The images of the one-two punch delivered by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita to the States of Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi and Alabama have shocked the nation. With estimated damage costs running well into the tens of billions of dollars, we are likely looking at the largest disaster to ever hit the United States. The impact has been felt across numerous industries, and the death tolls will forever change the lives of families.

For the mailing industry, the impact has also been staggering. About 500 postal facilities and over 720,000 addresses were impacted by the hurricanes, with some locations completely washed away. Evacuees that escaped Hurricane Katrina were forced to evacuate yet again when Rita ripped through the Gulf. This put the significant challenge of routing millions of mailpieces currently in the USPS delivery network into the hands of the Address Management group in Memphis.

As soon as Hurricane Katrina's effects were felt, the professionals in Memphis at the National Customer Support Center began discussing the impending problem of routing the mail. Staff spent long nights and weekends creating a strategy to handle this rapidly escalating situation. Notices of impacted ZIP Code ranges were sent out to mailers and software vendors to update their presorting equipment in order to route incoming mail into areas not impacted by the storms. Mailers, in turn, notified their customers regarding the impact this would have on their catalogs, magazines, Social Security checks, medicine and all the other vital items that are delivered through the USPS.

After Katrina finally abated, the real disaster began to take shape. Thousands of evacuees were relocated to the Houston Astrodome and other major shelter areas. Many had no identification, and few, if any, personal belongings. Yet nearly all of them were relying on the mail to provide some sense of normalcy in all of the chaos. The reality also sank in that it would be months before they could return home assuming there was an actual one left. Here is where the USPS again provided a solution. The electronic change of address system, which normally costs $1 to file, was altered to provide a temporary change of address for the evacuees at no charge. The Astrodome itself was assigned a special ZIP Code, and mail began flowing back to the evacuees via special PO Boxes.

Though this may sound like the problem was solved, it was only another chapter in a series of disasters. Hurricane Rita came right on the heels of Katrina, and initially it appeared that Rita would be even worse. Katrina evacuees were once again asked to evacuate their new cities, putting the problem of delivering to a moving address back on the table. Fortunately, the temporary changes of address the USPS was assigning were designed to accommodate this problem. The USPS did not share the temporary PO Box addresses with the mailers, and instead asked them to continue to mail to the old address. Here is where the technology of Postal Automated Redirection System (PARS) was introduced. The PARS units assisted in routing the mailpieces to the new location, despite evacuees constantly moving from point A, to B, to C and so forth. This kept the mail flowing and once again provided the crucial connection to normalcy for the victims of these hurricanes.

After 30 days, many of the people, families and businesses impacted by Katrina and Rita are now beginning to return to what is now left of their homes. Some are finding a few remnants of what was once a familiar place; some are finding nothing at all. People have lost their homes, possessions and even family members. For some, their address is the only thing they have left to point to and say, "This used to be my home." There is a lot of value in that address, and perhaps for some, it will be the foundation on which they will start to rebuild their lives.

In the part two of this article, we will discuss how the USPS and the industry are coming together to improve overall address assignment. It will explore the application of new technologies and methodologies currently being discussed to make sure that important piece of mail reach the right location, despite where it may temporarily move to tomorrow.

Christopher Lien is Commercial Mail Market Director at FirstLogic, Inc. Contact him by phone at 763-560-9690, chrisl@firstlogic.com or www.firstlogic.com.