"A lot of Iowa is now flooding and getting pretty close to the huge 1993 state flood levels or worse in some areas," Murray Williams, league vice president, told News Now. "Some of the biggest metropolitan areas in the state have been hit hard, including Cedar Rapids, Waterloo, Cedar Falls and Des Moines. Most of the 20 to 30 credit unions impacted are experiencing actual flooding. Several downtowns are under water."
However, most of the affected credit unions have multiple branches and are able to move their operations to other areas, Williams said.
Those with main offices affected or single locations are moving to hot sites--alternative locations that credit unions have in their disaster contingency plans.
Credit unions on shared branching networks are moving to the locations that are on the data processing or shared branching network, and are setting up skeleton crews, Williams said.
"Although a good portion of Iowa is still accessible, numerous roads have been closing and opening, making transportation more challenging," he added.
To help Iowa credit unions with the flooding crisis, the league:
- Sent out communications telling credit unions what they need to be thinking about in a disaster and providing a checklist of tasks to do;
- Asked credit unions to notify the league if they have flooding situations, so the league can help mobilize needed support services;
- Deployed 15 to 20 league staff members to downtown Des Moines to help credit unions with moving to alternative locations and sandbagging against flood waters;
- Kept in contact with credit unions to let them know about the weather situation around the state; and
- Will send out communications soon to inform credit unions that the Iowa Credit Union Foundation's Disaster Relief Fund can provide some funding toward flood relief efforts.
courtesy of cuna.org
.JPG){kind=small}
No comments:
Post a Comment