In response to severe flooding in Louisiana and Texas, CU*SOUTH has activated the CUSO’s Event Response Team (ERT) to support credit unions and members in the affected areas.
Headquartered on the Eastern Shore of Mobile Bay, CU*SOUTH is no stranger to providing disaster recovery and business continuity services.

Support is not limited to current CU*SOUTH clients. “We learned an important lesson in 2005,” says Leo Vaulin, CU*SOUTH CEO. “When the community needs help, you do everything you can to make sure everyone is taken care of. After Katrina, we learned how to work across core platforms to provide support. Our ERT Team is working to help as many people as we can.”

“Katrina really drove home the message of how critical it is to find ways of reaching your members when they need you the most,” Vaulin adds. “We worked with credit unions who had lost their offices, their phones, their access to the core data – and their members had been forced to evacuate far from home. That’s when you really start to think about how many different methods you might use to re-establish that connection with your members, and start offering them the support they need. One of the first steps CU*SOUTH’s Event Response Team takes is to form a clearinghouse for information.”

Regardless of core affiliation the CUSO Services and CUSO Development teams started collecting information. Said CU*SOUTH COO Derrick Smith: “We identified credit unions who weren’t able to open their branches, or who were operating with a reduced staff because roads were blocked, or employees were busy filling sandbags to protect their homes and their communities. We identified which shared branching outlets were open, and what ATMs were accessible in the area.”

Credit union social media platforms are also critical in a crisis event; they often become the fastest way to spread the word about immediate resources and ongoing efforts, for after the water recedes and cleanup begins.

“We worked with credit unions to set up special loan categories for flood victims – including bridge loans to assist with relief while insurance claims can be settled,” added Mr. Smith. “And we’re working with CUs to get the word out about relief. Some CEOs called special board meetings to authorize new loan products—in less than 24 hours, these loans were available for instant approval via web and mobile apps.”