FORT COLLINS, Colo. — Last Thursday's devastating tornado and hail storm which hit the nearby community of Windsor had two credit union victims: Robert Hoel, the retired head of the Filene Research Institute, who lost his car and an old Norlarco Credit Union branch, now part of Public Service CU, which was reopened for business today after it lost power and had facility damage.

“My wife and I were in a restaurant at the time the tornado hit and we could see the wrecked cars in the parking lot but we did not know it was a tornado destroying homes a mile away,” said Hoel, a Filene Fellow who has been serving as a director of Public Service CU since March following the NCUA-engineered purchase of Norlarco.

Property damage in Windsor, a community of 15,000 where Hoel maintains a home, is expected to reach $250 million with the Public Service CU of Denver in the midst of extending emergency loan assistance and deferrals to residents and businesses. More than 100 Windsor homes have been declared uninhabitable, said Hoel, adding :my car was totaled by what looks like 150 hail dents.”

Less than 100 yards from Public Service branch in Windsor there was “severe damage to cars and other buildings,” said Hoel. Windsor, both a farming and suburban community, is 10 miles from Fort Collins, the home of Colorado State University where Hoel has been a member of the finance faculty.