Are you ready to help members when the next disaster hits?
After Hurricane Matthew swept up the east coast of the U.S. unleashing torrential rains and severe winds last month, more than 2 million people were told to evacuate, millions we left without power, and record-breaking flooding devastated dozens of communities. With early estimates of damage indicating at least $6 billion in the U.S., Matthew is the costliest hurricane since Sandy in 2012 and the longest-lived Category 4 or 5 hurricane in the eastern Caribbean on record.
As you know, communities rely on their credit unions to be there for them, especially in times of crisis. If your credit union were to experience a disaster that caused an extensive outage, or if your building became uninhabitable, what would you do to ensure your members are able to continue being served?
Prior to Matthew making landfall, Agility Recovery, a CUNA Strategic Services Preferred Provider, proactively reached out to over 4,000 members in the storm’s path via email and phone calls to ensure preparedness in light of the impending storm. Following Matthew’s path of destruction, Agility responded to over 200 alerts and 30 disaster declarations, doing everything it took to help its members and clients continue operations as normal. Agility had generators on standby, as well as fuel readily available to those that were unable to obtain any during the event, and delivered Cradlepoint/LTE solutions to customers who experienced Internet and telephone outages.
If Matthew has taught us anything, it is that hurricanes and tropical storms can have serious implications on areas hundreds of miles away. The storm’s economic impact trickled down into the supply chain of many organizations located in other regions of the country due to the fact that we operate in an interconnected economy. As a credit union, you have an obligation to your members, so ensure you, your vendors and partners are ready to respond to any type of disaster event no matter where you live.
For more information on how to prepare your organization, check out the following resources:
Winter Weather Preparedness Checklist
What to Take When You Evacuate Checklist
