A postal worker caused a bit of a scare Thursday morning after she thought she was exposed to a white powder while working at the national distribution center.
The woman was handling packages when she noticed a powder coating one of them. Coworkers drove her to nearby Methodist Hospital in Dallas just before 6 a.m. and took her to the emergency room.
ER personnel requested the Dallas Fire Department's HAZMAT team be called to the ER to run tests on the substance. More than an hour after she arrived, Dallas Fire Rescue determined that the powder was harmless.
While conducting those tests, firefighters had blocked the main entrance to the ER, forcing ambulances to park in an outer parking lot and to roll their patients into the hospital.
Methodist resumed normal operations, and reopened the ER entrance, at about 7 a.m.
