Though Hurricane Matthew has gone out to sea, the effects of it continue to endanger communities with record floods up and down the east coast of North Carolina.
Mike Lord, president/CEO of the $33.7 billion SECU in Raleigh, N.C., said Oct. 10 that of the credit union's 257 branches, 19 were impacted by Hurricane Matthew. On Oct. 9, more than 50 branches had no power.
Even though seven branches had no power, employees were managing to serve members. Twelve branches, however, were closed because of flood problems.
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The hurricane dumped six to 16 inches of rain throughout eastern North Carolina. All of that rain has flowed into 10 rivers and creeks, which caused floods in towns like Goldsboro and Washington where SECU was forced to close three branches on Oct. 10.
One SECU employee and his family had to be rescued because of the fast rising water that flooded their home in Johnson County.
"There is a stream behind his house and the water came up so quickly that it flowed into his garage and into his house," Lord said. About 10 inches of water flooded the apartment of another employee.
Lord didn't know yet how many SECU employees have been affected by the hurricane, but he expects more will be before the flood finally subsides.
In addition to the branches, Hurricane Matthew also affected 189 ATMs out of SECU's 1100 ATMs, Lord said. Most of those ATMs were not working because of power outages and a few were not working because of flooding.
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