Post Office in Fair Bluff to re-open Wednesday

Connie Meares, right, glances at Kelvin Graham as they take advantage of a mobile Post Office in Fair Bluff in the days following Hurricane Matthew. (Deuce Niven photo)

    Closed for more than two months in the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew, the U.S. Post Office in Fair Bluff is scheduled to re-open at 9 a.m. Wednesday, Postmaster Harriett Epps said Tuesday.
    “We’re finally ready,” Epps said.
    Located in the heart of Fair Bluff’s downtown business district, the Post Office will be the first facility to fully re-open after the storm swollen Lumber River pushed feet of water into businesses, City Hall, the county’s Senior Center, and Fair Bluff Baptist Church.
    Repair work is ongoing in some structures, others appear likely to be condemned. Epps said flooring, walls, equipment and more have been replaced at the Post Office, allowing it to re-open today.
    Postal patrons have been served for the past two months through a mobile Post Office stationed outside of the flood zone, on Conway Road.
    “I want to give a special thank-you to Brice and Carolyn Elvington,” Epps said. “Carolyn is a retired Fair Bluff Postmaster, and she volunteered her property for the temporary Post Office.
    There was more to Mrs. Elvington’s generosity, Epps said, kindness extended to the two clerks assigned to the mobile postal unit each day.
    “Carolyn provided lunch for those clerks in that unit every day,” Epps said.
    For more on how Fair Bluff is recovering from Hurricane Matthew, see Wednesday’s Tabor-Loris Tribune in print and online.