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NATIONAL PARK SERVICE MORNING REPORT Monday, July 30, 2007 =============================================================================================================== INCIDENTS Lake Mead NRA Several Areas Damaged By Storms Storm cells that passed over the park late last week caused substantial damage at several locations: Cottonwood Cove (Nevada side of Lake Mohave) - Trees were uprooted in the lower campground and are being cleared by maintenance crews. The upper campground has minor debris from overflowing irrigation ditches. Both upper and lower campgrounds remain open. Eldorado Canyon (Nevada side of Lake Mohave) - The access road off Highway 165 was closed due to mud and debris blocking the road. Maintenance crews were scheduled to clear the area after higher priority storm damage areas were repaired and/or cleared. Princess Cove (Arizona side of Lake Mohave) - The drainage area adjacent to the parking lot sustained significant damage. Several hundred feet of rip-rap used to prevent erosion on slopes has been washed away along with curbing. That portion of the parking lot is closed, but most of the rest of the lot remains usable. Maintenance crews will work to repair this lot this week. Katherine Landing area roads (Arizona side of Lake Mohave) - Cabinsite Road and North and South Telephone Cove Roads sustained minor flooding and maintenance crews have cleared the major debris and made the roads usable. [Roxanne Dey, Public Affairs Officer] Ocmulgee NM Thieves Excavate Several Mounds Ranger Irv Brock was on patrol on June 21st when he discovered that the Lamar Mounds had been entered and excavated. Each of the mounds at this remote location is complete enclosed within a six-strand barbwire chain link fence. Brock found that a pothole had been dug into the side of Spiral Mound near the summit; when he entered to investigate further, he found that there were a total of three holes on the mound. He then checked Mound A and found one hole at the top and another on the side. Tool marks and piles of sifted dirt beside them revealed that the holes were human-made. A site damage assessment was conducted by SEAC archeologists the following day. Then, four days later, Brock found four new holes on the mounds, this time outside the fences. The holes were similar to those in the first set. SEAC has conducted a damage assessment on these sites as well. The Lamar Mounds unit, which incorporates about 43 acres of mound sites, is closed to the public under 36 CFR 2.31 (trespassing, tampering and vandalism) due to the unit's detachment from the main area of the park and its inaccessibility. An ARPA investigation is underway. [Guy LaChine, Chief Ranger] Lake Meredith NRA Rescuers Save Woman From Drowning Ranger Beth Kolb and personnel from other agencies responded to a report of a possible drowning at Harbor Bay at noon on Saturday, July 21st. A 19-year-old woman and two young boys were out on the lake in a rubber raft when winds swept them away from the shoreline. When the raft was about 150 feet out, the woman decided to jump out and swim to shore for help, but began struggling en route and went underwater. A local fisherman entered the lake and went to her aid, but became tired trying to keep her from drowning. A visitor from Amarillo who had just launched his boat on the other side of the cove heard the fisherman calling for help and immediately went to their location, pulling them into the boat. The woman began to expel water when she was brought aboard. The woman's rescuers were able to revive her before reaching the Harbor Bay boat ramp. Once there, Kolb administered oxygen. The woman was treated by Fritch EMS and taken to Golden Plains Community Hospital in Borger. Although found to be in good condition, she was kept in the hospital overnight for observation, then released on Monday. The initial heroic rescue effort by the fisherman provided the opportunity for the boaters to respond in time, thereby averting a possible tragedy. [Dante Tantay, Chief Ranger]
Yosemite NP Short-Haul Evacuation Of Injured Fisherman On the morning of July 26th, ranger Sam Flourney was contacted by members of a fishing party who reported that a 77-year-old member of their group had suffered a dramatically angulated leg fracture in a ground-level fall. Flourney and SAR technicians Chris Nanamura and Jen Imai headed to the man's location, about 25 minutes east of the Little Yosemite Valley campground. Flourney advised incident command that a helicopter short-haul would be required to extricate the man, as he was in heavy timber on an inaccessible side of the Merced River. A medical team was flown into Little Yosemite Valley and dropped onto the site via heli-rappel. The injured man and medic Matt Stark were then short-hauled from the accident site and flown about five miles to the Ahwahnee Meadows helispot in Yosemite Valley proper. [Keith Lober, Emergency Services Manager] OTHER NEWS The following stories (among others) can be read on either the InsideNPS web site (if you are within the National Park Service) or at the InsideNPS public ‘news digest' site (if you are outside of the NPS). The web sites appear below: Grand Teton NP - An open-air dedication ceremony will be held for the new Craig Thomas Discovery and Visitor Center on Saturday, August 11th - the park's first new visitor center in the past 30 years. Dinosaur NM - News article: “People have used animals to control plants over much of the West's history, but harnessing a herd of goats to eat weeds on a historic landscape is a new twist on an old methodology.” Natchez Trace - Dave Hajdik is retiring after nearly 23 years with the National Park Service as a law enforcement ranger. Dave has been at the Natchez Trace Parkway since 2002, where he has served as the Leipers Fork district ranger in Tennessee. To see the above articles, go to InsideNPS ( HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/" http://inside.nps.gov/) or NPS Digest ( HYPERLINK "http://home.nps.gov/applications/digest/" http://home.nps.gov/applications/digest/). For NPS incident reporting standards, go to HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=viewnpsnewsarticle&type=Announcements&id=3363" http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=viewnpsnewsarticle&type=Announcements&id=3363 * * * * * Prepared by the Division of Law Enforcement, Security and Emergency Services, Washington Office, with the cooperation and support of Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area. Edited by Bill Halainen ( HYPERLINK "mailto:Bill_Halainen@nps.gov" Bill_Halainen@nps.gov, 570-426-2430). --- ### --- |