FORT MYERS BEACH, Fla. — What would you do if, for 3 months, you hadn’t received any mail?
That’s the reality one Fort Myers Beach resident is living in now.
No bills, no packages, nothing. He has a perfectly good mailbox standing outside his home but hasn't received any mail since before Hurricane Ian.
It’s an issue that is affecting plenty with a 33931 zip code.
"The last thing I would've expected was the postal service to come up short in this recovery effort.”
Fort Myers Beach resident Randy Woods is opening up about losing patience with the United States Post Office.
"If I can't get my mail, I can't pay my bills.”
And losing out on getting important documents and bills as he rebuilds after Hurricane Ian.
"We've experienced that it's not all getting where it's supposed to go," says Woods. "If you're trying to receive packages, you may not be able to get them. Then you have to find out a few weeks later where they ended up.”
Where they've ended up is a good question. Like many buildings on Fort Myers Beach, the post office was destroyed. All that's left standing is a shell of its former self.
USPS has set up a temporary site for those in Fort Myers Beach to pick up their mail at the Six Mile Cypress annex building and at the Fort Myers processing center at Jetport Loop, both miles away from Woods.
“I thought they could set up an alternate site right here within a couple of miles," said Woods. "I don't know what their requirements are to establish a temporary post office, but it just doesn't make sense to me.”
The only deliveries being made are with FedEx, who we saw making deliveries during our interview with Woods. Everything else, he says, is now being sent to his wife's businesses forwarding his mail there. The only issue with that though...
"Now they're using our business address as my mailing address and I'm right here with a mailbox.”
Ready and waiting for his mail to be delivered along with others on Fort Myers Beach, too.
“I'm just asking for help- for everybody," said Woods. "All of the islands, people that don't live on the beach but have a beach zip code. I think it's worth saying something about.”
Because it is a federal holiday, Fox 4 will work to get a comment from USPS when they are back open tomorrow.
