Don’t Judge a Credit Union by Its Trolls

I cannot emphasize enough how bad Hurricane Michael was for our credit union friends and colleagues throughout Florida, Alabama and further inland.

The Friday before the storm made landfall, CU Times was taking a look at the hundreds of potential credit union branches that could be impacted if this storm should become a major hurricane.

But that’s the thing with this storm – it didn’t provide anyone with a lot of time to prepare. In just over 24 hours, it went from a Category 1 to a major hurricane, and it only grew from there quickly.

By Monday, Oct. 8, Hurricane Michael appeared to be headed straight for the Florida panhandle as a Hurricane Katrina-type storm. Personally, I was worried and our team grew increasingly concerned.

I spent hours checking individual credit union websites for any alert messages to members. Most of the messages consisted of something close to this: “We’re closing our branches at noon on Tuesday. You will still be able to conduct business at our ATMs or online.”

I thought Emerald Coast Federal Credit Union’s website alert message was the most direct and probably the best message possible. It stated, “Withdraw cash TODAY!”

That’s when my worried gut kicked in. Something is really wrong. Emerald Coast wasn’t messing around with this storm. Evacuations were ordered and maybe they knew that networks would be damaged and didn’t want members to falsely rely on mobile or online banking. I’m not saying that the other credit unions were doing that. I’m just stating that the language Emerald Coast used was much more stern compared to other credit unions’ messages before the storm hit.

On Wednesday, Oct. 10 at 1:42 p.m., Hurricane Michael made landfall near Mexico Beach, Fla.

It was the third most powerful storm to ever hit the United States.

As many of you were, I was watching live coverage of the storm as it hit. And it reminded me of Hurricane Katrina. First the surge will come, then the power will go out, the cell phone towers will fall and you’ll be waiting for your contacts to reach out to let you know if they are OK.

And that’s how it went.

Credit unions were directly and, in several cases, utterly devastated by Hurricane Michael. There was no power. Co-location services were knocked out or under water. Websites didn’t work and mobile banking was of course down. And this was just in the first hours after landfall.

As the sun came up the next day, and as credit union employees and executives surveyed the damage of their homes (they couldn’t even get to the branches because roads were closed), the social media trolls came out like looters tossing rocks at store windows.

A reminder, at this point the day after the storm hit, most people didn’t have power, much less good cell phone coverage. While combing through credit unions’ social media pages, it felt like those who did have power and decent cell signals were using their time to … not be helpful.

I read through hundreds of Facebook comments from credit union members posting on CU pages. Here’s an example I found on Tyndall Federal Credit Union’s Facebook page:

“Inconvenience? Losing your car keys is an inconvenience, not having access to your money is beyond that. I hope this was a valuable lesson learned by TFCU. Totally unacceptable for any financial institution especially one of your size. You shouldn’t have to work endlessly in this situation, that’s why you have a DRP which should be tested at least annually!!!”

Wow, three exclamation marks. Here’s a portion of another comment with typos included:

“They knew this storm was coming straight for all of us and should have already had everythin g backed up and better prepared!!!!!!! Instead of taking the holiday off they should have been making all the preparations….. it especially sucks for everyone who’s card is not working…….I have lived this bank until now…….”

Another reminder, these are just two of the dozens and dozens of negative comments apparently posted by members THE DAY AFTER HURRICANE MICHAEL. I just need to emphasize that.

Sadly, social media trolls kept going after Tyndall.

Remember, Hurricane Michael made landfall at 1:42 p.m. on Wednesday. Now, fast forward to 32 hours later.

On Thursday, Oct. 11 at 10 p.m., the Frustrated Members of Tyndall Federal Credit Union Facebook Page was created.

While not shocked at this discovery, I was certainly disgusted. In fact, my reaction was connected together by several expletives.

At this point in our receiving of post-storm information, we weren’t even sure if Tyndall was around anymore or if credit union employees were dead. And these a-holes were Facebook-comment-threatening Tyndall that “you better not charge me any overdraft fees!”

Tyndall Air Force Base, just southeast of Panama City, Fla., has been called “a disaster” and the damage as “catastrophic.”

As of this writing, five of Tyndall’s branches remain closed and we still haven’t heard any official word about the future of these branches. And I should point out that there are a lot of people still missing in the debris from Panama City to Mexico Beach.

Is there a proper way for a credit union to deal with these trolls after a natural or any kind of disaster? Past me would have said to have an executive make a statement and post that on social media. Now me believes placing a practical message out before the storm might be your best bet. After the storm, if your CU has sustained heavy and employees have possibly faced life-threatening damage, the message could be as straightforward as possible: “We have sustained significant damage and are attempting to account for all of our employees. We will provide service updates as soon as we can.”

Tyndall, Emerald Coast, Bay Credit Union, Panhandle Educators Federal Credit Union and so many others that were directly impacted by Hurricane Michael, please know we are thinking of you and these trolls do not represent who you are and what you do for your communities and members.

Michael Ogden is executive editor for CU Times. He can be reached at mogden@cutimes.com.