POSTAL (DIS)ORDER COMPUTERS KNOCKED OUT ON BUSIEST MAIL DAY.Byline: GIDEON RUBIN Special to the Daily News PALMDALE -- Snail-mail chaos met high-tech disaster Monday in Palmdale's busiest post office at the most inopportune in·op·por·tune adj. Inappropriate or ill-timed; not opportune. in·op  por·tune of times. On what the U.S. Postal Service The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) processes and delivers mail to individuals and businesses within the United States. The service seeks to improve its performance through the development of efficient mail-handling systems and operates its own planning and engineering programs. calls the year's busiest mailing day, a power line pole felled by a hit-and-run driver hit-and-run driver n → conductor que tras atropellar a algn se da a la fuga hit-and-run driver n → chauffard m hit-and-run driver hit n triggered a computer system crash at the east Palmdale post office, leaving customers waiting for hours to send holiday gifts. Law enforcement officials said witnesses told them that a man apparently in his mid-20s crashed a car into a pole on 41st Street East and Palmdale Boulevard, then fled in another vehicle. The incident, which occurred about 7:30 a.m., caused a power outage Noun 1. power outage - equipment failure resulting when the supply of power fails; "the ice storm caused a power outage" power failure equipment failure, breakdown - a cessation of normal operation; "there was a power breakdown" in parts of east Palmdale. Power was restored in most areas within an hour of the incident, but the outage out·age n. 1. A quantity or portion of something lacking after delivery or storage. 2. A temporary suspension of operation, especially of electric power. triggered a computer crash in the post office at 2220 E. Palmdale Blvd., which had opened at 7 a.m. It was about 11 a.m. when the post office computers were up and running again. The Monday before Christmas is traditionally the year's busiest mailing day. The U.S. Postal Service projected that its total postmarking volume would reach 2.8 million Monday, more than double its 1.3 million average. Fontennette lamented. ``When I walked in, I thought the line was very short for mailing Christmas packages, but then I found out why,'' Lancaster resident Kate Laferriere said. ``I've been on lines where I had to wait an hour or more to send Christmas packages, so it doesn't seem that busy, but many people are getting turned away.'' Customers were directed to the tiny post office branch at 829 W. Palmdale Blvd. or to a contract station on 10th Street East and Sierra Highway Sierra Highway is a road in Southern California, United States. It runs from Tunnel Station near the north limit of the City of Los Angeles, where it intersects with San Fernando Road and Foothill Boulevard, as well as Interstate 5, and continues north to Mojave, mostly paralleling , Postmaster postmaster - The electronic mail contact and maintenance person at a site connected to the Internet or UUCPNET. Often, but not always, the same as the admin. The Internet standard for electronic mail (RFC 822) requires each machine to have a "postmaster" address; usually it is Robert Montanez said. ``You can't control what happens when you have an accident that hits the power lines,'' Montanez said. ``We just deal with it, like the rest of the (Edison) customers.'' Palmdale resident Patricia Fleming and her son David arrived at the post office with about a half dozen boxes of candy and cookies to send to her son-in-law, an Army sergeant stationed in Iraq. ``I expected it to be busy but I didn't expect the computers to be down,'' she said. gideon.rubin(at)dailynews.com (661) 267-7802 CAPTION(S): 2 photos Photo: (1 -- 2) Southern California Edison Southern California Edison (or SCE Corp), the largest subsidiary of Edison International (NYSE: EIX), is the primary electricity supply company for much of Southern California. It provides 11 million people with electricity. crews, at left, work to restore power after a failure at the worst of times caused the east Palmdale post office's computer system to crash Monday. Inside the post office, Patricia Fleming, right, waits in line to mail packages to her son-in-law, serving in the Army in Iraq. John Lazar/Staff Photographer |
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