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I also remember seeing pics years ago from an ex telecom guy I knew, where a small telephone exchange and tower had been destroyed on an island up north in a cyclone and the only access was through a sand track through a rainforest type environment, and uphill. To get the new exchange and gear through (looked about the size of a small shipping container) took nearly 3 weeks to go about 20 km. Men had to work around the clock with chainsaws and other gear to clear a path for the truck that carried it. Where it was located was not a populated area, so there were no efforts by emergency services to do this work.
I clearly remember pics of what was left of a Dunlite wind generator that had had its blades bent fully back by the force of the wind before coming down. There wasn't mains power in the area it seems.
Meanwhile to keep essential services on the air, they had some sort of temporary portable setup there, manned, and had to keep bringing in fuel for the generator and supplies by chopper every few days.
This all had to be done in the middle of a disaster when everything was in short supply and it was a huge hassle to get anything in even for emergency services. I don't think the accommodation would have been very nice for the workers either.
Stuff like that takes a lot of dedication, exhaustion and time away from your family to live in a shit hot, humid environment for some time. If any of the crew were local, they might not have had a home to go back to.
As for Telecom, It probably killed many years worth of revenue from those subscribers in the costs involved in repairing the damage
If they had to do a few bodgy jobs to get things back on air fast, even with risk of it failing in a short time, then its better than having nothing. We have all done it in our various fields when we have had to.