The point that a situation can be reacted to when you are 10 miles away from as opposed to 1000 miles in a timely manner seems to be a reasonable assumption.

This statement makes me very skeptical of your assertions that you were there shortly after the storm hit. If you're 10 miles away with all of the communication lines down and most of the roads impassable, for all practical purposes, you might as well be a thousand miles away in terms of how effective you can be.