March 13, 2007

California Wildfires
The Postal Service continues to monitor the impact wildfires in the Anaheim Hills, Orange and Corona areas are having on mail delivery.

At this time, there is a voluntary evacuation in Orange affecting only 200 deliveries. The order was expected to be lifted at 10 a.m. local time today. USPS is making all deliveries where permitted.

We will continue to post information as it becomes available.

Their visit came the day after the Sun-Times reported Chicago's in-town, overnight delivery service is the worst in the nation and affects almost every neighborhood.

After meeting with executive staff and touring two post offices, deputy postmaster general Patrick Donahoe said he's confident Chicago postmaster Gloria E. Tyson can turn things around. "You will start seeing change...in the next couple weeks."

Donahoe, who visited the Jackson Park and Fort Dearborn post offices, said Chicago is hiring about 100 new mail carriers and launching community advisory committees to address complaints.

"Everybody deserves great service and it's our responsibility to deliver it and that's what we're going to do and Gloria will make sure it gets done," Donahoe said.

Anyone interested in joining a committee may call (312) 983-8392 during business hours.

Mail Reportedly Discovered
For now, mail delays here remain a reality. On Sunday, loads of undelivered mail—much unsorted and postmarked in mid-February—was found at the downtown processing plant and shipped to several neighborhood offices, sources said.

A South Side office received about 90,000 pieces of mail from mid-February and early March, a source said.

A spokesman for the post office's Great Lakes Region said he couldn't confirm those reports, but that any "backlog in the system" will be reduced as improvements are implemented.

At the Ravenswood post office, which until recently had 16 routes without permanent carriers, mail delivery isn't the only concern.