Cedar Rapids Post Office Suspends All Mail Delivery

In Wake of Flooding, Power Outages, Letter Carriers Instructed to Return from Streets

Cedar Rapids, Iowa — As a result of this week's severe flooding and prolonged power outages throughout the Cedar Rapids area, the U.S. Postal Service's Des Moines-based Hawkeye District has instructed all letter carriers to return to their respective delivery offices.

The directive to letter carriers came at noon on Thursday, June 12, and affects more than 130 city and rural carriers in the greater Cedar Rapids metro area. Delivery operations are expected to resume where it is safe and possible to do so on Friday June 13, 2008. Most of the Main Post Office's mail sorting operations have been moved to a temporary location in the area.

“Postal Service employees have earned a reputation for overcoming all types of weather-related obstacles while delivering for the American people,” said Hawkeye District Manager Doug Morrow. “However, our employees' health and safety are our first priority, and we're hopeful of resuming regular mail deliveries in Cedar Rapids tomorrow.”

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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.