- Subject: NPS Morning Report - Thursday, August 27, 1992
- Date: Thurs, 27 Aug 1992
RANGER ACTIVITIES DIVISION
MORNING REPORT
Attention: Directorate
Regional and Park Chief Rangers, USPP, BIFC, FLETC
Ranger Activities Division Information Network
Day/Date: Thursday, August 27, 1992
Release: 0830 EDT
INCIDENTS
92-451 - Florida and Gulf Coast Areas - Follow-up on Hurricane Andrew
Initial reports from Gulf Coast areas which were directly or indirectly
affected by Hurricane Andrew indicate that the storm caused little
significant damage:
* Jean Lafitte - At the time of the report late yesterday morning, no
employees had been injured and all but one had been accounted for - and she
is believed to be okay. Most employees and/or their families were still in
shelters or with family or friends at distant areas. Damage to personal
property is not yet known; the park will be rendering assistance to
employees as needed. Although roads are impassable to most units, some
initial reports have come in:
- Barataria Unit - The environmental education center sustained slight
damage, but overall damage to facilities was minimal. Impacts on natural
resources will not be known until the park conducts a boat inspection
today. Waters are expected to rise significantly, however, which may
lead to further damage.
- Chalmette Unit - The unit was thoroughly inspected yesterday morning,
and all buildings appear to be in good condition. The administrative
site, historical structure and national cemetery show no appreciable
damage. There is some flooding of the grounds, but it has not affected
the buildings.
- Acadia Units - The visitor center construction site in the Lafayette Unit
will be inspected today. Construction trailers have probably been
damaged, but all equipment, files and other property were removed from
them before the storm arrived. Reports have not been received from the
Thibodaux Unit, but the local parish police advise that the building
looks intact.
* Big Thicket - Hurricane Andrew missed the park entirely. While it was
sitting over Louisiana yesterday morning, Big Thicket had sunny skies.
Because of staff evacuation, however, the park remained closed yesterday
except for headquarters and the North District ranger station. It should
fully reopen today.
* Gulf Islands - As of late yesterday morning, islands in the Florida
District were being lightly overwashed, but the park had not yet had an
opportunity to check on islands in the Mississippi District because strong
winds and rain precluded overflights. The area will be visited today. No
significant damage is expected.
* Padre Island - All park beaches were closed Tuesday night due to high
tides and storm surf, but will be reopened shortly.
An interagency Type I incident management team with several NPS members has
been dispatched to Louisiana to assist FEMA with recovery operations
No further elaborations on yesterday's listing of damage inflicted on
Biscayne and Everglades have been received, as ground assessments of many
areas have not yet been completed. A clarification has been obtained,
however, regarding the death of Natividad Rohena, the maintenance employee
from Fort Jefferson. He apparently was killed in his house in Homestead,
not by a tornado on Key West as the park originally reported.
Deputy Director Cables and SER Regional Director Coleman will be arriving in
the area today to get a first-hand look at the damage and talk with park and
all-risk management team personnel. The all-risk team has taken over
recovery operations at Everglades and Biscayne. Park staffs and team
members have developed four incident objectives, which, in priority order,
are as follows: 1) assist employees both inside and outside the two parks;
2) get park facilities on-line, restore utilities and clean up the area; 3)
develop a plan which will detail what will be needed to run the parks for
the next year; and 4) develop a long-term recovery plan.
Before work can be begun to meet these objectives, however, all efforts will
focus on getting enough resources on hand to support recovery operations.
Many areas in the two parks lack electricity, phones, water, radios, fuel
and food, and large orders will be made over the next day or two for
equipment and supplies to fill these needs. Personnel will also be
requested to augment park staff in the recovery process. Some supplies
began arriving yesterday, including over two dozen generators, radios and a
repeater kit from BIFC, and 40 cases of MREs (military rations). The law
enforcement SET team has arrived and rangers have been deployed for
around-the-clock protection of facilities at Biscayne, in Everglades' headquarters
area, and elsewhere. Two incident dispatchers are now on scene, and a team
of park medics is expected today.
As noted above, the top concern for the park and the all-risk team is the
welfare of park employees. It's estimated that three-quarters of the
approximately 230 employees at the two parks had major damage to their
residences, and a substantial number of them lost almost everything they
owned. The emotional impacts have been significant, and critical incident
stress debriefing (CISD) teams are being requested to assist them. The park
is working to identify these employees' immediate needs. A list of items
will be compiled which we will carry in the morning report as soon as
possible. We will also notify you if and when an account is established for
monetary contributions. Please do not send either money or packages until
procedures have been worked out for their acceptance. In the interim,
however, you can send either general messages of support to the park staff
or personal notes to employees via the park office in Everglades City. The
mailing address: Everglades NP, PO Box 120, Everglades City, FL 33929. Such
notes will be appreciated.
[Darlene Koontz, EVER, Bill Gabbard, IC Team - EVER/BISC, Bonnie Winslow,
RAD/SWRO, Steve Smith, RAD/SERO, and Butch Farabee, SUPT, PAIS, 8/26]
92-456 - Rapid City (South Dakota) - Hostage Situation at Conference
At 3:00 a.m. on August 26th, a 19-year-old gunman with several weapons took
over a Holiday Inn in Rapid City that was hosting a paleontological
conference in which six NPS employees were participating. The gunman, who
was a disgruntled former Holiday Inn employee, took a position in the open
central courtyard of the hotel and employed a weapon to keep guests in their
rooms. The siege finally ended at 9:30 a.m. when the gunman shot and
wounded himself in the stomach. None of the hotel guests were hurt. The
six NPS representatives were the superintendents of Fossil Butte and
Badlands and staff from those parks and Petrified Forest. [Brian Reilly,
RLES, RAD/RMRO, 8/26]
[A number of pending incident reports will appear tomorrow which have been
bumped this week by Hurricane Andrew and the fire situation]
FIRE ACTIVITY
1) FIRE SITUATION - Preparedness Level IV
2) FIRE SUMMARY
State Agency Area Fire 8/26 8/27 Status
CA CDF Shasta-Trin. RU Fountain 64,000 64,000 NEC
State Kern County Middle Ridge 1,500 2,500 CN 8/27
USFS Inyo NF Rainbow - T1 8,375 8,375 CN 8/28
ID BLM Boise Dist. Foothills -
T1 (2 teams)
T2 (1 team) 257,600 257,600 CN 9/6
USFS Payette NF Warm Springs - T1 6,300 6,300 CN 8/28
Camp Creek - T2 1,300 2,100 CN 8/29
Nez Perce NF Scott - T1 6,080 6,080 CND
Porcupine - T1 21,940 21,940 CN 8/30
Notes:
* - New fire (this report) T1/T2 - Type 1 or Type 2 team committed
NEC - No estimate of containment CN (date) - Expected date of containment
NR - No report received CND - Contained
3) FIRE REPORT HIGHLIGHTS - No significant new reports.
4) NPS RESOURCE STATUS - As of yesterday afternoon, the NPS had 410
firefighters (down two from yesterday) and 161 overhead personnel (up five
from yesterday) committed to interagency fires. The breakdown is as follows
(NR = no report):
Region Overhead Firefighters Region Overhead Firefighters
ARxx NR NR PNR 8 42
MAR 8 54 RMR 58 19
MWR 7 35 SER 9 58
NCR 1 20 SWR 16 51
NAR 2 23 WR 52 108
5) FIRE ACTIVITY - 121 fires for 4,864 acres in past 24 hours.
6) ANALYSIS - High to extreme fire indices are still being reported in
several areas of the West. Good progress is being made on several
project fires; containment targets continue to be met, but the warming
and drying trend is hindering suppression efforts on some of the
uncontained fires.
7) PROGNOSIS - The potential for increasing activity exists due to
forecasted warmer and dryer conditions. Demobilization is expected to
intensify by the end of the week. No resource shortages are expected.
[NIFCC, 8/27; Dean Berg, FIRE, 8/26]
RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
No field reports today.
STAFF STATUS
Division Chief: No leave or travel scheduled.
Branch of Resource and Visitor Protection: Martin on operational review,
Yellowstone NP, WY (8/24-8/28); Henry conducting aircraft overflight
research, Grand Canyon NP, AZ (8/24-9/1); Lee at urban SAR conference, San
Diego, CA (8/20-8/28); Sisto at oil spill seminar, Hyannis, MA (8/24-8/28);
Schamp on Danny Horning incident review, Grand Canyon NP, AZ (8/24-8/28).
Branch of Fire and Aviation: Hurd and Spruill at organizational review,
Branch of F&A, Boise, ID (8/24-8/28); Gale serving as IC on all-risk team,
Everglades and Biscayne, FL (indefinite).
Prepared by WASO Division of Ranger Activities
Telephone: Branch of R&VP - FTS 268-4874/6039 or 202-208-4874/6039
Branch of F&A (WASO) - FTS 268-5572/5573 or 202-208-5572/5573
Telefax: Branch of R&VP - FTS 268-6756 or 202-208-6756
Branch of F&A (WASO) - FTS 268-5977 or 202-208-5977
CompuServe: Branch of R&VP - WASO-RANGER
Branch of F&A (WASO) - WASO-FIRE-WO
cc:Mail Branch of R&VP - WASO Ranger Activities
Branch of F&A (WASO) - WASO Fire and Aviation