BOk tower in Tulsa to reopen Thursday after power outage

Wednesday, December 7th 2005, 2:03 pm

By: News On 6

TULSA, Okla. (AP) -- The 52-story Bank of Oklahoma Tower remained closed to all but essential workers for a second full day Wednesday because of a power outage, but officials planned to open the building for business Thursday.

The tower, which is owned by Williams Cos., lost power Monday when a water main at its base broke and flooded an electrical vault and electrical and data equipment in the building's basement.

Williams spokesman Brad Church said the natural gas carrier continued to serve its customers, having shifted employees to field offices and other locations. Some employees were working from home, he said.

All employees needed to show up for work Thursday unless told differently by their supervisors, he said.

Williams had restored power Wednesday to floors 28 through 52 and expected to do so on the remaining 27 floors by Thursday morning, Church said. Damage assessments were continuing.

Power was restored to most of the 130 affected downtown American Electricity Power-Public Service Company of Oklahoma customers around 7:10 a.m. Tuesday, about 17 hours after the rupture.

About 600 Bank of Oklahoma employees in the tower were displaced by the outage, and about 200 of them relocated to other offices, spokesman Danny Boyd said.

The bank's data processing center is housed at another location, so no data was lost, he said. The bank has a vault in the tower's basement but Boyd said "I'm not aware of any issues of loss there."

Any cash damaged in the flood could be replaced, he said.