For 33 years Chevis Swetman has had a two-mile commute to his job at Peoples Bank in Biloxi, Miss. But since Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast two weeks ago, his commute has become even shorter - a 10-foot walk down a hallway.
The hurricane leveled hundreds of homes on the coast, including Mr. Swetman's, which had been in his family for 105 years. Now Mr. Swetman, the chairman and chief executive of the $648 million-asset bank, is living in its headquarters, along with his wife and 26-year-old son, a management trainee.
But despite his personal loss, Mr. Swetman, 56, has a bank to run and a community to help rebuild. Peoples has been in the Swetman family for more than a century, and Mr. Swetman, one of Biloxi's most prominent residents, is working nearly nonstop to help his employees, customers, and others along the storm-ravaged coast get back on their feet.
Mr. Swetman's bed is a roll-up mattress on the floor of the bank's conference room. He said does not sleep much past 4 a.m., though; he has so much on his mind that he generally awakens long before the sun rises.
He worries about getting cash to customers. He worries about his employees, 20% of whom lost their homes. He also worries about rebuilding the six Peoples branches that were seriously damaged or destroyed. (All that was left of the one in Pass Christian was a vault and an automated teller machine.)
Mr. Swetman washes up in the bathroom, using a bucket of hot water and a sponge. (He has vowed to build an addition to headquarters that will include "nice clean showers.") After cleaning up, he gets down to business.
Two days after the storm hit, Mr. Swetman drove around in his Hummer to several of the branches, delivering cash. A few days later, when he received a shipment from the Federal Reserve, he made sure all of Peoples' ATMs were "stuffed with as much cash as they could handle."
Mr. Swetman said the bank was fortunate to have lots cash on hand when the hurricane hit. Many Gulf Coast casinos are Peoples clients, and all had ordered extra cash for the Labor Day weekend. Most of the casinos were destroyed before the cash was delivered.
Mr. Swetman said he would like to visit the damaged branches but had to stay at the main office to meet with commercial customers that need loans to rebuild. He said he is letting them overdraw their accounts without penalty or is extending their lines of credit.
He is also going to bat for his casino clients. Mississippi law allows casinos to operate only on barges; Mr. Swetman has been calling state legislators, encouraging them to hold a special session to pass a bill that would permit casinos to rebuild on land. A barge could take at least two years to rebuild.
"Thirty-thousand people depend on the industry, so until the casinos reopen these people won't have jobs," Mr. Swetman said.
Peoples is also helping other financial institutions. Since it had so much cash, it lent some to a few local credit unions that were less well prepared.
Also, the bank is not charging ATM fees to others' customers, and it will cash their checks for up to $50 if they have identification.
"I know we may have some fraud losses due to that, but there are bigger problems now," Mr. Swetman said. "In the East Biloxi community there are no homes, and the people have no hope."
As for getting his own life back in order, Mr. Swetman said that he plans to rebuild his house - but perhaps 10 or 12 feet farther from the water.
He also said the bank would rebuild all of the damaged branches. "And if another category-5 storm hits, we will rebuild them again," he said.
