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NATIONAL PARK SERVICE MORNING REPORT Tuesday, November 14, 2006 =============================================================================================================== INCIDENTS Olympic NP Flood Damage Estimated At $3 Million Even as rain continues to fall, park staff are working to complete damage assessments and reopen damaged roads where possible. Staff and engineers from the Federal Highway Administration completed initial inspections over this past weekend. “Initial estimates have reached $3 million for repairing the damage we currently know about,” said superintendent Bill Laitner. “As we assess park trails, and with the forecast calling for continued rain and high winds later this week, we will likely see the repair bill go higher.” Here's what's known at this point: Hoh Road - The world-renowned Hoh Rain Forest remains inaccessible, with no clear timeline for its reopening. Three sites along the road within the park were severely damaged by floodwaters along several tributaries of the Hoh River. The most significant damage occurred at West Twin Creek, where a 75-foot-long and 25-foot-deep section of road was completely washed away. At Taft Creek, a 500-foot-long section of road was damaged; in some places, less than one traffic lane of road surface remain. A logjam has diverted another tributary, causing it to flow over the Hoh Road rather than under it. Additional damage occurred outside the park boundary and the road is still closed at Highway 101 while Jefferson County crews work to reopen the county's section of road. North Shore Quinault Road - High winds on Sunday left the North Shore Quinault Road littered with an estimated 50 old growth trees that closed the road and caused a power outage throughout the Quinault, Amanda Park and Kalaloch areas. A park maintenance crew left Port Angeles at 1 a.m. on Monday morning to lend assistance to the thinly stretched staff stationed at Quinault. Emergency access was restored by 9 a.m. that morning, allowing public utility district crews to begin repairs to downed and damaged wires. Park crews continued efforts to restore two traffic lanes from Highway 101 to Finley Creek Bridge yesterday. The bridge over Finley Creek was severely damaged last week; park crews hope to begin repairs on the bridge by sometime today. Quinault South Shore Road - The road has been cleared and is passable. Debris remains along the road shoulders and the road surface is rough; caution is advised. North Fork Road - The section of the road at Quinault was damaged by flooding and remains closed. The North Fork Campground access road has been completely washed out. The Graves Creek Road remains closed. Hurricane Ridge Road - The road is undamaged, but was closed yesterday as a crew began snow removal. About 15 inches of snow fell over the weekend; more is expected this week. Dosewallips, Staircase and Queets Roads - The roads remain closed due to previous damage and unsafe conditions. The Deer Park Road is closed for the season. For current road information, people should call the Olympic National Park recorded road and weather information line at 360-565-3131. [Barb Maynes, Public Affairs Officer] Yosemite NP Fatal Fall From Half Dome On about 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday, November 8th, Valley District rangers, SAR personnel and trail crew members responded to vague cell phone reports that there'd been a fall with serious injury from the Half Dome cables (in October, the cable hand lines are laid down on the rock and the stanchions which hold the cables up are removed to prevent them from being damaged by avalanches). Responding personnel had to hike up the nine miles of trail and the slab approach to the northwest face due to marginal flying conditions. Orders were placed for several helicopters; two eventually made it into the Valley but were unable to transport crews to the site of the accident due to low clouds surrounding the dome. The medical hasty team arrived on scene at 5 p.m. and found the body of E.S., a 25-year-old New Mexico resident and graduate of the University of Montana, at a spot about 300 feet below the base of the cables. According to her hiking partner, E.S. was descending the cables when she slipped on the wet rock, lost her grip on the cable, and slid out of sight. Her body was flown out by long line under a helicopter the following day. [Leslie Reynolds, Valley District Ranger] Biscayne NP Mutilation Of Endangered Manatee On Friday, November 10th, local fisherman alerted rangers to a dead manatee on the shoreline of the Mowry Canal adjacent to park headquarters. The rangers found the remains of a young, 500- to 600-pound manatee with its throat slit and its flippers cut off. The animal did not appear to have any other trauma-related injuries. Rangers towed the carcass to park headquarters, where biologists from the Florida Wildlife Commission picked it up and took it to St. Petersburg for a necropsy. The park has established a tip line and the Save the Manatee Club has put up a $25,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of whoever was responsible for this heinous act. Media interest has been extremely high. [Stephen Clark, Chief Ranger] HYPERLINK "http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/local/15991942.htm" http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/local/15991942.htm OTHER NEWS Other news from today's edition of InsideNPS, the National Park Service's home page: National Historic Landmarks - Employees of the National Park Service cast 3,254 votes for their favorite National Historic Landmark entries in the 2006 “Imaging Our Heritage” photo contest. The winning photo appears above and a link to other photos is contained within the story. Harpers Ferry Center - The November issue of HFC onMedia is now available. Chief Information Officer - The Department recently implemented a program of web content filtering across the entire DOI network. The objective is to block access to sites with inappropriate content. Fredericksburg/Spotsylania NMP - The acquisition of a 200-acre farm for the park is the most recent success of the Civil War Preservation Trust. So far, the trust has acquired and protected 23,000 acres of Civil War battlefield land in 18 states. Lake Mead NRA/Organ Pipe Cactus NM - The Dam Walkers and Cactus Mamas participated in their third annual Susan G. Komen three day (60 mile) walk for breast cancer awareness and research in Phoenix, Arizona, between Friday, November 3rd, and Sunday, November 5th. 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. --- ### --- |