USPS Is Suspending Services in These Places, Effective Now
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The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) has tens of thousands of facilities and letter carriers situated across the country to meet our mail needs on a near-daily basis. But if your local post office is not open during regular hours or your mail hasn’t been delivered on a day it usually is, there’s probably a good reason why. As it turns out, hazardous conditions are now affecting services in multiple areas. Read on to find out where and why the USPS is suspending services.
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Different disruptions can lead to service issues for postal customers. But the USPS tries to warn customers when this is happening on its Service Alerts website . With this tool, you can find “current, frequently-updated information about whether mail is being delivered to your neighborhood or if your local Post Office is open,” the Postal Service explains.
The most recent alerts indicate that the USPS has suspended services at three post offices in California. According to the updates, the affected facilities are located in the towns of Scott Bar, Seiad Valley, and Washington.
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A hazardous natural disaster prompted the Postal Service’s decision to close the Scott Bar, Seiad Valley, and Washington facilities. According to the alerts from Aug. 16 and 17, all three of the California post offices are currently “temporarily closed due to wildfire.”
Both Scott Bar and Seiad Valley are located near the northern part of the state, right near the Oregon border. These two towns are battling the Head Fire, which is burning in the Klamath National Forest, The Siskiyou Daily News reported. As of Aug. 17, this wildfire has grown to approximately 4,000 acres, and none of it has been contained, according to the newspaper. Evacuation orders are also currently in place for people living in the area.
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The USPS said that customers from the three California post offices can access retail services at alternative facilities during the closures. But according to separate local press releases, the wildfires also mean that deliveries are suspended.
Mandatory evacuations due to the wildfires in Siskiyou County and Nevada County have “resulted in delivery impacts for some evacuated customers served by” the Seiad Valley, Scott Bar, and Washington post offices, the USPS stated in its two releases from Aug. 16 and 17.
Seiad Valley Post Office customers are being directed to the Happy Camp Post Office to pick up their mail. Meanwhile, Scott Bar Post Office customers should go to the Fort Jones Post Office, and Washington Post Office customers should visit the Nevada City Post Office to do the same.
“This is a rapidly changing situation, and the USPS is proud to serve our local communities,” the agency said in its local releases. “We ask for patience as we hold our solemn duties to provide the safest, fastest, and most efficient method of providing mail service to our residents.”
Best Life reached out to the USPS to see if there is any information on when the Scott Bar, Seiad Valley, and Washington facilities will reopen, and we will update this story with their response.
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Postal customers in California are not the only ones dealing with service disruptions due to wildfires.
On Aug. 9, the Postal Service updated its Service Alerts website to announce that it had “temporarily suspended operations” at two post offices in Hawaii: Lahaina and Downtown Lahaina. Then on Aug. 11, the agency issued another alert to let the public know that these two facilities were still closed due to ongoing wildfires in Maui.
“Effective immediately, mail service for customers of the Lahaina Main Post Office and Lahaina Downtown Post Office will be temporarily relocated to the Wailuku Post Office, as detailed below,” the Postal Service added in a separate local press release . “USPS will make every effort to resume operations in Lahaina after west Maui roads become accessible.”
- Source: https://about.usps.com/newsroom/service-alerts/
- Source: https://about.usps.com/newsroom/service-alerts/residential/welcome.htm
- Source: https://about.usps.com/newsroom/local-releases/ca/2023/0816-impacted-siskiyou-county-pos.htm
- Source: https://about.usps.com/newsroom/local-releases/ca/2023/0817-washington-po-impacted-by-wildfires.htm
- Source: https://about.usps.com/newsroom/local-releases/hi/2023/0811-lahaina-residents-can-pick-up-mail-at-wailuku-po.htm
See a Sticker on Your Mailbox? Don’t Touch It, USPS Says
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Your mailbox serves a very simple purpose: receiving mail and leaving outgoing mail for a carrier to pick up. Still, some of us enjoy sprucing up our mailboxes, adding personal flair, color, or even decals to help an otherwise standard mailbox stand out. But if you notice a paw print sticker on your mailbox that you didn’t add, don’t start peeling it off just yet—it’s likely part of a program run by the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) to help keep carriers safe. Read on to find out what these stickers mean and why you shouldn’t remove them.
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In 2023, more than 5,800 Postal Service workers were attacked by dogs while delivering mail, up from 5,300 in 2022, according to a USPS press release.
Larger cities had the highest numbers of attacks, with Los Angeles, Houston, Chicago, St. Louis, and Cleveland claiming the top five spots.
“Even though a customer’s dog is friendly to most people, it can always have a bad day,” said letter carrier Tara Snyder . “I know, from experience, even when a dog is in the house, customers need to make sure their door is secure so their dog can’t push it open and bite the letter carrier.”
To her point, the USPS writes that “all dogs can bite, even those perceived as nonaggressive.” In fact, many of the attacks that letter carriers report are by dogs whose owners told them, “My dog won’t bite.”
Such an attack can result in consequences for the homeowner, too. According to data from the Insurance Information Institute, the average cost per insurance claim for a dog bite is $64,555, the USPS states.
“When a postal employee suffers an injury, the owner could be responsible for medical bills, lost wages, uniform replacement costs, and pain and suffering for the employee,” they explain.
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To combat dog bites, the Postal Service shared tips on how pet owners can “support safe mail delivery.” These include keeping dogs inside the house or behind a fence, away from the door or in another room, or on a leash.
“Pet owners also should remind children not to take mail directly from a letter carrier as the dog may view the carrier as a threat to the child,” they state.
Mail carriers also follow protocol to keep them aware of areas where dogs might be present, and they’re equipped with scanners to remind them of possible dog hazards, as well as dog warning cards that are added during mail sorting.
In 2020, the USPS added another preventive measure: the PAWS Program . First introduced in Pennsylvania, the program uses mailbox stickers to keep carriers safe.
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The PAWS Program uses color-coded stickers affixed to mailboxes to inform mail carriers about dogs in the area. An orange sticker with a black paw print tells carriers that there is a dog at this home, while a yellow sticker with a black paw print tells them there is a dog at the next house.
Citizens are informed ahead of time that the stickers may appear on their mailboxes. In a notice sent to Lakewood, Ohio, residents, the Postal Service wrote, “Carriers will soon be placing a paw sticker on mailboxes to indicate that a dog or dogs live in the area —yellow indicates dog nearby/orange indicates dog at residence. The sticker will act as a reminder to the carrier that they should proceed with caution, especially when delivering packages to the door.”
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Removing these stickers may do more harm than good, as your mail service can be halted if your carrier feels unsafe. Not only does this affect the home of the dog owner, but it also applies to the entire neighborhood, the USPS said in a previous press release . Service isn’t restored in these instances “until the aggressive dog is properly restrained.”
At the end of the day, these stickers are put in place to “reduce the risk of dog bites and attacks that occur while delivering mail,” which is just another reason you should leave the sticker on your mailbox.
“We all love our dogs,” Kimberly Tilley , acting postmaster for Winston-Salem, told WGHP. “We love our animals, but we … have to take responsibility to protect the carrier and the people around us as well from our animals.”
Tilley added that dog bites are more common than you think, and they can be traumatic for carriers. “Once a carrier has been bit, it sets some fear in them long term for the rest of their life,” she told the outlet.
However, although these stickers are strongly recommended, if you object to having a sticker placed on your mailbox, you can opt out , Kyle Stevens , Southwest Carrier Annex station manager in South Dakota, told KELO in 2021. To do so, the first step would be to contact your local post office.
This story has been updated to include additional entries, fact-checking, and copy-editing.
