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NATIONAL PARK SERVICE MORNING REPORT BLACKBERRY EDITION Monday, June 19, 2006 =============================================================================================================== INCIDENTS Mount Rainier NP Search Underway for Missing Woman Searchers began looking for a woman this past weekend after she was reported missing by her roommate just before noon on Saturday. Rangers, dog teams and a helicopter crew are scouring a five-square-mile area of steep, rugged terrain around Longmire in the Nisqually River drainage, including approximately 14 miles of trail and 3,300 acres of cross-country area. The woman was last seen on Friday between 6:30 and 8:00 p.m. at the National Park Inn, where she is employed by Guest Services Incorporated. She told people there that she was going hiking after her shift on Friday evening and is presumed missing in the Longmire area of the park, where rangers located her car. As of yesterday, about 40 Mount Rainier rangers were assigned to this incident. Northwest Bloodhounds, German Shepherd Search Dogs of Washington State, King County Search Dogs, and Worldwind Helicopters are also participating in the search. [Patti Wold, Information Officer] Yellowstone NP Woman Falls Over Cliff To Her Death A visitor from Michigan slipped and fell to her death north of the Tower Fall area around 10 a.m. on Saturday morning. The 52-year-old woman, her husband, and their two children had stopped at an overlook along the road about three-quarters of a mile north of the Tower Fall area. The woman stepped over a small rock retaining wall to take a photo, lost her footing, slipped down an embankment, then went over a cliff. She fell about 500 feet, coming to rest near the Yellowstone River. The woman's husband flagged down a passing motorist, who called 911 for help. Responding rangers could see the woman through a spotting scope lying immobile on the canyon floor. High, fast-moving water prevented rescuers from reaching the woman by raft, so a ranger rappelled down the canyon wall to reach the woman. She was declared dead at the scene. Her body was then placed in a litter suspended by cable from a helicopter and flown out of the area on Saturday afternoon. [Public Affairs, Yellowstone NP] Glacier NP Heavy Rains Cause Several Closures Rain that fell throughout the area late last week caused flooding in parts of the park, resulting in road, campground, and trail closures. Bowman and Kintla Lake campgrounds were closed on Friday, June 16th, and campers were evacuated due to flooding concerns at Bowman Creek Bridge; the roads to Bowman and Kintla Lake were also closed. The Inside North Fork Road was closed from the Logging Creek Ranger Station to Camas Creek due to flooding at Anaconda Creek. Also closed were the Quarter Circle Bridge and the hiking trail to Avalanche Lake. The 24 hour rainfall total for West Glacier at 8 a.m. on Friday was 2.54 inches and 1.7 inches in the North Fork drainage. Since the park's road crew has been working on issues associated with the flooding, no significant progress has been made on the rock and mud slides on the Going-to-the-Sun Road which resulted from a storm on Tuesday evening. It appears that the slide caused no damage to the road, but that some shoulder areas have been impacted and that damage has been inflicted on the rock wall near the “Slopes.” Significant debris piles remain in Logan Creek, Logan Pit, Lower Haystack, Weeping Wall, Big Bend, Triple Arches, and the area between Grizzly and Road Camp. Visitors are reminded that they can continue to access Logan Pass from the park's east side, traveling 18.5 miles from St. Mary. The Logan Pass Visitor Center is open from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. On the west side, visitors can travel 15.5 miles from West Glacier to Avalanche on the Going-to-the-Sun Road. The hiker/biker closure is at Logan Creek. Potential visitors are encouraged to monitor current road conditions, available on the park's Web site at http://www.nps.gov/applications/glac/roadstatus/roadstatus.cfm. Conditions are also available by calling 511, the Montana Department of Transportation Traveler Information System. If your phone does not support 511, call 1-800-226-7623. Both numbers are toll-free. Select “Glacier Park Tourist Information” from the main menu to hear Glacier's road report. [Melissa Wilson, Public Affairs Specialist] Natchez Trace Parkway Four Die In Accidents Within 24 Hours Four people died in motor vehicle accidents in the park last Thursday and Friday. A 1993 Nissan Altima headed south on the parkway near mile marker 192 around 4:30 p.m. on June 15th collided with a northbound 2005 Dodge Caravan. Two people in the Nissan - the driver, Angela Jefferson, 31, and passenger Reggie Atterbury, 29, both of Weir, Mississippi - died of injuries sustained in the accident. The driver of the van - Gregory King, 35, of Nettleton, Mississippi - was airlifted to Oktibbeha Hospital in Starkville, Mississippi, and later transferred to the North Mississippi Medical Center in Tupelo. He died of his injuries later that evening. Two other people, one from each vehicle, were injured in the accident and hospitalized. The collision resulted in the temporary closure of the parkway. On the following afternoon, rangers responded to a report of a single-vehicle accident near mile marker 141. A 1993 Ford Explorer driven by William Dawson, 32, of Carthage, Mississippi, went off the road and hit a tree. Dawson, who was not wearing a seatbelt, was partially ejected from the Explorer and succumbed to injuries sustained in the accident. [Marty Huseman, Acting Chief Ranger] Gateway NRA Power Failure Causes Fire In Park Building On the afternoon of June 9th, the Sandy Hook Unit fire brigade responded to a fire in Building 320 on the campus of the Marine Academy of Science and Technology, a county high school located within the park. A fire that originated in the emergency exit sign at the building's main entrance had extended into the wall and ceiling. Fire damage was limited to the building's entrance; two classrooms also received minor water damage. The cause of the fire is believed to have been an electrical overload caused by an emergency generator which came on line due to a power failure. There was also electrical damage, burnt wiring and smoke and alarm activations in several other buildings on the campus that are on the same circuit. Units from two local fire departments responded along with the park fire brigade. The investigation into the cause of the fire was conducted by the park and the Monmouth County Fire Marshall's Office. [Peter Tortorell, Law Enforcement Specialist] OTHER NEWS Other news of interest from today's edition of InsideNPS, which can be found at this address if your inside the NPS ( HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/" http://inside.nps.gov/) and at this address if you're outside the NPS ( HYPERLINK "http://www.nps.gov/applications/digest/" http://www.nps.gov/applications/digest/). Note that not all articles that appear in the former make it into the latter: Glen Canyon NRA bans kite tubing: HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=viewnpsnewsarticle&type=Announcements&id=4557" http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=viewnpsnewsarticle&type=Announcements&id=4557 Correction on due date for submissions for review of past experience for incident qualification system: HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=viewnpsnewsarticle&type=Announcements&id=4554" http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=viewnpsnewsarticle&type=Announcements&id=4554 Lead/non-leaded survey responses requested: HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=viewnpsnewsarticle&type=Announcements&id=4555" http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=viewnpsnewsarticle&type=Announcements&id=4555 Four Wind Cave NP elk test positive for chronic wasting disease: HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=viewnpsnewsarticle&type=Announcements&id=4556" http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=viewnpsnewsarticle&type=Announcements&id=4556 Dave Vela is the new super at George Washington Memorial Parkway: HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=viewcommunityarticle&type=PeopleNews&id=1261" http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=viewcommunityarticle&type=PeopleNews&id=1261 * * * * * Prepared by Visitor and Resource Protection, WASO, with the cooperation and support of Delaware Water Gap NRA. --- ### --- |