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NATIONAL PARK SERVICE MORNING REPORT BLACKBERRY EDITION Thursday, August 31, 2006 =============================================================================================================== INCIDENTS Southeast Areas Tropical Storm Ernesto Update The following summarizes actions that parks in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina are taking in response to Tropical Storm Ernesto (as of 11 a.m. on Wednesday): Dry Tortugas NP - The park remains closed. All staff are reportedly well. The M/V Fort Jefferson was still anchored in the Miami River. The park will likely reopen sometime within the next few days. Everglades NP - The park will reopen today with limited services available to the public. Park staff were to move back into the Pine Island, Flamingo and Shark Valley districts by noon yesterday. U.S. Highway 1 is open, so Key Largo employees residing in the Keys can return to their homes. Biscayne NP - The park is reopening today. Park employees will begin returning to work. Big Cypress NP - Protection rangers were on duty through Tuesday night. They checked park facilities in the morning and found no damage or serious flooding. The park will reopen today. Canaveral NS - The park closed on Tuesday and employees were released around noon. Park staff will conduct an assessment after the storm moves through the area. If all goes well, the park will reopen this afternoon. Castillo de San Marcos NM/Fort Matanzas NM - Both parks remain open. Fort Frederica NM - The park was open yesterday, but the incident management team was planning on meeting yesterday morning to discuss procedures for closing. Fort Pulaski NM - The park is scheduled to close today. Fort Sumter NM - Voluntary evacuations have been ordered for local islands. When winds exceed 35 mph, bridges in the Charleston area will close. Concessions operations have been closed. Employees who have been evacuated have been asked to contact the Emergency Incident Coordination Center (EICC) at Shenandoah NP to report their status and location. The call in number is 888-246-4335. [Jeff Brice, NPS Assistant Coordinator, Southern Area Coordination Center] Yellowstone NP Heating Oil Spill At Old Faithful Snow Lodge Efforts are underway to clean up a heating oil spill that occurred at the Old Faithful Snow Lodge on Tuesday, August 29th. Pumps consolidating heating oil from two underground tanks into a third tank kept running after the third tank reached capacity. This caused an estimated 700 to 750 gallons of heating oil to spill onto the ground near a loading dock behind the lodge. The pumps were immediately shut down once the spill was discovered early Tuesday morning. The spill was contained within an area five feet in diameter. All appropriate authorities, including the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality, have been notified. The heating oil spill is not near any thermal features. It is not considered a threat to the groundwater in the Old Faithful area. The spill poses no threat to visitors or employees. Clean-up experts have been called in to deal with the effects of the spill. The cause is under investigation. [Public Affairs] * * * * * Prepared by Visitor and Resource Protection, WASO, with the cooperation and support of Delaware Water Gap NRA. --- ### --- |