By Ray Birch
WAYNESVILLE N.C.—Being about the only FI operating in an area devastated by Helene, Mountain Credit Union said an early issue it has been facing—in addition to finding ways to serve members amid widespread power outages—is keeping enough cash on hand.
Chris Angel, VP of marketing and business development at $340-million Mountain CU, spoke with CUToday.info about the situation in and around Waynesville, which is near hard-hit Asheville. He credited his IT department and the organization’s disaster planning for having five of its seven offices open Tuesday in an area where most FIs are closed.
“I think for a long while we were the only financial institution open in this immediate area,” Angel said, adding he does not think that situation has improved much. “Our branches are serving our members, members of other credit unions and customers of banks.”
Angel said that has created “traffic jams” at many of its locations, as people stop by to either get money from ATMs or tellers, or to seek assistance. The credit union is offering members emergency loans, skip a pays that can go on for several months and more.
“Like most credit unions, we deal with each person’s unique needs following a disaster and try to find ways to help them,” Angel said.
But a lot of the assistance has been handing out money.
“The hardest thing for us has been availability of cash, because we're one of the few financial institutions that are open,” he explained. “Most of the stores and gas stations in our towns now are cash only because they have no Internet and their point of sale systems aren't working. Our ATM's have been hammered and our cash supply is dwindling.”
Why Mountain CU is open while other FIs are not is due to the CU’s IT department, Angel said.
“It's a testament to our commitment to technology,” he said. “Our IT department made sure that in case of a power outage we were able to stay up and running,” Angel said, adding that involves much more than just generators, it requires a strong IT backbone and simply good planning. “We are fortunate to have a fairly new facility in our Waynesville location, where IT and everybody is housed. It really came down to just strong infrastructure and internal systems that performed.”