OKLAHOMA CITY-With CUs here facing clean-up and recovery after tornadoes devastated the region, a pair of CU veterans offered up lessons learned from Hurricane Katrina.
"The most important thing credit unions can do to help their members [after an emergency] is to stop them from getting taken advantage of," said Charles Elliott, CEO of the Mississippi CU Association. "You've got every roofer in 600 miles coming to Oklahoma City, and a lot of them are not honest."
Elliott advised being sure members know what not to do, including not giving anyone advance payment on home repairs. "You're going to have everybody and their brother coming there to make a quick buck. It just breaks your heart when you see people take their insurance money and lose it."
As CUs in Oklahoma help members recover from the recent tornadoes, Elliott suggested that they hold seminars for members on how to best manage the rebuilding process. "I'm sure that there's a homebuilder's association that would gladly come in and put on a workshop or seminar to talk about the risks that they are going to see," said Elliott. "They want to do the business; they don't want all of these companies coming in from somewhere else. But a lot of people are going to turn to them, because they can't get their house rebuilt locally when they want to [due to increased demand]."
Communication Challenges
Another Katrina veteran, James Smith, CEO at Singing River FCU in Moss Point, Miss., offered suggestions for how to deal with one of the biggest issues that befall CUs after disasters strike-communicating internally and with the membership.
Smith said that after Katrina his CU used "air cards" to be able to access data and the web via laptops, even when their own networks were down. Because phones and Internet were down for more than six weeks, that strategy allowed the CU to have Internet connectivity over the airwaves.
Singing River also had a toll-free phone number set up for staff to call at any time and get updates. If employees could not reach their supervisor, voicemails told them when the CU would open, which branches were open for business, and more, while employees could also leave voicemails for Smith providing updates on their own situation.
Many CUs in Oklahoma found themselves protecting employees and members during the storm by sheltering them inside vaults, but Singing River also provides a pre-disaster checklist for employees to make sure that they are prepared in the event of a storm. Among the items on the list are: water, food for five days, fully charged electronic devices and plenty of gasoline and cash.
The Mississippi CU Association's Charles Elliott reminded that after these sorts of incidents, many members are back to the basic necessities of life-food, clothing and shelter-but their needs change on a day-to-day basis. The "normal" life that members and employees had will never return, said Smith, but CUs can help people adjust to the "new normal."
"One of the biggest issues that's going to come up that [CUs] will need to deal with is counseling," he said. "We focused on all of the credit union employees going for counseling sessions. I would suggest that if at all possible, they extend that beyond the credit union employees to family members and even credit union members that want to participate in some group sessions."
