Hurricane Harvey continues to wreak havoc in Texas and parts of Louisiana. You will have seen images and news reports with roads underwater and dreadful scenes of damage, death and dislocation. We hope the disaster is now starting to ebb at last but rebuilding will obviously take time.
Needless to say, delays on ecommerce deliveries because f Hurricane Harvey are nothing when you consider the very real, personal and devastating impact this act of nature has caused. Many people have lost loved ones, homes and treasured belongs. Communities have been obliterated and there are millions of heartbreaking tales.
Ecommerce concerns have been responding to the disaster and, suffice to say, operations have been delayed and incapacitated.
Specific companies have made statements: Amazon said: “Customers in the flood-impacted areas should expect delays in receiving their Amazon orders until the floods subside. We are continuing to check in with employees to confirm their well-being and safety, and our facilities have been minimally impacted by the floods or storm.”
UPS say (and you can read their related thread here) that 728 ZIP codes in Texas and 4 in Louisiana are seriously disrupted.
USPS says that all mail is “secure and safe” and delivery decisions are being being made “on a location-by-location basis, depending on the severity of conditions.”
The US national carrier USPS advised: “The Postal Service activates it continuity of operations plan to offload mail at designated sites for impacted processing centers and, as necessary, for post offices. Additionally, using service alerts, we notify commercial mailers that we are unable to accept drop shipments but redirect in accordance with those plans.”
“Our employees are making every effort to serve all of our customers affected by this storm,” said Southern Area VP Shaun Mossman. “We will continue to deliver mail and packages where we can, but the safety of our employees always comes first.”
We extend our best wishes to any marketplace sellers who can’t operate as usual after Harvey. Hopefully soon the chaos will abate. And if you’re shopping from someone who might have been affected we urge you to be understanding and forgiving if the goods don’t get to you on time.
