The Community Partners are a critical component of the Community and Regional Resilience Institute (CARRI) – their contributions as the public and private sectors bring real-world experience to the table – they are the authors of best practice and lessons learned – they are reality. “Reality” has struck these Community Partners time and again. Natural disasters do not limit themselves to city boundaries -- they are likely to strike broad expanses, encompassing many communities within varied regions.

Memphis Urban Area

The hub of the Memphis Urban area is Shelby County which covers eight counties in three states: Tennessee, Mississippi, and Arkansas. Shelby County is the State of Tennessee’s largest in terms of both population and geographic area; the county seat of Shelby County is Memphis. Memphis was founded in 1819 and given its central location on the Mississippi River, the transportation and shipping industries have allowed commerce to prosper. Today Memphis has the second largest cargo port on the Mississippi River, has the fourth largest inland port in the United States, and is home to the world’s busiest cargo airport which serves as the primary hub for the international shipping giant FedEx. Memphis proper has a population of more than 671,000 which makes it the largest city in the state of Tennessee; the greater Memphis metropolitan area has a population of 1.3 million, making it the second largest metropolitan area in Tennessee.

• City of Memphis
• Shelby County Government
• Local Newspaper
• Center for Earthquake Research and Info
• Ground Water Institute
• Port of Memphis
• Shelby County Office of Preparedness
• ReadyShelby