NPS Morning Report - Friday, August 17, 2001



                        NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
                           MORNING REPORT


To:         All National Park Service Areas and Offices

From:       Division of Ranger Activities, Washington Office

Day/Date:   Friday, August 17, 2001

                            *** NOTICE ***

Flags are to be lowered to half-staff today in commemoration of the 
passing of Representative Floyd Spence (R-SC). Twenty-four hour flags 
will remain lowered until Saturday at 12:01 a.m. All other flags will 
be returned to full staff Saturday morning.

INCIDENTS

01-450 - Cape Cod NHS (MA) - Beach Closure; Public Health Hazard

Park staff closed Coast Guard Beach in Eastham to public swimming on 
the afternoon of August 16th due to high bacterial counts recorded on 
two successive days. The park conducts water sampling at public 
swimming beaches on a weekly basis. The samples are sent to a 
certified laboratory for analysis, and it takes 24 hours to culture 
the samples in the lab before the results are known. If a beach has a 
high bacteria count, the same beach is sampled again the next day. 
Once the park received the results indicating the second high count on 
Thursday afternoon, it was closed in accord with state and federal 
health regulations. South District rangers and lifeguards put the 
swimming closure into effect during a peak use period, with over 2,000 
visitors on the beach. Visitors were obviously disappointed but 
cooperative and most chose to leave the beach rather than stay and not 
be able to go into the water. The beach is served by a Park 
Service-operated shuttle service to a large off-site parking lot. The 
mass exodus caused traffic congestion that was managed effectively by 
park staff. The beach will reopen for swimming when two consecutive 
daily samples indicate that counts have returned to acceptable levels. 
All other national seashore beaches remain open at the present time.
(Mike Murray, Deputy Superintendent, CACO, 8/16)

01-451 - Lassen Volcanic NP (CA) - Employee Discharged; Property Theft

Earlier this week, park maintenance employees reported that a 
refrigerator was missing from the construction site of the new 
residence and ranger station at Juniper Lake. A brief investigation 
led to the discovery that NPS seasonal maintenance employee J.H. 
had returned to the ranger station after hours, loaded the 
refrigerator into his private truck, and taken it home. J.H. was 
terminated from employment and charged with misdemeanor theft. [John 
Roth, CR, LAVO, 8/16]

01-452 - Glen Canyon NRA (UT) - Drowning; Monoxide Poisoning

Park dispatch received a call reporting a person missing from a 
houseboat in Friendship Cove on August 2nd at 4 p.m. C.S. 
had last been seen just after noon, when the person calling had left 
C.S. on his houseboat. When the person returned at 4 p.m., he 
found the engine cover up, both engines and the generator running, and 
tools scattered about in the engine area. C.S.'s body was later 
recovered from the lake. The autopsy report indicates that drowning 
was the cause of death, with carbon monoxide poisoning (38%) as the 
secondary factor. Rangers Jim Gould, Brandon Weathermon and Julie 
Yucker investigated. [Cindy Ott-Jones, CR, GLCA, 8/16]

                   [Additional reports pending....]

FIRE MANAGEMENT

National Fire Situation - Preparedness Level 5

Four new large fires were reported yesterday, and nine others were 
contained. Initial attack activity was heavy in southern California, 
the Northern Rockies, and the eastern Great Basin, moderate in 
northern California, and light elsewhere.  

Very high to extreme fire indices were reported in Arizona, 
California, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Texas, Utah, 
Washington and Wyoming.

NICC has posted:

o       A RED FLAG WARNING for low relative humidity, a high Haines 
        index, and breezy winds for central and southern Washington.

o       A FIRE WEATHER WATCH for dry lightning and low relative 
        humidity this afternoon and evening for western Montana.

o       A FIRE WEATHER WATCH for increasing afternoon winds and low 
        relative humidity for northeastern California.

For the full NICC report, see http://www.nifc.gov/news/sitreprt.pdf.

National Resource Status (Five Day Trend)

                        Mon     Tue     Wed     Thu     Fri
Date                    8/13    8/14    8/15    8/16    8/17
        
Crews                   432     516     574     590     663
Engines                 804     795     826     932     949
Helicopters             131     135     155     165     176
Air Tankers             12      12      15      11      9
Overhead                1,882   2,033   2,432   3,253   3,377
Area Command IMT        ---     ---     ---     1       1 
Type 1 IMT              3       4       4       6       6
Type 2 IMT              10      13      15      16      9
State IMT               ---     6       6       6       8

Park Fire Situation

Olympic NP (WA) - Fire danger indices have climbed into the high range 
on the east side of the park and at higher elevations. Relative 
humidity readings have been very low at areas above 3,000 feet. The RH 
on Hurricane Ridge dropped down to the middle teens on Tuesday night 
and was around 20% yesterday. Emergency pre-suppression patrols have 
been begun to inform visitors of the high fire danger and the partial 
burn ban that is now in effect in the park and surrounding area. 

Park Fire Danger

Extreme         N/A
Very High       Mojave NP, Hawaii Volcanoes NP, Big Bend NP
High            Olympic NP, Joshua Tree NP, Redwood N&SP, Zion NP

[NPS Situation Summary Report, 8/16; NICC Incident Management 
Situation Report, 8/17]

PARKS AND PEOPLE

North Cascades NP (WA) - Assistant superintendent Ed Gastellum is 
retiring from a 32-year-long career that began at National Capital 
East and ends with the peaks and glaciers of the North Cascades. A 
potluck will be held at 6 p.m. on August 29th at Rasar State Park near 
Sedro-Woolley, Washington. Ed's association with the Service began in 
his early years and continued through assignments with several parks. 
Anyone who knew Ed and Carolyn and their family is invited to send 
cards or letters to North Cascades National Park, c/o Margie Allen, 
810 State Route 20, Sedro-Woolley, WA 98284. Photos or other 
contributions would also be appreciated.  Electronic contributions can 
be sent to Margie_Allen@nps.gov or Pat_Young@nps.gov.  For further 
details by phone, call 360-856-5700 ext. 354 (Margie) or ext. 384 
(Pat). [Pat Young, NOCA]

                            *  *  *  *  *

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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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