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CNN Live At Daybreak

Anthrax in America: Attacks Put Postal-Sorting Centers in State of Siege

Aired October 31, 2001 - 08:20   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: The anthrax scare has put many postal-sorting centers in a state of siege.

CNN's Bruce Morton takes a look of the mood at the Postal Service.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRUCE MORTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The inscription on the main New York City post office reads: "Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds." That was then; this is now.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why was Congress tested and not Brentwood and the rest of the postal facilities? What makes Congress's lives more important than ours?

MORTON: Some postal workers are angry that congressional offices shut down before theirs did, that congressional employers were tested and treated first. Postmaster General John Potter told a Senate hearing he was following the best advice he could get.

JOHN POTTER, POSTMASTER GENERAL: There was truly a good faith effort on the part of all. As was stated earlier, people just did not know that much about anthrax.

MORTON: But it isn't just postal workers. Some Americans, not all, are afraid now to open their mail.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When I think about it, I wash my hands afterwards, you know. And I think if I got anything that was bumpy or funny, and I didn't recognize it, I think I would just toss it, because I toss junk mail out anyway.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I do what they advise me to do. I look at the address to make sure that -- you know, I flip through it. If it's mail that I don't need to open, junk mail, I throw it out.

MORTON: And the Postal Service was in big trouble before September 11 and anthrax. It's supposed to break even, no taxpayer dollars. But it's $11 billion in debt, plus another $1.7 for so for the fiscal year just ended, against a congressional debt ceiling of $15 billion. Terror, of course, has made all of that worse.

POTTER: In the month following the September 11 attack, the Postal Service lost, against plan -- what we thought we would get, and it was a very conservative plan -- some $300 million.

MORTON: Potter said he would ask Congress for money to pay for technology to protect the mail from spores like anthrax. But it's more than that. Things like FedEx, like online shopping, like e-mail all hit the Postal Service hard.

GENE DEL POLITO, ASSOCIATION OF POSTAL COMMERCE: So if the trend were to continue, adding the complications of the anthrax scare, yes, the Postal Service would be in a world of hurt by the time they reach the end of this fiscal year.

POTTER: We know that more money will be needed, and it does put the Postal Service's long-term viability back in jeopardy. It just makes it, you know, a very difficult row to hoe.

MORTON: No one disagrees with that.

Bruce Morton, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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