Posted on: Saturday, October 13, 2001

The September 11th attack
Mail delivery not yet up to full speed

By Robbie Dingeman
Advertiser Staff Writer

Postal officials say Hawai'i residents continue to see a slight delay in the delivery of some letters and packages but the backlog of mail from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the Mainland has been eliminated.

Felice Broglio, U.S. Postal Service spokeswoman, said yesterday that the Federal Aviation Administration's decision this week to ease restrictions for carrying U.S. mail on passenger flights is speeding delivery of express, registered, international and military APO/FPO mail and live cargo.

Priority mail that weighs a pound or more is still banned from transport on commercial flights and is flying aboard chartered cargo flights, which leave the state on six out of seven days, Broglio said.

She said some categories such as surface mail or book- rate mail would still take weeks, but that hasn't changed since Sept. 11.

Broglio said the postal service is working to try to return to speedier service, but isn't quite there yet. "We're looking at three to five days instead of normal three days everyone was used to," Broglio said. "They had to adjust everything."

Looking ahead to the holidays, Broglio encouraged people to mail early, use return addresses, mail from postal windows and pack things carefully so that packages remain intact.

Other recent fears of terrorists mailing toxic substances have people on edge. Broglio said that the postal workers will be trying to move the mail as quickly this year as they have in previous years.

She knows that people could often mail their packages as late as a week before Christmas and still have their Mainland relatives get their goodies prior to the holiday.