Last weekend, we experienced one of the worst disasters ever to hit Middle Tennessee as historic floods ravaged the state. M. Lee Smith Publishers, the company that produces HR Hero and other HR products including the state Employment Law Letters, is headquartered in Brentwood, Tennessee, just south of Nashville.
On May 1 and 2, record rainfall pushed area waterways to unheard of levels, destroying lives and homes. As of Friday morning, May 7, the death toll in Tennessee had reached 21 with 10 of those in Nashville. Many businesses and their employees in our community have been devastated, and it will be a long and slow recovery.
Our company was fortunate in that our building was not damaged, but some of our employees’ homes were severely damaged.
It is a reminder that disaster can strike anywhere with little or no warning, and businesses need to have a crisis management and business continuity plan. In this week’s HR Hero Line we are rerunning two articles from Louisiana Employment Law Letter on disaster preparedness and lessons learned after Hurricane Katrina.
Here’s information on how you can make a donation to the Middle Tennessee Red Cross to help flood victims:
- Visit www.nashvilleredcross.org and click DONATE NOW to make an online gift
- Mail a check to the Nashville Area Red Cross — 2201 Charlotte Avenue, Nashville, TN 37203
- Call (615) 250-4300 to make a donation by phone
- Text REDCROSS to 90999 to make a $10 donation on your mobile phone
For more information on the Nashville area floods, check out The Tennessean newspaper’s website.
Wendi Watts
HR Hero Line Editor