The 2007 tornado that hit Greensburg, Kansas, left this remnant of a collection box smattered with mud and a shard of wood driven through the box’s seam.
Postal inspectors respond to any disaster, man-made or natural, in which the safety of postal workers or the security of the mail is at risk. Simple postal change of address forms were even used in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina to locate and reunite separated families. Inspectors work to find, secure, and deliver valuable mail to dispersed and traumatized people. Making sure that much needed checks, information, and medications in the mail are delivered as soon as possible is one step in returning lives to a sense of normalcy.
Postal inspectors were on hand the very next day to retrieve the mail from the U.S. Post Office Church Street Station after debris from the nearby 9/11 World Trade Center attack severely damaged the building.
Postal inspectors were deployed to western Pennsylvania following a devastating flood, which was caused by a massive thunderstorm on July 19-20, 1977. These jeeps, swept away by the enormous force of the floodwaters, were recovered half a mile from the Windber Post Office.
Postal Inspectors Regnier and Lynch filed this two-page memo about their findings and actions at the site of the wrecked Hindenburg dirigible at Lakehurst, New Jersey, on May 6, 1937. One of the inspectors’ main duties to recover and secure the mail from the crash was outlined in point 4 of their preliminary report about the Hindenburg.
