Whitledge, director of plan operations and security and safety officer at Heartland Regional Medical Center inspects the hospital's 1000 kilowatt generator, which is used in emergencies. "We actually switch the entire hospital to it once a month," Whitledge said. "At 1000 kilowatts this generator could carry three of these hospitals if need be. In fact when we switch over to emergency power, we only use 30 percent capacity of the generator."

Heartland Regional Medical Center's emergency management trailer was purchaed two years ago with grants through FEMA and HIRSHA. According to Whitledge, the trailer is used extensively in safety drills and contains a range of emergency equipment needed in disaster situations, ranging from radio systems that can be hooked up to car batteries if there is no power source, self contained breathing apparatus, decon suits and tents. "If its a really bad situation we can turn up the air conditioning enough to turn it into a morgue," Whitledge said.

"In addition to Memorial Hospital of Carbondale having equipment and preparing staff through exercises (drills) and other training, we keep much of our equipment on trailers so that it can be moved to another hospital should it have a need for disaster supplies," Maddox said.