Eastern Areas
Hurricane Recovery Efforts Hit Full Stride
The Eastern and Midwest Incident Management Teams have merged into a single NPS incident management team to better support parks in need of help after Hurricane Sandy. The team moved to the New York Harbor area on Sunday. In addition to the core team, there are specialized support crews in the field supporting employee emergency needs, conducting damage assessments, and removing debris in the affected areas.
Over 120 National Park Service employees from 26 states and the District of Columbia are working with the team and those numbers will increase as assessments of needs come in from the field. The team is responsible for Gateway NRA, the National Parks of New York Harbor, Sagamore Hill, Fire Island, Morristown, and Thomas Edison.
Preliminary damage assessments and response to critical needs continue. The response is framed by the need to work safely and provide support for all NPS employees working in the parks.
Fort Wadsworth in Gateway is serving as the staging area for field crews and as the incident command post for the team. A US Park Police helicopter, “Eagle 2,” will be providing aerial assessments and support.
Personnel have been divided into four branches for better logistical management of this very large urban area. In addition to branch managers, resources in the field on Friday included:
- Employee assistance team – The team has been working on the Service's first priority, ensuring that all NPS employees have been accounted for and their immediate needs met. A number of employee homes and vehicles have been damaged.
- Facility assessment teams – Fourteen facility assessment specialists, divided into three teams, are undertaking site assessments.
- Law enforcement teams – Teams from the Midwest and Southeast have been dispatched to areas identified as most in need of these resources – Fire Island, Manhattan Sites, Sandy Hook, and Morristown.
- Saw teams – Teams from the Northeast Arborist Incident Response (AIR) team, Stone's River, Natchez Trace, and King's Mountain have begun work at Gateway's Sandy Hook Unit, Manhattan Sites, and Morristown.
Social media remain active. As of Friday, the Facebook site, “NPS Superstorm Sandy Response,” had been visited by over 4,000 people from 19 countries and the United States. The twitter site, “SandyResponseNPS,” continues to re-tweet incoming information from the parks and other agencies.
Sties that were still closed as of Friday were as follows: National
Parks of New York Harbor (which includes all of Gateway), Sagamore Hill,
Fire Island, Morristown, and Thomas Edison.
[Submitted by Linda
Friar, Incident Information Officer]
Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Stranded Hiker Rescued From Backcountry
A 56-year-old North Carolina man was airlifted from the Appalachian
Trail in Great Smoky Mountains National Park on the afternoon of Friday,
November 2nd. He'd become stranded on a remote section of the trail as a
result of the snowstorm that blanketed higher elevations of the park
early last week. A Tennessee Highway Patrol helicopter that had been
called in to assist rangers with search and rescue efforts was able to
retrieve the hiker from the backcountry and transport him to the
Gatlinburg-Pigeon Forge Airport in Sevierville, Tennessee. From there,
he was taken by ambulance to LeConte Medical Center in Sevierville for
medical evaluation.
[Submitted by Molly Schroer, Public Affairs
Officer]
Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks (CA)
Lengthy Search For Missing Hiker Suspended
Efforts to locate missing hiker L.C. have been suspended. The
search of likely areas lasted for eight days, utilizing 56 personnel
from multiple agencies – ten ground search teams, three dog teams,
and five helicopters and crews. L.C. began a four-day trip into the
rugged wilderness of Kings Canyon National Park at Taboose Pass on
October 19th, where he was last seen by an outbound hiker. A winter
storm arrived in the area on the evening of October 20th and deposited
up to 12 inches of snow. L.C. was reported overdue to the Inyo County
Sheriff's Department on the evening of October 23rd and the Sheriff's
Department confirmed his vehicle was still at the trailhead. On October
24th, the Inyo County Sheriff's Department notified the National Park
Service; search operations began later that day and continued through
October 31st. Environmental conditions were challenging in the search
area, which covered 48 square miles of mountainous terrain. Elevations
ranged from 8,000 to 14,000 feet. Nighttime temperatures dropped to as
low as 15 degrees, and snowdrifts made travel by foot difficult. Two
searchers were evacuated by helicopter due to medical concerns related
to environmental conditions. The incident management team, with the
assistance of the state search and rescue coordinator, reviewed
operations and decided to suspend the active search due to lack of
information and any additional clues.
[Submitted by Dana Dierkes,
Public Affairs Officer]
PARKS AND PEOPLE
Pacific West Region
GS-0025-11 Protection Ranger
Dates: 10/26/2012 - 11/13/2012
Oregon Caves National Monument has a vacancy for a GS-11 protection ranger. The person selected will serve as the park's chief ranger.
Please click on the link below for a copy of the announcement with full details on duties and procedures for applying.
It closes on November 13th.
[Submitted by Vicki Snitzler, Superintendent, Vicki_Snitzler@nps.gov, 541-592-2100] More Information...
Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore (IN)
GS-2210-9 IT Specialist (Term)
Indiana Dunes is seeking candidates for a position as the park's IT specialist.
This is a term position not to exceed one year, but may be extended annually for a total term appointment length of four years.
Click on the link below for a copy of the announcement with full details on duties and procedures for applying. For more information about the position, contact Administrative Officer Liz McConnell at 219-395-1703.
It closes on November 7th.
More Information...
Carlsbad Caverns National Park (NM)
WG-5313-11 Elevator Mechanic
Carlsbad Caverns has issued an announcement for an elevator mechanic.
Click on the link below for a copy of the announcement with full details on duties and procedures for applying.
It closes on November 25th
More Information...
Southeast Region
Barb Tagger Named Selma To Montgomery NHT Site Manager
Historian Barbara Tagger has been selected as the site manager for Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail, an NPS area managed cooperatively with state and local partners that includes two interpretive centers. The superintendent of Tuskegee Institute NHS and Tuskegee Airmen NHS serves as the general superintendent for the trail.
Barbara served as Southeast Region's Underground Railroad coordinator, which included a special detail assignment with the Department of Natural Resources, Maryland Park Service, as the project manager for the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad State Park initiative. As part of this collaboration, she assisted with planning and development of interpretive exhibits, publications, programming, educational activities, and multimedia programs as well as representing the NPS and Maryland Park Service as a community relations liaison.
Barbara's work with the NPS spans nearly 30 years, beginning at Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site. She was instrumental in aspects of planning for Selma to Montgomery NHT before its establishment, She has worked with the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Program since 1992 and served as acting superintendent for Selma to Montgomery, Tuskegee Airmen and Tuskegee Institute in 2009.
In addition to her NPS duties, Barbara has instructed at Morehouse College, Clark Atlanta University, and Emory University (world history, African American history, United States history, and American studies) and lectured extensively across the country and in the Caribbean (U.S. Virgin Islands; Bahamas Islands) on a variety topics pertaining to African American history and historic preservation.
Her professional publications include The Beauty of Sweet Auburn; They Came to Fight: An Overview of the Black Civil War Soldier in Vicksburg, Mississippi; The Underground Railroad: A Study in Heroism; Bound for the Promised Land: The Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Program; and Interpreting African American Women's History through Historic Landscapes, Structures, and Commemorative Sites.
[Submitted by Marianne Mills, marianne_mills@nps.gov, (404) 507-5613] More Information...
NPS serious incident submission standards can be found at the following web site:
http://inside.nps.gov/waso/custompages.cfm?prg=45&id;=8728&lv;=2&pgid;=3504
All reports should now be submitted via this automated system.