In a rare bit of good news to emerge from the deadly Camp fire that has devastated Northern California’s Butte County over the past week, a branch of Sierra Central Credit Union that was reported destroyed actually survived the inferno that devastated 90 percent of the city of Paradise, Calif.
John Cassidy, president and CEO of the $982 million-asset CU, based in Yuba City, Calif., on Wednesday told Credit Union Journal it was a happy surprise to get the news about the branch, but it was small comfort given the grim human toll taken by what has been labeled by state officials as the deadliest fire in California history.
The National Credit Union Foundation has
“Our Paradise branch was not destroyed – the folks who told us it was burned to the ground were disoriented,” Cassidy said during a brief interlude between the credit union’s ongoing disaster response meetings. “Even in the middle of the day there was so much black smoke and visibility was poor. Two days later we received word from a member that the branch had survived. It was quite a relief.”
A video taken by law enforcement shows the branch narrowly escaped the flames. The burned-out hulks of cars can be seen less than 100 feet from the back entrance, and bushes were charred just feet from the side of the facility.
Disaster preparedness
In a remarkable coincidence, on Nov. 8 Cassidy was part of a breakout session as part of the California and Nevada Credit Union Leagues’ Annual Meeting and Conference in Hollywood, Calif., talking about how two Northern California CUs have
“It is ironic that Brett Martinez and I were doing a breakout session at the California League meeting last week when our phones got lit up telling us there was a new fire going on,” Cassidy said with a rueful laugh, referring to the president and CEO of Redwood CU in Santa Rosa, Calif., which dealt with a fire in its headquarters city one year ago.
Upon getting word of a fire near Paradise, Cassidy said management’s first step was to obtain hotel rooms for the employees and their families of the Paradise branch. He said at least three credit union employees have lost homes that they owned, and two other employees lost homes they were renting.
“All five of those employees lost all of their possessions,” he reported. “So far, we have heard from 300 members who have lost their homes, and we expect that number to go up. We have between 500 and 1,000 auto loans up there [in Paradise and the surrounding area], and many cars were damaged, if not destroyed, so we are trying to figure out what the total is.”
Help available
Sierra Central CU has created a
The page also includes instructions on how to register with FEMA in the agency’s field response office in Chico, Calif., and information on an emergency relief loan program Sierra Central offers.
The site also includes instructions for those looking for loved ones, including telephone numbers for the Butte County Sheriff’s Department’s call center for locating missing persons.
When asked how quickly these programs and information were put in place, Cassidy simply said, “Unfortunately we have been through too many of these things.”
“Our call center took more than 1,000 calls yesterday, today we had 500 before noon,” he said on Nov. 14. “The Paradise community will take years to come back because 90 percent of the town was destroyed. We have been involved as much as we can trying to help our people. We need to feed people, clothe people and provide gift cards so they can purchase necessities. We will be setting up a relief fund to help those affected. The first two months after a disaster are the most important, because that is when people need the most help.”
At that point, a knock on Cassidy’s door announced it was time for him to go to another disaster response meeting.
