Storm contributes to ‘busiest’ postal day

Today is expected to be the busiest day of the year for post offices, and last week's storm may have made it even more hectic in the Corridor.

Iowa City Postmaster Doug Curtiss said outgoing mail volume increased sharply after the snowstorm.

“We're getting hit pretty hard,” Curtiss said. “I haven't run the numbers yet, but it seems like Friday, Saturday and Sunday the volume was about the same as last year. I'll know more at the end of the month.”

Larry Bock, officer in charge and acting Cedar Rapids postmaster, said postal employees expected to process about 700,000 pieces of mail and packages leaving the city.

“Our normal activity would be 200,000 to 250,000 pieces of mail or packages,” Bock said. “We anticipate that we're going to be about 10 percent down from a year ago because of the economy.”

Nationwide, the U.S. Postal Service expected to process 839 million pieces of mail. By comparison, the post office averages 583 million pieces of mail on a typical day.

The U.S. Postal Service expected 97 million customers would come to the post office, while 41 million used online shipping from their home or office.

Storm contributes to ‘busiest' postal day