Posted on 10/23/2001 9:22:26 AM PDT by jern
Staff reports
RALEIGH -- The Century Station Post Office in downtown Raleigh was evacuated Tuesday morning shortly after 10 when a suspicious envelope was discovered in the building.
Police taped off the front and back of the building and part of Martin Street between Salisbury Street and Fayetteville Street Mall as a hazardous materials team prepared to enter the building.
Authorities were not immediately releasing any further information about the incident.
Hopefully this is yet another false alarm.
MKM
As many as five people may have handled the manilla envelope.
The building policy is that the U.S. marshal who works security there picks up mail from the post office, X-rays it, and delivers it throughout the building.
This envelope was delivered to the second floor, then opened by an employee on that floor, where the bankruptcy court is located.
The building was evacuated around 9:45 a.m., after the discovery was made, and it will not be re-opened until investigators know what the substance was.
Three postal workers handled the piece, as well as the marshal who delivered it and the bankruptcy office employee who opened it.
The employees who may have handled the envelope washed their hands, but the leader of the postal union wants to make sure those employees are also tested for anthrax exposure. He is also concerned that it was about an hour and a half before they washed their hands.
The envelope has been taken from the building to the state lab to test it for anthrax. It is unclear what else the envelope contained.
Officials say the building will be locked down until the lab test results are available.
The first floor of the building houses the post office, the second floor is home to the bankruptcy court, and there are other federal offices on the third and fourth floors, including a field office for Senator John Edwards.
The building is located on Martin Street, which cuts through the mall between Salisbury and Wilmington streets. Those parts of the Fayetteville Street mall have been closed, but traffic is still flowing around the mall.
Copyright 2001 by WRAL.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Does our mail go initially to a central office to be sorted and sent out to the branch offices? If the answer is yes, then does anyone know if this is our central office here in Raleigh?
Following this line of thinking then, wouldn't it be possible that our mail that we receive residentially could potentially be cross-contaminated simply by coming in contact with contaminated mail?
After all we know now that the Anthrax spores are small enough to leak out of the envelopes. I'm not feelin too safe getting my mail these days.
Ya think the creditors and ultilites would understand if I said I couldn't send in my payment since I was afraid to touch my mail let alone open it? ; )
MKM
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