The article reports on the situation in Lahaina, Hawaii, where residents who survived a devastating wildfire in August 2023 are experiencing problems with mail delivery due to a policy by the US Postal Service (USPS). The USPS has deemed Lahaina's reconstruction as "new development", which means no door-to-door mail service is available. About 25% of homes have been rebuilt since the fire, and residents who had their mailboxes survive the blaze are now unable to receive mail due to this policy. Calvin Cox, a resident who lost his home in the fire, filed a complaint with USPS after being told that only new development areas were eligible for street delivery.
Written by the local model on 2026-09-03,
using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the
same event (that is the story summary below).
Two months after a devastating wildfire whipped through Lahaina in August 2023, Pam Reader was allowed back to see what was left of her home.
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what → whip → home
With a heavy heart, she returned to the Hawaiian oceanside town now filled with endless blocks of burned houses.
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she → return → houses
As she rounded her corner, she saw the only thing remaining was her bright turquoise mailbox.
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thing → round → corner
“It was an old crappy mailbox,” Reader said.
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Reader → say → ?
“It was metal, though, which is why I think it survived.”
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it → think → ?
She could see many neighbors’ mailboxes also outlasted the flames.
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mailboxes → see → flames
She and her daughters had painted their mailbox when the girls were young, with drawings of fish, butterflies and surfboards.
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girls → paint → fish
“Everybody’s house was ash, but their mailboxes were standing,” Reader said.
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Reader → stand → ?
As fire victims have started to return to Lahaina after going through the process of rebuilding their homes, dozens of these mailboxes have become useless.
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dozens → start → mailboxes
Residents say they’re not getting mail service.
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they → say → service
They see mail carriers drive by without stopping, only to make deliveries a couple blocks away – to houses that didn’t burn.
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that → see → houses
“You never really realize how shitty it is to not get your mail, until it actually happens,” said Calvin Cox, whose home also burned in the 2023 fires.
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home → realize → fires
“At first, I was like, ‘It’s just junk mail and I have everything on auto-pay,’ but that’s not the case.”
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that → ’ → pay
Residents were initially in the dark as to why the mail carriers were passing them by.
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carriers → pass → them
When Cox moved back in February, he stopped by the main post office to re-register his Lahaina address.
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he → move → address
When the postmaster looked up his house, he said the United States Postal Service, USPS, didn’t yet have a neighborhood route re-established because not enough new homes had been completed.
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homes → look → house
He told Cox to check back in a month.
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He → tell → month
Cox went back several times over several months, and still didn’t get any clarity.
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Cox → go → clarity
In July, he filed a complaint with the agency’s federal headquarters.
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he → file → headquarters
After a back-and-forth with a customer relations specialist for USPS’s Hawaii district, Cox got an answer.
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Cox → get → answer
“All dwellings that were affected by the fires in 2023 that have been rebuilt will no longer receive street delivery,” reads an email from the specialist, seen by the Guardian.
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email → affect → Guardian
Cox was told Lahaina’s reconstruction was being treated as “new development”, and under current USPS policy that means no door-to-door mail service.
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that → tell → service
Cox said this was shocking, considering Lahaina was a centuries-old town and the first capital of the Hawaiian Kingdom.
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Lahaina → say → Kingdom
In 1962, the National Park Service even took the rare step of designating downtown Lahaina as a “national historic landmark”.
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Service → take → landmark
“If the fire wouldn’t have happened, then we wouldn’t be a new development,” Cox said.
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Cox → happen → ?
“But, because our houses burned down, we’re a new development.”
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we → burn → ?
Confusion and anger
Three years after the fire killed more than 100 people and destroyed roughly 2,000 residential buildings, only about 25% of homes have been rebuilt.
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% → kill → homes
To get mail, fire victims have to go to the main post office branch, which is more than two miles away.
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which → get → branch
Residents say there’s often only one clerk working, and lines can be out the door.
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lines → say → door
Opening times are limited.
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times → limit → ?
The office has PO boxes, but the cheapest ones, which can’t fit packages, are $250 per year.
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which → have → year
Downtown Lahaina used to have a post office, but it burned in the fire.
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it → use → fire
In a letter to residents last month, the USPS said it planned to permanently close that branch due to “irreparable damage”.
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it → say → damage
“Generations of people have lived here,” said Sara Clark, who has lived in Lahaina for nearly 40 years and says this situation is especially hard for the elderly.
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situation → live → elderly
“You have these kupuna who are used to getting their mail at home and are also used to walking to the store, and now they’re having to catch rides to go get their mail.”
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they → have → mail
Clark moved back to Lahaina with her husband Gerald in June.
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Clark → move → June
She said their mail was initially delivered for six weeks, but then just stopped.
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mail → say → weeks
They’d see the mail carrier drive by, she said, so didn’t realize anything had changed.
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anything → see → ?
Gerald said that led to being late on his car registration, because he didn’t get the DMV (department of motor vehicles) notice.
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he → say → notice
“Until we found out they were holding [our mail], we just didn’t know,” Gerald said.
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Gerald → find → mail
…and 45 more, not listed.
