AUSTIN, Texas – As credit unions in Houston began to assess the damages suffered as a result of torrential rains from Tropical Storm Allison that pummeled the area and counties in southeastern Texas last week, the state regulator said state-chartered credit unions in the area suffered varying degrees of damage, but none of the damages were as severe as those reported by some federal credit unions in the area. In fact, Harold Feeney, commissioner of the state's credit union division said all of the state-chartered CUs in the region were open for business the first Monday after the storm hit. Feeney said state-chartered credit unions statutorily have the ability to remain closed for up to three days for emergency reasons "before the state credit union division gets involved." By that, he explained, the division can approve a SCCU to be closed for a longer time. "At this point though, we're just trying to stay out of their way," said Feeney. "Hopefully the credit unions in Houston have good disaster recovery plans. The larger ones typically do, and small CUs have EDP providers," he said. -

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