By Joyce Moed, Reporter

TALLAHASSEE, Fla.–With the beginning of hurricane season resting on many peoples’ minds, organizations are recalling past mistakes and making preparations designed to deal with possible future disasters in better ways.

            And credit unions are no exception.

            “We’ve definitely got some great experience of what to do and what not to do,” said Amy Jowers, vice president of communications for the Florida Credit Union League.
            The Florida CU League has a meeting scheduled for June 26th, specifically to discuss plans for crisis situations. This is the second annual meeting of this type for the Florida CU League. This year’s meeting will feature National Credit Union Administration staffers.

            “We will also have Mississippi credit union employees come out and speak to our employees about what they have learned,” Jowers said. “They will share practices on dealing with a disaster. Our staff will be talking about what we can do as a league.”
            The Florida CU League is also partnering with My Safe Florida Home, a program administered by the Florida Department of Financial Services. According to its website, www.mysafefloridahome.com, the program is designed to educate Florida residents about how they “can strengthen their homes against hurricanes and to reduce damage exposure.”

            “They’re trying to urge people in Florida to harden their homes, such as by adding hurricane windows­–anything that would help people prepare their homes,” Jowers said.

            The Florida CU League will also, at times of emergency, provide information about the status of their member credit unions on its website. They have also purchased satellite phones, which can be used if landlines and cellular phones cannot, and have purchased generators. “If a credit union is down, we’ll take a generator to them,” Jowers said.

            “We have been in contact petroleum distributors for gas,” Jowers said, “so that we contacts to call if credit unions need gas.”

            The Florida CU League has also obtained the services of a telecom vendor, which will be utilized as a source of information for people trying to get in touch with their credit union.

            Contracting a telecom vendor is very important, agreed Vince Liberto, vice president of marketing and sales for the Louisiana Credit Union League, which has learned a lot about how to deal with the aftermath of a national disaster, thanks to Hurricane Katrina.

            In fact, communication is one of the three most important things to have in place in case of a hurricane, Liberto said.

            “We learned that the most important things to have are these three aspects: location, communication and data processing,” he said.

            For the location aspect, Liberto said, “the main thing we learned was to develop a location to relocate to. It should be at least 300 miles from a body of water.”

As far as communication needs, Liberto said they learned the hard way.

“Our problem is that we were inundated with flood water because we are below sea level,” he said. The main office, where their telephone system was located, was flooded. To fix this problem for the future, they contracted with a telecom company that has 16 switching locations. A telephone switch, Liberto explained, is a system that connects phone calls from one central office. “We did learn that you need to have some knowledge about the telephone system and switching systems.” Liberto tested their new system, and said it worked well. “We’re using our same 1-800 number. It was a seamless transition.”

A data processing system is a necessity in case of a natural disaster, Liberto said.
“That is so significant,” he said. “If you don’t have an IT person on staff, you should have IT person on contract­–a contract person who can be called on 24/7. If you wait, you will be in line with 10,000 people trying to find help.”

Liberto stresses to the 240 credit unions that the Louisiana CU League serves to have someone on contract, as he realizes that many of the credit unions in the state are not large enough to warrant an IT person on staff. He said the ratio is about 70-30, for Louisiana credit unions not having one as a member of their staff.

“And remember to always back up,” he said.

Representatives from the Louisiana Credit Union League have been called upon by other credit union leagues to share what they have learned. “We have been to Utah, Florida, Oklahoma,” Liberto said. “We have developed some pretty significant disaster plans because of what we experienced.”

Still, Liberto continues to stress the three aspects of location, communication and data processing. “I do feel confident that if you’ve got those three primary goals, you’ve got a head start over everyone else.”

The Alabama Credit Union League has been sending out reminders to its member credit unions since mid-May.

 “What we’ve been doing here at the league is sending out reminders to prepare for hurricane season,” said Adena Whitman, director of political and public affairs for the Alabama Credit Union League. “People get caught up in the day-to-day. We’ve been sending email notices letting them also know that if they have any issues we’ll be here to help them–with planning or recovery.”

With hurricane season spanning from June 1st through Nov, 30th, Whitman said that what’s most important is to be ready.

“I like to be a Girl Scout,” she said. “I like to be prepared.”

www.fcul.org
www.lcul.com
www.mysafefloridahome.com