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NATIONAL PARK SERVICE MORNING REPORT Friday, October 20, 2006 =============================================================================================================== INCIDENTS Great Smoky Mountains NP Recovery From Storm Impacts Continues Rain and winds peaking at over 100 miles per hour struck the park on Monday night, particularly on the Tennessee side, bringing down trees and forcing closure of major roads and public use areas. Recovery efforts have been underway since then. Park personnel made substantial progress in clearing several areas of downed trees and storm debris on Wednesday. The park's status as of late that day was as follows: Roads - Roads that reopened on Wednesday included the Newfound Gap Road (U.S. 441) between Gatlinburg and Cherokee, Clingmans Dome Road, Little River Road, and Laurel Creek Road. Cades Cove Loop Road was opened as far as Sparks Lane, creating a shorter, four-mile loop. The park hoped to open the road as far as Hyatt Lane on Thursday, thereby creating an eight-mile loop through the cove. Foothills Parkway East and West also reopened. Two roads remain closed - Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail and Upper Tremont Road. Campgrounds - Elkmont and Cades Cove campgrounds, which are on the National Park Service reservation system, are open only to visitors who have already made reservations through the weekend. No new reservations or walk-ups are being accepted because only a limited number of campsites are available. Look Rock and Abrams Creek campgrounds off the Foothills Parkway are now open, as is Cosby campground. Facilities - The Cades Cove riding stables have reopened for business. Facilities that are still closed at this time include the Cades Cove group campground, Cades Cove picnic area, Anthony Creek horse camp, and Metcalf Bottoms picnic area. Trails - The condition of backcountry trails is still unknown, as park crews have been focusing on cleaning up developed areas. [Nancy Gray, Public Affairs Officer] Crater Lake NP Search For Missing Boy Continues At Reduced Levels The search for S.B., the 8-year-old boy lost at Crater Lake National Park since last Saturday, will be scaled back significantly beginning today. The search area was covered numerous times by up to 200 searchers over the past six days, with different search teams utilizing a wide variety of techniques and modes, including grid searches, high-angle and technical climbing, canine searches teams, horseback teams, watercraft search teams, helicopters equipped with infrared cameras, and handled infrared cameras. No clues were found, other than scent alerts detected by canine searchers on several days. Although each of these was thoroughly investigated, they did not reveal the missing boy's location. Due to the low likelihood of survival after five days in cold, wet and snowy conditions, the search for S.B. will shift to a limited continuous search beginning today. Most teams assigned to the search will be released, but small-scale ground and air searches will continue intermittently until winter arrives. “We are deeply appreciative of the extraordinary contributions by all of the agencies and individuals who participated in this search,” said chief ranger Dave Brennan. “We are disappointed that our intensive search efforts over the past six days have not located Samuel. Our sympathies go out to Samuel's family, and we understand how difficult it must be for them to cope with this uncertainty.” The family released the following statement following the above announcement: “Like any other eight-year-old, S.B. likes root beer, mac & cheese with extra cheese, and corn dogs. He likes playing with Yugio cards, Legos, and tinker toys. He enjoys playing with sticks and digging in the dirt. Pirates and dragons are his special interests. He likes hiking, fishing, and being out of doors. His favorite stuffed animals are Piggy and Treasure the horse. But Sammy has a disorder that affects his life. What might be merely irritating to another person can be overwhelming to Sammy. Sammy has Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), a condition also known as high functioning autism. Sammy has extreme reactions to loud noises such as blow dryers and barking dogs. Because loud noises cause him to run away or hide with his hands over his ears, searchers were asked from the beginning not to use sirens, whistles, or other loud noises to locate Sammy. This has been a factor in the difficulty of the search. Although searchers have had this information since the start of the search, in the interests of maintaining their privacy, the family has not released it to the public until today. However, the great public sympathy and media interest in the search for Sammy have prompted the family to take this opportunity to help people learn about ASD. For more information, please contact the Oregon Health Sciences University Doernbecher Children's Hospital, or visit their web site at HYPERLINK "http://www.ohsu.edu/cdrc/clinical/portland/autism_links_oregon.html" http://www.ohsu.edu/cdrc/clinical/portland/autism_links_oregon.html. In addition, the family expresses their thanks to the paid and unpaid professionals who participated in the search ‘for their incredible conduct, kindness, and superb efforts on behalf of our families. We appreciate the sacrifice their families are making for them to be here.' While expressing their appreciation for volunteer involvement and public sympathy for the search, the family would like to reiterate their request to be left in privacy at this difficult time. Although they are aware of the numerous inquiries made by the media, they are not interested in speaking directly with reporters.” [Rudy Evenson, Incident Information Officer] Big Thicket NP Multiple Swift Water Rescues On October 16th, during the recent flooding in southeast Texas, the Tyler County Sheriff's Office and the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department asked for help from rangers in rescuing three people trapped on top of their pickup truck in the swift running flood waters of Wolf Creek, which lies within the jurisdiction of the Corps of Engineers. Rangers Johnny Stafford and Mike Hughes responded with their patrol boat. They found three people trapped on a fully submerged truck. After attaching safety lines and providing life jackets, Stafford assisted from shore while Hughes and Texas Parks and Wildlife agent Bryan Baronet maneuvered the NPS vessel close enough to the truck to allow all three to be transferred safely to the boat. The driver of the vehicle had ignored the barriers closing the road, driving around them into the flood water. The truck was then swept off the road into Wolf Creek. Two of the occupants, one only 13 years old, managed to get out of the vehicle before it was swept away; the other three were trapped on top of the truck. After the rescue, a Texas Department of Public Safety trooper arrested the driver for child endangerment and for intentionally driving around a safety barricade, thereby creating a hazardous situation. Earlier the same day, rangers assisted the Tyler County Sheriff's Office in the rescue of a 90-year old woman who was trapped by flood waters up to her neck inside her home. [Keith Flanery, District Ranger] Hawaiian Parks Major Marijuana Eradication Operation On September 18th, the state of Hawaii's domestic cannabis eradication/suppression program (DCE/SP) task force conducted its annual statewide marijuana eradication/suppression “super mission.” The operation continued for ten consecutive days and included Pacific Area law enforcement personnel from the National Park Service. The operation included all NPS lands within the state - Hawaii Volcanoes NP, Pu'uhonua O Honaunau NHP, Puukohola Heiau NHS, Kaloko-Honokohau NHP, Haleakala NP, Kalaupapa NHP and the USS Arizona Memorial. Statewide, team members eradicated 15,505 plants, seized 17 pounds of processed marijuana, $8,380 in cash and two firearms, and made ten arrests. Statistics in each of these categories have trended steadily downward over past years due to the relentless efforts of the participating agencies, which conduct bimonthly eradication operations year-round. These operations, coupled with aggressive prosecutions of cases on federal lands and heavy media coverage, have collectively become known as the “Hawaii Model” for the so-called “M7” states of the DCE/SP program - Hawaii, California, Oregon, Washington, Kentucky, Tennessee, and West Virginia. The result has been that most marijuana is now being found outside park boundaries and on adjacent state and private property. Without this intensive focus on park lands, marijuana growers would undoubtedly return to the seclusion and isolation of NPS areas within the state. [Scott Hinson, Special Agent in Charge] Organ Pipe Cactus NM Sentencing Of Drug Smugglers On July 28, 2005, rangers arrested two male Mexican nationals who were caught smuggling backpacks of marijuana into the United States. The total weight of the marijuana was 423 pounds. The two defendants were indicted on August 24, 2005 on one count each of 21 USC 846, conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute marijuana, and one count each of 21 USC 841, possession with intent to distribute marijuana. As of July 27th, both defendants had pled guilty to one count each on the distribution charges and were sentenced to 13 months commitment with credit for time served, and 24 months and 36 months, respectively, of supervised release. They will be deported upon completion of their sentences. [Susan Morton, Special Agent] El Malpais NM Nine Cited For Multiple Resource Violations Acting on a report from interpretive staff, protection rangers contacted a group of nine juveniles (including several people previously involved in shoplifting from an NPS information center, vehicle vandalism, and illegal cave entry incidents) as they were exiting an officially closed bat colony cave in the El Calderon area of the park. They were subsequently cited for a host of violations, including acts of vandalism to signs and to a vehicle, killing wildlife, and illegal entry of the cave area. A total of 16 violation notices were issued, with fines at this time totaling $2,700. Members of the group are facing additional charges, courtesy of the Cibola County, New Mexico Sheriff's Department. [Fred Moosman, Supervisory Law Enforcement Specialist] OTHER NEWS Other news from today's edition of InsideNPS, the National Park Service's home page: Article announcing a chance to select the winner of the 2006 NHL photo contest. Newspaper report on status of efforts to acquire/protect 21,000 acres in Shenandoah Valley Civil War battlefields. Announcement that Kinsey Shilling is new chief of R&VP at NOCA parks, and another that Judy Forte is the new super at Martin Luther King. Obituary on Butch Abell, who died last week. To link to InsideNPS, click on HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/" http://inside.nps.gov/ * * * * * Prepared by Visitor and Resource Protection, WASO, with the cooperation and support of Delaware Water Gap NRA. --- ### --- |