# What about the USPS mail delivery after Hurricane Harvey?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-about-the-usps-mail-delivery-after-hurricane-harvey/795349>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 2, 2017, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-about-the-usps-mail-delivery-after-hurricane-harvey/795349 "2017-09-02T20:19:11Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Mr\_Quatro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/bc8723/32.png) [@Mr\_Quatro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Quatro)\
**Post date:** [September 2, 2017, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-about-the-usps-mail-delivery-after-hurricane-harvey/795349/1 "2017-09-02T20:19:11Z")

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What happens to all of the USPS mail that doesn’t get delivered in the Hurricane Harvey areas of South Texas, Houston/Beaumont and now Louisiana. I saw a lot of mail boxes on those flooded streets. Just the junk mail must add up to tons … surely they can’t deliver all of the mail due to know one even knows who is home and who is not.

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**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\
**Post date:** [September 2, 2017, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-about-the-usps-mail-delivery-after-hurricane-harvey/795349/2 "2017-09-02T21:41:39Z")

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They have temporarily suspended service.  
[hron.com/news/houston-weather/hurricaneharvey/](http://hron.com/news/houston-weather/hurricaneharvey/)

If people move they need to file forwarding addresses.

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**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\
**Post date:** [September 2, 2017, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-about-the-usps-mail-delivery-after-hurricane-harvey/795349/3 "2017-09-02T21:57:43Z")

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> [@Mr\_Quatro](#):
>
> surely they can’t deliver all of the mail due to know one even knows who is home and who is not.

I think you might be a little unclear on how junk mail works…

The bigger issue is that all the mail goes through local branches once it arrives in town, and until they’ve all got power back and it’s safe to return to work, the mail carriers can’t do much. Anything, really.

Not even considering all the mail that got soaked when the flooding occurred.