NATIONAL PARK SERVICE

MORNING REPORT

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

INCIDENTS

East Coast Areas

Quake Causes Some Damage, Closures

The 5.8-magnitude quake that shook most of the East Coast from Georgia to Massachusetts rattled scores of NPS offices and park facilities and led to some closures in Washington. The following reports have been received:

Washington Parks - The Washington Monument was closed following the quake in order to properly evaluate the structure. An inspection revealed some cracking in the stones at the top of the monument. Structural engineers will evaluate the cracks today to determine the best way to make repairs before reopening the monument. The Washington Monument grounds have been reopened except for an area about 100 feet outside of the plaza. The Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials were closed for a short period of time as a precaution, but reopened to the public yesterday evening. The Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial, Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, the World War II Memorial, Vietnam Veterans Memorial and the Korean War Memorial remain open. The Old Post Office Tower will open this morning at 9 a.m.

Washington Office - Both the Main Interior and Eye Street offices were closed in mid-afternoon and employees were released. The action was precautionary, allowing assessments to be made of facilities and clearing structures in case of serious aftershocks. Similar actions were taken by almost all other agencies in the Washington area. The Main Interior Building remains closed today pending further inspections. South Interior is also closed, but the Eye Street building will reopen on schedule this morning. For information on operating guidelines if your building is closed and for a list of other federal building closures, click on HYPERLINK "http://www.opm.gov/status/index.aspx" "closedlist" this link.

Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania Courthouse NMP - Some pictures fell off walls and there may be some cracked walls.

Richmond NBP - The park reports no damage.

Colonial NHP - The quake was felt at both the Yorktown and Jamestown Visitor Centers, but no damage was found at either facility.

Additional reports will be posted as they are received.

[David Barna, WASO; P. Daniel Smith, COLO; Dave Ruth, RICH; Keith Kelly, FRSP; Bill Line, Toni Braxton and Carol Johnson, NCRO; Sgt. David Schlosser, USPP]

East Coast Areas

Preparations Underway For Hurricane Irene

Parks along the East Coast in the probable path of Hurricane Irene have begun making preparations for a potential landfall later this week:

Outer Banks Group - The Outer Banks Group, which consists of Cape Hatteras, Fort Raleigh and Wright Brothers, has activated its hurricane plan and established an incident command team to coordinate preparations for the possible arrival of Hurricane Irene later this week. Hyde County has issued a mandatory evacuation of visitors and voluntary evacuation of residents from Ocracoke Island (the southernmost district of Cape Hatteras), effective at 5 a.m. this morning, and a mandatory evacuation of residents effective at 5 a.m. tomorrow morning. The North Carolina ferry system provides the primary access to and/or from the island. Dare County emergency management has activated its interagency control group to coordinate storm readiness and determine evacuation requirements, if any, for Hatteras Island, Roanoke Island, and the towns north of Oregon Inlet. More details will follow as the storm approaches.

Colonial NHP - The park will have a planning meeting at 11 a.m. this morning and will decide on a course of action at that time.

Additional reports will be posted as they are received.

[Mike Murray, Superintendent; Outer Banks Group; P. Daniel Smith, Superintendent, COLO]

Bandelier NM

Preparations Minimize Post-Fire Flashflood Impacts

Although firefighters were able to protect the park's headquarters area from the Las Conchas Fire earlier this year, the fire burned most of the vegetation from the upper sections of Frijoles Canyon. Without plants to slow down and absorb the rain from summer thunderstorms, the canyon was ripe for flashfloods, such as those being experienced in many other watersheds in the fire's footprint. In the weeks since the fire, personnel at Bandelier prepared the area around the visitor center and other historic CCC structures to withstand the force of flows estimated to potentially be as much as eight feet deep. Preparations included removing the car and foot bridges to help the creek flow through without logjams forming. The visitor center was wrapped in plywood, plastic sheeting, and thousands of sandbags, and long walls of jersey barriers and sandbags were placed to attempt to keep debris flows away from the walls of the building. On Sunday afternoon, a large thunderstorm put these preparations to the test. The rain began in the upper Frijoles Canyon area in early afternoon and fell heavily for nearly two hours. Around 6 p.m., the creek began to rise in the visitor center area and within about a minute was roaring through the picnic and parking areas, black with ash and carrying logs and rocks. A log in the creek bed diverted water toward the buildings, rolling several large concrete barriers and breaking the steel cable holding them. The flow made it as far as the restroom wall, carrying away several hundred sandbags. Within ten minutes the flood began to subside. Rainfall gauges showed the total for the storm was 1.26 inches in upper Frijoles and 2.74 inches at Ponderosa Campground. “It appears that the efforts we made to protect the canyon resources were successful,” said superintendent Jason Lott. “It was hard to accept the need to remove all the bridges. Filling and stacking 14,000 sandbags - and all the rest of the work - was expensive and difficult. This is only the first flood; we could have a lot more, and others could be even larger. But we know the damage would have been far more severe if we hadn't taken the proactive measures.” With flood danger continuing, Bandelier sites that are available for visitor use are the Tsankawi section, Juniper Campground, and the Burnt Mesa and Tyuonyi Overlook trails. There is presently no fee for day visits, but campers must pay for using the campground. For general park information, call 505-672-3861x517, visit Bandelier's website at HYPERLINK "http://www.nps.gov/band" www.nps.gov/band, or become a fan at HYPERLINK "http://www.facebook.com/BandelierNPS" www.facebook.com/BandelierNPS. [Chris Judson]

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/):

Richmond NBP - On August 18th, Richmond National Battlefield Park, the American Civil War Center, and the Richmond Metropolitan Convention and Visitors Bureau cut the ribbon on a revamped visitor orientation facility at Historic Tredegar in downtown Richmond.

Director's Office - A new initiative, entitled "A Call to Action: Preparing for a Second Century of Stewardship and Engagement," will be launched on Founders' Day on Thursday with a first-ever national employee town hall meeting.

Emergency Incident Coordination Center - The NPS Emergency Incident Coordination Center has asked that a reminder be issued to all employees about calling into the center during emergency evacuations such as those that often accompany hurricanes.

NPS Alumni - Jim Rouse, 82, a career NPS employee who retired in 1989, died on August 12th in Sedro Woolley, Washington. Photo.

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The Morning Report is a publication of the Division of Law Enforcement, Security and Emergency Services, Washington Office, produced 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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