NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
MORNING REPORT
BLACKBERRY EDITION
Tuesday, September 27, 2005
INCIDENTS
Yosemite NP
Death of Special Agent Dan Madrid
Special Agent Dan Madrid died Saturday while investigating a previous visitor fatality in the park. Madrid was hiking to the scene of that fatality when he collapsed on the Mist Trail below Vernal Fall. Resuscitation efforts by fellow park rangers and a passing doctor were unsuccessful.
Madrid was duty stationed in Midwest Region at Ozark National Scenic Riverways in Missouri. He was on a temporary detail to Pacific West Region while other special agents and park rangers were assigned to hurricane response efforts along the Gulf Coast.
Madrid was one of 48 National Park Service special agents and the first to die in the line of duty.
He was 51 years old and is survived by his wife, R., and two adult children, son C. and daughter H.
Dan Madrid was born on March 14, 1954, in Globe, Arizona. After graduating from Miami High School in Miami, Arizona, in 1972, he attended Mesa Community College and Gila Pueblo College, both in Arizona. He started his federal government career in June, 1973, as a seasonal forestry aid with the Forest Service Arizona. From November, 1977, until February, 1985, he worked seasonally and accepted more responsibilities each year. During this time, he was temporarily assigned to a Young Adult Conservation Corps (YACC) crew to supervise six to eight young adults on forest resources, performed law enforcement duties, served as the district fire engine supervisor, and acted as the district fire management officer on occasion. In February, 1985, he became a full time firefighter/engineer/medic with the city of Globe and was a commissioned reserve police office for the city at the same time.
In June, 1987, Dan began his career with the National Park Service, accepting a position as a protection ranger at Lake Mead National Recreation Area. While at Lake Mead, he coordinated technical rescues in the Katherine District and remained active as a firefighter with certifications such as strike team leader, line locator, division group supervisor, and crew representative.
Dan accepted a promotion to supervisory protection ranger at Everglades National Park in October, 1988, working as the frontcountry subdistrict ranger in the Flamingo Ranger District. He was involved in drug interdiction cases, managed the structural fire program, and was the senior park medic and the park's EMS coordinator. He still maintained his fire red card, stayed involved in search and rescue, worked with resource management, managed a campground, and dealt with concession managers.
In August, 1990, he accepted a promotion at Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, to become the Wahweap supervisory subdistrict ranger. He supervised law enforcement and emergency response operations by vehicle, boat, and foot, including SAR, structural fire, EMS, resource and wildlife protection.
In 1995, Dan accepted a position as a special agent as Ozark NSR and received two promotions there, including assignment to the Washington Office as the Ozark area field agent in 2004. While working at Ozark, Dan exemplified himself by leading and successfully investigating many significant criminal investigations, including several investigations of national significance. Dan was awarded special commendations by the United States Attorney's Office on three occasions for his casework, including leading the first successful hate crime prosecution in the Department of the Interior.
Dan devoted nearly 29 years to Federal Service.
Flags at all parks nationwide, except for those within the National Mall and Memorial Parks in downtown Washington, are to be lowered to half staff, effective this morning. They are to remain at half staff until the date of interment, which will be published as soon at it is known. Flags on the National Mall (the Washington Monument, Lincoln Monument, etc.) are to remain at full staff.
[Scott Gediman, Public Affairs Officer]
Gulf Coast Areas
Update on Recovery from Hurricane Rita
The Central IMT (Eddie Lopez, IC) is charged with assisting the parks and employees affected by Hurricane Rita, primarily Big Thicket NP, and with supporting emergency response in communities around the park.
Big Thicket NP
All Big Thicket National Preserve employees and their families came through Hurricane Rita safely. Four families report significant damage to their residences. Many have less severe damage to their homes. Damage to park facilities is heaviest in Beaumont and lessens somewhat as you travel north toward Woodville. Maintenance employees have cleared debris from most of the main roads through the park.
In addition to helping National Park Service employees and their families, the team has been asked to provide assistance to the 520 residents of the nearby Alabama-Coushatta Indian Reservation and to emergency responders in the communities surrounding the park. Tribal members are reportedly without food, emergency responders have run out of fuel for their vehicles, and electricity to the entire region is expected to remain out for an extended period.
Three waves of emergency help have been dispatched to aid the community in and around Big Thicket National Preserve. The first fifteen responders, including a squad from Intermountain SET team #2, arrived after midnight and began damage assessment and reconnaissance at daybreak. They have established a spike camp at the park maintenance facility at Village Wells and have been responding to numerous calls from the community for law enforcement and medical assistance. Another squad of SET team members and an oil and gas specialist left Johnson City, Texas, for Big Thicket Sunday morning with much needed supplies, including a 1900-gallon gasoline tanker. And a caravan departed for the disaster area Sunday afternoon.
More food, water, fuel and recovery personnel are arriving on-scene or are on order and will make their way to East Texas as the recovery effort gets underway. The ICP remains at Lyndon B. Johnson NHP. Several members of the park staff are serving in important support roles, including logistical support, expanded dispatch and contracting. Efforts to relocate the ICP closer to the disaster area are hampered by the massive power outage and number of evacuees throughout the region.
Vicksburg NMP
The park suffered moderate damage from Hurricane Rita. Rain began on Friday morning, September 23rd. By noon, the park had no long distance phone service or fax capability.
On Saturday, the area experienced high winds, periods of heavy rains, downed trees and tornadoes. Power outages occurred for short periods. Over 100 tornado watches and warnings were issued at various times for Warren County. Approximately 15 to 20 visitors were sheltered at the visitor center and U.S.S. Cairo as per the park's tornado SOP. The park remained open the entire day and staff left at the normally scheduled hour.
On Sunday, high winds, heavy rains, and tornados continued to affect the area. Downed trees forced the closure of the park for short periods of time. Eventually, Union Avenue and the Cairo Museum had to be closed due to impassable roads, and power outages reoccurred. Staff were released at 5 p.m. Park grounds closed at regularly scheduled hour.
Damage to park facilities known at this time consists of water leaks into offices and storage spaces.
Cane River Creole NHP
As of Sunday afternoon, nine of the park's 25 have not yet phoned in, but the probable cause was power outages and downed phone lines in the areas where these employees live. Several employee homes have suffered some damage, mostly large chunks of shingles blowing off roofs in the high winds. The park remained closed on Sunday except for staff conducting a preliminary damage assessment. At the time, it appeared that damage was limited to downed limbs, missing shingles, and broken windows. Plans were to reopen on Monday afternoon if the park could be made safe enough for the public.
[Al Nash, IO, Central IMT; Ken Garvin, Regional FMO, SERO; Monika Mayr, Superintendent, VICK; Laura Gates, CARI]
Gulf Coast Areas
Update on Recovery from Hurricane Katrina
The following reports were submitted on Monday's activities.
Jean Lafitte NHP&P/New Orleans Jazz NHP
The National IMT (JD Swed, IC) is charged with both assisting the employees of the two parks and with overseeing the overall NPS response to the hurricane.
On Sunday, incident personnel attempted to return to Thibodaux, Louisiana, from their temporary ICP at Natchez Trace Parkway's headquarters in Tupelo, Mississippi, but isolated violent weather cells, with accompanying tornado warnings, caused most team members to find safe places to wait out the system in different areas of Mississippi. A group of 24 overnighted in Winona, the planning section remained in Tupelo, and approximately 30 people spent the night in Starkville, home of Mississippi State University. Some of the latter witnessed the funnel cloud that touched down at MSU, causing minor damage. The weather improved significantly on Monday, and all incident personnel arrived at Thibodaux by early evening to re-establish the ICP. There were intermittent power outages in Thibodaux during the hurricane but otherwise the area experienced no significant impacts.
Employee Assistance Branch - Over the weekend the branch contacted all Jean Lafitte and New Orleans Jazz employees to see how they had weathered Hurricane Rita. The Employee Assistance Center and peer support group continues to operate at the Wetlands Acadian Cultural Center in Thibodaux, Louisiana, and can be contacted at 985-448-1471.
Resources and Facilities Branch - The operations section hit the ground running yesterday. The six-person chipper crew went directly to Lafayette, where they cut into sections a 48-inch diameter beech tree that had fallen, blocking access to the Acadian Cultural Center. They then headed to Eunice, where they removed four large trees that had fallen in the vicinity of the Prairie Acadian Cultural Center. The centers are part of Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve. The utilities branch went directly to New Orleans to assess the condition of Jean Lafitte headquarters at 419 Decatur Street and at the New Orleans Jazz Visitor Center. City power has been restored to latter, but not the former. Water has not yet been restored to either facility. Barataria Preserve experienced some minor flooding and the power is out. There was no new damage to structures. The Chalmette Battlefield didn't flood, but there was some additional minor damage to the Malus-Beauregard House. More complete assessments and follow-up work will commence on Tuesday. The incident management team received a request for assistance from the superintendent of Cane River Creole National Historical Park. Twenty of the sixty historical buildings sustained some degree of damage from falling trees caused by Hurricane Rita.
Law Enforcement Branch - New rangers arrived to take the place of the Pacific West SET team. They will continue to provide escorts to park and incident employees in New Orleans.
Gulf Islands NS
Crews continued debris removal and clean-up in the Davis Bayou area of the park. Hazard trees around the damaged visitor center have been felled, bucked and are being removed to a landfill. Boat operations have resumed, making it possible for crews to return to the islands to reassess the condition of tasks already accomplished. The repairs to the boat docks made following Hurricane Katrina were re-damaged during Hurricane Rita. The crews will now resume cleanup on the islands. Working conditions will be challenging for crews. Temperatures are expected to climb back into the 90's, with a heat index of 108 degrees.
The new SET team continues to be responsible for law enforcement and EMS responses within the Mississippi District of the park and incident.
With the extensive damage to the visitor center, the administrative offices in the Mississippi District are unusable. The incident management team is rearranging work space and installing computer and phone lines and air conditioning to accommodate returning park staff in the maintenance area of the park.
There were 221 people working on the incident yesterday, including 11 park staff. More park staff were expected to join them on Monday, as administrative leave ended for those who can return to work.
Information Directory
A web site has been established as a repository for official documents related to hurricane recovery operations: HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/waso/waso.cfm?prg=15&lv=1" http://inside.nps.gov/waso/waso.cfm?prg=15&lv=1.
[Kris Fister, IO, IMT, JELA/JAZZ; Shauna Dyas, IO, IMT, GUIS]
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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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