Post office promises mail delivery today

“Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.” That slogan, commonly believed to be the creed of the U.S. Postal Service, is actually an inscription on a New York City Post Office. Nevertheless, it certainly doesn’t apply to our postal carriers here in Annandale.

Some houses, including mine, haven’t had mail delivery in more than a week, due “snowmageddon” or whatever you want to call the historic snowfall, followed by round 2. Annandale Postal Supervisor Carl Floyd assured me carriers would make every effort to deliver mail today to everyone, although it will likely be late.

Following the snowstorms, “we were instructing our carriers to make every delivery where they could do so safely,” Floyd says. “We did our best to get mail out to all our customers.” He maintains that 80 percent of people in the 22003 zip code got mail.

But he notes that the little postal vehicles are rear-wheel drive and not equipped for snow. And when streets were finally plowed, there was only one lane with nowhere to park on the street. Postal vehicles aren’t supposed to park in private driveways. For example, Moss Drive in Sleepy Hollow Woods was a particular challenge, he says. [Thanks, Diane, for the photo of neighbors digging a stuck mail truck out of the snow on Wayne Road.]

When I picked up my mail at the post office on Saturday, it was surprising how little there was after a week of non-delivery—just some junk mail and a nice valentine. Floyd blames the low volume on the airport closings. When you finally get mail delivery, your mailbox will likely be overloaded.