to get into cities and in fact were one of the first groups to get into NO. Under my "grassroots" system, while plans were being set up, someone would call Walmart and ask about the best roads - the ones that don't usually flood.