Day off means double work for postal carriers
United States postal carrier Kim Brosdahl walks her Charles City route Wednesday afternoon with a bundle about twice as big as it would typically be for this time of year, because mail delivery had been cancelled Wednesday due to the extreme cold. Press photo by Bob Steenson
United States postal carrier Kim Brosdahl walks her Charles City route Wednesday afternoon with a bundle about twice as big as it would typically be for this time of year, because mail delivery had been cancelled Wednesday due to the extreme cold. Press photo by Bob Steenson
By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com
Like in many jobs, a day off at the Post Office just means twice the work when you get back.
The United States Postal Service suspended all mail delivery and many other operations on Wednesday in all of Iowa and part of Minnesota and Wisconsin because of the extreme cold forecast.
For mail carriers, it meant double the load on Thursday.
USPS carrier Kim Brosdahl half-laughed, half-groaned while walking her route Thursday afternoon when she was asked if she was carrying twice as much as usual.
“Yes,” she said, “including twice as many of the Press.”
Mail subscribers to the Press got both their Wednesday and Thursday editions on Thursday because of no mail delivery on Wednesday.
The Postal Service called off mail delivery again Thursday for large parts of six states — but not Iowa — as the polar vortex cold snap continued. USPS on Wednesday had announced no mail in parts of Michigan (including Detroit), Indiana, Illinois (including Chicago and Lakeland), northern Ohio, Western Pennsylvania and western New York.
According to the National Weather Service, Charles City hit the coldest wind chill in the state Tuesday night at 11:55 when a temperature of minus 26 combined with a wind speed of 28 mph to produce a wind chill of minus 60.3 degrees.
The low for the week was minus 29 degrees, hit at 5:15 a.m. Thursday. Wednesday’s low was minus 28. Neither of those marks set records.
The forecast for the weekend is … umm … a polar opposite of the midweek weather. The forecast for Saturday is for a high of 39, followed by Sunday at 42 and Monday at 34. From minus 29 to 42 is a swing of more than 70 degrees.
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