DAMAGE AT NORTH HOUSTON USPS BUILDING CONTINUES TO HAVE EFFECT ON MAIL SERVICES

  

Mail services continue to move at a slow pace, following storm damage to a United States Postal Service (USPS) facility in north Houston.

The processing and distribution facility resumed partial operations Sunday, after a section of its roof collapsed Thursday due to heavy rains from Tropical Storm Imelda. The building is the largest sorting facility in the country.

Services in and around Brenham and Washington County have seen delays due to the building’s closure.

According to the emergency management agency for Jasper, Newton, and Sabine Counties in east Texas, the post office annexes designated to take the load from the main sorting facility are also closed because of the storm. It is not known how long they will be closed.

In the meantime, mail is being sent to Corpus Christi and Austin for handling and sorting. Dallas has also been alerted that it may need to help sort Houston mail.

The agency’s Facebook post from Saturday said the postal service is working to lease other spaces and bring sorting machines from around the country to get mail sorted and moving.

Services are suspended at post offices within ZIP codes 775xx through 777xx. In addition, an embargo has been placed on Priority Mail Express in ZIP codes 770xx through 778xx.

A statement from the USPS Monday said more than 2,100 postal employees are working around-the-clock at the Houston facility, in order to quickly restore full services. It said it is processing all mail and packages as quickly as it can, and any items customers are expecting will delivered as soon as possible.