NPS Morning Report - Wednesday, July 11, 2001



                        NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
                           MORNING REPORT


To:         All National Park Service Areas and Offices

From:       Division of Ranger Activities, Washington Office

Day/Date:   Wednesday, July 11, 2001

                            *** NOTICE ***

Due to time constraints, today's Morning Report is somewhat 
abbreviated. All pending reports will appear between tomorrow and 
Monday.

INCIDENTS

01-348 - New River Gorge NR (WV) - Flash Flooding

On July 8th, severe rains caused flash flooding throughout southern 
West Virginia (see attached digital photo). Within the park, the Canyon 
District received the most damage. Several homes within and adjacent to 
the park were destroyed or severely damaged. The village of Thayer, 
located along the New River within the park, has been completely cut 
off from vehicle access. Ranger C.W. Mitchem had just driven into the 
village of Thayer when a flash food washed out the bridge and road 
behind his vehicle. Mitchem helped the citizens of Thayer evacuate 
their homes and escape the raging flood waters.  A boat evacuation of 
the village was conduced by the park's river patrol rangers.  Visitors 
were also evacuated from camping and day-use areas. One rescue of two 
young boys who had become separated from their group by flood waters 
lasted over twelve hours. In Glen Jean, several homes and buildings 
were flooded, including the park headquarters complex. The floor of the 
main park building was approximately an inch above the high water line. 
The maintenance complex and natural resource management offices were 
not so lucky, receiving four to six inches of flooding throughout the 
buildings. Park maintenance employees were able to restore power and 
telephone service to the main headquarters building on Monday. Several 
roads within the park have been closed due to severe damage. The road 
to Cunard, a major commercial river access, is covered by a mudslide.  
Fayette Station Road, the primary river takeout, has been extensively 
damaged, with several hundred yards of the road completely washed away. 
Evacuations of stranded park visitors and residents continued 
throughout the day. The park is operating under the incident command 
system. A damage assessment has been initiated. [Gary Hartley, CR, 
NERI, 7/10]

                   [Additional reports pending....]

FIRE MANAGEMENT

National Fire Situation - Preparedness Level II

Seven new large fires were reported yesterday - three in the Rocky 
Mountains and four in the Northwest. Initial attack was heavy in 
northern California and the Northwest, moderate in the Rockies, and 
light elsewhere. Very high to extreme fire indices were reported in 
Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, 
Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming. 

A Idaho Department of Lands contract single engine air tanker working 
a fire in Lewis County, Idaho, crashed yesterday, fatally injuring the 
pilot.  A Type 2 crew working the Thirty Mile #103 fire on the 
Okanogan National Forest deployed fire shelters during blowup 
conditions. One crew person has been transported to a Seattle burn 
unit and four others were treated at local medical facilities. 
Although the NICC report also states that another "four crew members 
remain unaccounted for at this time," news reports are that all four 
died in the fire. The following was extracted from today's Seattle 
Times (reported by Chris Solomon and Craig Welch):

"Wind-whipped flames from a 4,000-acre wildfire trapped and killed 
four firefighters late last night, and injured several firefighters 
and civilians. 

"After firefighters had partly contained the summer's first blaze 22 
miles south of here, another fire exploded, catching them off guard. 

"'They thought they had it under control,' said U.S. Forest Service 
spokeswoman Debbie Kelly. 'Due to the heavy fuels, the rugged terrain 
and high winds, the fire just blew up.' 

"The circumstances surrounding the deaths were unclear last night. 
Officials were not expected to release the names or hometowns of the 
dead until this morning. 

"When the fire turned against firefighters, blowing back over them, 
several were forced to deploy their heat-deflecting foil tent 
shelters. Four were injured, and four others were missing, prompting 
fire officials to initiate a search as darkness set in. They confirmed 
that the missing four were dead about 11:20 p.m. An unknown number of 
campers also were injured. 

"One severely burned firefighter was flown to Seattle and was in 
serious condition at Harborview Medical Center last night, a nursing 
supervisor said. Others were treated at Winthrop-area clinics for 
burns or smoke inhalation. 

"One of the injured, Tom Taylor of Leavenworth, Chelan County, 
suffered first- and second-degree burns, said his mother, Gayle Ray of 
Chattaroy, Spokane County. 

"'I'm not sure where he was, but at one point he was able to run down 
a hill and jump in a river,' she said, adding that Taylor called her 
from the ambulance. 

"A new team is being brought in to fight what is being called the 
30-Mile fire in the Andrews Creek area of the Okanogan National 
Forest. It grew from less than 10 acres early yesterday to 4,000 in 
just a few hours. 

"'No form of control right now is effective,' said Art Tasker, a 
fire-information officer in Winthrop who called the 30-Mile fire 
'extremely volatile.'" 

For additional details, see the full article on the Seattle Times web 
site at 
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/134316698_fire11m.html 

The full NICC situation report can be found at 
http://www.nifc.gov/news/sitreprt.pdf.

National Resource Status (Five Day Trend)

                        Sat     Sun     Mon     Tue     Wed
Date                    7/7     7/8     7/9     7/10    7/11

Crews                   151     130     99      80      111 
Engines                 289     256     178     142     302 
Helicopters             69      54      50      34      48 
Air Tankers             4       4       1       2       4 
Overhead                528     549     452     306     351

Park Fire Situation

Dinosaur NM (CO) - Two new lightning-caused fires were reported on 
Monday. The Split #3 Fire burned a tenth of an acre and was controlled 
and out by the afternoon; the Moonshine Fire was worked by bucket 
drops and reached 75 acres before the helicopter had to stop for the 
day. 

Denali NP (AK) - The B288/Herron River Fire has burned 5,252 and is 
being managed under a limited fire management option. The fire was 
less than five percent active on Monday. Occasional torching was seen 
in several pockets of black spruce. The fire has not gained in size 
since it was mapped on July 6th.

Park Fire Danger

Extreme         Hawaii Volcanoes NP
Very High       Crater Lake NP
High            Dinosaur NM, Carlsbad Caverns NP, Guadalupe Mountains 
                NP

[NPS Situation Summary Report, 7/10; NPS Alaska Wildland Fire 
Situation Update, 7/10; NICC Incident Management Situation Report, 
7/11]

FILM AT 11...

The National Park Service is working with the National Park Foundation 
and Time magazine through the Proud Partners of America's National 
Parks program to create a series of nine special sections on national 
parks in the magazine over the next three years. The first section was 
published on May 21st and the second section appears in the Time issue 
that went on sale yesterday (dated July 16th). The first section was 
designed to introduce readers to the depth and breadth of the National 
Park System; the second section, which is on paleontology and fossils, 
marks the beginning of a thematic approach to presenting the parks. The 
third section will appear in the fall and will feature urban parks. To 
make these features even more accessible to a broader audience, both 
sections (and all upcoming sections as they are published) are also 
available online at http://www.time.com/time/2001/parks/summer2001/.    
 [Sue Waldron, Chief, NPS Partnership Office]

                            *  *  *  *  *

The Morning Report solicits entries from the field and central offices 
for its daily and weekly sections (below). The general rule is that 
submissions, whatever the category, should pertain to operations, be 
useful to the field, and have broad significance across the agency. 
Additional details on submission criteria are available from the 
editor at any time (Bill Halainen at NP-DEWA, or 
Bill_Halainen@nps.gov). Ask for either incident reporting criteria 
(issued by WASO, June 18, 2000) or general criteria. 

Daily and weekly sections are available for news or significant 
developments pertaining to:

Field incidents                 Interpretation and visitor services 
Natural resource management     Cultural resource management 
Operations (WASO only)          Memoranda (WASO only) 
Requests/offers of assistance   Park-related web sites
Parks and employees             Media stories on parks 
Training, meetings, and events  Queries on operational matters 
Reports on "lessons learned" 

Distribution of the Morning Report is through a mailing list managed 
by park, office and/or regional cc:Mail hub coordinators.  Please 
address requests pertaining to receipt of the Morning Report to your 
servicing hub coordinator.  The Morning Report is also available on 
the web at http://www.nps.gov/morningreport

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

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