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NATIONAL PARK SERVICE MORNING REPORT Monday, May 3, 2010 INCIDENTS Jean Lafitte NHP Park Prepares For Oil Spill's Arrival Park staff have been placed on standby and are working with the IMT managing the NPS response to the Gulf oil spill. The park is coordinating with USGS to begin conducting flyovers to survey the spill's potential impacts on the area. It will likely be mid-week before flights can take place. The USGS plane is fixed wing with mounts for both still pictures and video. All water-land interfaces, including Lake Salvador, bayous, and canals, will be surveyed. Plant communities and plant health will be captured in this effort, including emergent and submerged vegetation. The Gulf I&M group will also be surveying amphibians in the Barataria Unit. Additional needs include benthic invertebrate samples (grab samples) and the collection and storage of emergent and submerged vegetation. The park, however, does not have the supplies for storage of any of these samples, such as jars, preservative for invertebrates, and foil or bags for plants and freezer storage for the plants. A stockpile of PPE has been ordered to facilitate working in a hazardous environment. [Georgia A. Shaw, LE Operations Supervisor] Mount Rainier NP Climbers Rescued From Crevasse On Mount Rainier On Tuesday, April 27th, park climbing rangers, assisted by guides from International Mountain Guides and Alpine Ascents International, successfully rescued two climbers who had fallen into a crevasse during whiteout conditions on Mount Rainier. The two fell a distance of approximately 75 feet just below Camp Muir (elevation 9,700 feet). The initial report of the accident was received by a 911 operator when one of the climbers called out by cell phone from the bottom of the crevasse on Monday afternoon. They were unable to provide a location and early indications were that one of the two climbers was badly injured. Rangers began making their way to Camp Muir to stage for early morning search operations. Weather conditions on the mountain were adverse, with sustained 70 mph winds gusting up to 90 mph and temperatures down to 23 degrees (the wind chill was a degree below zero). A helicopter was placed on standby for morning operations. Early on Tuesday morning, one of the climbers made contact with the park on her cell phone. Questioning by park officials provided critical information that lead to identifying their location in the area just below Camp Muir. The rangers were directed to this area, where they were able to locate and extract the two climbers using high angle rescue gear. Both climbers, who were from the province of Quebec, Canada, suffered from relatively minor injuries and hypothermia. As they had fallen into the crevasse with their packs on, the two were able to set their tent up, get into their sleeping bags, and even heat up soup. However, the intensity of the storm required them to continually shovel snow off their tent throughout the night to prevent the tent from collapsing. An MD 530 helicopter was used to fly the climbers down from the mountain, where they were transported to the local hospital and subsequently released. Ranger Glenn Kessler was IC on this operation. [Chuck Young, Chief Ranger] Natchez Trace Parkway Women Jumps To Death From Highway 96 Bridge Rangers, with assistance from the Williamson County Sheriff's Department, are investigating an apparent suicide that took place from the parkway's Highway 96 Bridge in Williamson County, Tennessee. The body of an 18-year-old woman was found last Tuesday below the bridge adjacent to Highway 96. The bridge, near Franklin, Tennessee, is 155 feet high. [Michael Foster] OTHER NEWS The following stories are among those in today's edition of InsideNPS: Law Enforcement, Security and Emergency Services - The NPS will be seeking specialists in a variety of areas to assist in the response to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, which threatens parks all along the Gulf coast. Guidance is provided on how to help. General Grant NM - The National Park Service and the United States Military Academy at West Point marked the birthday of Ulysses S. Grant with a special ceremony inside General Grant National Memorial last Tuesday. Legislative and Congressional Affairs - This week's update on past and upcoming hearings and the status of legislation pertinent to the National Park Service. Park Facility Management - A training program developed by the National Park Service and Indiana University's Eppley Institute for Parks and Public Lands has received a national award for excellence. Photo. Chief Information Officer - Jacqueline Boykin will begin a new position with the Minerals Management Service on May 10th as their newest capital planner. She has been with the NPS Washingon Office since December 2000. 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 * * * * 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). --- ### --- |