East Coast Areas
Parks Takeover Hurricane Recovery Operations
The following reports were received over the course of the weekend. Effective today, regular daily reporting of hurricane recovery operations will be suspended. Reports will be posted as appropriate.
Central IMT (Sherrie Collins)
Tablecloths, centerpieces, cooks in white chef's hats preparing burgers, chicken and ribs — certainly not something you see in every chow tent while on an incident. But they provided additional evidence of the ways in which the Hurricane Isabel recovery effort was different from other incidents experienced by the assembled firefighters, specialists and overhead personnel.
The above were part of a closeout barbecue dinner held at the incident staging area at the Governors Inn at Colonial Williamsburg. Members of the staff of Colonial National Historical Park joined with the crews attending the dinner and expressed their gratitude for all the long, tiring hours devoted to stabilizing the four Virginia parks they've been working in the past two weeks. The evening ended with a true touch of Colonial Williamsburg — a performance by a fife and drum quartet clad in period costumes.
The first wave of exhausted crews, overhead and contractors headed home Friday, followed by a second wave on Saturday. The incident command post at The Woodlands in Colonial Williamsburg was dismantled yesterday, and members of the Central IMT headed back to their home units. A handful of personnel will remain for a few days, tying up loose ends, but the long-term recovery effort will be undertaken by park staffs.
In all, more than 800 people representing at least 80 different agencies and organizations took part in the emergency recovery work during the past four weeks at Colonial National Historical Park, Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park, Petersburg National Battlefield and Richmond National Battlefield Park.
IC Sherrie Collins and all the members of the NPS Central IMT echo the sentiments of all four park superintendents in expressing their thanks to all those who have contributed to a successful recovery effort.
A Powerpoint presentation created for the close-out with WASO staff is available for downloading http://www.nps.gov/fire/allrisk/central/isabel/Isabel Powerpoint.ppt.
All daily updates from the past two weeks are posted to the Central Team's Hurricane Isabel page on the NPS Incident Management Team web site: www.nps.gov/fire/allrisk. A photo page featuring some of the best digital images will be created and posted to the website sometime next week.
East IMT (Bob Panko)
A delegation of authority transferring incident command from Panko's Type 2 team to a Type 3 team under command of Richard Devenney, finance chief on the current Type 2 team, went into effect on Saturday morning.
The Cherokee National Forest crew demobed from the incident on Friday. Documentation and technical GIS mapping of significant archeological sites exposed by the storm was also completed on Friday. Work on ramp 67 and 70 has been completed, but ramp 67 remains closed because of the continued closure of NC Highway 12.
Effective Sunday, the park converted AD hires to thirty day emergency hires for recovery work on Ocracoke Island. The principal project that they will be working on will be repairing the fencing protecting the historic Banker Pony herd.
There are currently 54 personnel committed to the incident.
Additional Information
- NPS Interactive Map Center — Select maps of parks affected by the hurricane: http://maps2.itc.nps.gov/nps/parkatlas/jsp/atlas.jsp
- Hurricane Photo Gallery — Photos showing impacts of hurricane on parks and recovery efforts: http://www.nps.gov/hurricane
- NPS IMT Web Page — Home page for NPS incident management teams: http://www.nps.gov/fire/allrisk/
Reports compiled from submission by Al Nash, IO, Central IMT; Peter
Givens, IO, East IMT.
Bryce Canyon National Park (UT)
Fatal Fall from Queens Garden Trail
On Saturday, October 11th, rangers and county search and rescue
personnel responded to a report of a hiker who had fallen from the
Queens Garden Trail. A witness told them that the victim, a 49-year-old
man from Michigan, had left the trail, walked out on a narrow fin and
was attempting to climb onto a hoodoo when he slipped on the talus slope
and fell. Rescuers were able to reach the man by both rappelling from
above and climbing up a narrow, steep canyon from below. They found that
he had died in the 170-foot fall. The recovery was accomplished by a
technical raising back to the trail. Ranger Steve Mazur was IC.
[Submitted by Brent McGinn, Acting Chief Ranger]
Colorado National Monument (CO)
Fatal Fall from Red Canyons Overlook
On the morning of October 12th, ranger Joel Barnett was informed by
maintenance worker Greg Crawford of a suspicious unattended vehicle at
Red Canyon Overlook. While Barnett was en route to investigate, Crawford
spotted a body about 250 below the overlook. The Mesa County Sheriff's
Department was asked to assist, as was the county technical rescue team.
Team members recovered the body of M.J.L., 32, of Grand
Junction. Deputies and rangers were informed by the Grand Junction
Police Department that M.J.L. had been the subject of a domestic dispute
the previous night and had threatened to jump off a cliff. No foul play
is suspected at this time, but deputies and the county coroner are
continuing to investigate to determine whether the death was accidental
or a suicide. M.J.L. was the weatherman for a local television station,
so local media interest has been high.
[Submitted by Ron Young, Chief
Ranger]
Oklahoma City National Memorial (OK)
Visit by Vice President Cheney
Vice President Richard Cheney visited the park on October 9th. This
was his first visit to the memorial since it was completed in April,
2000. As a private citizen, and prior to his election to the vice
presidency, he was instrumental in raising millions of private dollars
for the construction of the memorial, which commemorates the 168 lives
lost when the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building was bombed on April 19,
1995. The vice president was escorted through the museum and the outdoor
memorial by superintendent Connie Rudd; he was accompanied by family
members of those lost in the bombing and representatives of the Oklahoma
City National Memorial Trust and Foundation. The national memorial is
operated jointly by the NPS and the trust in a unique partnership.
Security for the vice president was coordinated with the Secret Service
by chief ranger Michael Manning and the trust's security director. The
NPS was assisted by the Oklahoma Highway Patrol, Oklahoma City Police
Department, Oklahoma County Sheriff's Department, Federal Protective
Service, and the U.S. Marshals Service. There were no incidents.
[Submitted by Michael Manning, Chief Ranger]
OPERATIONAL NOTES
NPS Office at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center
FLETC Update
On October 15th, National Park Ranger Integrated Class 401 arrived at FLETC and will be the first class to participate in the recently developed field training program. The class will graduate on February 18th and will report to the field training parks one week later for the twelve-week field training evaluation process. Over the next several months, NPS FLETC staff will be visiting the field training parks to finalize preparations for the students. Elsewhere:
- The next class for field training rangers will start on October 27th. Representatives from the Virginia Beach and San Jose Police Departments will be attending.
- Seven additional NPS detail instructors have arrived at FLETC, bringing the total number of instructors to eleven: Steve Stinett, Point Reyes; Greg Jackson, Bryce Canyon; Glen Dodson, Everglades; Brian Peters, Cumberland Island; Kent and Tami Keller, Blue Ridge; and Ron Rods, Lake Mead.
- The basic program manager which Tom Cherry recently retired from is being re-advertised due to the limited number of candidates from the first announcement.
PARKS AND PEOPLE
Golden Gate National Recreation Area (CA)
GS-0028-12 Environmental Protection Specialist
The park has an opening for a GS-0028-12 environmental protection specialist. The all sources announcement is GOGA-03-37(DEU) PERM; the governmentwide announcement is GOGA-03-37(MPP) PERM. The closing date is October 21st.
[Submitted by Shanti Quintero]
Submission standards for the Morning Report can be found on the left side of the front page of InsideNPS. All reports should be submitted via email to Bill Halainen at Delaware Water Gap NRA, with a copy to your regional office and a copy to Dennis Burnett in Division of Law Enforcement and Emergency Services, WASO.
Prepared by the Division of Law Enforcement and Emergency Services, WASO, with the cooperation and support of Delaware Water Gap NRA.