Credit unions in tornado-ravaged southern Indiana and eastern Kentucky were counting their blessings Monday having been spared personal or property injury from last Friday's powerful storms that killed at least 40 people in five states.

The $10 million Clark County Indiana Teachers CU in Jeffersonville was bracing for a wave of loan waiver requests since its membership includes the school district in devastated Henryville, a town of 2,000 which saw schools demolished and lives lost.

“Our board has its regular meeting tomorrow and I am getting together with our chairman to offer some specials to those members who will need assistance,” said Wanda Holdaway, manager of the 1,700-member CU.

“We've had only one call from a member whose car was crushed at the high school but I'm certain we will be getting more,” Holdaway said Monday.

In Kentucky, Charles Vice, the state's commissioner of financial institutions, was on his way to West Liberty following extensive damage to that community where several banks had destroyed offices and were in the process of relocating operations.

But there were no reports of CUs impacted in the area but any number of power outages and cell breakdowns, said a spokeswoman for the Department of Financial Institutions.

Holdaway in Indiana said her four employees, some of whom live not far from Henryville or in Chelsea, also hit by the tornadoes, are safe “though one never made it home at all Friday since all the roads were blocked.”

Instant Insights /

CUs in Tornado-Struck Indiana, Kentucky Find Luck on Their Side

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