Armored trucks-security move 100s of safe-deposit boxes damaged by Hurricane Harvey
Houston TX Oct 4 2017 Tiffany Rogers rented a safe-deposit box nearly a decade ago, and has paid $250 each year since to store her family’s birth certificates, passports and other possessions inside a 15-by-17-inch metal box in the vault of a Bear Creek-area Chase bank.
“I thought I could keep them safe if my house burned down,” Rogers, the Copperfield mother said last week. “I never thought of floods.”
But like so much else Houstonians took for granted, that all changed when Hurricane Harvey came to town.
The storm’s epic rainfall flooded hundreds of safe-deposit boxes while also causing enough damage to shut down more than 30 local bank branches across the Houston area. Customers have been directed elsewhere, and temporary mobile banking units have set up shop in the parking lot of several branches.
To accommodate affected customers, Chase physically removed thousands of safe-deposit boxes and transported them – via a fleet of armored cars guarded by security officers – to a nondescript building north of Houston. Customers could make appointments to retrieve their belongings. That included folks like Rogers, who kept a box at a westside Chase branch that was inundated with water from the overflowing Addicks reservoir.
Rogers drove to temporary collection site Wednesday afternoon to find her items undamaged. She emerged with a green shopping cart loaded down with documents and other possessions. She placed the items in her black SUV to take to another bank branch.
Others weren’t as lucky. A Kingwood woman who had the appointment following Rogers’ reported that floodwaters had soiled her husband’s mint-condition coin collection held at a nearby Chase bank. The woman, who asked not to be identified because of the nature of her items, said she plans to rent a box at another bank for her valuables.
“I don’t have that much confidence in them anymore,” said the woman, whose home was spared from flooding. “But it’s harder to get into a safe-deposit box at a bank than a safe at home.”
About 400 of Chase’s 80,000 safe-deposit boxes in the Houston area flooded. The banking giant offered ultrasonic machines and cleaning solutions to help customers salvage coins and jewelry, free of charge. It’s also reimbursing customers for the cost of replacing passports, birth certificates and such documents.
Chase and BBVA Compass are also waiving safe-deposit box fees. Rent for a Chase box typically runs $45 to $165 a year, depending on the size. Nationally, the average rent for a 3-inch-by-5-inch box is about $50 a year, according to BBVA Compass.
Wells Fargo & Co., Bank of America Corp. and BBVA Compass did not disclose how many safe-deposit boxes were damaged, but each bank said it is allowing affected customers to collect their belongings. Bank of America, which has about 2,000 safe-deposit boxes at three Houston-area branches closed due to flooding, said it is providing information to customers about restoration and replacement services.
Collectively, these four banks – largest in the Houston area in terms of deposits – reported that 32 branches in the Harvey-affected area remain closed due to storm damage.
houston chronicle
