Individual hospitals and healthcare systems in each of the 50 states were provided a portion of $352 million in HHS grants awarded today to improve their disaster planning and response capabilities.

The grants will fund planning and exercises for a variety of emergency responses, such as facility evacuations, sheltering patients and staff in place, and managing mass fatalities. In addition, the funds will allow hospitals to stockpile emergency pharmaceutical caches.

The grants are issued through the federal Hospital Preparedness Program, which was launched in 2002.

“We want every community to be prepared and resilient when faced with any type of health hazard and we've seen preparedness steps pay off this year across the country with severe storms, floods, and tornadoes,” Dr. Nicole Lurie, assistant secretary for preparedness and response at HHS, said in a news release.

Previous HPP grants were used by Missouri to purchase the mobile medical unit that has served as a temporary community hospital in Joplin since one of the town's hospitals, St. John's Regional Health Center, was destroyed by a tornado in May.

Other HPP funds have employed experts to develop and maintain preparedness plans, as well as to train and educate staff on disaster response.