USPS Refuses Mail Delivery to Rebuilt Lahaina Homes 3 Years After Wildfire
Updated
Updated · The New York Times · Sep 21
USPS Refuses Mail Delivery to Rebuilt Lahaina Homes 3 Years After Wildfire
1 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Sep 21
Summary
Three years after the 2023 Maui wildfire, residents returning to rebuilt Lahaina homes say the U.S. Postal Service is leaving their individual mailboxes empty.
USPS is treating the reconstructed houses as part of new subdivisions, residents say, which would require cluster mailboxes instead of restoring door-to-door delivery that existed before the fire.
That policy has created a split within the same burned area: carriers still deliver directly to homes that survived the blaze, but not to rebuilt houses on the same lots.
Hawaii’s congressional delegation urged the postmaster general to reverse course, arguing Lahaina residents are returning to a historic community rather than moving into a new development.