NATIONAL PARK SERVICE

MORNING REPORT

BLACKBERRY EDITION

Friday, August 26, 2005

INCIDENTS

South Florida Parks

Hurricane Katrina Arrives in South Florida

Hurricane Katrina passed over south Florida during the night, bringing sustained winds in the 80 mph range and up to 15 inches of rain. Here are reports received from three parks early yesterday:

Canaveral NS - The park is operating under ICS. At 9 a.m. yesterday morning, the IC placed the park in Hurricane Condition V, which specifies that 50 knot winds are expected to hit the park. Issuance of backcountry permits was suspended and entrance station personnel in both districts were notified. Turtle nest protection patrols set for yesterday evening were cancelled. Backcountry campers in the north district were contacted and advised of the approaching storm.

Everglades - Park staff spent Thursday securing park facilities and equipment. Employees were to be released by early afternoon. Plans were to close most operations down by 5 p.m.

Big Cypress - The park began implementing hurricane shutdown procedures yesterday with the goal of completing them by 2 p.m. to that employees could be released. The park was closed yesterday afternoon and will remain closed through Saturday.

The storm is now in the Gulf of Mexico and headed toward the Florida panhandle, where it is expected to again make landfall as a hurricane. [Scott Anderson, Canaveral; Rick Cook, Everglades; Ed Clark, Big Cypress]

Springfield Armory NHS

Rare Carbine Stolen from Park Recovered and Returned

A weapon stolen from Springfield Armory in the early 1970s prior to National Park Service administration has been returned to the park. On August 9th, NPS special agent-in-charge Clark Guy and special agent Jeff Pascale handed over a rare, specially-modified “trapdoor carbine” to superintendent Doug Cuillard.

The carbine was one of two modified by Springfield Armory to solve a battlefield defect - its tendency to jam. Little was done to solve the problem until the Battle of Little Big Horn, when the armory took some of the blame for the disaster. That summer, 1876, Springfield Armory experimented with attaching a cleaning rod under the barrel of the carbine. Only two of these modified carbines are known to exist and now both are back in the Springfield Armory collection.

The stolen weapon first surfaced on a web site and was discovered by a private collector, D.H.. He noted the experimental modifications and suspected that the weapon had likely been stolen - and no doubt stolen from the Springfield Armory. D.H. enlisted the help of other collectors, Thomas Fleming and Albert J. Frasca Ph.D., a noted author and expert on the “trapdoor” series. Frasca contacted Springfield Armory and the case was immediately turned over to Guy and Pascale.

Pascale, with the assistance of D.H., Fleming and Frasca, began a long search for the weapon and its “owner.” Once contacted, the “owner” voluntarily handed the weapon over to the NPS for examination. Although the serial number had been defaced, scratches and other blemishes matched perfectly with ones on the weapon on pictures taken by Frasca on an earlier research trip to Springfield Armory, leaving little doubt the weapon belonged to the armory.

To corroborate this conclusion, the NPS enlisted the help of the FBI's art crime team, which had helped in an earlier recovery. The FBI concurred with the NPS conclusion. After sensitive negotiations and faced with the evidence, the “owner” voluntarily turned the weapon over to the National Park Service. No charges were filed as the “owner” was unaware that he had purchased stolen government property and had fully cooperated with authorities.

The recovery of the “trapdoor” carbine is an example of a successful partnership between federal agencies and the private sector. The National Park Service is grateful to these private citizens who took action to recover a piece of cultural heritage that belongs to all Americans.

[Doug Cuillard, Superintendent]

Everglades NP

Heavy Equipment Fire

While park staff was preparing for structural fire training late on the morning of August 19th, ranger Frank DeLuca was notified of a construction vehicle fire in the area of the Flamingo guest cottages. While he responded to the scene, Flamingo Fire Brigade member Doug Shields, a Xanterra concession employee, responded with the district's structural fire engine, and rangers Betsy Smith, Tony Terry, Bruce Gantt, and Jennifer Langel headed to the scene as members of the fire brigade. Interpretive ranger/EMT Allyson Gantt responded with the park ambulance. A piece of heavy machinery, a tracked excavator, caught on fire while it was in use by a contractor working on a sewage line replacement project. When the engine arrived, the excavator was fully engulfed in flames and smoke could be seen from a half mile away. The equipment leaked approximately 25 gallons of diesel fuel, oil and hydraulic fluid before the fire was extinguished. Containment booms and hazmat absorbent pads were put into place. A professional hazmat disposal service was later notified and completed clean-up of the site. No one was injured during the incident. [Curt R. Dimmick, Flamingo District Ranger]

FIRE MANAGEMENT

NIFC remains at PL 3. Activity was light Thursday. All but four of the 108 new fires were caught by initial attack. Another seven large fires were contained.

Individual fire entries for today for the National Park Service can be obtained at HYPERLINK "http://www.nps.gov/fire/news" http://www.nps.gov/fire/news . The full NIFC Incident Management Situation Report for today can be obtained at HYPERLINK "http://www.nifc.gov/news/sitreprt.pdf" http://www.nifc.gov/news/sitreprt.pdf.

OPERATIONAL NOTES

Nothing today.

PARKS AND PEOPLE

Nothing today.

JOBS

Nothing today.

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Prepared by Visitor and Resource Protection, WASO, with the cooperation and support of Delaware Water Gap NRA.

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