Last night before the server went offline one of the e-r guys said instead of deleting them ccp will 'deactivate' them and the user has to actually delete them but I dont know how much water that statement holds.
I would think instead of deleting them during the server upgrade, it would be scripted or something to delete the first time you log in post-patch. Of course that would mean cooking dinner, doing some laundry, finishing that report due friday, talking to grandma on the phone before you actually get to play, but I guess we will see in 3.5 hours.