Residents in the tiny eastern Kansas town of Reading have spent more than three months picking up the pieces after an EF-3 tornado ripped through the community, killing one person and wiping out more than half of the city’s 101 homes, nearly all of its businesses and the post office.

Now they’re dealing with a new issue after the U.S. Postal Service indicated it might not rebuild the post office, which has been in operation since the town was founded in 1870.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports residents received a letter from Sam Gonzales, the Topeka-based manager of post office operations, saying the Postal Service was conducting a discontinuance feasibility study to evaluate the local post office’s operations.

Charles Schlobohm, a retired mail carrier, said news of the possible closing came as a blow to residents who have worked hard to rebuild the community.

“It’s not right,” he said. “When someone’s had a disaster, you don’t pull the floor out from under them.”

Gonzales’ letter said a public meeting to discuss the feasibility study is scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday at Reading Elementary School.

“No decision has been made to close the Reading post office, but we are studying it,” said Brian Sperry, regional spokesman for the U.S. Postal Service in Denver.

He said the Postal Service has 108 days to make a final determination, once the feasibility study begins. Residents then will have 30 days to appeal the decision with the Postal Regulatory Commission.

Reading residents already are circulating a petition to prevent the post office’s closure.

Since the May 21 tornado, residents have been getting mail, buying stamps and sending letters at the Lebo post office, a 27-mile round trip from Reading.

Some residents installed mail boxes to receive their mail from a rural mail carrier, rather than drive to Lebo to get it.

Barbara Schlobohm, Charles’ wife, said equipment, furniture and other items were moved from the damaged Reading post office and stored at the Lebo facility.

“But there was no knowledge by local residents that Reading was on a closure list,” she said. “The people thought they would do what they did in Greensburg. We thought they’d bring in a portable post office until it was rebuilt.”

Reading wasn’t one of the 134 Kansas post offices on a list released in late July of about 3,700 facilities nationwide facing possible closure, Sperry said.