BALTIMORE, MD – The U.S. Postal Service is preparing for the arrival of Hurricane Sandy by advising customers that normal service operations in the path of the storm may be affected in the event of unsafe conditions such as high winds, flooding, or impassable roads.

Regular postal operations are expected to be in effect for today, Oct 29.  Depending on local conditions, some Post Offices may temporarily close their lobbies as Hurricane Sandy makes landfall. The Postal Service is preparing for Sandy’s arrival by advising customers to deposit outgoing mail today to ensure timely processing of mail destined for delivery outside the local area. If roads become impassable or unsafe for travel, mail delivery services may be curtailed, and mail collection schedules from mail collection boxes could be suspended.

Postal Service employees in the Baltimore Area will be working around-the-clock to secure the mail, postal facilities and equipment in advance of the arrival of Hurricane Sandy.

“We give every consideration to safety,” said USPS Baltimore District Manager Kevin McAdams. “We will make sure that our Postal employees are not in harm’s way while performing their duties and we will ensure that each Post Office is safe for our customers. We are keeping a close eye on the situation and will continue to do so throughout this week.”

The Postal Service will make plans to suspend services in the event a mandatory evacuation order is issued by local, state, or federal emergency management officials. Customer service operations in any area covered by a mandatory evacuation order will be suspended, including mail processing, mail delivery, scheduled collection of mail from mail collection boxes, bulk mail acceptance, Post Office box service and retail Post Office lobby services.  Drop shipment appointments for commercial mailers will also be suspended at closed facilities.

For the latest information on USPS service updates, check: http://about.usps.com/news/service-alerts/welcome.htm.

Postal Service employees in the area are being advised to check for changes to their scheduled work reporting status by contacting the USPS National Emergency Notification Hotline to determine if any special instructions have been issued.  The toll-free USPS National Emergency Notification Hotline for U.S. Postal Service employees is: 1-888-363-7462.

Additional information regarding postal operations within specific ZIP Code areas will be issued by the U.S. Postal Service as necessary.

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Please Note: For broadcast quality video and audio, photo stills and other media resources, visit the USPS Newsroom at http://about.usps.com/news/welcome.htm.

A self-supporting government enterprise, the U.S. Postal Service is the only delivery service that reaches every address in the nation — 151 million residences, businesses and Post Office™ Boxes. The Postal Service™ receives no tax dollars for operating expenses, and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations. With 32,000 retail locations and the most frequently visited website in the federal government, usps.com®, the Postal Service has annual revenue of more than $65 billion and delivers nearly 40 percent of the world’s mail. If it were a private sector company, the U.S. Postal Service would rank 35th in the 2011 Fortune 500. In 2011, Oxford Strategic Consulting ranked the U.S. Postal Service number one in overall service performance of the posts in the top 20 wealthiest nations in the world. Black Enterprise and Hispanic Business magazines ranked the Postal Service as a leader in workforce diversity. The Postal Service has been named the Most Trusted Government Agency for six years and the sixth Most Trusted Business in the nation by the Ponemon Institute.

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