In summer, water is ‘lifesaver’ for Vegas area mail carriers

A tiny fan blowing hot air whirled on the dashboard of Analia Gibson’s non-air-conditioned mail truck as she sorted through mail for her daily route.

Sitting on the right side of the truck, the 41-year-old tossed back her loose, long black hair and used a rubber thumb to quickly arrange each letter by name and address.

Four bottles of water and an orange Powerade were strewn inside cases of mail.

“The truck is pretty cool right now, but later as the sun starts coming out more, the temperature goes up a lot in the truck. A lot,” Gibson said. “It’ll be like a blow dryer in here. That’s what it feels like. Like a blow dryer blowing in your face.”

Gibson is one of the more than 1,000 U.S. Postal Service carriers who deliver mail six to eight hours a day in the Las Vegas Valley, where summer temperatures regularly reach triple digits.

The hottest day that the 20-year mail veteran has ever worked was a searing 117 degrees.

“Inside the truck, it’s probably over 140 degrees,” Gibson said. “It gets really stuffy in there.”

Internal temperatures inside a car can rise to up to 131 degrees when outside temperatures range between 80 and 100 degrees, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

“I don’t know how she does it,” said Nancy Queen, community manager at the Chalet Vegas condos, where Gibson stops on her daily route. “She basically just sits in an oven all day.”

Gibson said that although her vehicle, a Grumman LLV — a truck designed specifically for the Postal Service — doesn’t have air conditioning, she finds other ways to beat the heat.

One way, she said, is by drinking more than 60 ounces of water during an eight-hour shift. Another is by making several stops a day to go into air-conditioned buildings for refills of water and ice.

“The old saying is you should drink eight glasses of water a day,” said Dr. Dale Carrison, chief of staff at University Medical Center. “That’s 64 ounces, so half a gallon of water every day.”

He advises people who are going to be outside to double that amount, especially in the Las Vegas heat.

Gibson has her own strategy.

“The water is like our lifesaver,” Gibson said. “It’s more important to drink it every so often, like take several sips rather than to just gulp it. That’s what keeps us cool is definitely the water.”

Many people on Gibson’s route — a route she’s had for six years — are like a lifeline providing her with water and ice, she said.

Ryan Lahnan, a bartender at the Office Bar on Paradise Road, said he offers Gibson water every day because it’s important to keep her hydrated.

“She is amazing,” he said. “She is probably the nicest mail lady I have ever met.”

Even though Gibson, who began her mail career in Laguna Beach, Calif., takes precautions during the high heat, she said she’s still not immune to Las Vegas summers.

“Sometimes, there have been times where I have felt weak and dizzy, and I know that it’s dehydration,” Gibson said.

Dehydration, vomiting, headaches, nausea and, in worst-case scenarios, seizures are all signs of heat-related illnesses, Carrison said.

When the heat starts to rise early in the summer, Carrison and his staff notice an increase in patients with heat-related illnesses. He suggests loose-fitting, light-colored clothing for those who spend time in the sun.

Gibson’s outfit — a long-sleeved light blue shirt and dark blue pants that are made of a polyester and cotton mix and are emblazoned with a Postal Service logo — keep her cool even during heat waves, she said.

“Some people do prefer the short sleeves,” she said. “But I actually prefer that the sun is not on my skin all day long. I feel more cool. I’ve actually just gotten used to delivering like this. I’ve always worn long sleeves and long plants.”

Gibson said she carries her phone in her front pocket and remembers a time when her iPhone turned off because it needed to cool down.

“Technology fails, but we have to stay hanging in there,” she said. “We don’t get the luxury of shutting down.”

Once the last piece of mail has been delivered, Gibson hops back into her truck and drives to the Paradise Valley station to get ready for the next day’s eight-hour shift.

She parks her truck, removes the empty cases and goes inside the office.

The empty white trucks line the inside of the fence waiting to be filled by their letter carriers and pounds of mail ready to be delivered.

Soon they will all look different.

The entire Las Vegas mail carrier fleet will be replaced with air-conditioned vehicles within the next five years, according to the Postal Service.

But by then, Gibson will be long gone.

“As soon as I become 100 percent debt free, which is I believe at the end of this year, I’m going to be submitting for a transfer back to California,” she said.

Contact Review-Journal writer Michelle Iracheta at 702-387-5205. Find her on Twitter at @cephira