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NATIONAL PARK SERVICE MORNING REPORT Wednesday, November 14, 2012 INCIDENTS Eastern Areas Recovery Operations Enter Eleventh Day The National Park Service incident management team overseeing Hurricane Sandy recovery efforts in New York and New Jersey completed its tenth day of operations yesterday. Currently working with the team are 435 National Park Service employees from 113 parks and 40 states, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia, with more staff continuing to arrive. The following areas have reopened - St. Paul's Church, Sagamore Hill, Morristown, Edison, General Grant, Hamilton Grange, Federal Hall and African Burial Ground. Work continued at other sites; today's status reports follow: Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island - Debris removal continues, as does boarding of windows and doors to winterize the main immigration building. A museum item/area survey was completed. Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace - The site remains closed until further notice due to a lack of heat. Castle Clinton - The site remains closed until further notice. Gateway - Crews filled a 30-yard dumpster with debris at Frank Charles Memorial Park. Fencing was put in place to secure the bathhouse and open well at Riis Park. One hundred loads of woody debris have been removed from along North Carolina Road on Staten Island. Debris was removed from Battery Weed. Fire Island - The east end adjacent to Smith Point County Park was partially opened for pedestrian access to the beach. The adjacent wilderness area (Otis Pike) remains closed. Breach and overwash assessments continued, as did hazardous material removal. Hand crews and heavy equipment were used to remove debris from a mile of shoreline. Maintenance staff and an electrician started the restoration of the Lighthouse Annex. Fifteen hundred feet of damaged boardwalk has been removed; where possible, damaged boards will be reused and/or salvaged. Morristown - Archeologists and arborists utilized an air spade on a root ball at Fort Mansion. An architectural historian assessed damage to historic structures. The road to the Jenk's family cemetery has been cleared. Hazard tree work continued on trails in Jockey Hollow. More information on the response can be found at these websites: Hurricane response and recovery - A HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/waso/waso.cfm?prg=1168&lv=3" webpage with current information on the NPS response to Hurricane Sandy. Resource needs shopping list - A HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/waso/custommenu.cfm?lv=3&prg=1168&id=10935" ”shopping list” HYPERLINK "http://classicinside.nps.gov/documents/SHOPPING%20LIST%2011-5.pdf" of incident management team positions that still need to be filled, updated daily. Hurricane Sandy relief fund - E&AA has set up a HYPERLINK "http://www.eparks.com/_" relief fund web page where you can make donations in support of employees who were affected by the storm. Uniform donations - Information on donating uniforms to employees can be found at HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=viewnpsnewsarticle&type=Announcements&id=13059" this web page. Facebook - A HYPERLINK "https://www.facebook.com/HurricaneResponseNPS" Facebook page managed by the IMT with updates on the response. Twitter - A HYPERLINK "http://mobile.twitter.com/NPS_Sandy?" Twitter page managed by the IMT with updates on the response. Flickr - A HYPERLINK "http://www.flickr.com/photos/sandyresponsenps/sets/72157631954446291/" Flickr page managed by the IMT with images of the response. Bryce Canyon NP Rangers Locate Missing Maryland Woman A 48-year-old Maryland woman was rescued from the Under the Rim Trail in Bryce Canyon on the evening of Wednesday, November 7th. The woman had become disoriented while attempting to solo hike the Peek-a-Boo Loop day hike the previous day. When she descended the trail from Bryce Point, she inadvertently turned onto the Under the Rim trail - a trail stretching approximately 23 miles southward from Bryce Point into designated wilderness. The woman hiked a little over 10 miles over two days, clad only in a T-shirt and shorts and with minimal water and food. Temperatures dropped into the 30's that night. Staff at the hotel where she was staying in Kanab, Utah, reported her as missing around 10 a.m. on the 7th. Rangers located her rental car parked at Bryce Point and began recruiting staff and visitors to watch for the missing solo hiker on frontcountry trails. Park search teams hiked approximately 19 miles of both frontcountry and backcountry trails and found five “S.O.S.” notes left by the hiker in her 29 hour journey. Ranger Eric Vasquez located the missing woman at approximately 4:30 p.m. near the Sheep Creek junction of the Under the Rim trail. She was in good condition, partially due to unseasonably warm weather. The woman said that she had been awake all night doing calisthenics to stay warm and had built a shelter out of tree branches in preparedness for another night in the backcountry. Ranger Tyla Guss was the IC for this incident. [Tyla F. Guss, Park 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/): Eastern Areas - Director Jon Jarvis, Deputy Director Peggy O'Dell and Comptroller Bruce Sheaffer traveled to the New York metropolitan area on Monday afternoon to visit some of the parks most affected by Hurricane Sandy. Office of Communications - Secretary Salazar yesterday announced the dates in 2013 when more than 2,000 national parks, national forests, national wildlife refuges, and other federal lands will offer free admittance to everyone. Office of Communications - Suki Baz has joined the Office of Communications as the National Park Service's employee communications specialist. Her appointment signals the NPS's commitment to improving communications and information-sharing with employees across the country. * * * * The Morning Report is a publication of the Division of Law Enforcement, Security and Emergency Services, Washington Office, produced by the Office of Communications with the support of the Office of the Associate Director for Information Resources. Edited by Bill Halainen ( HYPERLINK "mailto:Bill_Halainen@nps.gov" Bill_Halainen@nps.gov). --- ### --- |