how about senior VP who called and then came in to check in how things were doing... high enough on the food chain for you?
and when we came in to expect the damage of the office I worked for on the 9th floor of a building in Beverly Hills after the earthquake (94?), everyone was there all the way to the top... and that was just to check the damage to the building and equipment... no loss of life.
any leader/executive worth anything will be right on top of something as important as what's happening in the gulf states. Of course, by your standards, it's okay if they vacation for 20% of the time and show up when it suits their political agenda.