Vermont's Heritage Family Credit Union reopened three of itsclosed branches Tuesday but the $270 million Rutland CU may bewithout its head of human resources for several days.

That's because Barbara Begin, vice president, “is stranded inone of the many small Vermont towns hit hard by the damaged andblocked roadways” left behind by Hurricane Irene, said her boss,Matt Levandowski, the 30,000-member credit union's executive vicepresident.

Begin has been told routes out of her hometown Bethel will beout of service “for about a week,” said Levandowski.

Meanwhile, the 30,000-member Heritage managed to reopen three ofits shuttered branches in Ludlow, Brandon and Londonderry. They hadbeen without power but sustained no structural damage beyond “lotsof sludge in the parking lots,” said Levandowski.

Meanwhile, despite the widespread destruction in river towns andpower and telecommunication outages, the Credit Union Associationof Vermont said it was unaware of any further CU damage.

Separately, CUNA Mutual Group in Madison, Wis., said as of lateMonday it had received no reports of any major CU losses fromHurricane Irene's march across the Mid-Atlantic states and New England.

“This doesn't mean credit unions were left untouched, as manyare still without power and may be for several days,” said aspokesman. “However, based on what we currently know, wedo not anticipate any major losses to credit union structures oroperations. What we will likely see over the next fewdays are minor losses involving waterdamage to ATMs, power outage claimsinvolving data processing systems, and minorbuilding claims.”