Workers retrieved mail on Monday that had been trapped in P.O. boxes at the Franklin Post Office since the August earthquake six weeks ago.
Initially, the Postal Service thought the quake had contaminated the mail with asbestos dust when it shook the 1930s building, cracking walls, windows and interior spaces.
Workers remove trapped mail from the Franklin Street Post Office in NAPA, California.
If this had been the case, the mail would have needed decontamination before being released to recipients, officials said.
“As it turns out, the only asbestos was in the basement where no mail was stored, so any reports that asbestos contaminated any of the mail are unfounded,” the U.S. Postal Service spokesman Gus Ruiz.
The mail was taken to the postal annex on Randolph Street next to Billco’s with a note for each affected P.O. box customer. All vacation hold mail and some parcels that were in the building during the earthquake have since been delivered to street addresses, Ruiz said.
Thanks to postal workers
I would like to give the postal workers a great big thanks for doing such a great job in a time when I’m sure a few of us wondered if we would get our mail. Some politicians want to privatize the mail service. No, thanks; I want it like it is.