INCIDENTS

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Haleakala National Park (HI)
Death of Ranger Suzi Roberts

Ranger Suzanne "Suzi" E. Roberts, 36, died on Tuesday, September 14th, when struck by a boulder while attempting to remove rocks on the road in the Kipahulu District of Haleakala National Park on Maui. On September 20th, her body was cremated and her family and park staff participated in a private memorial service on a park beach. Services for Suzi have been tentatively scheduled for 1 p.m. on Monday, September 27th, at a church near Tabernash, Colorado, as she had worked many years at Rocky Mountain NP. At the request of the family, this will be more of a memorial service for friends and coworkers and not a formal funeral for a fallen officer. Although the family appreciates the thoughts and sympathies of Suzi's friends and colleagues in the NPS, they're not necessarily expecting people to travel from across the county to attend this ceremony. Flags lowered to half staff in her memory are to be returned to full staff on Wednesday, September 22nd. This will also mark the conclusion of the period for the wearing of black bands and other mourning devices.
[Submitted by Pat Buccello, Visitor and Resource Protection, WASO; Vaughn Baker, Superintendent, ROMO]

Eastern Areas
Update on Hurricane Recovery Operations

Today's update on Hurricane Ivan recovery operations follows. SERO has conducted a survey of all its parks — only those areas listed had reported problems not previously noted:

Gulf Islands NS — The Eastern IMT (Rick Brown, IC) continues to work with employees whose personal lives have been severely impacted by the storm. Three park employees have still not been accounted for. Power was restored to headquarters and the incident command post on Monday. Twenty-five people are assigned to the incident, including law enforcement and maintenance personnel from Natches Trace. A delegation of authority from the park to the team has been completed and will focus on the Florida District. Operations in the Mississippi District will remain under park control. All personnel assigned to the incident have been working 14-hour days. On Monday, a contract was secured for replacement of docks at Horn and Ship Island in the Mississippi District, and work should begin shortly. As new resources, both equipment and personnel, arrive over the next day or so, priorities include: 

• General — Continue efforts to locate employees and provide assistance for their personal needs.
• Park headquarters/visitor center — Secure office files, salvage electronics, remove hazardous trees, dry out and secure the facility.
• Fort Pickens — Assess damage, stabilize artifacts, and secure the facility.

Delaware Water Gap NRA — Road and river closures stemming from Friday night's rains continue. As of 9:30 a.m. Tuesday morning, the Delaware River, as measured at the Montague river gauge, had fallen to 13.1 feet, down from its Saturday night crest of 28.4 feet. The river normally runs at 5 to 6 feet at this gauge and flood stage is 25 feet. The river flow at Montague was about 32,500 cubic feet per second (cfs) this morning, still well above its normal mean of just over 8,000 cfs but far below the peak flow on Saturday of nearly 170,000 cfs. Although the river has dropped more than 15 feet, it continues to run high and fast and still carries considerable amounts of debris. The park is accordingly continuing its closure of the river corridor from Milford to Delaware Water Gap. The river will remain closed until further notice. Road closures continue in the park as crews remove trees and debris and assess damage to road surfaces, shoulders and bridges. The main reopening and closures are:  

• Route 209, Dingmans Ferry to Milford (PA) — This section of Route 209 is now open.
• Route 209, Dingmans Ferry to Bushkill (PA) — This section of Route 209 remains closed. The closure will continue until Federal Highway Administration engineers assess the structural stability of bridges in that section of the highway, particularly the bridges at Toms Creek and Dingmans Creek. If they determine that the bridges are structurally sound and can be reopened, the park will do so; if they determine that maintenance will be required, then the closure will continue.
• River Road, Shawnee to Park Headquarters (PA) — The road remains closed pending completion of assessments and cleanup.
• Old Mine Road, Worthington State Forest to Millbrook Village (NJ) — The road remains closed. Preliminary assessments have revealed undercutting of the single-lane, alternating traffic section at the very south end of the road. An engineering evaluation will have to be conducted before the road can be reopened at that point. The more northerly portion of the closed section will be reopened only after numerous large trees are removed.

A major cleanup operation is underway throughout the park and will continue for some time. Most public use areas — including picnic areas and boat ramps — will accordingly remain closed. Public health and safety and protection of resources will guide decisions on closures and reopenings. The park has established a 24-hour phone number for information on the status of the river and park roads and facilities. Interested persons can call 570-588-2454.

Carl Sandburg Home NHS — Power is still out. All employees are back to work and are conducting a detailed assessment of park conditions. No damage is reported to historic buildings or park structures, except for minor damage to a farm structure. Fences have been damaged, as has the cultural landscape. Trails are currently being assessed. The park's objective is to reopen core areas by the end of the week. One employee's home was hit by a falling tree but there were no injuries. All of the farm animals fared well, including the chickens in a coop that had a tree fall on it.

Big South Fork NRRA — Although there was quite a bit of flooding within the park, there was no reported damage to structures. A low water bridge at Leatherwood Ford was damaged and will have to be repaired. This popular visitor attraction will remain closed until it is fixed. The Station Camp area was closed over the weekend, but has now reopened.

Little River Canyon NP — The Canyon Mouth day use area was flooded. The pavement in the parking lot was completely destroyed, but there was no known structural damage. Lots of picnic tables and grills were washed away. Damage to trees is extensive.

Reports from Peter Givens, IO, Incident Management Team, GUIS; Bill Halainen, IO, Incident Management Team, DEWA; Ken Garvin, Kenny Slay and Michelle Fidler, SERO; Chris Stubbs, Acting Superintendent, BISO; Connie Backlund, Superintendent, CARL; Jimmy Dunn, LIRI.

FIRE MANAGEMENT

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NIFC/NPS Fire and Aviation Management
National Fire Situation Highlights — Wednesday, September 22, 2004

Preparedness Level 2

Initial attack remains light. Resource commitments are almost exclusively in the Southeast — 32 of 38 crews and all but eight of the 854 overhead personnel in the field.

Very high to extreme fire indices were reported yesterday in Arizona, California, Nebraska and Nevada.

Weather Forecast

Surface high pressure over the Great Basin will continue to produce dangerous Santa Ana winds across southern California through the early afternoon. The winds are expected to diminish this evening as pressure gradients relax. An upper level low pressure system will move toward the Dakotas' today, allowing continued warming and drying across most of the Intermountain West.

Warnings and Watches

A RED FLAG WARNING has been posted today for strong northeast winds and low relative humidity levels over the mountains and below the canyons and passes of Southern California.

NPS Fires

For a brief supplemental narrative on each fire, click on the bar with the arrow. Internal NPS readers can link directly to full reports on each fire by clicking on the notepad icon; public readers of the Morning Report can obtain similar information by going to http://www.nps.gov/fire/news

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National/State Team Commitments

Newly listed fires (on this report) appear below in boldface. Changes in the status of a fire (type of team, change from a fire to a complex, etc.) are also noted in boldface.

Fires are sorted by type of team; teams are listed in alphabetical order within each type by the IC's last name.

State	Agency	Team	IC	Fire/Incident and Location	9/21	9/22	% Con	Est Con
FL	FEMA	ACT	Ribar	Hurricanes Frances/Ivan, Orlando	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
GA	FEMA	ACT	Williams-Rhodes	Hurricane Ivan, Atlanta	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
FL	FEMA	T1	Anderson	Hurricane Ivan, Milton	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
FL	FEMA	T1	Bennett	Hurricane Ivan, Pensacola	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
FL	FEMA	T1	Ferguson	Hurricane Ivan, Eglin AFB	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
FL	FEMA	T1	Kearney	Hurricanes Frances/Ivan, NAS Jacksonville	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
AL	FEMA	T1	Lohrey	Hurricane Ivan, Baldwin County	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
AL	FEMA	T1	Sexton	Hurricanes Frances/Ivan, Maxwell AFB	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
FL	FEMA	T1	Vail	Hurricanes Frances/Ivan, Orlando	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
AL	FEMA	T1	Wilcock	Hurricane Ivan, Escambia County	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
FL	FEMA	T2 #	Beauchamp	Hurricane Ivan	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
FL	FEMA	T2 #	Hill	Hurricane Ivan	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
FL	FEMA	T2 @	Houseman	Hurricane Ivan, NAS Jacksonville	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
FL	FEMA	T2 #	Jones	Hurricane Ivan	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
FL	FEMA	T2 #	Koehler	Hurricane Ivan, Lakeland	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A

@ North Carolina state team

# Florida state team

National Resource Commitments

Day	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun	Mon	Tue	Wed
Date	9/16	9/17	9/18	9/19	9/20	9/21	9/22
Crews	33	52	48	37	11	7	38
Engines	69	70	69	58	40	19	13
Helicopters	10	13	17	8	6	7	6
Air Tankers	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Overhead	331	942	290	609	76	94	854

Further Information

This report is meant to present just highlights of the current fire situation. Two other NIFC sites provide much greater detail:

Full NIFC Situation Report (PDF file) — http://www.nifc.gov/news/sitreprt.pdf
National Fire News — http://www.nifc.gov/fireinfo/nfn.html

Information on NPS Fire and Aviation Management (FAM) and on park fires can be found at:

FAM — http://www.nps.gov/fire
Park fires — http://www.nps.gov/fire/news

PARKS AND PEOPLE

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National Capital Parks-East (DC)
Gayle Hazelwood Named Superintendent

Gayle Hazelwood has been selected as the new superintendent of National Capital Parks-East, a 7,928-acre, 184-employee, multi-unit site that includes Anacostia Park, the Frederick Douglass National Historic Site, Fort Dupont Park, Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens, the Capitol Hill Parks, the Mary McLeod Bethune Council House National Historic Site, the Carter G. Woodson Home National Historic Site, the Sewall-Belmont House, Langston Golf Course, in the District of Columbia; Fort Washington Park, the Suitland and Baltimore-Washington Parkways, Greenbelt and Oxon Hill Parks in Maryland.
 

A 21-year National Park Service veteran, Hazelwood begins her new duties on September 20th. She replaces former superintendent John Hale, who retired in March. During the time since his retirement, she has been acting superintendent.  Prior to serving in that capacity, Hazelwood served as assistant superintendent of National Capital Parks-East, beginning that position in January 2003.

Before coming to Washington, Hazelwood served as the superintendent of New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park in New Orleans for five years. Prior to that, she was interpretive specialist for Southeast Region, chief of interpretation at Martin Luther King, Jr., National Historic Site, and recreation specialist and district interpreter at Cuyahoga Valley National Recreation Area. She also worked in the latter area as a seasonal before becoming permanent.

"In my career with the National Park Service, I have had incredible challenges, outstanding opportunities, and once-in-a-lifetime experiences," Hazelwood said. "Being selected as superintendent of National Capital Parks-East ranks as one of my highest achievements. I look forward to working with our many dedicated, enthusiastic and committed community members, partners and staff."

Born in Cambridge, Ohio, Hazelwood holds a bachelor of arts degree in therapeutic recreation and a master of arts degree in recreation management, both from Ohio University.

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.