NCUA Chairman Debbie Matz on Saturday activated the agency's disaster assistance policy in response to the tornadoes that killed hundreds of people across the South earlier in the week.

The policy allows the NCUA to take the following actions: 

• Guarantee lines of credit for credit unions in affected areas via the NCUSIF.
• Encourage credit unions to make loans with special terms and reduced documentation to affected members.
• Reschedule routine examinations of affected credit unions if necessary.
• Make loans to meet the liquidity needs of member credit unions through the Central Liquidity Facility.

The agency said a survey by its examiners showed that the $33 million, 5,700-member DCH Credit Union in hard-hit Tuscaloosa, Ala., was the only federally insured credit union unable to serve members from any of its locations. It is scheduled to reopen for business at one location on Monday.

Members were able to access their accounts via the $410 million Alabama Credit Union's Tuscaloosa branches, via a shared branching network. Most credit unions in the affected areas are able to serve their members.