NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
                           MORNING REPORT

To:        All National Park Service Areas and Offices

From:      Division of Ranger Activities, Washington Office

Day/Date:  Wednesday, August 16, 1995

Broadcast: By 1000 ET

INCIDENTS

95-518 - East Coast Parks - Hurricane Felix

Parks along the Eastern seaboard within the Hurricane Felix warning and watch
areas have begun making preparations for a possible landfall in the near
future:

* Cape Hatteras - The park has been evacuated.  Dare County issued a
mandatory evacuation notice yesterday for Hatteras Island and Hyde County
issued a parallel order for Ocracoke Island.  Exiting traffic was very
heavy during the day.  The park has set up its staging/recovery site in
Raleigh, North Carolina, and park employees who occupy government
quarters are being lodged there.  Employees essential to a reentry and
recovery operation are also being moved to the recovery staging area. 
Other employees are being released to take care of personal property and
make their own evacuation arrangements as the securing of government
property is completed.  Hurricane force winds are expected by early this
afternoon.  Superintendent Russell Berry is the incident commander.

* Assateague Island - Backcountry camping has been suspended and
frontcountry campers have been advised that the park may close this
afternoon.  Activities are being coordinated with the adjacent state park
to assure that closures are consistent on the island.  The park had high
surf yesterday, but no instances of flooding.

* Cape Lookout - Evacuation of the park began at 8 a.m. yesterday morning,
and all visitors and park and concessions employees were off the islands
by 3 p.m.

* Colonial - Following the issuance of a hurricane warning for the area
yesterday morning, the park began implementing its hurricane plan.  The
park remains fully open at present.  Closures will be evaluated as
further information becomes available on the storm's path.

[Robert Woody, PIO, IMT, CAHA; Superintendent, CALO; Bob Thomas, ASIS; Jim
Burnett, CR, COLO]

95-528 - Blue Ridge (Virginia/North Carolina) - MVA with Fatalities

D.V., 57, and his wife, P.V., 54, of Vinton, Virginia were killed
instantly on the afternoon of August 13th when the vehicle they were traveling
in was involved in a head-on collision near milepost 118.  The operator of the
other vehicle, P.M., 21 of Chamblissburg, Virginia, was treated and
released from Roanoke Memorial Hospital.  P.M. said that he fell asleep at the
wheel and found himself in the oncoming lane when he awoke.  Alcohol was not a
contributing factor.  Several charges against P.M. are pending.  [CRO, BLRI]

95-529 - Upper Delaware (New York/Pennsylvania) - Dog Attack on Ranger

On the afternoon of August 13th, ranger Cliff Daniels contacted a group in the
park regarding failure to use life jackets while on the river.  He also advised
them to restrain and control the two dogs they had, both of which were off
leash.  One of the dogs, a pit bull, attacked Daniels and bit him in the right
chest and right shin.  Daniels drew his weapon and said that he would shoot the
dog if it was not controlled.  The dog bit Daniels a third time, but was
grabbed and restrained by a member of the group.  Daniels called for assistance
and was backed up by rangers and state and local officers.  The owner of the
dog was cited for numerous dog law violations.  Daniels was treated for minor
bite wounds at a local hospital, then released.  [CRO, UPDE]

95-530 - Big Thicket (Texas) - Assault with a Deadly Weapon

On August 14th, D.H. and M.F. made obscene gestures toward
Tom Redmon's residence in the Turkey Creek Unit.  An altercation ensured in
which M.F. and D.H. fired shots at Redmon.  Although he wasn't injured, his
truck was struck by several bullets.  D.H. and M.F. fled the area, but were
later apprehended by county deputies.  Rangers and deputies are investigating;
federal charges are pending against both men.  [Bob Appling, CR, BITH]

FIRE ACTIVITY

The NIFCC fire report is not available this morning.

RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

No field reports today.

OPERATIONAL NOTES

No notes.

OBSERVATIONS

Today's observation on the value of wilderness was sent in by Laura Soulliere
at Arkansas Post:

"Ability to see the cultural value of wilderness boils down, in the last
analysis, to a question of intellectual humility.  The shallow-minded modern
who has lost his rootage in the land assumes that he has already discovered
what is important;  it is such who prate of empires, political or economic,
that will last a thousand years.  It is only the scholar who appreciates that
all history consists of successive excursions from a single starting-point, to 
which man returns again and again to organize yet another search for a durable
scale of values.  It is only the scholar who understands why raw wilderness
give definition and meaning to the human enterprise."
 
                                           Aldo Leopold, "A Sand County
                                           Almanac" 

[Do you have a favorite quote about the NPS?  If so, send it along for possible
inclusion in a future Morning Report.  If you'd like a WP5.1 copy of quotes
that have appeared to date, send a note to this address]

Prepared by the Division of Ranger Activities, WASO, with the cooperation and
support of Delaware Water Gap NRA.


Telephone: 202-208-4874
Telefax:   202-208-6756
cc:Mail:   WASO Ranger Activities
SkyPager:  Emergencies ONLY: 1-800-759-7243, PIN 2404843