NATIONAL PARK SERVICE

MORNING REPORT

Friday, July 6, 2012

INCIDENTS

Mount Rainier NP

Ranger's Body Recovered From Mount Rainier

A mission to recover Ranger Nick Hall from the Winthrop Glacier on Mount Rainier yesterday morning was successful. He died on June 21st while responding to a rescue of four injured climbers on Mount Rainier. A team of five Mount Rainier climbing rangers and a search dog team were flown up to his location at about 11,000 feet on the north side of Mount Rainier. The operation, including a preliminary reconnaissance flight, went smoothly and was completed in approximately two hours. Air operations were supported by a Chinook and crew from the 214th Aviation Unit out of Joint Base Lewis-McChord and a Hughes 530 from Northwest Helicopters.

An estimated 450 people attended Nick's memorial service last Friday at the Jackson Visitor Center. Many others watched the service via live streaming video at the Paradise Inn and at other locations across the park and country. Video coverage of the service can be viewed and download at the HYPERLINK "http://www.dvidshub.net/video/148209/memorial-ranger-nick-hall" Defense Video & Imagery Distribution System.

A family memorial service is planned for today in Patten, Maine. Climbing rangers Stefan Lofgren, Tom Payne and Brian Hasabe, the National Park Service honor guard, and rangers from Acadia National Park will be in attendance.

“Nick's family is relieved to know that he has been safely recovered from the mountain,” said Randy King, the park's superintendent in a message to park staff. “Moreover, they are deeply appreciative of the support and assistance they have received from the park and NPS and especially valued the time spent in the park last week with the coworkers and friends who knew and loved Nick best.

“You have responded to the most difficult work-life scenario imaginable - the line of duty death of a co-worker and friend - with extraordinary grace, compassion and professionalism. Each of you has been called upon to help in some way, whether working with the teams brought in to help us, preparing for the memorial events, providing food and logistical support, communicating information, assisting the family and each other, or supporting operations. I am profoundly grateful for all that you have done, and continue to do, to honor Nick, support each other and serve Mount Rainier National Park.”

Great Smoky Mountains NP

Severe Storm Leads To Two Deaths, Injuries, Other Emergencies

A severe thunderstorm swept through the west end of the park around 6 p.m. yesterday evening, causing significant tree fall in a line stretching from Metcalf Bottoms across Cades Cove to Abrams Creek. Several emergency responses were underway late last night and the situation was continuing to evolve. Two fatalities have been confirmed - a man who died in a motorcycle accident a half mile east of Townsend Wye and a woman at Abrams Creek who was killed by a falling tree. There have also been reports of multiple injuries. At the time of the report around midnight, ambulances were en route to Cades Cove to deal with three injuries and a cardiac incident. Three people in the Abrams Creek area were also injured; one was evacuated by ambulance and two others by helicopter. Many trees are down on both the Little River and Laurel Creek Roads. One lane of each road has been cleared for emergency vehicles. The Cades Cove and Abrams Creek areas have also received significant tree fall. National Park Service crews have swept all roads in storm-damaged areas to identify stranded motorists and those in need of medical attention. Emergency crews from Blount County are assisting park crews in the area of the Townsend Wye and at Abrams Creek. At the time of the report, priorities for park crews were to continue to get emergency personnel to individuals in need of medical attention and to evacuate those individuals from the park. Once this was accomplished, the need for overnight clearing operations was to be evaluated. Rangers will continue to work today to ensure all visitors and staff are accounted for and begin to assess needs for emergency response in the park's backcountry. [Melissa Cobern, Public Affairs Specialist]

New River Gorge NR

Parks Slammed By Last Friday's Severe Storms

On the evening of Friday, June 29th, the three parks administered through New River Gorge National River - New River Gorge, Gauley River National Recreation Area and Bluestone National Scenic River - were struck by a fast-moving HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derecho" derecho. The straight-line windstorm came on the area without warning and packed winds of 80 to 100 mph. The National Weather Service has compared the impacts along its path to those of an EF-1 tornado, except over a much broader area - in this case, from Illinois to Washington, DC.

Rangers quickly determined that visitors were trapped in campgrounds by fallen trees, and park staff worked through the night to remove enough downed trees to get them out. One person was slightly hurt and several cars were damaged by falling trees. Rangers continued to help visitors and began surveying damage on Saturday. Temperatures of 100 degrees - unheard of in this area - drove visitors to the parks' rivers and streams. Thousands inched around downed trees or cut their way into favored riverside sites. The initial size-up indicated that there were thousands of trees down in visitor areas, that there was no power to any site within the three parks, and that almost every park employee was without power at home. By mid-afternoon, gas shortages (only a few stations in the four-county area were operating) forced park staff to reduce recovery efforts and patrols, and maintain stationary posts at the highest use sites so that gas could be conserved in case of a further emergency. The power company reported damage to every main transmission line and to more than 50 area substations, and more poles snapped in Fayette County (where park headquarters and many of most frequently visited park sites are located) than anywhere else in the four state area.

Predictably, the many visitors at and in the river led to an emergency. The park received a call around 7 p.m. Saturday night reporting that an intoxicated man on a sit-on-top kayak had overturned in the New River near the I-64 bridge. His friends had not seen him come up after his spill. A hasty search revealed his kayak and life jacket downstream from the point at which he was last seen; further searches of the river and its banks revealed nothing. The search was called off around 10 p.m. because of the darkness and lack of power. It resumed the next morning and continued until 10:30 a.m., when the missing man's friend, standing at the incident command post, got a call from him. He was found wandering around a school about 10 miles upstream from where he had gone into the river. He had little recollection of how he got there, and rangers, smelling alcohol on his breath at the debriefing, tested him and found his blood alcohol content to be 0.193. He was cited by West Virginia DNR for boating under the influence of alcohol and by the NPS for creating and maintaining a dangerous condition. Still, for a park that has experienced seven visitor fatalities since March, finding him alive was a happy outcome.

In the meantime, park facilities remain without power, as do approximately 60% of park employees. Some have now lost water as well. Appalachian Power is estimating that most power will be restored by this Sunday evening, but some park staff have been told that it will be several weeks before their power can be restored. A sudden thunderstorm last Sunday evening brought down trees previously damaged by the derecho, some in areas that had already been cleared. Recovery efforts will continue for the next several weeks; temperatures are expected to stay in the mid-nineties though the weekend. [Deborah Darden, Deputy Superintendent]

Lake Mead NRA

Rangers Rescue Over 40 People During Weather Event

Due to monsoon weather on the Fourth of July, rangers responded to six vessel accidents, two disabled vessels, four EMS calls, and 13 visitor welfare checks. Two of the medical responses required advanced life support. One of them was the near drowning of a 19-year-old who went swimming without a personal flotation device. He began having trouble in the water and was about to go under when he was rescued by other visitors. He was going in and out of consciousness when rangers and Nevada Division of Wildlife personnel arrived; other symptoms included lack of a pulse, dilated pupils and foaming from his mouth. Rangers began CPR, restored his circulation, and continued airway maintenance with the assistance of Echo Bay Marina staff. He was later flown to University Medical Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. Throughout this weather event, rangers rescued over 40 visitors from Lake Mead waterways. [Randy Lavasseur]

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 Underground Railroad Network To Freedom Program - The National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom sponsored a conference entitled “Escaping to Destinations South” in St. Augustine, Florida, over a five day period in late June. 

Business Services - Online workshops on Service First will be held next Tuesday and Wednesday. Service First is an approach to working across agency boundaries to improve service to the public and protection of agency resources.

Intermountain Region - The GOAL Academy class of 2012 gathered together in Intermountain Regional Office in mid-May to learn about leadership skills associated with the topics of executive leadership, the Federal appropriations process, and ethics and organizational responsibilities.

Southeast Region - Gail Bishop, currently chief of interpretation at Gulf Islands National Seashore, has been named superintendent of Little River Canyon National Preserve and Russell Cave National Monument, both in northern Alabama.

Servicewide Training and Conference Calendar - A compilation of upcoming training courses and conferences across the nation, plus online training.  Added to this week's calendar is a two-day Service First national online workshop next Tuesday and Wednesday that will focus on ways to work across agency boundaries to improve service to the public and protection of agency resources.

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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 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).

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