NATIONAL PARK SERVICE

MORNING REPORT

Thursday, April 7, 2011

INCIDENTS

New River Gorge NR

Search Continues For Missing Fisherman

The search for fisherman D.H., missing since last Sunday, continued throughout Tuesday. D.H. fell into the New River Sunday evening when the boat he was riding in capsized. Two men were able to swim to shore, but D.H., Paul Malone, and Sam Acord did not survive the accident. None of the five men were wearing life jackets. Both Malone and Acord's bodies were recovered during search operations on Monday. Rescuers worked in wintery conditions throughout the day; heavy overnight rains resulted in increased river flows to 12,500 cubic feet per second. Five boat teams - crewed by the National Park Service, West Virginia Department of Natural Resources, Green Sulfur Springs VFD, and Hinton VFD - used sonar and river drags throughout the day to search the muddy river, but were unsuccessful in their efforts. Beckley Fire Department, Forest Hill VFD, and the Region 5 Dive team also supported the search effort. Search and recovery operations continued yesterday. Plans were to bring in cadaver dogs to assist the boat and diver teams. [Jeff West, 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/):

Statue of Liberty/Ellis Island NMs - This past winter was no picnic for the maintenance personnel who work to clear parking lots, stairs, walkways, overhangs and six levels of Lady Liberty of snow and ice. In the month of January alone an unprecedented 36 inches of snow fell in the area. The seemingly non-stop flakes buried the old record for New York City of 27.4 inches, set in 1925.

Intermountain Region - Eight NPS employees and five U.S. students attended an international workshop in Mexico on the preservation and restoration of earthen architecture in late March. Photo.

Ozark NSR - NPS wildland firefighters from three parks and two modules were preparing for a prescribed burn in late March when local volunteer fire departments asked for their help in a wildland-urban interface fire with numerous buildings threatened.

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Prepared by the Division of Law Enforcement, Security and Emergency Services, Washington Office, with the support of the Office of Communications and 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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