|
NATIONAL PARK SERVICE MORNING REPORT Tuesday, June 28, 2011 INCIDENTS Midwest Regional Office Regional Office Continues To Deal With Rising Missouri River Record snow and rainfall in Montana and the Dakotas has inundated the entire Missouri River system with record surface water flows. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has dramatically increased outflow from its six dams in anticipation of an exceptionally high level of snowmelt and runoff from the Rocky Mountains. The Corps is monitoring water flows through the upper Missouri River dams, with water at Omaha now sustained around the 34 - 35 foot mark. Barring additional major rains or a levee break these levels are expected to hold for several months. The greatest impact to the Midwest Regional Office is the construction of a flume to channel storm water to the river across the office's parking lot. The flume temporarily replaces a neighboring storm water handling facility that is no longer functioning because the outflow pipe is below the current high water mark of the Missouri River. Storm water began to back up into the city's sewer system and the city needed to alleviate the problem. On May 26th, the city of Omaha approved plans to design and build the flume. Phase one construction began June 17th and was completed this past Friday. This first phase removes water from the adjacent public works building. The second phase construction began in full force on Saturday with completion expected in seven to ten days. This final phase will allow the city to keep water out of the adjacent convention center parking lots and elsewhere in the city. The flume itself is 500 feet long and 40 feet wide. A total of 16 pipes and pumps will be in place to move storm water out of the city. When fully operational, water will flow at the rate of 500 million gallons a day, equivalent to 1,000 Olympic-size swimming pools. The project has caused employees to park off site at neighboring Gallup University. The Midwest Regional Office, however, remains open and fully operational. On June 27th, the Missouri River stage was 35.08 feet in Omaha. The main entry door to the headquarters building was 7.9 feet above water, with the river 2.6 feet below the lowest point of the sump pit below the elevator shaft. The point where the water will crest over the public sidewalk along the east side of the building was 1.8 feet above water. The high point in the driveway was 8.5 feet above water; the low spot in the parking lot was 0.1 feet above water. Impacts to the parking lot have been alleviated with an inflatable air bladder that was installed to keep river water from coming up the drain into a surface water retention pond. An in-house incident management team was activated on June 3rd to keep the Midwest Regional Office fully functional as long as it is possible to continue operations. The team has developed an emergency action olan that focuses on facility relocation if necessary. Alternate works sites have been identified should access to the building be impacted by floodwater, or lack of electrical power. [Roberta Wendel] Blue Ridge Parkway Single Vehicle Rollover Results In Mass Casualty Incident On the afternoon of June 18th, rangers received a report of a single vehicle rollover accident near milepost 295 in the Highlands District. When they reached the accident scene, they found that a Honda Pilot carrying ten people - eight adults and two children - had left the roadway and gone down an embankment approximately 80 feet, striking several large trees. The impact caused the SUV to turn on its side, trapping many of the occupants inside. Responders worked quickly to extricate them. The Honda's roof had to be cut, and winches were used to lift it from those trapped inside. A rope system was put in place to haul the victims up the steep embankment to the road in order to transport them to the hospital. One of them, the 74-year-old father of the operator, was pronounced dead after his arrival at Baptist Hospital. Two passengers, a ten-year-old girl and a 43-year-old adult, were treated for minor injuries and released. The other seven were taken to intensive care with significant injuries. According to witnesses, the Honda's passenger side tires left the pavement when it drifted off the road. The driver attempted to get the vehicle back onto the roadway but steered too sharply, causing it to go into a skid and leave the road. Personnel from the Blowing Rock Police Department and Blowing Rock Fire and Rescue, medics from Watauga County, and other park employees worked together with rangers to successfully handle a complex and difficult scene during heavy rain and high winds. [Lena Koschmann, Assistant Chief Ranger] Grand Teton NP Rangers Rescue Climber From Guides' Wall Rangers short-hauled a 47-year-old injured climber off of Guides' Wall in Cascade Canyon on Saturday, June 25th. D.R. of Farmington, Connecticut, was on a guided trip with E.M.G. when she fell about 15 feet on the Flake pitch, the fifth pitch of six on the route. The guide notified Teton Interagency Dispatch Center of the injured climber in mid-afternoon. Battling gusty winds and maneuvering cautiously with minimal clearance from the rock face, a Teton interagency contract helicopter inserted one ranger at D.R.'s location. The ranger then prepared D.R. for a short-haul extrication using an aerial evacuation suit. Three other rangers, who were in the vicinity, hiked to the base of Guides' Wall and staged there in case winds prevented a short-haul extrication. D.R., with a ranger attending, reached the valley floor just after 5 p.m. A park ambulance then transported her to St. John's Medical Center in Jackson for further treatment. [Jackie Skaggs, Public Affairs Officer] Blue Ridge Parkway Investigation Underway Into Reported Abduction A 42-year-old woman was found by visitors lying in a parking lot at the Boone Fork Trailhead near Grandfather Mountain State Park on the evening of Thursday, June 23rd. The visitors called 911 and EMS personnel and rangers responded. The woman claimed that she had been abducted outside her house earlier that day by a man wearing a ski mask and sunglasses. She told investigators that he had pointed a gun at her and forced her into her van, directing her to drive to the parkway. She said that he had then taken her into the woods, where she had fought him, gotten away, and walked through the woods to the parking lot where she was found. She was taken to a nearby hospital, treated for minor injuries, and released later that night. Several other agencies responded to search for the alleged assailant, including Watauga and Avery Counties, the North Carolina Highway Patrol, Boone and Blowing Rock Police Departments, and North Carolina State Parks. The parkway was closed and a manhunt ensued that lasted into the early morning hours. No evidence of an assailant was found. The parkway was reopened at 4 a.m. on Friday morning. An NPS special agent, working in cooperation with Charlottesville investigators, took the lead in the investigation, and the FBI opened a case on the abduction. Rangers retraced the woman's escape route through the woods, but found little evidence. Her van, located on the parkway, was impounded and processed for evidence, but no significant leads were discovered. The investigation is ongoing. [Lena Koschmann, Assistant Chief Ranger] Mount Rainier NP Skier With Broken Leg Medevaced Off Mount Rainier A commercial guide service team just above the top of Disappointment Cleaver contacted the park just before 6 a.m. last Saturday and reported coming upon a climber with a boot top fracture. The climber, who was part of a group of five, was stabilized by guides while rangers on a summit patrol headed to the scene. The injured person was then lowered to the top of the cleaver, where a small landing zone was constructed in the snow. A McDonnell Douglas MD-530 helicopter from Northwest Helicopters in Olympia with a ranger on board flew to the scene and medevaced the injured person, who was then transferred to an ambulance at the park's helibase and taken to a hospital. Supervisory climbing ranger Brian Hasebe served as incident commander for the operation. [R. Chuck Young, 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/): Intermountain Region - This winter's snowstorms left record snowpacks throughout the Rockies, and the warming temperatures of spring have led to runoffs that are filling rivers to capacity. Reports on impacts are included from Dinosaur, Canyonlands and Grand Teton. Office of Communications - The NPS Communications Council met at the National Conservation Training Center earlier this month. The council had lively discussions about the NPS centennial in 2016, the upcoming redesign of www.nps.gov, the use of social media, climate change, education, and internal communications. Photo. Big Hole NB - Almost 1,000 students from Montana and Idaho took part in Coyote Camp, a five-day educational program that included tribal cultural demonstrators from the Nez Perce and Umatilla reservations. Photo. Intermountain Regional Office - Armando Ramos, facility operations specialist with the asset management branch in Intermountain Regional Office, will be retiring on July 2nd with over 36 years of federal service. Photo. * * * * 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). --- ### --- |