Postal Service Keeps Delivering Mail -- Through Hurricane Sandy

As Hurricane Sandy began tearing up the East Coast, thousands evacuated their homes, schools closed, New York's transit system halted, the stock exchange fell quiet, federal offices in Washington, D.C., shut down, and most employers told their workers to stay home and keep dry. But a few employers did not: the U.S. Supreme Court, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Home Depot, Lowe's, and the U.S. Postal Service.

All Postal Service employees reported to work on Monday morning, according to USPS spokeswoman Darleen Reid, and while certain routes will be disrupted (such as evacuated areas of New York City), and a handful of coastal offices are closed, everywhere mail can be safely delivered, it will be. As far as Reid knows, the Postal Service has never failed to deliver mail to an area for a 24-hour period in its entire 237-year history, unless there were physical obstacles -- mounds of snow, flooded streets -- that made it impossible.