DULUTH, Ga. — Recent flooding due to heavy rainfall claimed nine lives and caused damage throughout the southeast, including several credit unions.
In Atlanta, the area most affected by last week's flooding, Georgia's Own Credit Union was forced to close its Douglasville branch. The branch was closed on Monday, Sept. 21, and as of press time, the branch was still closed, due to treacherous road conditions coming in and out of the county. Douglas County was one of the hardest hit counties in the metro-Atlanta area, according to the credit union.
"Out of concern for the safety of our staff and the safety of our members, we found it imperative to close the Douglasville Branch location," said Randy Davis, VP, branch operations. "While school closings, damage to homes, and dangerous road conditions made it difficult for many employees to come to work, we were able to keep our other locations open."
Georgia's Own Credit Union is currently looking for opportunities to help its local community recover from the massive effects that have resulted from this flooding.
Highways, railroads and schools were all closed early last week, which impacted some CU branches, according to Ralph Jones, EVP, Georgia Credit Union Affiliates. "I know some credit unions had some branches that were impacted, but we haven't heard of anything significant," he said.
The league has contacted all of the CUs, and as of press time Jones said that just two "smaller credit unions" reported some water damage, "but I haven't heard about anything else."
The league itself had some water damage on the second floor, in the area that sits directly underneath the third-floor patio, and at press time the League had fans set up to dry the area.
"We have some sheet rock and some tiles that need to be replaced," Jones said.
The indirect impact of the flooding for the league and credit unions is that "schools have closed, so some parents have had to take off of work," Jones explained. "There are also still parts of the expressway in Atlanta that are closed. The worst part of it was directly west of Atlanta. A lot of roads are closed all over the city. A lot of creeks overflowed. We do have credit unions and branches in that area, but we have not heard about anything about credit unions."
Tom Gaines, president of the Tennessee Credit Union League, also reported no problems among credit unions.
"We had a lot of rain, but weren't affected like people were in other areas," he said.
Alabama's credit unions weren't impacted, either, said Adena Whitman Zamora, director, public and political affairs, Alabama Credit Union League.
"In Alabama, none of our credit unions have been affected that we know of," she said. "In Alabama, the flood areas were very rural. We had minimal problems here."
