SOS Flight Delivers EmergencyCash

PASCAGOULA, Miss. - (09/19/05) -- Members of Chevron Pascagoula FCUwere in dire straights in the days following Hurricane Katrina;many were uprooted form their homes; others were cut off from theirfinances, unable to buy daily necessities going into the long LaborDay weekend. Enter ChevronTexaco FCU, the largest Chevron creditunion, located near the corporate sponsor's suburban San Franciscoheadquarters. "The issue of greatest importance was getting cashinto peoples' hands," said Jim Mooney, president of the Oakland,Calif., credit union, which is in the process of acquiring itssmaller Mississippi-based credit union. "I was getting calls fromboth Chevron and the credit union people; they were really cut offfor some time." So Mooney and the corporate sponsor organized anemergency cash delivery. "We emptied out all our ATMs and branchcash--a total of about $100,000--and put in a suitcase," saidMooney. Then the oil and gas giant flew the currency across thecountry in a corporate jet to the cash-starved credit union. Theemergency flight was followed up with an arrangement by theCalifornia credit union to have the Federal Reserve's Atlantabranch deliver an additional $400,000 in cash to the storm-strickencredit union a few days later on California parent's Fed account;which was delivered as an interest-free loan. "It was enough to getthem by," Mooney told The Credit Union Journal, of the emergencycash supplies. "The people in Pascagoula, in that little creditunion, have been absolutely heroic," he stated, of the tirelessdisaster relief work performed over the days following the massivestorm.