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NATIONAL PARK SERVICE MORNING REPORT BLACKBERRY EDITION Wednesday, June 21, 2006 =============================================================================================================== INCIDENTS Mount Rainier NP Body of Missing Concession Employee Found by Searchers A three-day search came to a sad end on Monday when a helicopter spotted the body of 22-year-old D.Q. on the rocks below Comet Falls. Searchers on the ground reached the site early in the afternoon and the body was evacuated by helicopter. D.Q. was last seen Friday evening at the National Park Inn in Longmire where she worked for Guest Services Incorporated. She told friends that she was going hiking after work on Friday. Her roommate reported her missing late Saturday morning. More than 40 National Park Service employees participated in the search. They aggressively scoured a 10 square mile area of rugged terrain around Longmire, including approximately 14 miles of trail and 6,000 acres of forested terrain. Northwest Bloodhounds, German Shepherd Search Dogs of Washington State, King County Search Dogs, the Washington State Patrol, and Worldwind Helicopters all participated in the search effort. The evidence for the cause of the accident is inconclusive, but investigators suspect that D.Q. fell on steep, rocky terrain while traversing a slope between the upper and lower waterfalls. [Lee Taylor, Incident Information Officer] Lincoln Home NHS Anti-War Demonstration Nine members of the anti-war group Voices for Creative Nonviolence gathered in front of the Shutt House within the park on the afternoon of June 15th and conducted a protest against the war in Iraq. The GSA-owned building houses the office of Sen. Richard Durbin (D, Illinois). Ranger David Wachtveitl contacted members of the group. One of them asked that the group be issued a special use permit for First Amendment activity in the zone designated for this purpose. The permit application was prepared and issued and the group continued its protest at that location. Five members of the group contacted the senator's staff and received permission to stand in the office and read names of men and women killed in Iraq, but they soon began chanting in a way that disrupted office staff. Federal Protective Service law enforcement officers were contacted, as they have jurisdiction in the building. Group members were asked by office staff to leave the building and return to the First Amendment zone or to go to a conference room in the building where they would not disrupt office business. Several returned to the zone; one went to the conference room; two remained in the senator's office. The latter were arrested by FPS officers for failing to obey a lawful order. Wachtveitl provided support during the arrests. [David Wachtveitl, Park Ranger] Everglades NP DUI with Pursuit, Arrest On June 8th, ranger Mirta Maltes received a report of a domestic dispute in the Royal Palm Visitor Center parking lot. She soon found the involved truck and stopped the driver for speeding just inside the park near the main entrance. Maltes found that the driver had a suspended license and was very intoxicated. During the contact, the driver sped away, leaving his family on the roadside. A lengthy high speed pursuit followed throughout rural western Dade County, involving several park rangers and numerous Miami-Dade and Florida Wildlife Commission officers. The pursuit ended in farm fields with the truck surrounded by dozens of law enforcement vehicles. During the pursuit, the driver attempted to run down two Miami-Dade officers and an Everglades ranger. Rangers filed a criminal complaint charging the individual with felony fleeing and eluding (18 USC 13, assimilating FL 316.1935). He has also been charged with DUI and numerous other misdemeanors. The Miami Dade Police Department is also pursuing charges of assault on a police officer. [Bonnie Foist, Chief Ranger] New River Gorge NR River Rafter Drowns in Iron Ring Rapid The park received a call for help on June 14th from a commercial rafting company running trips on the Gauley River. According to reports, the raft trip was running Iron Ring rapid on the upper Gauley River when one of the passengers, N.W., 67, of St. Michael's, Maryland, lost his balance and fell out of the raft and into the Class V rapid. N.W. remained at the surface for a second and then disappeared into the turbulent water just above an undercut rock with a crack referred to as Woodstock Rock. Guides who had positioned themselves as safeties below the rapid rushed to the point last seen and immediately threw weighted ropes into the rapids above the rock. The guide for N.W.'s raft ran upstream, jumped into the rapid, and positioned herself in the water to be flushed through an area called the Flume of Doom, where she searched for N.W. Another guide secured a line to his rescue vest and with the aid of others lowered himself into the rapid above Woodstock Rock. On the second lowering, the guide felt what he believed to be a life jacket at the base of the rock. Several attempts were made to free the item with paddles, poles and weighted drag ropes, but without success. One of the guides was able to climb to higher ground, where a radio call for assistance was made. Upon receiving the call, NPS rangers and two volunteer rescue squads responded to the scene. The Army Corps of Engineers was notified and the Summersville Dam, upstream of the rapid, reduced it's discharge to minimum flow. Once on scene, rangers determined that rescue efforts would be suspended until the river flow was reduced. Upon nightfall, all personnel were called off the river. Recovery efforts began the following morning. River rangers were assisted by five experienced guides from the rafting company and members of the Anstead and Nuttall volunteer fire departments. After approximately five hours of working with grappling hooks, ropes, pulleys and a complex rigging system, N.W.'s body was freed from under Woodstock Rock. Evidence indicated that his hand became entrapped in the rocks, causing him to be held underwater. The body was transported by Jan-Care ambulance to the West Virginia medical examiner. The follow-up investigation is being conducted by the West Virginia Department of Natural Resources, which by legislation has jurisdiction over commercial rafting in the park. Ranger Peggy Brown served as IC throughout the incident. [Gary Hartley, Chief Ranger] 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: The annual edition of Natural Resource Year in Review is now out, covering CY 2005: HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=viewnpsnewsarticle&type=Announcements&id=4564" http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=viewnpsnewsarticle&type=Announcements&id=4564 Special agent Susan Morton named 2006 Outstanding Federal Law Enforcement Employee by the Women in Federal Law Enforcement (WIFLE) organization: HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=viewcommunityarticle&type=PeopleNews&id=1262" http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=viewcommunityarticle&type=PeopleNews&id=1262 Announcements issued for superintendent positions at Fort Scott and Scotts Bluff: HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=viewjobdetails&type=Jobs&id=2425" http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=viewjobdetails&type=Jobs&id=2425 HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=viewjobdetails&type=Jobs&id=2426" http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=viewjobdetails&type=Jobs&id=2426 Telstation course today on safety in felling hazard trees: HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=viewnpsnewsarticle&div=46&type=Conferences&id=1132&dir=5" http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=viewnpsnewsarticle&div=46&type=Conferences&id=1132&dir=5 * * * * * Prepared by Visitor and Resource Protection, WASO, with the cooperation and support of Delaware Water Gap NRA. --- ### --- |