Singing River FCU: Area will be bigger, better
MOSS POINT, Miss. (8/30/06)--The positive attitude of southern Mississippi residents will help the hurricane-ravaged area become bigger and better, said the president/CEO of the Moss Point credit union.
Singing River FCU's Jimmy Smith told News Now that the primary success is the positive attitude of members and residents as they recover from Hurricane Katrina.
"For the most part, they are doing whatever it takes to get the job done and put their lives back in place," he said.
The area's challenges include getting aid from the federal government, meeting city building codes, paying a 30% increase in the price of materials and having few laborers to work with--those available set their prices high as well.
"We've not ever experienced anything like this," Smith said. "It will be years of rebuilding to get back to some semblance of normalcy." But there is a sense of excitement, of progress being made, he added.
The credit union's disaster preparedness manual is thicker this year with the lessons learned from last year, he said, adding, "If Ernesto hits the Gulf Coast, we will make sure we have cash on hand and hard copies of records."
The credit union also will take potential storms more seriously than before. "We'll see, without question, people leaving earlier and that will put a greater cash demand on us," he said.
Even though it had damage to two of its three branches, Singing River FCU housed Jackson County Employees FCU, Pascagoula, after that credit union lost its building (News Now Sept. 8, 2005).
Right after the hurricane, Singing River FCU provided members with up to $500 in cash. Even as nine staff members lost their own homes, they were diligently helping members, Smith said, running cash from the teller line to the drive-through windows.
At first the credit union was open only four or five hours per day, then it expanded operations to Saturdays and even stayed open on Labor Day.
Smith said every member who held a loan with the credit union got an automatic 60-day extension, with the unique quality that the payments were added to the end of the note instead of requiring past payments be made all at once at the end of the extension period.
"It is mind-boggling--we did not lose a penny, we just did it on trust," he said. Even those who didn't have enough money in their accounts when the hurricane hit still paid up.
The $129 million asset credit union is experiencing an all-time low delinquency rate of 0.15%.
As grant monies come into accounts, the credit union did not have one delinquent real estate loan on record that would require it to take the grant money to cover the arrears--and it has 100 real estate loans, Smith said.
Even as it helped its members after the storm, the credit union itself was being helped.
It experienced "phenomenal generosity" from the credit union movement including Southeast Corporate, Credit Union National Association, CUNA Mutual Group, the Mississippi Credit Union Association and the National Credit Union Foundation.
"We owe it to all of these people--to all those who helped us to succeed to get back to normalcy," Smith said. "This catastrophe brought the community closer and gave us an appreciation for mankind."
In fact, for Smith, the hurricane was a "wake-up call."
"Personally, it gave me a true sense of what's really important in life--my faith in God, my family, this credit union," he said.
He has since resigned from several posts and committees in order to spend time on "things that are more important to me in my life right now."
"This credit union--working with the staff and board--this is what I love to do."
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