Following Hurricane Maria, the USPS® mail carriers were hailed as heroes. With power outages and Internet connections nonexistent, 99 of the 128 post offices in Puerto Rico continued to deliver mail providing much needed connections and comfort between island residents and their families around the world. Since the beginning of October, the Postal Service™ has been delivering letters and care packages to family members desperate for news.
“We might know the general area where people need help, but the mail carriers are the only ones who really have the exact addresses,” said a FEMA worker, who remained anonymous because he was not authorized to speak to news media. In Guaynabo, a suburb of San Juan, urban customers whose concrete homes were not smashed by the storm have the chore of recovering their blown-away mailboxes or building new ones. Hurricane or not, the Postal Service will not drop off mail without a designated box. One resident said the return of the mail service was comforting, a sign of a return to normalcy. According to OMG, another resident greeted her postman with her mailbox under her arm.