WASHINGTON - The office of the $73 million-asset Federal Employees Credit Union in Oklahoma City was destroyed Wednesday by the bomb that gouged a nine-story hole in the Alfred P. Murrah building.
Of the credit union's 31 employees, just 14 have been accounted for, according to the National Credit Union Administration. No deaths of employees or members had been confirmed by late Thursday.
Florence Rogers, the group's manager, walked away from the blast with cuts and bruises, but when the bomb exploded she was in a meeting with nine others - all of whom are missing.
Ms. Rogers told federal regulators that she saw the credit union's teller line disappear.
The group's only office was on the third floor of the demolished federal building, just above the day care center on the street side.
A temporary branch will open today for the group's 15,000 members at the credit union serving Tinker Air Force Base, five miles from the disaster. Six NCUA examiners were working at the Tinker Federal Credit Union on Wednesday and felt the blast.
Several other credit unions in the Oklahoma City area have agreed to cash share drafts of Federal Employees' members for up to $250 and are donating employees to staff the temporary branch.
The Federal Employees's board met Wednesday night and again Thursday to devise plans for continuing basic operations as well as offering special services, such as emergency loans. A special program was set up to lend up to $10,000 at 3% to members.
Donations to help the victims and their families have already started flowing in. CUNA Mutual Inc. is flying volunteers in to help and has donated $5,000. The Credit Union Foundation's disaster relief fund is accepting contributions. For information, call 800-356-9655, extension 5743.
Commercial banks in the area sustained damage as well.
Wayne Stone, president of Bank of Oklahoma's Oklahoma City regional office, was in his office two blocks away when the blast hit. He described ceiling tiles and fluorescent lights tumbling to the floor, then an exodus from the 16-story building. The building's first-floor windows, a dozen 22- foot high glass panes, were all blown in. Only one employee was slightly injured from flying glass.
"I thought the building was coming down," he said.
Bank of Oklahoma's motor branch, a block from the federal building, was nearly demolished and all its windows were blown in. Miraculously, no one was injured there.
Windows at Boatmen's Bank of Oklahoma and Bank of Oklahoma also were blown in and some employees were hurt, bankers said.
"Much of the (Bank of Oklahoma) building's windows on that side are blown out," said Jay Hannah, executive vice president at Bancfirst, four blocks south of the blast. "It's amazing how many buildings were damaged - a four- or five-block area was hit hard."
Mr. Hannah was across the street from the federal office building at 8 a.m. the day of the blast, overseeing the printing of Bancfirst's annual report. He left at 8:30 a.m. and planned to go back at 10 a.m.
"It was a fluke that I wasn't right there at the time" of the 9 a.m. explosion, he said. The roof was blown off the building where the report was being printed.
Bancfirst employees had to evacuate their 1920's-era building shortly after the blast for fear of a second explosion or a natural gas leak, leaving a skeleton crew to answer calls from anxious relatives of employees.
Mischa Gorkuscha, chief financial officer of Liberty Bancorp, eight blocks from the blast, said there was only minor disruption to banking services and the payment system. "The biggest problem is the emotional trauma," he said. "It shakes your faith, but in the aftermath everybody is really pulling together."
"We have employees and friends who have relatives unaccounted for," Mr. Hannah said. "It's tough."
Meanwhile, the blast also damaged the Oklahoma City branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, which is located two blocks from the federal building. While no one was injured, the explosion blew out the branch's windows and front door, Fed spokesman Joe Coyne said.
The Fed had to evacuate the structure, although it left a security contingent behind the guard the vault, he said. Employees returned to the building yesterday to resume check-clearing activities. But, because traffic is limited near the bomb site, the Fed is collecting checks outside the area and trucking them to the bank.
