Everyone in the area, including credit unions, either got out of town or battened down the hatches, preparing for what New Orleans Mayor Nagin called "the mother of all storms." Nearly 2 million people were evacuated from the area expected to feel the brunt of Gustav's fury.

Fortunately, Hurricane Gustav ended up being more of a windbag, though certainly there was damage done and CUs that were not operational. But the federal, state and local governments appeared to have learned their lesson from 2005's Hurricane Katrina, and so did credit unions.

Credit unions and their supporting organizations and regulators lived through the wrath of Katrina and, vowing never to do that again, got to work on greatly improving their disaster preparedness and business continuity plans. They were tested and retested, but there's nothing like the impending possibility of the real thing to really examine the plans.