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MARQUETTE -- A debilitating blizzard hits the Upper Peninsula.  Stores can't open, fuel is at a premium, disaster strikes.  It's hypothetical, but it could happen. 

Tuesday's disaster relief conference in Marquette was designed to prepare local emergency responders and other health care providers for the worst.

"We're trying to have an all hazards disaster approach.  So whether it's a pandemic flu, which has been big recently, or power outages or any kind of emergency situation," says Curt LeSage, organizer from NorthStar Health System.

And that's where Paula Paszke enters the picture.  She's an international disaster relief expert, most recently having spearheaded Marquette's Haiti relief efforts.  Paszke spoke with the 90 people in attendance about how to psychologically handle disaster relief.

"We have to be prepared to take care of ourselves and make sure we're ready to go out and that we can," says Paszke.  "We have to have the right mindset while we're there because it's a constantly changing, fluid, stressful situation while you're out, and you have to be able to adapt continually.  And we have to be able to take care of ourselves when we come back so we can go out and do it again."

She's been to Haiti twice since January's earthquake crippled the country and left 1.5 million homeless.

"It is as if a bomb went off in a giant city and there's nothing.  It's like a desert.  There's no water, food, there's no way to get around; people are injured and trapped and begging for help," Paszke says.

She's anxious to head back to Haiti, but realizes that her job educating local people on disaster relief is just as important.