Which version do you buy?

From the National Post article ‘Should have been there from the beginning’: Marois visit Lac-Mégantic, blasts railway exec for disaster response, here's what Quebec premier Pauline Marois had to say about the president of the railway company whose train recently blew up in a Quebec town:

“I already commented on his behaviour and the behaviour of his company yesterday. The leader of this company should have been there from the beginning,” Marois said at a news conference. Prior to arriving in Lac-Megantic, Marois had faulted the train company’s response calling the company’s chief “deplorable” and “unacceptable,” for waiting four days before coming to the town.

By contrast here's what the article had to say about this from the perspective of the company's president:

Edward Burkhardt, president and CEO of U.S.-based Rail World Inc., said he had delayed his visit in order to deal with the crisis from his office in Chicago, saying he was better able to communicate from there with insurers and officials in different places.

Burkhardt arrived Wednesday with a police escort and faced jeers from residents. He was expected to meet with residents and the mayor Thursday.

This is sort of the parallel version of the politician-showing-up-in-a-disaster-zone-to-shake-hands-and-kiss-babies which tends to divert attention from actually resolving the problem at hand by giving the local authorities something extra to manage. While the US president presumably carries around enough electronics to avoid being left out of contact in this case the company president may indeed also have been better able to address the situation remotely. Here, given the people rather angry at the company, it seems that the police had to divert further resources to ensure that the guy didn't get lynched on his visit to the town.

So... what should he have done?

(I should add that the guy also doesn't seem to be very good at handling the press even when he does show).