Poplarville residents will be unable to enter the local post office due to a collapse of the roof at the building, but staff at the local postal office are working to ensure all postal services will continue while repairs are made.

On Sunday, Jan. 2 at 4 a.m. the Poplarville Post Office rooftop collapsed, fortunately, no one was in the building at the time of the incident so no injuries occurred, according to a written response from Debbie Fetterly, Communications Programs Specialist with the U.S Postal Service.

Structural engineers were on site Monday to assess the damages and personnel with the Poplarville Police Department and Fire Department assisted with assessing the security risks, said Poplarville Mayor Louise Smith.

“They (USPS Postal Service) said we are okay, our concern was the structure of the building and that the building would not collapse,” said Smith.

Due to the damage, the Poplarville location of the Post Office is temporarily closed pending a repair of the roof.

“Our priority is the safety of our customers and our employees,” said Fetterly in the emailed response.

Mail and package delivery will continue during the temporary closure of the Poplarville Post Office. Customers may use Click-N-Ship to create shipping labels and pay for postage online at usps.com/ship, Fetterly said in the emailed response.

Customers may also schedule a free package pick up, where a carrier will pick up a package or packages during the regular delivery of residential or commercial mail. The pick up service is free regardless of the number of packages and pick ups can be scheduled at usps.com/pickup.

Concerning access to dropping off or picking up mail from a post office box, the following written statement was sent to the Item, “We apologize to our customers for the inconvenience.  While retail and P.O. Box services temporarily are suspended in this building, on Monday, Jan. 3, the Postal Service will be deploying a Mobile Retail Unit (van) in the Poplarville Post Office customer parking lot to provide retail and P.O. Box services to our customers. P.O. Box customers will need to show proper ID to retrieve P.O. Box mail.”

The Mobile Retail Unit (van) hours will be as follows: Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. Saturday, 9:00 – 11:00 a.m. and closed on Sunday.

Mail delivery to homes and businesses will not be impacted although delivery times may be a little later in the day than normal.

Customers may also choose to conduct retail transactions at the Hattiesburg Main Post Office, located at 220 S. 40th Ave., Hattiesburg, MS 39402. Hours of operation for that location are Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. – 6:00 p.m., Saturday, 8:30 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. and closed on Sunday.