BOULDER, Colo.--Following flooding that washed away roads and homes, cutting off entire towns and killing at least four people, clouds are breaking today and at least one Boulder credit union hopes the worst is over.
“It’s time for this town to begin assessing the damage,” said Ann Babiak, CEO of the $62 million Boulder Municipal Employees FCU, which was right in the middle of the flooding in this city.
BMEFCU is fortunate to sit on stilts, and got through the flooding with only minor damage to its drive-up ATM, which was down for a few days. Though some of the credit union’s other ATMs around Boulder were damaged, Boulder Municipal’s main office remained dry, said Babiak. “We were lucky that whoever constructed this building before it became a credit union put it on stilts, which raises it about one floor off the ground. We certainly would have suffered damage otherwise.”
Babiak has been working at the credit union for 14 years and said the office has never encountered flooding before the waters arrived Thursday. She was not aware of extensive damage to any credit unions in the city, but said she is not certain, and that communication with other CUs so far has been limited.
“We closed Thursday and Friday mainly due to access issues and because the town of Boulder asked businesses to shut down,” she said. “We had a few employees cut off from the credit union and my assistant’s daughter had to be airlifted to safety. This could have been worse, but we got through it OK. There still is a fair share of water in Boulder, but I am not seeing any from my vantage point.”
The credit union is offering flood loans at 3.99% APR. “We have not had any members ask for one yet, but we have only been open for an hour,” Babiak told Credit Union Journal early this morning. We have had very little opportunity to talk to our members yet. We are trying to find out if any have been affected and are standing by.”
