NATIONAL PARK SERVICE

MORNING REPORT

Friday, July 27, 2012

INCIDENTS

Statue of Liberty NM

USPP Officers Rescue Man From New York Harbor

A crew member on the Statue of Liberty ferry contacted the Park Police on Tuesday morning and reported that a vessel had capsized in the channel south of Liberty Island's main dock. Officers Tom Hasset and Christopher Murphy, who were assigned to Marine-7, responded. They found a 36-year-old man wearing a life jacket and clinging onto his capsized 15-foot Laser sailboat. The man, who was the only person on the boat when it capsized, complained of stomach and chest pains and was transported by the officers to the Liberty Island dock, where he was checked by NPS EMTs. He was physically exhausted from attempting to right his vessel despite windy conditions and said that he'd been in the water for about 40 minutes. He nonetheless soon recovered. [Sergeant Paul Brooks, Public Information Officer]

Sequoia-Kings Canyon NPs

Body Of Missing Hiker Found By Searchers

A search was begun on Tuesday for T.H., 31, who took a day hike to Mount Langley on Sunday but failed to return as planned. T.H. was last seen that day on Mount Langley around 1 p.m. His hiking route was expected to run from the Cottonwood Lakes trailhead through New Army Pass to the summit of Mount Langley, with a return to the same trailhead. Participating in the operation were personnel from Sequoia-Kings Canyon, Manzanar and Yosemite, the China Lake Mountain Rescue Group, Friends of Yosemite Search and Rescue (“YODOGS”), Inyo National Forest, Montrose Search and Rescue, Sierra Madre Search and Rescue, and the Tulare County Sheriff's Department. T.H.'s body was found on Wednesday. The cause of death has not yet been determined; an investigation is underway. [Dana Dierkes, Public Affairs Officer]

Cape Hatteras NS

Mother And Baby Die In Drowning Incident; Husband Survives

Rangers were dispatched to Buxton Beach early on the evening of July 25th to investigate a report of two swimmers in distress. They found a man and woman face down in the ocean about 20 yards from shore. As rangers and off-duty lifeguards worked to rescue the 37-year-old man, bystanders entered the water and brought his 31-year-old wife to shore and began CPR on her. He soon responded and began breathing on his own; CPR was begun on her and a pulse was obtained during the ambulance transport to the Avon Medical Center, but she lost all vital signs on the flight to Norfolk General Hospital and was pronounced dead upon arrival there. The woman was six months pregnant; her baby also died. There appear to have been strong rip currents in the area at the time of the incident. [Paul Stevens, 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/):

Northeast Region - Director Jarvis and the head of Parks Canada met in Halifax, Nova Scotia, last Sunday to celebrate an interagency commitment to commemorating the bicentennial of the War of 1812. They joined thousands of visitors who attended Tall Ships Nova Scotia 2012 and witnessed the National Park Service-Parks Canada partnership in action along Halifax's historic harbor front.

Gateway NRA - Twenty future naturalists gained hands-on and classroom experience this month when the National Hispanic Environmental Council held its annual New York City Minority Youth Environmental Training Institute at Fort Wadsworth, part of Gateway National Recreation Area.

War in the Pacific NHP - War in the Pacific National Historical Park on the island of Guam recently opened new permanent exhibits in its visitor center.

El Malpais NM - The 2012 James G. Mitchell Award was recently presented to Kaitlyn Hughes, an undergraduate student at the University of New Mexico, for her research work on the fungus Geomyces destructans, implicated in White Nose Syndrome, which is being carried out at El Malpais National Monument.

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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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