Credit unions in tornado-ravaged southern Indiana and easternKentucky were counting their blessings Monday having been sparedpersonal or property injury from last Friday's powerful storms thatkilled at least 40 people in five states.

The $10 million Clark County Indiana Teachers CU inJeffersonville was bracing for a wave of loan waiver requests sinceits membership includes the school district in devastatedHenryville, a town of 2,000 which saw schools demolished and liveslost.

“Our board has its regular meeting tomorrow and I am gettingtogether with our chairman to offer some specials to those memberswho will need assistance,” said Wanda Holdaway, manager of the1,700-member CU.

“We've had only one call from a member whose car was crushed atthe high school but I'm certain we will be getting more,” Holdawaysaid Monday.

In Kentucky, Charles Vice, the state's commissioner of financialinstitutions, was on his way to West Liberty following extensivedamage to that community where several banks had destroyed officesand were in the process of relocating operations.

But there were no reports of CUs impacted in the area but anynumber of power outages and cell breakdowns, said a spokeswoman forthe Department of Financial Institutions.

Holdaway in Indiana said her four employees, some of whom livenot far from Henryville or in Chelsea, also hit by the tornadoes,are safe “though one never made it home at all Friday since all theroads were blocked.”