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NATIONAL PARK SERVICE MORNING REPORT Thursday, September 1, 2011 INCIDENTS East Coast Areas Recovery Operations Continue Recovery operations continue in parks in Northeast and Southeast Regions. Today's status reports follow. As of yesterday morning, a total of 242 NPS employees were committed to hurricane recovery operations. Here are updates from parks reporting significant issues, as of yesterday morning (south to north): Cape Lookout - The park is being assisted by the Midwest IMT (Jim Hummel, IC) and a regional assessment team. Sufficient repairs have been made to the Cape Lookout lighthouse area to reopen it for day use, effective today. Assessments have been made of park cabins and they have been found to be in better shape than the infrastructure that supports them. They will remain closed until at least September 12th. Not a single septic system survived at Long Point - all have been compromised. Cape Lookout Village will remain closed because of the unsafe conditions of beaches and facilities due to scattered debris. Phone and internet service were restored at park headquarters and the incident ICP yesterday. Hazard tree reduction has been completed at Portsmouth and debris cleanup will begin today. Surveys of turtle nests reveal that only 16 of 65 previously documented nests survived the storm; assessments of viability have not begun. Outer Banks Group - The three parks in the group - Cape Hatteras, Wright Brothers and Fort Raleigh - are being supported and assisted by the Eastern IMT (Zeph Cunningham, IC), a SETT team, a regional assessment team and sawyer teams. A total of 94 NPS employees are committed to recovery operations. Here's today's update: Efforts to open additional ramps to popular park beaches are moving forward. All ocean and sound-side beach areas have been evaluated for safe access for both pedestrians and vehicles. Beaches are open to pedestrian access throughout the park unless otherwise posted. Park visitors can expect to see some resource protection closures in effect for resource protection. For additional beach access information, visitors are encouraged to see the latest Google Earth beach access maps at HYPERLINK "http://www.nps.gov/caha/planyourvisit/googleearthmap.htm" http://www.nps.gov/caha/planyourvisit/googleearthmap.htm. All park facilities on Hatteras and Ocracoke Islands remain closed, including airports. Damages confirmed so far to park and concession/permitted service providers in the Outer Banks Group parks include damaged rooftops, water intrusion either through flooding or roof leakage in numerous facilities, scattered debris and tree limbs, and missing or damaged boardwalks, signs, posts and fencing materials. Resource managers completed turtle surveys on Bodie Island. Thirteen of twenty duck blind were checked - six were destroyed, six were still functional, and one was found to have been moved 16 feet. An assessment of Bodie Island lighthouse was completed. Artifacts were moved from the lighthouse to museum storage. Assessments were completed at Wright Brothers and Fort Raleigh, both of which are now open and have resumed normal hours of operation. A visitor drowned at Coquina Beach yesterday afternoon. Rangers, SETT members and local emergency service providers responded. Oregon Inlet Fishing Center bathrooms have been cleaned and reopened. Coquina Beach was cleaned up and power has been restored. Campground cleanup on Ocracoke Island has been completed and hazard tree removal has been completed along the roadways. Debris removal from beaches has also been completed. Petersburg - The park remained closed yesterday. The entire park staff was working to remove and chip debris from the tour road. A crew comprised of employees from Shenandoah, New River Gorge, Hot Springs, and Mammoth Cave worked to remove downed and hanging trees from the park's 20 miles of trails. The park's visitor center is ready to open but is still without power. Plans are to open the visitor center by Labor Day weekend. George Washington Birthplace - Maintenance crews are cleaning up downed limbs and trees from the storm with tree contractors. The park hoped to have all park roads cleared of large debris by yesterday afternoon, which would permit reopening with limited access for the holiday weekend. Delaware Water Gap - The park is still in ICS. An assessment team and two trail crews - one from Acadia and the other from Shenandoah - arrived in the park on Tuesday and have joined staff from Upper Delaware already providing support. Yesterday's developments included the following: The Delaware River and all river access points from Milford to Delaware Water Gap will remain closed through Monday, September 5th. An assessment of river campsites has just begun. Road closures continue in the park as crews remove trees and debris and assess damage to road surfaces, shoulders and bridges. The entire length of Route 209 through the park will reopen today at noon. Local, township-maintained feeder roads to Route 209 will also reopen. Route 739 between Route 209 and the Dingmans Ferry toll-bridge will remain closed until hazard trees and downed power lines can be cleared. In New Jersey, Route 560 is still closed. Consequently, the privately-owned toll bridge at Dingmans Ferry, located within the park boundaries, remains closed by the owner. Also closed are sections of River Road, Old Mine Road and Route 615. Dingmans Falls Visitor Center will remain closed through the weekend. The waterfall trail has sustained damage that must be repaired before it is safe for the public. In addition, downed power lines and trees must be removed from the access road. Kittatinny Point Visitor Center and the surrounding grounds and picnic area will also be closed for the weekend. Millbrook Village remains closed. Flooding from Van Campens Brook caused extensive damage throughout the village. All camping areas, swimming beaches, recreation areas and trails remain closed. Gateway - Power was restored to the Sandy Hook unit yesterday; damage assessments are still underway there. Problems persist at Riis Beach in the Jamaica Bay unit, but hopes are to reopen it by the holiday weekend. Fire Island - The park is now out of ICS and has reopened. All concession facilities are open and the ferries are back up and running. Marsh-Billing-Rockefeller - Park offices have reopened. Due to the loss of water, the visitor center will remain closed to the public today; regular visitor services will resume on Friday. Serviceable areas of the carriage roads and trail system reopened yesterday. Additional reports on Hurricane Irene's impacts will be posted as they are received. [Bill Halainen, Editor] Bighorn Canyon NRA Two Drown In Kayaking Accident Three kayaks overturned on Bighorn Lake due to high winds
on the evening of August 29th. Two adults and six children, ages three
to eleven, were thrown into the water. The father swam to shore and
called 911. National Park Service rangers and maintenance staff, Bighorn
County Sheriff's Office deputies and Bighorn County SAR responded for an
operation that lasted into the night. Two of the older children made it
to shore without assistance. Between 10 p.m. and just after midnight,
three separate recoveries were made of the remaining family members. The
mother and the two younger kids that she was holding were brought in at
the same time. These three were transported to a Billings hospital for
definitive care. Two other children who had become separated from their
mother did not survive. The high wind event causing large waves and the
night operation were factors in the incident and presented challenges to
the rescuers. [Dale Kissner, Deputy Chief Ranger] Glacier NP Search Continues For Missing Seasonal Employee No substantial clues or evidence were discovered on Wednesday to help locate missing alpine hiker and seasonal park employee J.“J.”R. Search crews continued with aerial and ground efforts as cooler weather, moisture and increased winds developed in the area by mid-afternoon. Seventeen search crew members are staying overnight in the primary search area, and are prepared to spend another night in the backcountry. Other crew members returned to park headquarters and will be ready for Thursday morning assignments. A team of search crew members reached the trail register atop an unnamed mountain, locally known as “8888,” located between the Ole Creek and Park Creek Drainages and between Brave Dog Mountain and Mount Despair (the mountain's elevation is 8,888 feet). The tattered, faded and weather-beaten register revealed no signatures. Search managers believe that the lack of a signature is not clear evidence of J.R.'s presence or absence in the area. The search will continue today. Flathead Valley Search and Rescue and Flathead National Forest are assisting with the effort. Posters with J.R.'s photo and key information have been posted in the park and other locations. [Denise Germann, Public Affairs Specialist] Everglades NP Search In Progress For Missing Man On Tuesday, rangers began looking for 23-year-old J.O. Though he has not been officially declared a missing person, J.O.'s vehicle has been parked at Pine Glades Lake since August 24th and has not moved. Park rangers have spoken to his family and learned that J.O. has no known friends or family in the area. The park has no information regarding how long J.O. intended to stay in the park and have begun a search as a precaution. A Miami-Dade Police Department helicopter assisted with the search on Tuesday but had to leave the scene due to thunderstorms and intense rain in the search area. A more intensive search with dogs and trackers and aircraft took place yesterday. [Linda Friar, Public Affairs Specialist] Grand Canyon NP Body Discovered Near Tanner Beach A ranger at the Mather Campground on the South Rim received a report of a hiker possibly in distress on the Tanner Trail last Sunday morning. The backpackers who made the report told the ranger that they ran into a hiker on the Tanner Trail on Friday and that he appeared to be exhausted and had abandoned his pack further down the trail. The pair, who were also feeling heat-stressed, provided the hiker with additional water and told him they didn't think he could make it out. They urged him to go with them down to the river. He refused, saying he wanted to continue up the trail. On their way to the river, the pair passed the man's abandoned pack. On Saturday, as the pair began their return journey, they again passed the abandoned pack, took note of the permit information, and looked for the distressed hiker as they continued to their next campsite. They were carrying an extra gallon of water in case they ran into him again. On Sunday, they finished their backpacking trip without again seeing the distressed hiker. Concerned for his welfare, they reported their encounter with the hiker as soon as they returned to the rim. After receiving the report and determining that the hiker's car was still parked at the trailhead, rangers called for the park's helicopter to fly the Tanner Trail in an effort to quickly locate the man. Late in the morning, the helicopter's crew reported spotting a body in a wash just above Tanner Beach. Rangers who arrived at the scene confirmed that the body matched the description of the hiker that the backpackers encountered on Friday. The body was prepared for transport then flown to the South Rim by helicopter and transferred to the Coconino County medical examiner. The Tanner is a rugged, exposed trail. High temperatures over the period from Wednesday through Sunday ranged from 103 to 108 degrees at the Colorado River. [Shannan Marcak, Public Affairs Specialist] 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/): Sequoia and Kings Canyon NPs - The NPS Arrowhead Hotshot crew, one of the nation's elite firefighting crews, celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. It was established in 1981 as one of the Service's three hotshot crews, now just two - the Arrowheads, based at Sequoia-Kings Canyon, and the Alpines, based at Rocky Mountain. Learning and Development Division - On Tuesday, August 23rd, members of the learning and development community partnered with interpretive rangers and members of the Lincoln Leadership Institute at Gettysburg to honor outstanding young boys and girls from the Gettysburg-based youth services organization, Manos Unidas. Photo. * * * * 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 the Assistant Director for Information Resources and the Office of the Chief Information Officer. Edited by Bill Halainen ( HYPERLINK "mailto:Bill_Halainen@nps.gov" Bill_Halainen@nps.gov). --- ### --- |