Newton Citizen

Photo by Howard Reed

As of midday Tuesday, it looked like Newton County residents might not receive mail for a second consecutive day.

The U.S. Postal Service did not deliver on Monday, and Postal Carrier Annex Manager Jerry Romero said Tuesday wasn't looking much better.

"Right now, (the answer is) no," he said. "I did make an attempt. We haven't gotten first class mail in from Atlanta. But I personally did attempt to deliver some mail that we have before I sent the carriers out. But it's too dangerous out there."

Romero said the roads are very icy and there's still about 2 to 3 inches of snow surrounding many mailboxes, and "I was sliding into mailboxes."

If mail can be delivered from the Atlanta office, Romero said carriers will make another attempt later in the afternoon.

"We just apologize for not having the mail to deliver," he said.

Mail carriers in Rockdale County were at work Monday and Tuesday, but they also had no mail to deliver. Lori Burch-Farrow, carrier supervisor at the Conyers post office on Ga. Highway 138, said mail trucks were unable to travel on Interstate 20 and that halted local mail delivery.

Road conditions were a concern for carriers, she said. Though the main roads were somewhat passable due to some travel being done, the side streets and secondary roads on mail routes remained a question mark.

"That's the one thing we fear. The main roads are OK, but when a carrier turns off to get to a mail box we don't know how difficult that will be," Burch-Farrow said.

Mail delivery was canceled Tuesday following a regional conference call, with plans to resume delivery today.