Commercial Bank: Overcoming Tornado Destruction

On Friday, March 2, 2012, a major tornado outbreak hit the Tennessee Valley, Ohio Valley, and parts of the South, causing widespread power outages, destroyed buildings, and 39 deaths. KBA member Commercial Bank closed their bank early as a precaution, with two employees staying in the building. With just four minutes' notice, the storm switched direction and headed for the bank; the two employees huddled in the back corridor to wait out the storm.

The storm had a major impact on the bank location: It was a pile of dust and debris and too unstable for customer access. CB's main concerns were security, power, and communication. Bank management held a meeting immediately and, along with Agility, CB found space in a county-owned building, set up a telephone co-op, limited transactions, and was operational again by Monday morning. CB shared that the biggest challenges to overcome during the recovery process were timely access to backup tapes, getting staff into town, addressing security, and adapting operations from a single facility into four separate facilities.

CEO Hank Allen shared, "The bottom line is without the relationships we had at the time [with KBA and Agility Recovery], we wouldn't have recovered at all."