Tennessee to Receive in Excess of 13,000 evacuees from the Katrina Disaster

It is reported that the state of Tennessee has or will receive several thousand refugees who are coming here to start over or just to settle until they can return to their own state, their own neighborhoods and homes. Memphis will receive 13,000 refugees alone. The Tennessee legal communities of Memphis, Clarksville, Jackson and Nashville are keenly aware of how devastating it is to lose both your home and your livlihood as many in our own state have suffered similar losses due to tornadoes in the past six years. Please know that you come to a state who understands your pain and is ready to assist you in any way we can. The Memphis Bar Association (http://www.memphisbar.org/), Tennessee Bar Association (http://www.tba.org/) and Mississippi Bar Association (http://www.msbar.org/) are offering resources to those lawyers who have been displaced as well as legal services to the general public who have been displaced. There are other sites with resources that provide information about how to set up a practice, how to begin recovering financially and how to assess damage and safely re-enter your home or office once you are able to return. It has been my experience that when disaster strikes a particular legal community, communication is vitally important to connect those who need help with those who have help to give. Local bar associations can be the conduit for such communication. Bringing displaced judges and lawyers together to share contact information, an update on the recovery effort, court news, education on how to begin to recovery and the opportunity to be with others who are suffering the same fate is essential to maintaining lawyer morale. Other efforts are being mounted by the technology community to bring assistance to you as well. I will try to provide information as I come to know it here and hope that it will be helpful to those who are in such need of help.