Flood Forces Waterloo Post Office to Suspend All Retail Operations

Postal Employees Will Continue to Sort Mail at Temporary Location

Waterloo, Iowa — Due to the severe flooding in east-central Iowa, officials with U.S. Postal Service's Des Moines-based Hawkeye District have suspended all Retail, Post Office Box and Mail Caller Services at the Waterloo Main Post Office, located at 300 Sycamore. The Waterloo Post Office also has suspended the acceptance of business mail at the office's Bulk Mail Entry Unit (BMEU) until further notice.

The agency encourages impacted employees to contact the agency's National Emergency Notification Hotline at 1-888-363-7462.

"We continue to look for an alternate site for retail and window services," said Waterloo Postmaster Greg Barnes. "Members of the District staff and I are looking at our options, but, obviously, rising water is making life difficult for many of our neighbors in Iowa."

Managers at the Hawkeye District office will continue to assess transportation and delivery routes in the affected areas. Each of Iowa's approximately 800 Post Offices operates with a "Continuity of Operations Plan" (COOP), which provides for alternate transportation, delivery, mail processing and Retail service options in the event of a natural disaster.

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An independent federal agency, the U.S. Postal Service is the only delivery service that visits every address in the nation, 146 million homes and businesses, six days a week. It has 37,000 retail locations and relies on the sale of postage, products, and services to pay for operating expenses, not tax dollars. The Postal Service has annual revenues of $75 billion and delivers nearly half the world’s mail.