"We're grateful for the generous outpouring we've been receiving for Iowa but you have to remember there are limits to what this industry can do to aid in this kind of tragedy, considering the number of disasters there have been this year alone," said Steve Delfin, NCUF's executive director.

He cited NCUF's extensive fundraising relief effort, CUAid, that went into the California wildfires, Alabama and Oklahoma tornadoes and, most recently, damaging floods in northern Maine.

Meanwhile, the ordeal of many Iowa CUs and their employees in dealing with the calamity caused them to come together and aid each other when possible.

In one incident, Tim Byers, president of the $90 million First FCU in hard-hit Cedar Rapids, Iowa, borrowed a boat to navigate rising waters of the Cedar River, breaking a window to enter his CU's flooded branch to safely grab computer equipment and critical records.

And then there's the story of the $2.7 million Midwest Utilities CU in Waterloo, Iowa, that moved its operations for two days to the home of Chief Financial Officer Robert Hill.

The original disaster plan was to relocate the CU to Mid-American Energy, the business that it serves, but, although the energy plant was not under water, everything around it was, cutting off all access.

"We found our disaster plan had a few holes in it," acknowledged Hill, noting that running the operation from his home was a challenge because of Internet connections and software. But, he added, Midwest was able to pull it off.

And in Cedar Rapids, where thousands lost homes and the downtown remained flooded for days, Metco, the lone CU in the river zone that was forced to close following a mandatory evacuation was hoping to assess damage late last week so it could make insurance claims.

"I was able to climb up on the interstate and see my credit union from a distance, but they still won't let me in," said Brad Mertens, president of the $19 million Metco, which evacuated its offices to dry ground in the $6 million Quaker Oats CU.

"I really don't know how bad the damage is, but I'm sure there'll be six feet of water in the basement," said Mertens, whose CU posted notices on its Web site telling members, "We appreciate your understanding during this devastating disaster and will keepyou posted."

At Quaker Oats, a CU with four employees, the nine tellers and loan reps from Metco set up shop with three teller stations and call center borrowing the Quaker board room.

Underscoring the sharing that went on, Quaker Oats found a site for its regular directors' meeting at another CU, Collins Community, which itself had one of its drive-in branches under water all week and another grocery facility shuttered because of power outage.

"For the moment, this is all about credit unions helping other credit unions," said Heather Lemke, a loan officer at Quaker.

Richard Benhart, president/CEO of Collins, said he was grateful for "amazing dedication" and hard work by so many of his employees spending long hours filling sandbags and helping fellow employees and members.

"We still have eight to 10 of our employees who are really hurting, having lost their homes," said Benhart adding, "it is truly heartwarming to see how so many people have pitched in to help at a time of crisis."

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