Two floors of the Par-la-Ville Place office building were abandoned yesterday after flooding damaged offices on Thursday.

Three companies - Assante Asset Management, Bermuda Containership Management (BCM) and First Atlantic Commerce - relocated as work crews salvaged office materials, ripped up carpet and tore down soaked ceiling tiles.

All of the relocated companies were on the ground and first floors.

The move was prompted by a suspected water heater leak in the Par-la-Ville Place offices, which submerged carpets as soaked office workers and fire-fighters struggled to cover up valuable computers.

The leak occurred sometime between 2 p.m. Boxing Day and 7.30 a.m., Thursday when it was discovered.

Within hours of discovering the flooding, disaster relief teams from Fort Knox and Bermuda Computer Services (BCS), along with information technology consultants, rebuilt the network infrastructures in different locations and the offices were up-and-running yesterday.

"If we had to push we could but this was going to be a slow period anyway. It's the only good thing about this," said an Assante office worker.

Assante moved into the BCS offices on Dundonald Street, BCM moved into the Gibbons Building on Queen Street and First Atlantic Commerce moved to Southside.

Insurance inspectors and repairman toured the building on Thursday but damage estimates are still far off.

Each company has its own insurance company as part of the condominium-type ownership agreement.

And despite the disaster, architectural firm Cooper and Gardener will remain in the building and partner John Gardener expects to be operating on Monday.

He thanked the workers including Bermuda Telephone Company who released a phalanx of workers in the office.