NATIONAL PARK SERVICE

MORNING REPORT

Friday, September 3, 2010

INCIDENTS

East Coast Parks

Hurricane Earl Hits Outer Banks, Heads North

The center of Hurricane Earl was expected to pass near the Outer Banks last night and approach southeastern New England on Friday night. Tropical storm and hurricane warnings extend from North Carolina almost all the way to New Hampshire. Affected parks were for the most part too busy yesterday to elaborate on preparations or current conditions. Here are today's updates:

Outer Banks Group (Cape Hatteras, Fort Raleigh, Wright Brothers) - Early yesterday morning, Dare County ordered a mandatory evacuation of all visitors throughout the entire county. The evacuation ordered yesterday for visitors and residents on Hatteras Island remains in effect. In addition, residents along the oceanfront are advised to relocate due to coastal flooding and ocean overwash that will occur. All previously noted closures at the three parks remain in effect.

Cape Cod NS - All park beaches, parking lots and buildings will close at 9 a.m. this morning. The closures include the Salt Pond Visitor and Province Lands Visitor Centers.

North Cascades NP

Search Underway For Overdue Mountaineer

A search is underway in the area of Storm King Mountain for a 49-year old resident of the Seattle area who was reported missing on Monday, August 30th. The experienced mountaineer was planning to solo climb Storm King Mountain on Saturday, August 28th. Late Wednesday afternoon, a backpack was found by a ground search team at the 7400-foot elevation level directly below Storm King's 8500-foot summit. The backpack was on the route to the summit, and it is believed that the pack was purposely placed at this location. National Park Service rangers were able to confirm the gear belongs to the missing climber. Rangers confirmed that a tent and other gear found on Monday belong to the missing climber, who had been issued a backcountry permit to stay at that location on Friday, August 27th. The designated camp site is along the Park Creek Trail en route to a Storm King climbing route. Ground searches on Tuesday and Wednesday covered a 1500-acre search area. The terrain where the searches are being conducted is steep and difficult. Fifty personnel from the National Park Service, Chelan Mountain Rescue, Stehekin Community and the King County Sheriff's Office are now searching for the missing climber. They were aided yesterday by four helicopters, including two with forward looking infrared (FLIR). FLIR is an imaging technology that detects thermal energy and can help find missing persons if they are in areas that cannot be seen. Updates will also be made available via the North Cascades National Park Twitter account that can be found at: HYPERLINK "http://twitter.com/CascadesNPS" http://twitter.com/CascadesNPS . [Kerry Olson]

OTHER NEWS

The following stories are among those in today's edition of InsideNPS. To see the full text, including images, NPS employees should go to the InsideNPS home page ( HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=index" http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=index). Non-NPS employees can see most of them on the NPS Digest page ( HYPERLINK "http://home.nps.gov/applications/digest/" http://home.nps.gov/applications/digest/):

Central High School NHS - Secretary of Education Arne Duncan kicked off his “Courage in the Classroom” bus tour on the historic steps of Little Rock Central High School last Thursday. Photo.

Pictured Rocks NL - Through a “Building Common Ground” grant from the National Park Foundation, the park hosted 30 Detroit area families for a week-long guided trip this past June. Photo.

NPS incident submission standards can be found online at the HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/waso/custompages.cfm?prg=45&id=8728&lv=2&pgid=3504" serious incident notification web page.

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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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