The September 11th attack
Local discoveries of white powder spawn fear
By Walter Wright and Karen Blakeman
Advertiser Staff Writers
White powder found at airports and in Hawai'i homes continued to frighten residents already anxious about possible terrorist biological or chemical weapons in the Islands yesterday, but none of the substances was determined to be dangerous.
Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser
Sections of Honolulu International Airport were sealed off and police and firefighters were kept busy after calls about suspicious packages and white powdery substances.
Workers take samples of a white powdery substance found on the floor at the United Airlines check-in counter at Honolulu International Airport.
Mayor Jeremy Harris, flanked by Honolulu's police and fire chiefs, stood before TV news cameras yesterday afternoon at Honolulu Hale and asked people to remain calm.
"Folks, we need to go about our daily lives," Harris said. "We can't afford to be debilitated with fear."
Meanwhile, a United Airlines flight was scheduled to return to Los Angeles yesterday afternoon after an unscheduled overnight stop at Lihu'e Airport on Kaua'i, where the aircraft was decontaminated after two passengers reported finding a mysterious white powder on their luggage.
A section of the Honolulu International Airport ticket lobby was closed yesterday when white powder was found near the United Airlines counter.
A men's room in the interisland terminal was closed at noon for the same reason.
Honolulu flights were not affected, said Shelley Paik, an information specialist at the state Department of Transportation, nor were Kaua'i flights other than the one involving the United aircraft.
Kaua'i County hazardous material and fire units responded to the airport at Lihu'e and isolated the bags, while the State Health Department took control of, and used decontaminants on, the area through yesterday.
Air operations continued as normal despite the incidents, Paik said.
Honolulu Fire Department spokesman Capt. Richard Soo said HFD had nine calls yesterday related to suspected biological and chemical threats.
About 3 p.m., two clerks moving a tray of letters at the main post office station at the airport saw white powder coming out of the tray.
The area was secured so the material could be retrieved and analyzed.
Earlier, firefighters assisted a 24-year-old Papipi Street woman in 'Ewa Beach who said she had become ill on Friday and had gotten progressively worse since.
She said she feared a chemical or biological cause. She was taken to St. Francis West Medical Center for evaluation.
There was another white-powder scare at One Keahole Street in Hawai'i Kai until it was determined that a resident of the condominium apartment building at that address had thrown away some flour in the trash chute.
A couple newly arrived at a Laha Street townhouse in Kane'ohe from Florida with goods that had been in transit for the past two months were showered and taken to the hospital for evaluation after they reported finding a white powdery substance in a package of some compact discs they had shipped, Soo said.
At his press conference, the mayor said police and firefighters have been responding to at least a dozen "suspicious-package" calls a day since federal authorities revealed the Postal Service had been used to send anthrax.
None of the calls had revealed anthrax, but none have been hoaxes or pranks, either, the police and fire chiefs said.
People have called authorities to report white powdery substances ranging from garlic powder to flakes of paper between magazine pages. Other have called when they received mail from the Middle East and didn't recognize the return address.
Harris and the chiefs said they were not asking people to stop being cautious, but they were asking them to use common sense.
"But don't assume that because you've gotten a letter from your brother-in-law and you haven't heard from him for a year that you have a suspicious package," Harris said.
