Napa’s downtown post office building remains closed for earthquake repairs, leaving some mail trapped inside the Franklin Street location because of quake damage and asbestos contamination.
Mail belonging to customers who have P.O. boxes inside the older downtown building or those who had vacation holds on mail before the Aug. 24 temblor remains inaccessible, said U.S. Postal Service spokesperson Gus Ruiz.
“The building is unsound,” he said. “We can’t get into it to retrieve that mail.”
The downtown Napa post office, which dates from the 1930s, remains closed to the public as limited earthquake repairs have begun.
In addition, “There is most likely asbestos in the interior of the Franklin Street post office. Even if we get in, we need to make sure everything is sanitized, including the mail. It has to be cleaned.”
Asbestos remediation experts will perform that process, he said. He did not know when that might happen or how much asbestos will be found.
“We are gathering all that info from operations people as we speak,” said Ruiz. “I’m waiting for an update from our structural engineers.”
via Quake damage, asbestos dust trap mail at post office.