When Guy Williams, the chief executive officer of Gulf Coast Bank and Trust, first saw the bank's main branch in downtown New Orleans a week after Hurricane Katrina hit, he was shocked to find it in the same condition in which he'd left it.
So when city officials said this week that downtown and French Quarter businesses could begin to reopen, Mr. Williams wasted little time. The St. Charles Avenue branch of the $551 million-asset Gulf Coast Bank reopened Wednesday, and as of early Thursday it was the only bank branch operating in all of downtown, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s Web site of post-hurricane branch openings.
So far business has been slow. Only two customers visited the branch Wednesday - a small-business owner who made a loan payment and the owner of a sandwich shop next door who picked up some change - and Mr. Williams said he did not expect it to get much busier this week. But he said the four branch employees were using the down time to contact customers to let them know the branch had reopened.
Mr. Williams said he reopened the branch as quickly as he could because "it's important for customers and employees to get back to normal, and we wanted to be part of the rebuilding process. And businesses can't operate without a place to get change and make deposits."
He said he had braced for the worst when he decided to check on the branch, which doubles as Gulf Coast's headquarters. Even businesses that were not damaged by flooding had been vandalized and looted.
"I was surprised" the branch was unscathed Mr. Williams said. "It was about time we had some good news." He said he was not sure when Gulf Coast's other New Orleans branch, which at one point was eight feet under water, would reopen. The bank's three branches in St. Bernard Parish were severely damaged and remain closed, though its four branches in Jefferson Parish reopened last week and are fully operational.
The bank opened three temporary branches in Louisiana after Katrina hit, and Mr. Williams said he expects them to become permanent branches. Two are in Baton Rouge and the other is in Covington.
