NATIONAL PARK SERVICE

MORNING REPORT

Friday, October 29, 2010

INCIDENTS

St. Croix NSR

Missing Man Rescued After Major Search

A 13-hour-long, multi-agency search culminated with the rescue and saving of a local man earlier this week. A suicide alert was issued for him on Saturday, October 23rd. Early the next morning, the Polk County Sheriff's Department advised the park that his wife had received a text message from him saying that he was cold, wet and shaky and that he wanted to be found. Ranger and deputies conducted a hasty search of an area pinpointed by the GPS tracker in the cell phone, but were unable to find him. An NPS ISC operation was put into effect and the search intensified as the day went on, eventually involving eleven agencies, numerous volunteers, and six dog teams from two canine SAR organizations. Because the man repeatedly turned his cell phone on and off during the day and kept moving, his location could not be pinned down using GPS. The weather was cool (around 50°), rainy and windy, complicating the search effort and making it impossible to employ aircraft. Grid, horse, vehicle, water and canine search teams were employed over the steep, rugged and wet terrain. The search eventually moved from NPS to state park land, where the man was found just prior to nightfall. He evacuated to St. Croix Regional Medical Center, where he was reported to be in advanced stages of hypothermia. Doctors believe that he might not have survived for longer than another two hours if he hadn't been found. [Bob Whaley, Chief Ranger]

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/):

National Capital Region/Northeast Region - On Monday, October 25th, over 100 Northeast and National Capital Region superintendents and emerging leaders traveled to Staunton, Virginia, for the Northeast/National Capital Superintendents' Conference.

Office of Public Affairs - Today's Oprah Winfrey Show is devoted to her recent visit to Yosemite National Park. A second hour-long episode will air on November 3rd.

Risk Management Division - The most recent Safety Leadership Countil meeting focused on natural resource professions within the NPS to better understand the risks, culture, and employee.

Servicewide Training and Conference Calendar - A compilation of upcoming training courses and conferences across the nation. Added to this week's calendar are the following, both taking place next week - a joint SERO/MWRO fire interpretation workshop in Mississippi and EMS continuing education training at Delaware Water Gap.

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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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