NATIONAL PARK SERVICE

MORNING REPORT

Monday, March 1, 2010

INCIDENTS

Grand Canyon NP

Stranded Rafters Rescued, Returned To River To Finish Trip

A private boating party stranded near Crystal Rapid was able to continue down the river late Thursday afternoon after being rescued by National Park Service rangers the previous day. At approximately 12:40 p.m. on Wednesday, February 24th, dispatch received a report from the leader of a private river trip that one of his 18-foot rafts was stranded on the rock garden at Crystal Rapid, located just past river mile 98 approximately 11 miles downriver from Phantom Ranch. The party had worked for three hours to free the boat themselves with no success and needed assistance. Aerial reconnaissance confirmed the location of the boat and that its three passengers were unable to get to dry land. Due to the time constraints presented by deteriorating weather conditions, a decision was made not to attempt a water rescue. Instead, the three passengers were lifted by helicopter, one at a time, and transported to shore via a short-haul operation. Once on shore, they were able to join the rest of their party and spend a dry night until weather conditions improved enough to allow rangers to retrieve their boat. On Thursday, additional personnel and equipment were flown to a landing zone near the rapid. After the park's Zodiac rescue boat was inflated and made ready, rangers motored out to the stranded raft, unloaded the remaining gear, then rocked the boat free of the rock garden. It was then brought to shore to be reunited with its passengers and crew; by 4:30 p.m., they were again on their way down the river. No injuries to passengers or crew were reported. Fourteen park staff participated in this two day rescue and recovery operation, including search and rescue rangers, river rangers, helitack crew members, and helicopter and fixed wing pilots. This rescue and retrieval required extensive coordination of disperse resources and was aided by the availability of the park's fixed wing plane, which retrieved appropriately skilled personnel from temporary assignment in Utah. [Shannan Marcak, Public Affairs Officer]

Haleakala NP

Park Rangers Evacuate Visitor From Crater

On February 25th, a park concessioner reported that one of his horseback riding clients, a 47-year-old woman from Alaska, was experiencing acute nausea, vomiting and dizziness and could not continue riding. Rangers Barry Lewis and Howard Adams responded on horseback and stabilized the woman, who was more than two miles from the trailhead at an elevation of more than 8,000 feet. A helicopter was not available, so ranger/IC David Hahn requested the assistance of additional rangers and firefighters form Maui Fire Department's Engine 13 for a carryout. The combined ranger/firefighter team carried her a mile and a half, at night over rocky terrain with an elevation gain of 1,000 feet. She was then transferred to a county ambulance and transported to the hospital. [Bruce M. Applin, Chief Ranger]

OTHER NEWS

The following stories are among those in today's edition of InsideNPS:

Washington Office Public Affairs - Tens of thousands of visitors will be introduced to the night skies at astronomy programs that will be held at about 60 national parks across the system this summer.

Learning and Development Division - The upgrade to the Department of the Interiors' learning management system, DOI LEARN, has been delayed. It's now expected that the new version will be be available near the first week of April.

National Capital Region - J. Patrick Campbell will be taking the reins of the region's inventory and monitoring vital signs program. Photo.

To see these and other stories posted on InsideNPS (or NPS Digest, its public version), click on one or the other of the following links (please note that not all stories in the former appear in the latter):

NPS employees: HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=index" http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=index

Non-NPS employees: HYPERLINK "http://home.nps.gov/applications/digest/" http://home.nps.gov/applications/digest/

NPS serious incident submission standards can be found at the following web site: HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/notify" http://inside.nps.gov/notify

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Prepared by the Division of Law Enforcement, Security and Emergency Services, Washington Office, with the support of the Office of the Chief Information Officer. Edited by Bill Halainen ( HYPERLINK "mailto:Bill_Halainen@nps.gov" Bill_Halainen@nps.gov).

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