Florida Branches Prepare for Dorian’s Arrival
About 1.3 million members are in the path of the likeliest hurricane winds.
As Hurricane Dorian approached Florida Friday, credit unions along the state’s east coast prepared for the arrival of the storm that was expected to reach Category 4 strength before landing late Monday or early Tuesday.
The National Hurricane Center maps Friday showed a 200-mile swath of the coast from Melbourne to Miami in a zone with at least a 90% chance of experiencing tropical storm-force winds.
The zone encompasses about 7.3 million people and an estimated 1.3 million credit union members based on branch distribution in nine counties. As of 8 a.m. Friday, the National Hurricane Center’s maps showed the zone of 90% probability included all or parts of Brevard, Indian River, Saint Lucie, Martin, Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency for 26 of the state’s counties on Wednesday, and extended it to all of the state’s 67 counties on Thursday.
The original 26-county warning area in Florida is home to about 3.5 million credit union members based on branch distribution. Ninety-three credit unions had 556 branches in area as of March.
Guardians Credit Union of West Palm Beach, Fla. ($174.8 million in assets, 31,475 members) was planning to operate regularly through Saturday, close as usual Sunday and Monday’s Labor Day holiday, and also close all branches on Tuesday because of the storm.
Statewide, one of the largest credit unions is Navy Federal Credit Union of Vienna, Va. ($106 billion in assets, 8.6 million members), which has 823,184 members in the Sunshine State alone.
“The safety of our members and team members is our top priority,” Jake Nimetz, Navy Federal’s regional manager, said. “We’ll continue to monitor Hurricane Dorian and so should our members. The Navy Federal team will continue to work 24/7 to take care of members over the phone and our branches will be ready to help in the areas impacted just as soon as it’s safe to do so.”
Based on branch distribution, VyStar Credit Union of Jacksonville, Fla. ($8.7 billion in assets, 667,325 members) would have the most members exposed with 64 of 603 branches located in the original 26-county warning area.
A storm page on its website said VyStar managers continue to review and update storm information
“At this point, all branches, call center and operations will be open at least through end of day Sunday, September 1,” it said.
The NCUA sent out a bulletin Tuesday telling credit unions and members to begin making preparations. The agency has a hurricane and disaster information page on its website, as well as on the MyCreditUnion.gov consumer information page.