A lone employee was in the basement of FNB Bank’s headquarters in Mayfield, Kentucky, on Friday evening when sirens started blaring.
An hour after the worker left the building, as a series of storms tore across six states, a tornado roared toward Mayfield’s courthouse square. Brooke Wiles, vice president and director of marketing at the bank, was huddled in her nearby home’s staircase closet.
“I could hear it. I could feel it,” she said in an interview. “I knew it was hitting. I just didn’t know where."
By the following morning, the $577 million-asset bank no longer had a headquarters. The tornado had blown out the windows and taken off walls from the building where the bank stood since 1875.
The town of Mayfield was one of the worst-hit areas, but by Monday, FNB was operational again. The bank's employees set up a temporary location at a nearby industrial park, where the bank’s safety deposit boxes were being relocated.
Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear has said he fears the death toll from the storms will pass 100. Nearly 15,000 residential buildings suffered an estimated $3.6 billion in damages, according to the data firm CoreLogic.
Whether they’re still standing or not, Kentucky banks and credit unions are serving as rallying points for towns leveled by natural disaster, as has often been the case in other states after hurricanes and wildfires.
Kentucky Bankers Association CEO Ballard Cassady said in an email that banks in the affected areas were “up to their armpits helping dig their communities out.”
“Our bankers are leaving their own situation for last while they come out to help their community get back up and running first,” Cassady said.
The tornado damage across Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas, Mississippi and Tennessee prompted joint guidance Wednesday from federal and state financial regulators.
The Federal Reserve, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., the National Credit Union Administration and state authorities jointly encouraged lenders to “work constructively with borrowers in communities affected by tornado damage.”
Regulators “recognize the serious impact of tornadoes on the customers and operations of many financial institutions,” the agencies said in a press release, and “will provide appropriate regulatory assistance to affected institutions subject to their supervision.”
FNB is taking in donations for a local tornado relief fund that will go to local nonprofit groups to help with the recovery. The bank is also developing plans to offer loan relief and is waiving ATM fees.
Over the last several days, FNB Bank has been borrowing from plans it laid earlier in the COVID-19 pandemic, when employees adjusted to working from home or other remote locations.
“The banks are the heart of our town,” Wiles said. “COVID times were challenging enough, but it almost prepared us. We were able to work from our home again.”
Some banks impacted by last week’s tornadoes, like Regions Financial in Birmingham, Alabama, are
Regions planned to provide $100,000 in grants to local efforts, including the Mayfield Graves County Tornado Relief Fund, to help with immediate needs.
Starting Thursday, Regions is also waiving check-cashing fees for anyone with checks from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. And the $156 billion-asset bank is deferring payments on some existing debt and cutting interest rates on new business or personal loans.
“These are the communities where our teams live and work,” Sharon Hightower, consumer banking regional executive for Regions, said in a press release. “These are the people and businesses we serve every day, and we will be here for them every step of the way.”
Credit unions across Kentucky have banded together to aid rebuilding efforts through programs like emergency low-interest loans and loan payment deferrals.
Ray Springsteen, president and CEO of the
Some credit unions are finding ways to provide aid on the frontlines of the disaster.
Service One Credit Union in Bowling Green, Kentucky, is using a local food truck to distribute nearly $1,000 worth of food to community members in need, according to president and CEO Rebecca Stone.
Employees of the
At smaller credit unions, employees at all levels are leading similar efforts. Your Hometown Federal Credit Union, a
“I carried close to 100 hot meals that one of the local churches prepared and just got out and drove the streets in town,” said Mark Spillman, manager of the credit union.
"I have a staff of six employees,” Spillman said. “Three of them are dedicated to helping run the credit union, and the other three are at the local fairgrounds delivering meals and helping however they can.”
During the tornadoes, sirens wailed throughout the night, and no one knew when or where the next storm would touch down, said Lanie Gardner, community president for the $1.1 billion-asset First Southern National Bank, in Lancaster, Kentucky.
She and the rest of the bank’s leaders had to wait until dawn to assess the damage and immediately began sending text messages to staffers.
First Southern’s branches escaped unharmed, but one employee lost both their house and car. Others were looking for family members. Those employees who were able to venture out traveled to nearby places that took the brunt of the disaster.
Some staffers began loading up their minivans with jackets and water to deliver to hard-hit areas. Others took chainsaws to downed trees.
“People aren’t even able to think about what life is going to look like. They’re still under piles of rubble,” Gardner said. “The rebuild will not be overnight.”
Brendan Pedersen contributed to this report.
