Excerpted from https://github.com/repoman/rpiips/tree/master/rpiips mail-ip.py is modified to work with my RPi configuration

mail-usbread.py

#!/usr/bin/python

import sys, getopt, subprocess, smtplib, re

# read arugments
def main(argv):
   message = ''
   output = ''
   try:
      opts, args = getopt.getopt(argv,"hm:o",["message=","output="])
   except getopt.GetoptError:
      print 'mail-usbread.py -m <message> -o <output>'
      sys.exit(2)
   for opt, arg in opts:
      if opt == '-h':
         print 'mail-usbread.py -m <message> -o <output>'
         sys.exit()
      elif opt in ("-m", "--message"):
         message = arg 
      elif opt in ("-o", "--output"):
         output = arg 
   # email auth
   to = 'yourgmailaccount@gmail.com'
   gmail_user = 'yourgmailaccount@gmail.com'
   gmail_password = 'yourgmailpassword'
   s = smtplib.SMTP('smtp.gmail.com', 587)
   s.ehlo()
   s.starttls()
   s.ehlo()
   s.login(gmail_user, gmail_password)
   mail_message = 'Your RPI read the USB data: ' + message
   msg = ('Subject: Your RPI USB backup status\n\n%s' % mail_message)
   # print msg
   msg = ('Subject: Your RPI USB backup status\n\n%s' % mail_message)
   # print msg
   s.sendmail(gmail_user, to, msg)
   s.quit()

if __name__ == "__main__":
   main(sys.argv[1:])