NATCHEZ &045; Checks, even if they are signed and are drawing off a bottomless account like the Red Cross, are just paper without a place to cash them.

It was with that in mind that the Miss-Lou’s major banks &045; Britton & Koontz, Delta, AmSouth, Concordia and United Mississippi &045; joined forces with area leaders and the Red Cross to make sure the evacuees were able to put their aid to use.

&uot;A complete and total cooperative effort from state (and) local (governments), the banks and the participants themselves,&uot; Concordia Bank CEO Pat Biglane said.

Heads of the five banks were involved in the planning of the assistance center from the beginning, so they were ready for the flood.

Almost.

&uot;I believe Pat started realizing there were no restrictions on who could come, so we kind of forecasted going in, but Wednesday, we realized that people were going to be coming from everywhere,&uot; AmSouth City President Adrian Sandel said.

Sandel said the banks were swapping cash before they got a big shipment on Wednesday, but all the banks reported that they were never in danger of running out.

While most of the checks were cashed, a good number opened checking accounts, no small feat for people whose lives have been ripped asunder.

&uot;Part of this is having anything work like it used to, that’s something to people,&uot; Delta Bank CEO Cliff Merritt said. &uot;Even opening a checking account, anything familiar, is good for them.&uot;

B&K CEO Page Ogden said while he, like his colleagues, is proud of how his employees performed in this situation, the banking industry as a whole has some work to do for disaster preparation.

&uot;This is a huge telecommunications issue: in order for electronic money to work, you have to keep the electronic network going,&uot; he said. &uot;The lights (in a bank) can be on, but if the communication is hampered, it forces us into a cash economy. There have to be other ways to get monetary relief out thereŠ it’s something we’re thinking about.&uot;