NATIONAL PARK SERVICE

MORNING REPORT

BLACKBERRY EDITION

Wednesday, January 4, 2006

===============================================================================================================

INCIDENTS

Point Reyes NS

Pacific Storms Slam Park

Over the past few days, the park has been severely battered by a series of major Pacific storms, and adjacent communities have sustained major flooding due to the high levels of rainfall and extreme high tides. These communities have also suffered from power outages and the closure of road corridors to major highways due to numerous mudslides and closed roads. Much of the park has been affected by flooding, high tides, power outages, and toppled trees. Several roads and low lying areas within the park are temporarily closed due to flooding, clogged culverts, and mudslides. Several park residences along Lagunitas Creek were seriously flooded; water was waist deep in these facilities. Major sections of the park remain closed. Limantour Road and the Limantour Beach area will remain closed while work crews clear culverts and assess damage to the roads. Park emergency crews are working hard to clean debris, clear roadways, assess damage, assisting Marin County emergency teams, and getting the park into operational condition. The worst of the series of storms seems to have passed, but high tides and showers are still forecast for the next few days. [John Golda)

Gateway NRA

Two Suicide Attempts Thwarted in Two Days

Rangers in the park's Sandy Hook Unit twice deflected attempted suicides last week - once on Christmas day, once on the day following. Just after 3 a.m. on December 25th, dispatch received a report that an intoxicated resident of the Sandy Hook Coast Guard Base was threatening suicide with a .45 caliber handgun. A ranger responded and was able to secure the weapon with the assistance of Coast Guard members. The man had an injury to his hand from repeatedly punching a wall in his house and was taken to Monmouth Medical Center both for treatment of his hand and for crisis counseling evaluation. The man is currently receiving in-patient metal health care at the hospital. Investigation revealed that he was upset because his wife had just left him. On the following afternoon, dispatch received a 911 call reporting an emotionally disturbed woman in lightweight clothing with no shoes wading into the ocean. A ranger responded and found her on the beach. She was standing in the surf, soaking wet, having previously entered the freezing water up to her waist. The ranger got her away from the ocean and began escorting her towards his vehicle in the parking lot to shelter her from the cold. When they reached the dunes, she began calling a name and trying to crawl into the bushes. When questioned, she would answer only that she was looking for her baby. With the assistance of the Highlands Police Department and Sea Bright First Aid, the woman was transported to Monmouth Medical Center . The ranger contacted police in Perth Amboy and asked them to go to the woman's house and check on the welfare of her children. The ranger then began a search of Sandy Hook for the children with the help of Highlands police. He found the woman's vehicle in another parking area with an empty bottle of sleeping pills inside. A short time later, Perth Amboy officers found the children safe at home. The woman was treated at the hospital for the pill overdose and hypothermia and is currently receiving in-patient metal health care. Investigators determined that she'd had a fight with her boyfriend earlier in the day. Emergency room doctors said that she would have died if she'd remained outside any longer due to the combined effect of exposure, a low core temperature and the pill overdose. (Robert Louden, Acting Law Enforcement Specialist]

Zion NP

Rescue of Man Severely Injured in Fall

Around 1:30 p.m. on New Year's Day, park fee collectors received a report that a 36-year-old man had taken a 40-foot fall into a drainage adjacent to the road on the park's east side. He was reported to be conscious and alert, but unable to move and complaining of back pain. Medics and rescue personnel responded and provided ALS care, including use of a full body vacuum splint as a precaution to protect his spine. He was carried by belayed litter up a short scree slope to the roadway and transported by park ambulance to an area hospital. He was later flown to a Level 1 trauma center in Las Vegas, where he is expected to fully recover. His injuries included a pneumothorax and fractures of eight vertebrae (L 1-4 and T 9-12), all ribs, left knee and pelvis. Ten park staff were involved in the rescue operation. (Kevin Killian, Canyon District Ranger)

Lake Meredith NRA

Arrest for Methamphetamine Manufacture

On the morning of December 31st, a land surveyor advised a ranger that he'd seen a man acting suspiciously in the Spring Canyon area. He was reportedly seen throwing items from his vehicle and carrying several ice chests into the tall river grass. When he saw the surveyor, he fled in his vehicle down a dirt road until he ran into locked gate, at which point he abandoned it and took off on foot into a nearby canyon. When the ranger arrived, he found a still operating methamphetamine lab, the man's vehicle, and indications of his direction of travel. A Fritch PD officer and two Hutchinson County officers soon arrived on scene to provide assistance. Items used in the manufacture of methamphetamine were found in the vehicle. The county officers found the 19-year-old suspect just outside the park and detained him for further investigation. He was positively identified, placed in custody, and taken to the county jail. He's been charged with the manufacture of a controlled substance, possession of chemicals with intent to manufacture a controlled substance, and possession of a controlled substance. The estimated total weight of the methamphetamines he produced came to 400 grams. A second arrest is pending. [Dane Tantay, Chief Ranger]

PARKS AND PEOPLE

Badlands NP

Accidental Death of Seasonal Employee

On the evening of December 22nd, seasonal employee Duane Garnette was killed in a single vehicle rollover accident near the town of Kyle, South Dakota. Garnette had been employed as a seasonal maintenance worker at Badlands for the past two summers and the staff was looking forward to his return in 2006. Funeral services were held in Kyle on December 29th. [Mark Gorman, Chief Ranger]

Mojave NP

Dennis Schramm Named Superintendent

Dennis Schramm, a 28-year veteran of the National Park Service, is the new superintendent of Mojave National Preserve. He replaces Mary Martin, who transferred to Lassen Volcanic National Park as its superintendent.

“Schramm has extensive experience and a deep life-long connection to Mojave through his NPS assignments, formal education, and growing up in the Mojave Desert,” said regional director Jonathan Jarvis in making the appointment. “His leadership during the planning process and numerous public meetings he lead during the 90's helped build bridges with organizations, partners, and other agencies. He also spent eight years working in Alaska on mining and hazardous materials cleanups, experience that will serve him well in Mojave. I am confident he will bring knowledge, motivation, and enthusiasm to the challenging issues facing this relatively new national park unit.”

Schramm began his NPS career in Denver in 1978 working on park plans, new area studies and compliance issues for western parks. Following Denver, he moved to Lava Beds National Monument as a resource management specialist. In 1983, he returned to Denver to work on restoration issues for the new mining and minerals office (now Geologic Resources). He then moved his family to Alaska in 1986 to help establish a minerals management program in that region. They spent a total of 8 years in Alaska on two tours, with a brief 18 month interlude in Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area as the chief of land use planning. Dennis moved back to his roots in the Mojave Desert in 1995, spending seven years at the new Mojave National Preserve as a management assistant. He will move back to Barstow in February from his current post as program analyst in the office of planning and policy in Washington, D.C.

“Desert resources and the Mojave community always has excited and thrilled me,” Schramm said. “I am looking forward to working with neighbors, friends, staff and community in protecting park values and resources.”

Schramm has undergraduate and graduate degrees in desert ecology from the University of Nevada at Las Vegas. He and his wife, Marcia, also an NPS employee, expect to live in the Barstow area.

* * * * *

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

--- ### ---