New Orleans branch manager gets first look at damage

NEW ORLEANS (10/13/05)--Wearing a face mask, rubber boots and gloves, and a plastic poncho to protect her from the mold, Kathy Dionne, manager of The New Orleans Firemen's FCU's east branch, picked through the rubble of the branch for the first time since Hurricane Katrina hit the city on Aug. 29.

Click for slide show East Branch Manager Kathy Dionne (left) and CEO Judy Delucca of The New Orleans Firemen's FCU examine a mold and mud covered key chain they found during a visit Wednesday at the branch, which was destroyed by flooding from Hurricane Katrina and the city's levee breech. (Photo provided by the Credit Union National Association)

She pulled out a stack of limp, moldy business cards and attempted to give them to the reporters on hand who had asked for her card earlier--a bit of humor after facing the devastation of what was once her office. Later, she located a fire engine music box on the floor behind a credenza. She tried it out and it played. Then she tilted it, and a stream of muddy water poured from it onto a floor caked with dried, cracked mud and mold--more than six weeks since the hurricane struck.

She looked at a container of flowers set neatly on her warped-by-water desk, which is just where she left them. "It's amazing that so many things are just tossed around and others are right where they were."

A walk into the lobby of the credit union is an eye-opener. Mold is everywhere--growing up the walls, on the floor, covering teller stations and desks, even desk calendars. Plants in pots lay on their sides. Shelves are toppled. Overturned chairs are where they landed when the water ebbed. Just walking through a room stirs up a fine mist of mold that settles unto clothes, like a fine ash.

The ATM outside the credit union has been ripped out of the wall. The branch's refrigerator is topped over, blocking access to the kitchen.

Dionne had already weathered the worst: She lost her home in the nine-foot wave surge in Slidell. The garage and entire first floor were covered in nine to 10 feet of water. Living quarters were on the third floor, but the wind blew off the roof, twisted it and moved it inside, where it took out the walls.

As soon as she could after the hurricane passed, she called president/CEO Judy DeLucca. "I was branchless and homeless," she says. She is now working at the credit union's Slidell branch.

Of the 57 employees at The New Orleans Firemen's FCU, 19 lost their homes completely. Nine others had significant damage, said DeLucca. Because some employees have no branch to work in and others have branches near them but no home, the ordeal necessitated juggling some staff around. The New Orleans Firemen's FCU has $75 million in assets and nearly 17,000 members.

DeLucca doesn't know what they'll do with the East branch building until assessments are completed, she told News Now. The entire neighborhood is deserted. The eeriness is compounded by the truckload of National Guardsmen driving by. And later, a helicopter flies overhead. "The branch is in a low-income designated community," says DeLucca, "but there's no people left in the community."

Dionne is toughly optimistic. "I'm a big water person. I lived on the water. It's been six weeks since the hurricane hit...We'll get through this."

The visit to the branch was part of a media tour hosted by the Louisiana Credit Union League this week. Accompanying reporters, photographers, DeLucca and Dionne were the credit union's administrative assistant Janell Munez; Cammi Crochet, marketing director the credit union; Connie Major, league executive vice president; and Mary Wolfe, league member service consultant/disaster recovery team member.

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