KIRKWOOD — Residents across the St. Louis area are reporting empty mailboxes, seldom-seen letter carriers and other issues with mail delivery since a storm dumped as much as a foot of snow and ice on the region more than a week ago.

Complaints have come in from Creve Coeur, Kirkwood, south St. Louis and other corners. Some residents report going 10 days or more without service.

"I haven't seen a U.S. mail truck in 2½ weeks now," an incredulous Kirkwood resident, Sue Haumueller, said Wednesday in an interview. "I don't know what in the heck they're doing."

Tara Jarrett, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Post Office, confirmed that weather has caused issues.

"The snow and ice continue to make deliveries difficult," Jarrett told a reporter in an email. "Delivery service may be delayed or curtailed when street or walkways present hazardous conditions. Any mail that has been curtailed is attempted the next delivery day."

People are also reading…

Jarrett didn't say how many customers are affected, nor when the delays might end.

The storm arrived Sunday night, Jan. 5, first laying a base of ice and sleet on area roadways. The snow came Monday, dumping anywhere from several inches to over a foot on the St. Louis region. The ice and snow together snarled roadways and shut down schools, businesses and government offices.

Then the cold continued, leaving piles of snow and sheets of ice all over.

A lot of mail carriers couldn't make it to work after the storm, a woman who works at the post office annex in Kirkwood said Wednesday. That includes workers at the processing plant in Hazelwood, where Kirkwood gets it mail.

Mail trucks couldn't get out of the downtown St. Louis processing plant, either, on Jan. 6 and Jan. 7, the first days following the storm, said a Kirkwood mail carrier.

And both said clerks weren't getting to the plants to sort the mail.

In St. Louis city, a woman in the Lindenwood Park neighborhood complained neither she nor her neighbors had gotten mail since Jan. 3. She walked to her local post office Monday and was told that, unless she had a post office box, all of the mail was already out for delivery.

On its website, the U.S. Post Office lists several conditions that can prevent mail delivery. They include a blocked mailbox and hazardous conditions.

Customers are required to ensure the carrier has access to the mail box.

"Proper access includes the removal of large accumulations of snow from the area around the curb line receptacles and from sidewalks leading to door or other house-mounted receptacles," the Post Office said.

Mail is also delayed, the Post Office said, when streets or walkways are hazardous.

If the carrier can't get to the box, the Post Office recommends alternatives such as customers arrange for a neighbor to get the mail instead or pick up their mail at a local post office annex.

Haumueller, the Kirkwood resident, posted about her mail troubles on social media Tuesday. "Where has our mail gone?" she asked neighbors.

Her query unleashed a torrent of replies from people with the same experience.

A few admitted that mounds of packed snow and ice were so hard to budge that they couldn't clear a path for carriers.

But Haumueller said the driveways on her block are clear. She said she has two bills that aren't automatically deducted from her bank account and she is waiting for statements in the mail.

Haumueller grew up hearing the informal motto associated with the Post Office: "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds."

But on Wednesday, she scoffed: "That does not apply here. Who knows why."

Jarrett, the Post Office spokeswoman, said carriers' safety is the agency's top priority and they are trying to deliver as much mail as possible.

She urged customers to contact usps.com to report problems.

Sign up for our Crime & Courts newsletter

Get the latest in local public safety news with this weekly email.