(a) General. The Postal Service and the Red Cross cooperate to maintain communication between the individual and the community during times of disaster. This applies only to natural disasters such as those caused by floods, tornados, hurricanes, earthquakes, fires, explosions, etc., and not to those caused by enemy action.

(b) Role of Postal Service. The Postal Service and the Red Cross will share information on the whereabouts of persons displaced by disasters, and otherwise cooperate with each other, as follows:

(1) The Red Cross will use Form 3575, Change of Address Order, as a standard item in Red Cross disaster relief. It will urge disaster victims displaced from their homes to obtain and complete the forms, it will distribute the forms to disaster victims who need them, and it will collect from the victims and turn over to the Postal Service any completed forms received.

(2) The Postal Service will provide the Red Cross the blank forms needed.

(3) During each disaster and subsequent disaster relief efforts, the Postal Service will establish a separate file of change of address forms completed by disaster victims, and will make available to the Red Cross information in the file. This information will be used by the Red Cross only to locate individuals and families, to answer inquiries from relatives and friends concerning the whereabouts and welfare of the disaster victims, or to make contact with disaster victims who have applied for assistance from the Red Cross but who cannot be located because of a change of address.

(4) The Postal Service and the Red Cross will encourage appropriate local postal officials and Red Cross chapters to maintain contact with each other and to participate in local and community planning for disasters.

(5) When appropriate, the Postal Service and the Red Cross will meet and exchange information at the national headquarters level concerning the effectiveness of their joint efforts for disaster relief.

(6) Regional Postmasters General and Postal Inspectors in Charge are responsible for seeing that post offices implement these cooperative arrangements in disaster situations.

(7) The instructions in § 259.2 serve as a broad framework within which field officials of both agencies may coordinate their facilities and resources. However, postal officials shall cooperate with Red Cross officials to the maximum feasible degree during times of natural disasters.