When Hurricane Sandy made landfall in New Jersey on Oct. 29,Tracy Sussmann President / CEO at $17 million MidState FederalCredit Union in Carteret, N.J. was already making plans to reopenfor her storm-stricken members.

MidState is located next to a bay where floodwaters rose threefeet into the streets during high tide. By Friday, Nov. 2,Sussmann's small team carried lanterns, blankets, extra coatsand gloves and unlocked the doors and opened for business.

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“We've prepared for a disaster and now we know it works,”Sussmann said. “We made it through the storm on Monday and Tuesdayand by Wednesday we were making plans to reopen. Our members neededcash and we were determined to give it to them.”

Sussmann said that her employees were lucky and only reportedminor damage to their own homes, although the neighborhood whereMidState FCU is located was hit hard and one member's home blew up.The costs of the hurricane are still rising but officials agreethat Hurricane Sandy would become one of the 10 costliesthurricanes in the United States, according to the InsuranceInformation Institute. 

In light of payroll for the community's largest employer,Social Security and pension checks, and the fact that no ATMs wereavailable due to the power outage, Sussmann and her staff deemed itnecessary to provide cash to members.

They worked offline to cash checks and allow members to makecash withdrawals with an off-duty police officer standingguard. Cash was king during the crisis with stores and gasstations unable to accept debit or credit cards. MidState FCU wasthe only financial institution open in Carteret before the weekend,Sussmann said.

In 2005, MidState was among the group that partnered with theNew Jersey Credit Union Foundation and donated $60,982.55 tovictims of Hurricane Katrina on behalf of New Jersey's creditunions and the National Credit Union Foundation relief fund.

“This is why I'm in this industry,” Sussmann said Tuesday. “If Ican help one person a day I know I'm in the right business.”