Checks, Not Catalogs, Are in the Mail

DALLAS With postal and parcel services limited or suspended in the hardest-hit areas of the Gulf Coast, direct marketers are withholding shipments to ZIP codes in parts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, industry executives said.

To allow for delivery of Social Security and payroll checks and other vital mail, the U.S. Postal Service said it is not accepting standard mail or periodicals in some of the affected areas.

With some of its 6,000 personnel still not accounted for, the USPS has restored delivery service to about 75 percent of residents and businesses affected by Hurricane Katrina, postal officials said.

In