HIB Hibernia Corp Cla

The Hibernia Tower (NYSE:HIB) in downtown Lake Charles, La., will reopen Monday, Oct. 10, allowing many of the companies that call the landmark building home to get back to business as usual. The Hibernia Tower sustained damage to its three-story atrium as well as many of its upper level floors when Hurricane Rita hit Sept. 24. It has been closed for repair work for the past two weeks but offices on floors five and higher are now ready for occupancy again. "We're extremely proud of the diligent effort put forth by our property management staff and contractors to get the Hibernia Tower open so quickly," says Thom Williams, Hibernia's president for the Lake Charles market. "While there is still work to be done before our bank can reoccupy its branch in the building, we felt it was vital to make the Hibernia Tower available again so our tenants can resume normal operations from their offices there. Hibernia stands ready to serve our customers and our community as we all recover from Hurricane Rita." Hibernia continues to re-open branches in the Lake Charles area that were closed since Hurricane Rita. The company's Moss Bluff drive-thru at 372 Sam Houston Jones Pkwy., Highway 14 office at 1920 Highway 14, South City office at 3225 Ryan St. and Country Club office at 1855 Country Club Rd. all opened this week, as did the Sulphur office at 1300 S. Ruth Street and the Maplewood office at 3146 Maplewood Dr. in Sulphur and the Iowa office at 109 S. Thompson Ave. in Iowa. Additionally, the Enterprise office at 1100 Enterprise Blvd. in Lake Charles and the Vinton office at 1601 Loree St. in Vinton will re-open on Monday, Oct. 10. The Hibernia Tower stands at 22 stories and is a dominant feature in the Lake Charles skyline. Opened in 1984, the building had been the headquarters of Calcasieu Marine Bank, which merged with Hibernia in 1996. Hibernia is on Forbes magazine's list of the world's 2,000 largest companies and Fortune magazine's list of America's top 1,000 companies according to annual revenue. Hibernia has $22.1 billion in assets and 321 locations in 34 Louisiana parishes and 36 Texas counties. Hibernia Corporation's common stock (HIB) is listed on the New York Stock Exchange.