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NATIONAL PARK SERVICE MORNING REPORT Wednesday, December 5, 2007 =============================================================================================================== INCIDENTS Pacific Northwest Parks Storm Hammers Region, Causing Some Park Problems The storm that struck the Pacific Northwest early this week caused some problems in parks throughout the region, with the most serious occurring at Olympic. Here's a roundup: Olympic NP - High winds and heavy rains dropped trees throughout the park and caused a record-breaking rise in the Elwha River. The river reached a record high level on Monday when it peaked at 24.65 feet, 4.65 feet above flood stage. The previous high stage was recorded in November 1949, when the river peaked at 24.2 feet at the McDonald Bridge gage. The river rose 14 feet in the 24 hours that preceded its record-setting stage. At the river's peak stage, 32,500 cubic feet per second (cfs) of water was flowing past the McDonald Bridge gage; 24 hours earlier, the flow was only 658 cfs. The river level began dropping yesterday, and was predicted to drop below flood stage by late afternoon. On Tuesday, park crews began cutting their way through numerous downed trees in an effort to access park entrance roads, make damage assessments, and begin repairs to damage caused by the storm. Only Kalaloch was open yesterday, and the park was not recommending travel to that area. With Highway 101 closed at Lake Crescent and Highway 112 only recently reopened, staff have been challenged in reaching the park's west side destinations. Yesterday morning, maintenance and ranger staff were ferried across Lake Crescent by boat in order to reach the area. The summary of known damage follows: Elwha Dam - Shortly after the river hit its peak, floodwater began entering the Elwha Dam powerhouse. Bureau of Reclamation employees put Emergency Response Level 1 into effect, which is primarily a notification and preparation phase. All appropriate emergency contacts were notified. The next step would have been to evacuate the powerhouse, but this didn't happen because the waters began to drop. Assessments on Tuesday revealed only minor damage to one of the log booms at the dam, which can easily be repaired. At the height of the flood, the operators were holding back some water behind the Glines Canyon Dam further up river, while all ten spill gates were open at the Elwha Dam. Hurricane Ridge Road - Crews have cleared two rockslides from the road and are assessing possible damage to the Hurricane Ridge Visitor Center. Wind speeds of up to 86 miles an hour were recorded on the ridge on Monday. The Heart O' the Hills campground remains closed due to earlier damage from a November 12th windstorm. Elwha - The Olympic Hot Springs Road is closed at the park boundary as crews continue to assess flood damage. Rangers report that many sites in the Altair campground have been washed away by the high flows. Lake Crescent - Highway 101 is closed around Lake Crescent between mileposts 222 and 232. The westbound lane of Highway 101 was severely damaged when a debris flow blocked a culvert and diverted water over the road about four miles west of Barnes Point. Sol Duc Road - A mudslide 5 feet deep and 60 feet wide is covering the Sol Duc Road about a half-mile south of Salmon Cascades. Damage beyond that point has not yet been assessed. Hoh Rain Forest - The Hoh Road is closed, with water flowing over the road at Snyder Creek within the park as well as outside the park boundary. Just over 14 inches of rain were recorded at the Hoh Visitor Center in the past 48 hours. Mora - The Mora area remains closed pending damage assessments. Quinault Rain Forest - Over seven inches of rain fell in the Quinault Valley between December 2nd and 3rd and high winds toppled many trees. The North Shore Quinault Road is closed by downed trees and electrical lines and crews are working today to reopen the road. The North Fork and Graves Creek Roads remain closed. Ozette - The Hoko-Ozette is closed with downed trees and power lines. 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. Further information about park roads and facilities will be released once it is available. For current road information, people should call the Olympic National Park recorded road and weather information line at 360-565-3131. Mount Rainier - The park received 3.7 inches of rain in a 24-hour period on December 3rd. Despite continuous heavy rainfall throughout the park during the day and throughout the night, no significant damage was reported. Some flooding, mudslides, and runoff overtopping roadways occurred in local areas outside the park, causing hazardous driving conditions getting to and from Mount Rainier. An interdivisional planning team put contingency plans into effect in the event that the heavy rainfall began to affect the safety of visitors or employees. Non-essential employees were provided several hours of administrative leave in the afternoon to assist them in getting home to their families safely during daylight hours. The Nisqually River reached flood stage around 10 a.m. and continued to rise until it crested at 11.37 feet later that evening. As a comparison, the devastating flooding that occurred in the park a year earlier (November 6, 2006) crested at 12.8 ft. Roadway repairs, culvert improvements, and stream reinforcements constructed following the 2006 flood all survived this most recent event and performed as designed. The park returned to normal operations on the morning of December 4th. Crater Lake - No flooding or other damage was reported. Two inches of rain fell on a relatively thin snow pack, so skiing was ruined for some time. Visitation is very low at this time of the year, so visitors weren't much affected. North Cascades - Preliminary indications are that the park weather the storm fairly well. A few creeks have jumped their banks in Skagitt on the west side and will require significant maintenance work. Stehekin on the east side received about two-and-a-half feet of snow, which turned to rain; there don't appear to be any problems there. The Cascade River area, damaged in 2006, had not been checked at the time of the report. Klondike Goldrush (Seattle) - The park reports a few roof leaks, but nothing otherwise. [Chuck Young, Chief Ranger, MORA; Barb Maynes, Public Affairs Officer, OLYM; Dave Brennan, Chief Ranger, CRLA; Dennis Stanchfield, Maintenance, NOCA; Karen Newton, PWRO] OTHER NEWS The following stories (among others) can be read on InsideNPS (internal) or NPS Digest (external): Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania NMP - On November 17th, park staff and historian David Blight hosted Ruth Washington and Maureen Ramos, the granddaughter and great-great granddaughter respectively of Fredericksburg slave John Washington, taking them on a tour of sites their ancestor knew and lived in during his life in Fredericksburg from 1838 to 1862. HYPERLINK "http://home.nps.gov/applications/digest/headline.cfm?type=Announcements&id=6037" http://home.nps.gov/applications/digest/headline.cfm?type=Announcements&id=6037 Law Enforcement, Security and Emergency Services - Nominations are now being solicited for the 14th annual Harry Yount award. They are to be submitted directly to the regions by January 31st. HYPERLINK "http://home.nps.gov/applications/digest/headline.cfm?type=Announcements&id=6036" http://home.nps.gov/applications/digest/headline.cfm?type=Announcements&id=6036 Chief Information Officer - An update on the Service's continuing battle against increasing email spam. In a recent 30-day analysis of the Service's inbound Internet email, the anti-spam engine on the mail system processed 7.6 million Internet email messages -- 1.5 million of them spam. HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=viewnpsnewsarticle&type=Announcements&id=6038" http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=viewnpsnewsarticle&type=Announcements&id=6038 Servicewide - A weekly summary of news stories about or of consequence to the National Park Service and National Park System, including links to the text of these articles. HYPERLINK "http://home.nps.gov/applications/digest/headline.cfm?type=Announcements&id=6035" http://home.nps.gov/applications/digest/headline.cfm?type=Announcements&id=6035 Guadalupe Mountains NP - Janice Wobbenhorst, the park's chief ranger, retired on December 3rd after 38 years with the National Park Service. HYPERLINK "http://home.nps.gov/applications/digest/headline.cfm?type=PeopleNews&id=1755" http://home.nps.gov/applications/digest/headline.cfm?type=PeopleNews&id=1755 * * * * * Prepared by the Division of Law Enforcement, Security and Emergency Services, Washington Office, with the support of the Office of the Chief Information Officer and Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area. Edited by Bill Halainen ( HYPERLINK "mailto:Bill_Halainen@nps.gov" Bill_Halainen@nps.gov, 570-686-3828). --- ### --- |