Disasters may be unpredictable—but USPS’s response isn’t. In this episode, USPS Director of National Preparedness, Rae Ann Haight, joins our hosts to discuss how preparedness efforts across the organization help ensure that nothing halts the mission of delivering mail, and shares real-life stories of USPS response to disaster situations. Whether facing floods or cyberattacks, planning, training, and coordination enable action when it matters most.
USPS Director of National Preparedness, Rae Ann Haight, joins us to discuss the comprehensive and dynamic preparedness program designed to safeguard mail operations against any type of disruption. She shares real-life stories that highlight how planning, training, and coordination enable USPS to keep mail moving and employees safe no matter the challenge.
Karla Kirby:
Hello and welcome to Mailin’ It, the official podcast of the United States Postal Service. I'm Karla Kirby. In this episode, I'd like to introduce you all to my new Mailin’ It co-host Jeff Marino. You may not recognize Jeff's name, but you know his work. He's been the podcast producer from day one. Jeff, welcome to the other side of the booth.
Jeffrey Marino:
This is a different perspective for sure. As Karla mentioned, I've been doing every single episode of the podcast since we started in late 2022. So it's roughly 70 episodes I've been involved in. But uh, yeah, sitting on the other side of the table is gonna be kind of fun I think.
Karla Kirby:
I think so. So why don't you get us rolling with today's episode.
Jeffrey Marino:
Alright. So in this episode, we're diving into an important topic that impacts just about every corner of the U.S. Postal Service. It's disaster preparedness. This isn't just a single departmental responsibility, it's an organization-wide commitment that involves every function here at the Postal Service. It includes retail and delivery, operations, processing, distribution, logistics, even maintenance. For us to successfully manage a disaster response, we have to rely on our collective expertise and resources and coordinating this effort is the Postal Services National Preparedness Program.
Karla Kirby:
That's absolutely right, Jeff. And with the start of the Atlantic hurricane season already here, it's more important than ever to be prepared for everything and anything. Mother Nature might throw our way. To tell us more about how the Postal Service gets and stays ready. Our guest this episode is Rae Ann Haight, director of National Preparedness. Rae Ann. Welcome to Mailin’ It.
Rae Ann:
Thank you Karla.
Jeffrey Marino:
So Rae Ann, you've been with the Postal Service since 1997, and in 2010 you joined the National Preparedness Team. So could you walk us through what you do in your current role as director?
Rae Ann:
Absolutely. I started in this great organization in 1997 in mail processing. I was able to be a frontline supervisor, did various details as a manager of distribution, operations, safety, the district. And then I entered the world of emergency preparedness in 2004. But I recognized that I wanted to know more so I could truly support operations. So I detailed further into the retail and delivery side of the house. Carrier supervisor, station manager.
I worked in the Postal inspection service and then I transitioned fully into the Office of National Preparedness in 2010 and was named its director in 2020. So the primary focus of the National Preparedness Group is in our title, preparedness. On the preparedness front, my team keeps energized in making sure that there's policies and plans and procedures, resources, tools, all of that in place. So the organization is prepared for Emerge events, the ones that could disrupt our mission essential function of delivering the mail to the American public.
So we provide support with integrated emergency management plans, and those include, an emergency action plan and then a continuity of operations plan, which we call a COOP. And we also create and facilitate emergency preparedness training and exercises for over 238 emergency management teams at the area and the district and the plant levels. We also create and provide natural and manmade disaster briefings through various zoom sessions to get to the frontline folks who are the ones that are boots on the ground. So that's on the preparedness front.
When we go on the response front, this team also monitors outlets for severe weather, uh, major political events, latest news, doing everything to prepare ourselves and others for anything which might disrupt operations.
Karla Kirby:
Well, that's definitely a lot. So Rae Ann, you're based out of Montana, which is quite a distance from Postal Service headquarters here in Washington, DC. How does being located there influence your approach to your role and offer advantages in terms of staying connected with Postmasters district managers and other key members of the Postal Service?
Rae Ann:
Ooh, that is a great question. I am indeed based out of big Sky Country, the treasure state in Montana. It's beautiful here and it is a good physical distance from headquarters, yet it is seamless in the connection because there's no actual distance when you're on a phone, when you're doing text, when you're on a computer. I mean, it's as close as sitting next to you at a dinner table. So being domiciled in the field, I take advantage of the immediate feedback on the materials I create. So every resource, every exercise document, everything I create must pass the sniff test for these folks that I work around. I asking, you know, does this make sense? And honestly, I have modified many a document based on the immediate feedback from district managers, plant managers, Postmasters, you name it, ‘cause I cannot fathom creating materials that aren't gonna work for them. And I wanna ensure this function not only gives them what they need, but also inspires them to be prepared. And that's been accomplished in my personal experience, being domiciled in the field by getting their input, getting their opinions, having these open conversations. And it's really gratifying actually to just step out my door and walk down the hall and talk to those who are truly boots on the ground. I get to see what is actually happening without having to get in a plane and travel somewhere.
Jeffrey Marino:
Interesting. So your career path in USPS has actually been quite a broad ranging one, but I understand before Postal Service you were a critical care technician. So you've had a lot of different jobs that led up to your current role. So how did those experiences get you ready to be one of the Postal Services leaders when it comes to disaster preparedness?
Rae Ann:
Oh, Jeff, that's a good question. Well, I have to say it has been an enjoyable path, that's for sure. I started out in the medical field because that's what I thought I was supposed to do. I worked in one of the hospital's intensive care units, and then onto telemetry and the cardiac floors caring for those who needed help, uh, who were seeking the y of their condition. And when I came to the Postal Service, it wasn't much different because people are people, no matter where you go, people want to know the why of a situation and people wanna be heard. So looking back on the time of the anthrax events of 2001, I was fully immersed in Q&A with hundreds of plant employees, and I sharpened my listening skills even more during that time. And who would've known that a few years later in 2005, I'd be on a large scale effort of implementing biohazard detection systems at over 300 mail processing sites across the country.
So from the hospital to the Postal Service, from frontline supervisor to district to area to headquarters. I mean, these experiences gave me the opportunity to continue to grow in engagement and enhance the skillset of active listening. 'cause if you can listen with an open mind and you bring with that a willingness to discover together the why, that will make you effective in disaster preparedness, and it'll also make you successful in life.
Karla Kirby:
So, Rae Ann, when it comes to preparing for and responding to disasters, it would, it would seem that we have to take into account different types of potential threats. How does the Postal Service define disaster? And what types of situations does that include?
Rae Ann:
Hmm. How do we define disaster? That is always a good question because the reality is an emergent event of any kind, which can impact our ability to collect and process and deliver the mail. That's a disaster.
So you've got cyber attacks that can render us unable to use technology upon which we are so reliant. And then you have other oddities that can be disastrous, and that's a like, um, chemical train derailment that evacuates entire cities. So if the event stops us from doing what we do as the Postal Service, that's an event. And after having been in the emergency preparedness environment for the last 21 of my 28 years, I can assure you I will bring some confidence that we have an emergency checklist for that
So the facility and plant level, the district, the area, corporately, these types of disaster, those three big ones, they might require all hands on deck for everyone in the organization. So that's just because of the sheer impact and the scope. But then we have 17 additional emergency threat topics for which we have checklists for leadership at the local and the district and the area level to assist them in an emergency response. So we have power outage checklist, tsunami checklist, facility lockdowns. So I can say with a high level of confidence, if we don't have a checklist on it, it hasn't happened yet.
Jeffrey Marino:
So obviously all of those checklists must mean you have some very, very careful and specific planning stages that you go through. So can you talk us through the primary things that have to be accounted for in order to make sure that you've got the people and the sites prepared for any of these 17 odd checklists that you've got or any of these emergencies that you might have to face?
Rae Ann:
Sure, sure. I feel like I need to answer that with a little bit of background here. In 2015, national preparedness leveraged the former postmaster general's reporting format that she required during Superstorm Sandy. And we applied that process within the organization to simplify the approach to all things emergency. So regardless of preparing for it or responding to it or recovering from it, we established officially the three P-Process, which is people, property and product. It's three key points to always remember, especially if you don't have a pen and paper. And it's these three categories that need to be accounted for every single time. And the three P-Process has proven to be that quick recall for leadership to help make good effective decisions for emergencies without having initially to write everything down.
So we kept that framework, we speak that process. All of our guides, all of our materials, they're all formatted to these three Ps. And every single operational function uses these three Ps. So if you'll allow me, I just wanna give a really quick example on the difference between the preparedness and response just on one of the Ps with the people, 'cause people always comes first. So if I say we're preparing for wildfire season in California, when we go to people, have they updated their emergency contact information at the, at the start of the season? Do they know what to do if an evacuation is required? Have we pre-ordered bottled water for them? Everything is on the preparedness front. But with that same three P process, if we are responding to a wildfire that's forced evacuations, now we're gonna go back to the P of people. Are all our employees safe? Are they accounted for? Have we updated the national employee emergency hotline with messages to our employees? Have we notified the unions of the status of our people? And so from this three P format, national preparedness, we are not gonna stray because it is a proven method for great preparedness efforts, and it helps speed up the response and has a very good efficient recovery aspect to it.
Karla Kirby:
So there must be a lot of strategic coordination involved from the national level down to the local level to make sure Postal Service employees know how they fit into the three Ps. So how do you make sure all of those people across the country have the training and information that they need to handle these varying situations?
Rae Ann:
Karla, it is a monumental, yet highly rewarding task. So our main avenue that we take is the preparedness training and exercises of the 238 emergency management teams nationwide. And so these teams are made up of leadership and mail processing, logistics, district managers, supply management, inspection service facilities, legal department, HR, safety. I know I'm missing people here, but we train all of them on large scale events like earthquakes.
This year we're doing earthquakes with the large magnitude and the geographical scope that it could encompass, but we don't limit ourselves to severe weather events. So last year we trained and exercised on civil unrest, which could cripple operations, cause damage. I mean, we've had Postal facilities burned to the ground during protests. The year before, we exercised the teams on mercury spills, which could shut down plants and post offices and has, so these leaders cascade that information to their staff, their employees. And very often our emergency preparedness specialists are asked to provide additional briefings down the line to on the topic as well. But outside of these training sessions, anywhere there's an avenue to share, we will.
Jeffrey Marino:
Interesting. So you've talked about the, all these preparations you've made, but can you talk about what an emergency plan looks like when it's actually put into action? So like an example of what it looks like for the boots on the ground?
Rae Ann:
I can, Jeff, if I could, it may be a bit more interesting to tell you about an emergency plan that's put into action, but then you have to modify it midway. So, in November of 2010, I received a phone call from the postmaster of Mile City, Montana, and they said, Hey, the fire chief and a Montana Department of Environmental Quality just came in our office and told us the gas station across the street had unknowingly leaked 10,000 gallons of fuel under our historic Postal facility. And they said, the vapor percentage in our basement is registering too high. And I thought, well, that's new. In other words, the plan that we're talking about was complicated. And so the existing plan began to unfold. So first you have the emergency action plan. The employees were evacuated, you keep 'em away from harm, you perform a head count, you close and lock down the facility, you notify the public. All done. Then we started to execute this continuity of operations plan, which typically two to three days is about what you're looking at. But then we learned that the remediation timeline to get that fuel removed was being quoted as months and up to a year.
So the current offload plan we had was gonna have to be adjusted because the closest Postal facility in in rural Montana that could handle all that workload was over 145 miles away. We knew we had to be up and operational within 12 hours because that, back then, the presidential directive 67 clearly stated all federal agencies had to be up and operational. So we had to take the previous plan and we had to start from scratch. We had to build new maps, new evacuation routes, hold employee standup talks, conduct evacuation drills, validate new drive times on the routes for our carriers, relocate collection boxes. We had to work through security requirements. Luckily the, the rented supermarket we at had a hardware store next door to it. So we were able to procure supplies rather easily. We were creative.
We ended up using a chain link dog kennel to make a register cage. And I would periodically drive to Mile City to check in on them about every three months, review their standup talks, keep the employees informed and engaged. But we enhanced the COOP relocation checklist to now include going to a non-Postal facility, especially long term. But by being prepared in both instances, the public received their mail. Retail services were offered without interruption, and we were compliant with our own guidelines in the, uh, non-Postal sites. Once you put the eagle, the Postal eagle on the door, you need to be a Postal facility through and through.
Karla Kirby:
So we've covered manmade, we've covered earthquake and now that we're in the Atlantic hurricane season, can you tell us how the Postal Service is getting ready for these types of storms?
Rae Ann:
Oh, absolutely. So for hurricane season, it all starts with the Hurricane preparedness guide, and this guide has led us through the extensive preparedness efforts for the last 15 plus years. Every lesson learned from every emergency that's happened throughout the country is captured in this guide. We review all the preparedness items for the season. I provide the forecast for the year, for the season, and all the functions that are available to assist in immediate recovery. They're given the opportunity to share with everybody on the call of what to expect from them. So for example, emergency mobile fuel, endpoint technology to restore internet service VMF to help with addressing any vehicle issues. So we get everyone on the same page and then we renew the belief that this could indeed happen in your location. So we prepare for the worst and then we hope for the best. And unfortunately, last September with Hurricane Helene, the worst happened specifically in North Carolina.
So the Postal Service ended up working through the response and recovery efforts in not just one area, but in two, both Southern and Atlantic. But the carriers, bless 'em, they were able to deliver, only where it was safe to do so. But then they'd return to the alternate locations with that undelivered mail for residents so that they could pick it up when they drove their ATVs down. Some had assistance from FEMA, some with local first responders, but it was, uh, it was a struggle. Reliable power was a struggle, and internet was unstable in some locations. And the, the headquarter functions well accustomed to supporting southern area with hurricanes. They had no problem jumping in to help Atlantic using that preparedness guide. They had mobile delivery units deployed additional bottle water sent by truckloads for employees. I personally held numerous calls with FEMA representatives, other government representatives to provide boots on the ground information. But Hurricane Helene was historic in its location, in its damage, and not to discount it occurred at the same time as the 2024 election efforts were underway. So federal interest in all that we did was at the highest levels I've seen since the 2001 Anthrax events. So the leadership of the areas, districts, divisions, all of them affected by Hurricane Helene was above and beyond what I've seen in my over 20 years of emergency preparedness. And it should make everyone proud of where we work.
Jeffrey Marino:
Speaking of proud and, and Hurricane Helene, which was such a massive category four storm, you talked about what the Postal Service employees did to get everything up and running and deliver, but the employees themselves often find themselves in a really difficult position when these disasters happen. They themselves could be dealing with losing their own home or having their families displaced, and yet they still deliver the mail, support the communities. So can you talk about what it's like from the employee's perspectives when they're put in this situations, you know, and does the Postal Service help them navigate their personal responsibilities and professional responsibilities during these times?
Rae Ann:
Yeah, Jeff, it's, it's quite the topic because every emergency affects people differently. And that's why we promote the expertise of the employee assistance program so that there's an outlet for affected employees to talk through what happened. For folks that have lost a home, transportation and they need assistance, we look to our partners in HR where they provide the information related to the post employee relief fund. We've had employees though, tell us that it was easier for them to come to work than to stay at home, 'cause at work there was at least power and fresh water
They know us, so they may have damage to their home, they may have family members who are displaced, yet there is this energy that rises within Postal employees to support and serve their communities during this critical time.
So I would say from Anthrax to Hurricane Katrina, to Superstorm Sandy to COVID, to the Lahaina wildfires, to the Los Angeles wildfires, all these incidents brought some level of destruction. But this organization made up of its fabulous employees prepared for the worst, lived through it and rebounded. So regardless of event, Postal employees have demonstrated they will make it through, uh, because we've proven we can do it time and time again.
Karla Kirby:
So all of this absolutely serves as a reminder that the Postal Service workers are often on the ground and out in the communities when disaster strike. Have there been any times when a Postal Service employee actually warned local authorities about an emergency before others were even aware of it?
Karla Kirby:
Oh, yes. I was in Paradise, California. I was capturing lessons learned and serving the destruction, which occurred in 2018 with those wildfires. I had the privilege to speak to Postmasters and carriers, custodians for this long stretch of miles, uh, which Paradise, California has one way in and one way out. And the visual was almost apocalyptic. I mean, some houses were completely leveled with just a stone fireplace standing, and very often still standing on the roadside was that house's mailbox. But cars were burned with only metal frames remaining. And as we talked with the local leadership, I was told it was a post employee on that fateful day who said, we really need to evacuate now. I mean, everyone smelled the smoke. And there hadn't been an official evacuation notice from, the fire department. I was told this particular employee had a reliable source who was seeing the fire from a different vantage point and urged him, tell your boss to get out as soon as possible. And that Postal manager sends the urgency and began evacuating his staff prior, uh, prior to the official notification, knowing there's only one way in and one way out.
So as we all know, the Postal Service is a gigantic organization, spans this entire nation. Now we as national preparedness, we create and share briefings on what to do if you see a wildfire. We work to reach all those who are boots on the ground, who have eyes on what's happening, who have relationships with those in the community. But no one person can be everywhere all at once. So partnering with our employees and listening to what they see and hear is smart business because had paradise not heated the warning from the employee, I was told about we could have had tragic news for our Postal family. And both the Paradise Wildfire campfire that year were historic. I mean, we had nearly a dozen post offices in California that were evacuated. We had more than 60 Postal employees who lost their homes. But the sense of family that I talked about earlier, they kicked in as usual. And all these donations were pouring in across from the country. Carriers donated uniforms to colleagues. People were sending in everything they could to help the folks. It was truly beautiful to witness.
Jeffrey Marino:
Interesting. So before we wrap things up, Rae Ann,how do you apply all of these different experiences and all that you've learned over the years to help the Postal Service prepare for really the unexpected things, things we haven't seen before, things we haven't predicted?
Rae Ann:
Well, it is our job as Postal employees to protect the eagle. It is a privilege and an honor to protect the eagle. I mean, we are a service organization that has a brand with America's national symbol, and we're not immune to crisis. So we need to be in business to provide the promise services. So as leaders in the organization, we need to have our ears wide open, leaning in to hear the chatter of a potential problem. We need to document these events. I mean, what a failure if we don't document the lessons learned, if we didn't convey best practices, if we misplaced helpful materials, we need to capture all of that and put all of it into play. Because as we listen and document, all of that gets into preparedness materials. So we can have the confidence in the readiness of our three Ps, the people, the property and product. And then we can communicate with a high level of confidence, the readiness state of each of those three Ps to the applicable stakeholders.
So we should be proud that when communities see that eagle on the side of the vehicle or on a uniform or on a key chain, our brand, it brings a calm and some assurance that things are gonna go back to normal. So by being prepared, we're protecting the eagle.
Jeffrey Marino:
Rae Ann, thanks so much for joining us. This was really an interesting conversation. There's a lot to learn in this, Karla. I really appreciate her joining. I've learned a lot on this one.
Karla Kirby:
Definitely have. Well, thanks so much again for joining us again. Another informative episode.
Rae Ann:
Thank you.
Jeffrey Marino:
Well then, it's time to close out this episode with another installment of Did You Know Where Carl and I each share some interesting facts about the Postal Service? And since this is my first episode, do you mind if I get this one started?
Karla Kirby:
Go ahead.
Jeffrey Marino:
Okay, thanks. So we talk a lot about stamps on the podcast, those tiny little pieces of art that tell big stories. But did you know that the Postal Service will sometimes tell a longer story using a series of stamps?
Karla Kirby:
I actually was aware of that, but let's give our listeners an example.
Jeffrey Marino:
Well, for example, in 1892, the Postal Service created a 16 stamp series to celebrate the 400th anniversary of an incredibly important event in American history.
Karla Kirby:
Let me guess the arrival of Christopher Columbus.
Jeffrey Marino:
Indeed. Now, back then, his legacy wasn't so controversial. In fact, the Great Chicago World's Fair the following year was named for him, the world's Colombian exposition. And the Postal Service rolled out a stamp series to tell the story of Columbus's Voyage to America.
Karla Kirby:
And three of those stamps, I bet were about the Nina, the Penta, and the Santa Maria.
Jeffrey Marino:
You'd guess that, but believe it or not, his fleet appears only on one of the stamps. The series itself tells a much broader story of Columbus's voyage starting eight years before he even set sale. The first five stamps are devoted to his efforts to just get the royal support for his expedition from Queen Isabella of Spain, there's even a $4 stamp featuring portraits of Isabella and Columbus. That stamp was also the first U.S. stamp to include a portrait of a woman. The rest of the stamps in the series cover his discoveries, his imprisonment on Espanola and his eventual acquittal.
Karla Kirby:
Sounds like a mini novel. Now, for my turn, for a bit of history, I'm sure you know the Postal Service is planning to transform a large number of its Post Offices into community hubs.
Jeffrey Marino:
I have heard that.
Karla Kirby:
Well, did you know this plan builds on a long tradition
Jeffrey Marino:
And what tradition is that?
Karla Kirby:
During the 19th century and into the start of the 20th, post offices, were at the center of community life, especially in more remote areas where residents had to travel to their poll office to send or receive mail.
Jeffrey Marino:
Well, that makes sense. It was a place you'd go to connect with the wider world.
Karla Kirby:
Exactly. Before rural free delivery became a staple in the early 19 hundreds, some people hit up their local post office daily, that made it one of the most popular places in town.
Jeffrey Marino:
Well, I think it's gonna be tricky to recapture that level of popularity.
Karla Kirby:
Hard to say. But the addition of self-service kiosk, smart lockers, and rapid drop-off station should at least increase foot traffic with more reasons to visit the local post office. Who knows, maybe they can recapture a little bit of their former glory.
You know, Jeff, when we have these natural disasters, I don't think that, you know, even I realized that our folks Postal Service workers are boots on the ground and still continuing to deliver vital, you know, information to residents, whether it be medication, whether it be how to get clean water, where they can access electricity. I think a lot of what Rae Ann said was very helpful for our users in understanding the role that the Postal Service plays in not just delivering the mail but making sure that everybody is aware of what's going on.
Jeffrey Marino:
Yeah, you think about, it's a big job. We've got roughly 640,000 Postal employees, so they're everywhere around this country. But I was thinking of something she said that she has a team of 33 people that run this whole program organized into, you know, managing 238 teams to get the boots on the ground. It's just the scale of these 33 people managing 238 teams to get to those 640,000 people, I'd say a lot of coordination, a lot of organization that has to, has to happen to make it work. And it sounds like things are working pretty well.
Karla Kirby:
Yeah, yeah. Not missing too much as far as mail delivery. And that's all for this episode of Mailin’ It.
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