Mail delays likely as wind, flooding damage Post Office facility

Mail delays across Eastern Washington and North Idaho are likely over the next few days following wind damage and flooding at a U.S. Postal Service mail storage facility at the Spokane airport.

Strong winds Tuesday night damaged the building’s roof, which was still under repairs from the mid-November windstorm that left much of the Inland Northwest without power for days. The new damage caused rain to flood the building, USPS spokesman Ernie Swanson said.

No mail was damaged in the flooding, Swanson said.

“Yesterday’s storm just set us back quite a bit so we’re not able to use that facility today,” he said.

Letters are being temporarily routed to Seattle and parcels have been distributed to post offices in Spokane and Post Falls for sorting, Swanson said. The Spokane facility sorts mail for most of Eastern Washington and North Idaho. Items routed through Spokane are likely to be delayed for several days, Swanson said. Outgoing mail will also be delayed.

Barring more bad weather, Swanson said the damage is unlikely to impact the large volume of holiday mail typically sent in mid-December.

“If we can get things under control and operational again in the next few days it shouldn’t have too much of an impact,” he said.