While Tropical Storm Harvey lingers over Houston forcing manycredit unions to keep its branches closed on Monday, some employees whosehomes have not been damaged are working remotely, postingtransactions, serving members and taking it one day at a time.

Like many homes in Houston, Michelle Oshinski's house issurrounded by water but so far it has remained at bay.

“It's one of those situations where you're surrounded by water,and if it gets any higher we won't be OK,” said Oshinski, chiefculture officer and interim COO for the $471 million PrimewayFederal Credit Union in Houston.” But I'm feeling blessedbecause everyone I know is safe. We are already talking about whatour employees will need and what our will members need after thisis over. I'm blessed to work for an organization to be thinkingahead and to be thinking about what can we do. “

For now, however, the rain keeps dropping in Houston andemployees like Oshinski are working from home. Although Primeway'semployees have been posting credit, debit, ACH, payroll, directdeposit and mobile transactions remotely, it's beenchallenging at times because of sporadic and unpredictable poweroutages throughout Houston.

Another issue is that the credit union's call center is notoperating because of technical issues caused by the storm, but itssix branches have not been damaged and its ATMs are operating.Security cameras have enabled Primeway to monitor its branchoperations.

We're going to stay closed tomorrow, and we'll be checking theweather and roads all day,” she said. “We just have to take it oneday at a time. If we can open Wednesday without putting people indanger, we will certainly be open.”

Credit unions in Victoria, however, are apparently notoperating. Victoria, hit hard by Hurricane Harvey, is about 130miles south of Houston.

The $15 million Victoria Teachers Credit Union posted a messageon its site that it has no power and is not operating.

The credit union also posted a message from city officials whoreported Victoria has no water service and it might be several daysbefore it is restored. Most businesses and schools are closedbecause of the lack of power, though some areas do haveelectricity.

Caroline Willard, president/CEO of the Cornerstone Credit UnionLeague who met with the league's disaster response team Mondaymorning, said there have been some reports of structural damage tobranches but the situation is dynamic, particularly in Houston,because massive flooding issues persist. However, there have beensome credit unions that have reported no damages to theirbranches.

“They (Houston credit union officials) are telling me in a lotof cases they don't have power so that certainly makes it tough todo transactions, open your doors or to have ATMs running, and yetthe beautiful thing about credit unions is that we have sharedresources, we have a shared branch network and shared ATM networkfor members to access their cash,” Willard said.

Another problem is that many streets throughout Houston androads leading in and out of Houston are flooded.

“I talked to one CEO this morning, who said they aremaking sure employee safety is No. 1, and where they can get in tooperate a branch they will, but certainly they won't benjeopardizing employee safety,” Willard said.