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A New Orleans mail-processing center has begun accepting standard class advertising and periodicals mailings for the first time since Hurricane Katrina struck. While some of the affected areas had been accepting these classes of mail, the most heavily affected areas, which include New Orleans and portions of Jefferson, Plaquemines and St. Bernard parishes, were not receiving them.

On Friday, the U.S. Postal Service officially reopened the New Orleans processing center. (The center had been operating in “soft launch” mode since April 3.) Yesterday, it lifted the embargo on the above mailing classes and issued a series of regulations aimed at preventing a flood of mail coming into the system. For instance, the affected areas will not be accepting catalogs for at least another month, according to the New Orleans Times Picayune.

Additionally, only current periodicals will be accepted. Publishers wishing to send back issues to subscribers will need to contact the local postmaster and work out arrangements for these mailings.

The postal service is requiring mailers wishing to send material into certain Zip codes to register before mailing. The zip codes are: 70032, 70038, 70040, 70041, 70043, 70050, 70075, 70082, 70083, 70085, 70091, and 70092, all ZIP codes in 701, as well as the following ZIP codes in 706: 70631, 70632, and 70643.

Delivery problems within the affected areas still exist: According to the Times Picayune, residents in Zip codes 70126-70129 must make curbside mailboxes available to carriers. These areas were among the hardest hit, and the Postal Service does not want its employees wrestling with mailboxes that are attached to potentially unsound structures, or which have a high level of mold contamination.

The Times Picayune also reported that yesterday was the first day since the hurricane that long-distance mail shipments arrived at Louis Armstrong International Airport, the city’s local air field. Up until then, mail for New Orleans was flown to Baton Rouge, which added time to the delivery process, the Times Picayune reported.