2 Simi Firms Rush to Keep Business as Usual

Two Simi Valley businesses have acted quickly to maintain their operations without interruption, despite severe earthquake damage.

One firm, First Interstate Bank, chartered a fleet of buses to carry more than 500 employees of the bank’s credit card center to Downtown Los Angeles daily. The three-story building that formerly housed the center has been closed indefinitely,

“It was critical that the operation continue without interruption,” said First Interstate spokesman Rich Wyler. “All customer service, posting and billing for our statewide Visa and MasterCard programs was done from that building.”

First Interstate, California’s third-largest bank, rented five buses to carry two shifts of workers back and forth to Los Angeles daily. By the end of this week, the bank expects to have temporarily relocated all 550 employees who worked in the Simi Valley building.

Wyler said bank officials will wait for engineering reports before scheduling repairs.

In addition to structural damage, the 180,000-square-foot facility suffered extensive water damage from broken lines, the spokesman said.

Another company, Advanced Compression Technology Inc., a producer of integrated communications systems, moved all 55 of its employees and all its equipment and supplies to Camarillo within three days of the quake.

The firm’s headquarters building on Cochran Street in Simi Valley was made uninhabitable, reported spokeswoman Marilyn F. Marme. “The walls were tilted outward, the ceiling was down and there was water throughout the plant,” she said.

Marme said Advanced has already started shipping products from its new location on Flynn Street in Camarillo.