Blizzard of carriers rushes late gifts

DENVER – An army of 1,500 mail carriers fanned out across Colorado and Wyoming on Christmas Eve, making rare Sunday deliveries to get hundreds of thousands of storm-delayed packages to their destinations on time.

“This is an unprecedented effort,” Postal Service spokesman Al DeSarro said. Normally about 100 carriers would be working on Sunday, he said.

A blizzard dropped up to 3 1/2 feet of snow on Colorado and Wyoming last week, disrupting mail service for parts of three days amid the Christmas delivery crunch. The storm also shut down roads, businesses, schools and airports – including Denver International, the nation’s fifth-busiest.

“There were flights of packages that didn’t get in until Saturday morning,” he said.

DeSarro said 300,000 packages had arrived at post offices in the two states on Saturday and Sunday.

DeSarro said all the extra carriers distributing mail on Sunday had volunteered to work.