NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
MORNING REPORT
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
INCIDENTS
Gulf Islands NS
IMT Continues Preparations For Potential Oil Spill Landfall
Preparations continue for a possible landfall by the oil spill from the sunken drilling rig Deepwater Horizon. Efforts to cut off the discharge of oil at the wellhead continue to fail. That discharge is still estimated at a thousand barrels a day. The unified command reports that the best hope now is to slow the flow through the wellhead, but it probably won't be cut off until the relief wells are completed in roughly three months. An attempt will also be made to place domes over the discharge points in an effort to capture much of the discharge, but that attempt won't be made for roughly three weeks. The latest trajectory map predicts that northerly winds through this evening will keep the oil plume off shore. After that, persistent south-southeast winds through at least the weekend are expected to push the plume towards the coast. Best guess at this time is that the Mississippi delta may be affected as early as Friday, with the plume continuing northward towards Gulf Island over the weekend. Meanwhile, here's an update on the five objectives that the IMT has established for this incident:
Objective 1: Position ourselves to receive the information necessary to make appropriate tactical decisions regarding protection measures, and Objective 2: Position ourselves to have a seat at the Unified Command table when planning coastal protection tactics and priorities.
IMT liaison Rick Clark and resource advisor Chris Reel continue to provide input directly into the planning process at the unified command in Houma concerning NPS protection priorities.
IMT liaisons have been established at the British Petroleum field command posts/staging areas in Biloxi, Pascagoula, and Pensacola. The installation of booms to protect select sensitive areas within both districts is planned to begin Wednesday under the Gulf Islands IMT's guidance.
USCG Sector Mobile is activating a unified command IMT today, and the Gulf Islands team's IC will be in Mobile to participate.
A resource order for a marine biologist as a second resource advisor in Houma is pending.
A Type I finance section chief has been ordered.
Objective 3: Update and improve our preplanning documents that prioritize environmentally sensitive areas.
The team has completed this objective. Information has been incorporated into incident action plans.
Objective 4: Conduct a current conditions resource assessment as a baseline (both districts).
Ground surveys continue in both districts. They should be completed by tomorrow.
Grass bed and tissue sample assessments are in the planning stages.
An assessment of the threats to cultural resource is pending.
Objective 5: Determine the potential need and means for implementing measures, as necessary, independent of the unified command.
The team is continuing to assess how NPS priorities compete against overall unified command priorities.
The IMT will focus much of its efforts on Objective 5 today in order to determine whether there is an immediate need for a large logistical operation under the park IMT in order to carry out protective actions. This may drive the need to order a NPS Type II IMT. An assessment is also being made of the need for a NPS Type II IMT to be in place at the time of expected landfall to deal with cleanup and damage assessments. [Clay Jordan, IC]
Manzanar NHS
Visitor Fatality And Medical Incidents Occur During Special Event
An estimated 1,200 people attended the Manzanar Committee's 41st Annual Pilgrimage Ceremony on Saturday, April 24th. The event featured guest speakers, music, an interfaith religious service, and a traditional Japanese Ondo community dance. That evening, nearly 300 college students, former internees and others participated in intergenerational discussions at the Manzanar At Dusk “MADness” program at Lone Pine High School. At approximately 10:30 a.m. that morning, a 75-year-old former internee from the Sacramento area collapsed during a ranger-led interpretive tour. He was in the midst of sharing his recollections of life in the Rohwer and Jerome War Relocation Centers in Arkansas at the time. Medical professionals in his group immediately attempted basic life support measures, and were quickly assisted by the event's emergency EMS team (NPS and BLM) and personnel from the Inyo County Sheriff's Department, the California Highway Patrol and the Independence Volunteer Fire Department. The park's AED was utilized along with CPR. The man was transported to Southern Inyo Hospital in Lone Pine, where he was pronounced dead. Several other medical incidents followed, requiring three more ambulance transports (two medical and one injury) to Southern Inyo Hospital. Although Pilgrimage news releases always advise park visitors to be prepared for daytime heat, windy conditions and dry atmospheric conditions, event staff assured that all visitors received bottled water and refills to stay hydrated. An EMS tent was set-up at the event. The park staff was assisted by 15 Manzanar volunteers as well as two staff from Devil's Postpile National Monument and two from the Bureau of Land Management. Since the park staff has very close ties with former internees, a critical incident stress debriefing took place yesterday. [Alisa Lynch, Chief of Interpretation/PIO]
OTHER NEWS
The following stories are among those in today's edition of InsideNPS:
Ellis Island NM - Rock ‘n' roll legend Bruce Springsteen, former NBA star Dikembe Mutombo, business icon Peter Peterson and Avon CEO Andrea Jung were honored with this year's Ellis Island Family Heritage Awards, which honor “immigrants or their descendents who have made a major contribution to the American experience.”
The White House - President Obama has directed that all United States flags be lowered to half staff on Thursday, April 29th, as a mark of respect for the late Dorothy Height.
Park Facility Management - The deadline for submitting a National Park Service Environmental Achievement Award nomination has been extended to May 28th, since the original due date (May 14th) coincides with other important deadlines.
Pacific West Region - Kathy Billings has been named as the new superintendent of Kaloko-Honokohau and Pu'uhonua O Honaunau National Historical Parks on the Island of Hawai'i. She will report to the parks in early June.
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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