By Ray Birch
METAIRIE, La.—One credit union that believes Hurricane Ida was worse than Hurricane Katrina says a “postmortem” on the latest storm reveals the CU’s disaster recovery plan needs adjusting—and those changes are a direct result of climate change.
The $226-million New Orleans Firemen's FCU had all of its nine offices damaged by Ida—including one that was severely affected—which did not happen with Katrina in 2005, according to CEO Judy De Lucca.
“In our opinion, that made Hurricane Ida worse than Katrina,” said De Lucca. “Don’t get me wrong, Katrina was terrible. It devastated New Orleans, largely from the levees failing. But the damage from Katrina stayed in Southern Louisiana. Ida swept across the state.”
De Lucca believes climate change has caused significant erosion to Louisiana’s coastline defenses, including marshlands and mangroves, which allowed Ida to move north without much to stand in its way and limit damage.
“It’s hard to deny that thinking,” said De Lucca. “The width of this storm was larger than Katrina. I definitely believe climate change had an effect…the marshlands along the coastline of Louisiana are pretty much gone and they would weaken storms as they passed over them. It was a buffer. We used to say that if a storm hits in the west, we have all of our offices in the east, and vice versa. And the same could be said for the north locations. But Ida damaged everything. Our Lockport (La.) branch, which is inland, was just devastated by Ida. That storm in certain areas just wiped out everything in its path. I’ve never seen anything like it before.”
What Ida left behind for NOFFCU was damage to its offices that will likely surpass $500,000, of which the CU will pay about $150,000.
“That is the insurance part of this disaster, but there are a lot of other costs,” De Lucca said. “We pay our employees when we can't open. So, for two weeks, whether you're at work or not, you got paid and if you came to work you got a little extra for making an extra effort. And then there is the costs of your locations being down.”
Fifteen days after Ida made landfall on August 29, De Lucca said the majority of New Orleans Firemen’s offices were still feeling the effects.
Inventorying the Damage
“This storm cut a wide swath right down the middle between Baton Rouge and New Orleans,” explained De Lucca. “Of my nine branches, two had minor roof damage (Bogalusa, La., and Picayune, Miss.) but opened within two days. There was damage to our sign and roof damage at our Slidell (La.) office. We had wet carpet and paint and mildew damage there, but we were able to reopen in three days.”
NOFFCU’s Mandeville, La., location was flooded and was without power for more than a week, but has since reopened.
“Our Westbank office in Algiers (La.) had power restored after 10 days and suffered minimal damage,” De Lucca said. “Our Mid-City office in New Orleans suffered about the same effects.”
The CU’s Lutcher, La., office had significant roof damage, causing enough interior damage to force the credit union to borrow a mobile branch to serve that area, De Lucca said.
“We moved those operations to Breco Credit Union’s empty location 40 miles away until power was restored in Lutcher,” she said. “Our Lockport, our southern-most location, had its doors and windows blown out along with roof damage. Power there was out for quite a while. Finally my operating center and branch in Metairie suffered minor damage.”
Challenges for Employees
But one problem will last beyond the time needed to get branches back to being 100% operational, and that is the damage to the homes of employees.
“That is going to take much longer to get them back in their homes,” explained De Lucca. “Due to the pandemic, as you know there are supply shortages with everything. Employees who are waiting for doors and windows to be replaced will probably have to wait more than six months. I am not sure they will be back into their homes until next year.”
De Lucca said the credit union temporarily housed employees who had to either evacuate or leave their homes due to damage, with offices converted with beds for sleeping quarters. She added several of her locations now have showers and a full kitchen.
“We added those things after Katrina,” said De Lucca. “We knew we would need them.”
NOFFCU also has one employee living at a local AirBnB, and the CU deployed two RVs for staff as temporary homes.
De Lucca recalled that three days after Ida hit, 20 employees were able to make it to work and a week later the total reached 50.
“By the end of week two we were up to 75 staff members reporting to work,” De Lucca said, of her 96-member team.
NOFFCU has been helping members with emergency loans, loan extensions and skip a payments. De Lucca explained if members were in good standing they automatically received a 30-day extension. Those who had payment issues worked with the credit union’s member solutions team to find solutions to issues brought on by Ida.
“At one point we were fielding 1,500 to 1,800 calls a day,” she said.
The Other ‘Mobile’
What Ida showed NOFFCU, De Lucca said, is it needs a mobile branch.
“We will get one,” said De Lucca. “Because this storm showed us we need to be able to get to affected areas quickly with our banking services—distribute cash and assistance. The storm also showed us how credit unions pull so well together in times of tragedy. We received so much assistance from our fellow credit unions and we have been able to help them, as well. Going forward, however, we know now that we need to talk with our credit union partners in advance about how we will help each other in the event of a natural disaster, rather than figuring things out right after the storm hits.”
A Personal Story
De Lucca said she rode out the storm at her home in Lacombe, La., just north of New Orleans. She said she’ll never do that again.
“I could hear our pine trees snapping in half; that was a terrifying sound, and one I hope to never hear again,” recalled De Lucca. “They did not tell us to evacuate because officials did not think the storm would be as severe as it was inland. Next time, I am leaving.”