A story from the 2009 episode I mentioned above.
A few years later my wife was teaching a writing class at the local university. One of her students (a teacher) told this story. At the time of the storm she was the secretary to the general commanding the Kentucky National Guard. As such she was taking all the phone calls to his office and screening them. Few were serious enough to warrant the generals attention but some were. She got a call from a frantic sounding man saying that it was imperative that he talk to the general right now. She put him off knowing that the general was running around dealing with critical issues. The man finally told her that he was the warden at the Eddyville State Prison (were the worst prisoners serve life sentences), said they didn't have half the guards there, said prisoners hadn't been fed, said that the generators had four hours of diesel left and then would shut down. When the generators shut down all the cell doors would open and ALL the prisoners could walk out. The lady telling the story said she immediately contacted the general and he dropped everything else and started making calls. In less than two hours she got another phone call from the warden telling that a helicopter arrived at the prison with a huge fuel cell full of diesel hanging under it. Another helicopter landed with soldiers taking care of the generator and assorted equipment. She didn't know where the general got the helicopters from but thought it was from the 101st stationed about forty miles away at Fort Campbell.
RSKY