What I wanted was for a priesthood leader to at least go to the house to see if help can be rendered. My relative was already in that home cleaning away. I had viewed pictures of the damage on FB, and we are not talking Hazmat, or I would have called them myself.
As I explained to the SP, "If you had a relative in a distant state in distress, and you could not get to them, wouldn't you do everything in your power to get them help?" He did agree with me on this point. I did explain what I had seen in pictures, but needed him to see for himself.
My father was a bishop when I was a child. When my siblings and I would complain about him helping all these people we didn't know, because they were either inactive or nonmembers, he had a good explaination: "My responsibility is to every soul within our ward boundaries."
I have been the Relief Society president, and sometimes my information was gathered before the bishop knew there was a problem. In this case, I would have gone to the house right away to see the damage, documented the damage on my camera, and then contacted the bishop/stake president.
There was also some interesting conflicts on this issue, with two people hesitating to help, and two others contacting me and stating they would be over to see what could be done.
Dravin and Gopecon are too young to remember this, and may not even heard of it, but friends of mine, Relief Society presidents in Britain, drove across Europe to help people in eastern Europe who needed help. They left Britain, rented a van in France, got the goods they needed and away they went. The church didn't send them. At the time they left Britain, a photographer with National Geographic had been taking pictures of members. He tagged along with the women. When he didn't check in with NatGeo, they contacted him to ask where he was. "I'm helping Mormon women give aid."