WASHINGTON, Sept 1 (Reuters) - U.S. Democratic lawmakers said on Thursday they would try to protect Hurricane Katrina victims who may have lost everything from being penalized by an overhaul of bankruptcy laws that goes into effect next month.

The ranking Democrat on the House of Representatives' Judiciary Committee, Michigan Rep. John Conyers, and three other House members pledged to introduce legislation shortly to provide flexibility for victims of natural disasters in bankruptcy proceedings.

Bankruptcy legislation making it harder for heavily indebted Americans to wipe out their obligations was passed by Congress in the spring, and goes into effect Oct. 17.

"We are concerned that just as survivors of Hurricane Katrina are beginning to rebuild their lives, the new bankruptcy law will result in a further and unintended financial whammy," Conyers said in a statement.

His aides said the hurricane, which had wiped out thousands of homes and businesses, could produce thousands of new personal bankruptcy filings. They expect Conyers and the others to introduce legislation to help them as early as next week.

In the Senate, aides to Sen. Russ Feingold, a Wisconsin Democrat, said he was also exploring possible amendments to the new bankruptcy law, such as postponing the law's mid-October implementation date.

But Democrats will have to convince Republicans who are in the majority in both chambers. Aides to House Republicans said the bankruptcy law did not need amending, because it only cracked down on those who abused the system to escape payment.

"The goal of this law was to insure that all bill-paying Americans, including victims of Hurricane Katrina, don't have to pay the debts of others that can afford to pay," said Jeff Lungren, spokesman for House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner, a Wisconsin Republican.

Congress was set to hold emergency sessions on Thursday night and Friday to rush a $10.5 billion bill to President George W. Bush that would help victims of Hurricane Katrina.

Senate aides said there likely would be two more emergency spending bills, once there is a better assessment of needs. Lawmakers could try to attach changes to the bankruptcy laws to these bills, or seek to get the bankruptcy provisions passed as stand-alone measures.

Under the bankruptcy law passed in the spring, debtors who earn more than the median income in their state and who can repay some of their debts will no longer be able to have their debts erased as before, but will be put on repayment plans.

Even before the hurricane, record numbers of people were rushing to file for bankruptcy before the new law goes into effect. The American Bankruptcy Institute said recently that quarterly filings for the period from April to the end of June were the highest in U.S. history at 467,333 -- up 11 percent from the same quarter a year earlier.