The post Hurricane Sandy lessons learned keep coming in as it becomes plain that some credit unions had woefully inadequate disaster recovery and business continuity plans, but other institutions kept operating despite the devastation that hit much of New Jersey and New York City.

"For the credit unions that already were prepared, with solid plans in place, everything was relatively calm," said Scott Collins, president of Grand Rapids, Mich.-based CUSO Xtend Inc., which provided disaster recovery services to five New York City-based credit unions and one in New Jersey. "None of our credit unions lost a minute of uptime on electronic channels," said Collins, who acknowledged they all had limited or no branch services, primarily due to lack of power.

For one credit union, Progressive Credit Union, the $540 million Manhattan institution known for its portfolio of taxi medallion loans, "We provided phone answering services," said Collins who indicated Progressive has a contract in place with Xtend where the CUSO, as needed, steps in and answers inbound phone calls with the aim of providing members with questions full and accurate answers.