Hurricane Ike
Law Firms in Houston’s JPMorgan Chase Tower Scramble After Hurricane
Posted Sep 15, 2008, 06:54 am CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss
Law firms with offices in Houston’s JPMorgan Chase Tower weren’t able to assess whether their offices were damaged over the weekend when Hurricane Ike blew out several windows in the building.
Broken windows at the 75-story tower sent office furniture, computers and shards of glass to the street below, report the Associated Press and BayNews9. An early report from Associated Press noted that the debris included red seat cushions, pieces of a wood desk and documents marked “highly confidential.” The report did not note whether the documents were legal in nature.
"It looks like a bomb went off over there," said Houston police officer Joseph Ledet as he stared at the tower.
Tenants of the building, the largest in Texas, were not allowed to go back over the weekend. A photo on National Geographic’s website showed a checkerboard of blown-out windows; the damage was worst on the west side of the building.
Andrews Kurth has its headquarters in the building. Its lawyers were working from other locations, spokeswoman Ashley Ronald told AP. "All of our BlackBerrys are working," she said. Another law firm in the tower, Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell, didn't expect to reopen until at least Wednesday.