All eight credit unions in flooded Minot, N.D., were operating with skeleton crews Thursday as employees left their jobs to help displaced friends and families find shellter under evacuation orders impacting a quarter of the community's 40,000 residents.

Only the $16 million G.E.M. FCU was facing a loss of its building as it relocated its operations to two other CUs on higher ground, the $12 million Ascentia FCU and the $70 million Prairie FCU.

The Credit Union Associatiion of the Dakotas has set up a special Emergency ScholarshipFund to help pay hotel and travel expenses for displaced CU employees forced to find shelter in Bismarck, the nearest large city and about 100 miles south of Minot.

“We understand the flooded conditions are expected to last two weeks,” said Jeff Olson, vice president of advocacy and awareness.  The swollen Souris River is already at eight to 10 feet above the high water record of 1969, he said.