The power outage that dimmed several U.S. cities also slowed down the U.S. Postal Service, Federal Express and UPS, meaning customers in some affected areas did not get delivery on Friday.
Mark Saunders, a spokesperson for the USPS, said many Friday deliveries were suspended in Cleveland; Detroit; Royal Oak, MI; and the New York City metropolitan area, with the exception of Staten Island.
In general, he said, customers mailing from or to the northeastern U.S. should expect mail delays of a day or two.
“Our logistics staff manning our National Control Center has been working around-the-clock with our nine area control centers,” Saunders said. “The centers work together to monitor and manage nationwide mail flow to determine if mail moving on trucks or planes should be diverted to nearby processing plants.”
“The Postal Service has contingency plans and backup transportation systems in place to keep the mail moving following blizzards, floods, fires, earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes or any other natural disaster,” he added. “Power outages are no exception. Once power is restored, we will do whatever it takes to get the mail promptly delivered.”
For Memphis, TN-based Federal Express, the blackout meant flight delays and limited pick-up and delivery in affected areas, said spokesman Steve Barber.
FedEx will work throughout the weekend to move customer shipments through the system as quickly as possible, said Barber, noting that the company’s money back guarantee would not apply to packages scheduled for delivery on August 15.
UPS spokesman Norman Black said the biggest problem that carrier faced was the large number of customers who didn’t open for business on Friday, and thus weren’t able to take delivery on packages.
Like FedEx, Atlanta-based UPS will work through the weekend to get back on schedule; Black anticipated deliveries would be back on track by Monday evening.
Surprisingly, there was little impact on the air side, he said, noting that with the except of JFK Airport, by late Thursday evening UPS was able to get cargo flights out of other airports in the New York area.
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