The Collapse of a Community Bank

Repercussions
CB&T's failure led to hundreds of residential and commercial foreclosures in and around Cornelia and may produce thousands more. Some 35 homes and 189 businesses underwritten by CBT have already been foreclosed on this year, 1,500 loans are in serious trouble, and at least 2,700 were so poorly documented that no one's sure yet whether they should be foreclosed or not. Among those affected were Mike and Jean Armstrong, above, and their family, who together own a restaurant and gift store off Main Street and a retail building nearby. They borrowed $1.6 million, loans the bank declined to renew after the 2008 crash. The South Carolina bank that bought CB&T is foreclosing on the properties.

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