Damage caused to the airport airmail facility after Hurricane Fabian has slowed incoming mail down but the Postmaster General and staff are trying to work as quickly as possible to get things back to normal.

The roof of the facility was torn off due to the high winds and the airmail services along with staff had to be moved to the General Post Office in Hamilton.

"The facility will be out for at least six months but we're working on a solution to find a new temporary facility and then to reorganise and catch up with the backlog," said Postmaster General George Outerbridge and he added that catching up should take less than two weeks.

Mr. Outerbridge, along with his colleagues Velda Smith the assistant Postmaster General central/west and Vernon Wears the superintendent of delivery and maintenance explained that mail is now being sorted at the General Post Office but there was not enough room to lay it out and sort it. He added that outgoing airmail was not being affected by the loss of the facility.

The lack of space means the date sequence is off so mail may arrive together with different dates as it has been mixed.

A temporary facility will hopefully be available by next week, Mr. Outerbridge said but in the long run the Airmail Facility will be based back at the airport.

"We're asking the public to please be patient because this is a difficult situation.

"The staff have done well and have stepped up and met the challenge because the staff are the ones who make it happen and they are the ones who have made them happen," Mr. Outerbridge said.

He added that he would have more concrete answers when a temporary facility was located and once he had a meeting with the staff to assess when the mail system would get back to normal.