USPS Is Closing More Post Offices, Effective Immediately
Hazardous weather concerns are prompting new closures from the agency.
The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) does its best to get our mail to us on an almost daily basis, as well as provide regular access to postal facilities across the U.S. But there are certain things out of the agency's control—including, of course, the weather. Last year, the USPS was forced to close hundreds of facilities in the South because of Hurricane Ian. Then this past winter, customers throughout the country saw their post offices shutter temporarily due to dangerous snowstorms. Now, new weather concerns are prompting dozens more closures, with several new additions just announced. Read on to find out about the latest USPS service suspensions.
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The USPS has already closed several post offices in Vermont.
Postal customers in Vermont have been dealing with service disruptions this week. In a July 10 update to its Service Alerts website, the USPS announced that it had "temporarily closed" 25 different post offices within the state.
This first set of shuttered facilities were located in the following cities and towns: Barnard, Bethel, Bondville, Bridgewater, Cavendish, Cuttingsville, East Wallingford, Gaysville, Jamaica, Killington, Londonderry, Ludlow, Mount Holly, Peru, Pittsfield, Plymouth, Proctorsville, Quechee, South Londonderry, Sharon, Stockbridge, Taftsville, Tunbridge, Weston, and Woodbury.
Two days later, on July 12, the USPS announced that it had reopened 20 of those post offices. But operations have not resumed at facilities in Bridgewater, Ludlow, South Londonderry, Weston, and Woodbury.
That same day, the Postal Service also revealed that it had closed an additional post office in Vermont—this time in Johnson, at the facility on 115 Lower Main Street.
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The facilities were closed because of flooding.
In two of the Postal Service's alerts from July 12, the agency indicated that post offices in Vermont were being shuttered temporarily "due to flooding." At the beginning of this week, the state was hit with intense rainstorms that flooded streets and prompted evacuations and closures in the capital of Montpelier, CNN reported.
"Make no mistake, the devastation and flooding we're experiencing across Vermont is historic and catastrophic," Vermont Gov. Phil Scott told reporters on July 11.
USPS Strategic Communications Specialist Steve Doherty also confirmed that was the reasoning for the post office closures in a previous statement to Best Life.
"Much of Vermont and portions of New Hampshire are dealing with severe flooding due to recent storms," he said. "Many stations that aren't underwater are inaccessible due to roads being washed out."
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The agency is now closing more locations.
Right now, there are six previously closed post offices in Vermont that have not yet reopened: Bridgewater, Johnson, Ludlow, South Londonderry, Weston, and Woodbury. And in the latest Service Alerts update on July 13, the USPS announced that it is closing four more facilities in the state.
These new closures impact post offices in Cambridge, East Barre, Greensboro Bend, and Montpelier—making for a total of 10 currently closed facilities in Vermont.
Best Life reached out to the USPS to confirm that the new post office closures are due to flooding, and we will update this story with the agency's response. But the National Weather Service (NWS) reported on July 14 that some parts of Vermont are already under new flood warnings, as more rainfall is expected this weekend.
In his previous statement, Doherty confirmed that the agency is working on "implementing continuation of operations plans" for some of the post offices, noting that they may need to relocate services for certain facilities "to neighboring communities until the water subsides and we can begin the cleanup operations necessary to get them back in place."
"We know that state, local and federal officials are working diligently to reopen the roads, which will allow us to move the mail throughout the state," Doherty added. "As areas are made accessible, we'll be attempting mail delivery where and when it's safe to do so."
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Another state has also been affected by flooding.
It's not just Vermont dealing with this issue. The storm also hit the Hudson Valley in New York and caused deadly flash floods in the area, The New York Times reported. Due to this, the USPS also closed two post offices in New York this week.
On July 10, the Postal Service announced that operations at been suspended at the Highland Falls Post Office. Then two days later, on July 12, the agency revealed that the same had just occurred at the Bear Mountain Post Office.
A spokesperson from the USPS previously confirmed to Best Life that both facilities had suffered water damage from the recent flooding.
"We apologize to our customers for the inconvenience and plan to have the Bear Mountain and Highland Falls Post Offices reopened as soon as possible," they said.
