WASHINGTON — The CUNA Board has adopted a national disaster preparedness plan for credit unions to manage future responses to major disasters.

"I think the heart of this plan is how the system communicates and works together to assist credit unions in the time of a disaster," CUNA Director of Disaster Recovery and Preparedness/Vice President of League Relations Scott Earl said. He pointed to the 877-CU-LOCATE number where credit unions can leave a message for members to find out about its operations during a major disaster. But the plan also offers the Adopt-A-Credit Union program for credit unions outside the affected area to assist those hit the worst, such as after Hurricanes Rita and Katrina.

"After Katrina, we found that we were stumbling over ourselves a little bit. Everybody wanted to help and there were offers coming in from all kinds of different directions and this plan will help direct that," Earl explained. For example, he said in-kind contributions of used computers were not very helpful because of software compatibility issues so there will be more of an emphasis on cash donations.