The U.S. Postal Service hasn't abandoned Santa Rosa, Calif., where hundreds of people are coping with total losses of their homes from an explosive wildfire. The scene in Santa Rosa has been compared with an apocalypse — but that didn't stop a mail truck from making the rounds in at least one devastated neighborhood this week.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wsegE01zUE#action=share
Captured on video by a drone piloted by freelancer Douglas Thron, the mail truck's trip through the Coffey Park neighborhood is by turns eerie and touching. With smoke still clouding the air, the USPS carrier drives up to houses that were reduced to charred skeletal frames to drop off letters and other mail in the mailboxes that are still standing. For much of the video, the white truck is the only sign of life and normalcy.
The video raises a central question, with houses reduced to rubble and much of the area under a mandatory evacuation order and curfew: Who's going to get that mail?
An answer comes from the San Jose Mercury News — which reports that residents had requested the mail to be left at their addresses, rather than keeping it at a central office. The newspaper relays this statement from San Francisco District Manager Noemi Luna: