Having escaped the worst of Hurricane Ida, Merchants & Marine Bank in Pascagoula, Mississippi, is now looking for ways to assist neighboring banks that weren't as fortunate.
Merchant & Marine, which has $742 million in assets, has been reaching out to Louisiana bankers to offer the delivery of items like latex gloves, bleach, paper towels and toilet paper, Clayton Legear, the bank’s president and CEO, said in an interview Tuesday.
“We really believe in bankers helping bankers,” he said.
On Wednesday, Gulf Coast bankers were largely still surveying the wreckage left by Ida. While the physical damage to branches was less extensive than many expected, power outages kept bank offices closed in some of the hardest-hit areas. Lines at gas stations were long as many drivers sought to fill their tanks.
Bankers expressed confidence in their communities’ resilience, but they pointed to a number of variables that could complicate recovery, including how quickly power is restored and the impact that high costs for labor and materials will have on rebuilding.
Ida made landfall on Sunday night in south Louisiana as a Category 4 hurricane, exactly 16 years after Hurricane Katrina. The storm struck the electronic grid with 150 mph winds, knocking out power for more than a million households across Louisiana and Mississippi. Ida weakened into a tropical depression Monday afternoon as it continued to move north.
Banks across the region shuttered branches on Monday or, in some cases, opened them late after confirming that they were outside of Ida’s path. By Wednesday, some shuttered branches had reopened, but many remained closed.
JPMorgan Chase said that at least 45 of its New Orleans-area branches were still closed on Wednesday. The city is under a shelter-at-home order that is preventing Chase from assessing potential damages. The nation’s largest bank reopened more than a dozen branches Tuesday in Baton Rouge, which sustained less damage to its infrastructure than New Orleans.
Regions Financial, which is headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, still had about 40 branches closed in Louisiana as of Wednesday, either because of power outages or storm damage.
“Many branches are physically in good condition; however, power or connectivity issues mean their reopening dates are undetermined at this point,” Steve Nivet, a consumer banking regional executive, said in an email.
Gulf Coast Bank & Trust in New Orleans set up backup systems to avoid a shut-off of its internet service, processing wires and digital banking platform, President and CEO Guy Williams said. It also took the precautionary step in setting up a remote call center in Dallas, where customers can get help until late in the evening.
Gulf Coast’s 45 offices were closed on Monday, and only five reopened on Tuesday. A few employees lost their houses to flooding — far fewer than the more than 60 percent of employees who suffered the same misfortune during Katrina.
At Pike National Bank in McComb, Mississippi, one branch was closed Wednesday due to power outages. President and CEO Jennifer Wallace expects the electricity to be down through at least Thursday night.
In the meantime, Pike National has focused on keeping its four other branches open and its employees fed. With power and internet access down, bankers have been making calls to local businesses to ask if they need cash or change. In some cases, they are helping cut trees off of area homes, Wallace said.
The $307 million-asset bank has also coordinated efforts with local restaurants to feed its own employees, on top of an ongoing effort to feed local healthcare workers overwhelmed by the delta variant of COVID-19.
“Ninety percent of our employees don’t have power,” Wallace said Wednesday morning. “They go home and they don’t have any power or any way to cook food for their families.”
Misty Albrecht, market director at b1Bank, a Baton Rouge subsidiary of $4.4 billion-asset Business First Bancshares, gave a phone interview Tuesday while her home was being powered by a generator.
With the “catastrophic” blackout in New Orleans and elsewhere in b1Bank’s footprint, Ida has so far proven more damaging
Workers are still assessing damage and setting up generators for b1Bank branches and offices that are still intact, she said. While three branches in Baton Rouge reopened on Tuesday, crews still have not arrived in some particularly hard-hit areas, such as Terrebonne Parish to the west of New Orleans, where b1Bank has several branches.
Meanwhile, the bank is preparing to cover financial hardships for employees who have been affected by the storm. Other b1Bank employees have been gathering to help cut down trees and hand out meals where they are needed — as they did in the wake of last year’s hurricane.
Gulf Coast Bank, which also operates in Baton Rouge and parts of southeast Louisiana, is working on calling all of its consumer and business clients to see what assistance they might need, Williams said. Some local pizza places with gas-fired grills have been able to open and use up their fresh supplies.
“By candlelight they're making pizza and selling it as fast as they can make it,” Williams said.
But other restaurants without power lack that option, Williams said, and the bank has committed to “help them resupply and stand ready to make loans to get people back on their feet.”
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., the Federal Reserve and National Credit Union Administration issued joint guidance Monday encouraging financial institutions that operate in areas affected by Ida to meet the needs of their communities.
First Horizon in Memphis, Tennessee, said Wednesday that because of Ida, it will delay the operating systems conversion associated with its 2020 acquisition of Iberiabank, originally slated for this year’s third quarter, to the first quarter next year.
First Horizon executives decided that it would be too disruptive for both its employees and clients to attempt the systems conversion while many will likely still be dealing with Ida’s aftermath. The delay will add another $20 million to $30 million in merger costs, which
First Horizon estimated that about 8,350 clients and 600 employees are in the affected areas. It said that it is offering fee waivers to customers, as well as financial and housing assistance for employees.
Gulf Coast bankers are hopeful that hurricane recovery efforts will offer an economic boost to the region, as funds from the federal government and private charities arrive. President Biden issued a disaster declaration on Sunday, which would direct federal funds to the affected areas. Regions’ nonprofit charitable foundation announced Wednesday that it had earmarked $250,000 for disaster relief.
But bankers said the pace of recovery will also depend on how quickly water and electricity are restored.
Nearly a million Louisianans were still without power as of Wednesday afternoon. And while some power was restored to New Orleans on Tuesday night, Entergy, the state’s largest utility company, said Wednesday that it could be several more days before it restores power. The floodwaters and power outages have also taken out water treatment plants, leading to a shortage of drinking water.
“Having lived through this a few years ago, the restoration of infrastructure is key,” said Art Stevens, president of retail banking at Trustmark Bank in Jackson, Mississippi, drawing on his experience in the aftermath of Katrina. “The roads have to be cleared and opened, the power has to come back on, the water and sewer has to work, really before full recovery can even start to take place.”
Even before Ida struck, many communities in Louisiana and Mississippi were already dealing with various impacts from COVID-19, including supply chain disruptions, which could make it more expensive to rebuild after the hurricane. The price of building materials has moderated somewhat, but it is
“While there may be money flowing in, how does that balance out with the increased material prices or labor of skilled craftsmen to help with rebuilding efforts?” he asked.
