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NATIONAL PARK SERVICE MORNING REPORT Wednesday, November 21, 2012 INCIDENTS Eastern Areas NPS Recovery Operations Enter Eighteenth Day The National Park Service IMT overseeing Hurricane Sandy recovery efforts completed its seventeenth day of operations yesterday. Currently working with the team are 480 National Park Service employees from 108 parks and 43 states, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia. Today's status reports follow: Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island - Debris removal continues. Team members assessed the administration building with representatives from the Department of Health. Mechanics worked on repairing machinery that had been submerged. Exterior cleaning of screening tents at Battery Park continued. Governors Island - The site remains closed for the season. Gas and telecommunications have not been restored to headquarters. Castle Clinton - Castle Clinton remains closed until further notice. Gateway - Crews are working throughout the park's Jamaica Bay, Staten Island and Sandy Hook Units: Jamaica Bay Unit - Trail work is continuing at the refuge. Debris cleanup continues at Frank M. Charles Memorial Park and Hamilton Beach Park. A security fence was installed around the Canarsie Pier concessions area. Staten Island Unit - Woody debris removal continues along the USS North Carolina Road on Staten Island. Debris removal continues at Great Kills and Fort Wadsworth. Resource advisors are working on a sand redistribution plan. Parts were ordered for boilers at Miller Field. Saw and chip operations continue at Great Kills. Sandy Hook Unit - Crews started on clearing Holly Forest Trail, continued clearing sand and debris from the North Beach and Gunnison Beach bath houses and plazas, and worked on the Old Dune Trail at the visitor center, clearing downed trees and brush, rehabbing trail tread, re-grading and filling washouts, and removing trash and debris from the trail and surrounding woods. Crews are also working on the water system, isolating the water main, charging the system and flushing lines; continuing work at the sewage treatment plant; continuing to collect trash and debris around buildings and roadways; employing heavy equipment to push back road berms; working on removing equipment from the north maintenance complex; winterizing buildings, campground and bath houses; and facilitating transport of needed supplies and equipment to other crews. Cultural resources and interpretive staff are working on inventory, cleaning and drying of historical archives. Fire Island - The east end adjacent to Smith Point
County Park has been partially reopened, providing pedestrian access to
the beach. The adjacent wilderness area (Otis Pike) remains closed.
Visitors may walk to the breach at Old Inlet, but entering the water is
prohibited. Crews continued with boardwalk removal around the
lighthouse. Morristown National Historical Park - The New Jersey Brigade and Cross Estate sites opened yesterday. Fort Nonsense, Washington Headquarters Museum and Ford Mansion are open. Jockey Hollow remains closed due to power- and phone-line issues. 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. Grand Teton NP Fire Suppressed At Signal Mountain Convenience Store Teton Interagency Dispatch Center received an emergency call yesterday morning reporting a structural fire at the Signal Mountain Lodge convenience store. A quick response by firefighters from Grand Teton National Park and Jackson Hole Fire/EMS helped contain the fire to the store. The interior of the building sustained extensive smoke and fire damage. There were no human injuries during this incident. A Signal Mountain Lodge employee discovered the fire in the convenience store, which is currently closed for the winter season. He used an extinguisher in an attempt to suppress the fire and made an emergency call for help. The first responder, a ranger, arrived within 10 minutes of the call for help and directed firefighting resources as they arrived on scene. Two structural fire engines and an ambulance from the park, plus three fire engines from Jackson Hole Fire/EMS, arrived shortly after to support suppression efforts. Using thermal imaging, firefighters located unseen hotspots in the building's walls and mopped up areas with lingering heat. A joint investigation is being conducted by the park and a Jackson Hole Fire/EMS investigator. [Jackie Skaggs, Public Affairs Officer] WWII Valor in the Pacific NM Six Indicted For Auto Break-Ins On November 9th, five men and one woman - J.K.-A., 20, R.G., 25, M.L., 21, M.R., 20, S.S., 25, and J.T., 22 - were arrested and brought before a federal magistrate in Honolulu for the theft of property from motor vehicles in three separate cases that occurred between February 2nd and March 20th. Stolen items included a purse containing a badge and credentials belonging to a federal law enforcement official, passports, cellular phones, credit cards and other personal property taken from rental vehicles while parked at WWII Valor in the Pacific National Memorial in Pearl Harbor. All were indicted by a federal grand jury on November 8th and charged with unauthorized entry of a motor vehicle and conspiracy, both felonies. Arrest warrants were also issued. Those arrested are part of a group of individuals targeting Dodge Chargers throughout the island of Oahu. Law enforcement rangers, a special agent from the Investigative Services Branch, and Honolulu Police Department officers conducted the investigation. The United States Attorney's Office for the District of Hawaii is prosecuting the case. Click on the link below for a previous related case. [Investigative Services Branch] HYPERLINK "http://classicinside.nps.gov/headline.cfm?type=Incidents&id=6181" http://classicinside.nps.gov/headline.cfm?type=Incidents&id=6181 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/): Olympic NP - With all of the sediment that has moved downstream over the last month, there has been a lot of curiosity about the resulting changes to the former reservoirs and Elwha River channel. Last week the sediment team gathered along the Elwha to survey the river and former reservoirs and determine how sediment is responding to dam removal. Intermountain Region - Washita Battlefield National Historic Site held a special program on November 3rd that featured Ernie LaPointe, the great-grandson of the respected Lakota leader, Sitting Bull. Capitol Reef NP - Dava Davy McGahee, cultural resources program manager for Capitol Reef National Park, will be retiring on December 1st with 21 years of federal service, almost all with the National Park Service. Mammoth Cave NP - Now that the Mammoth Cave visitor center is complete, Mike Adams, the park's chief of interpretation, will soon hang up his Smoky Bear hat and retire. * * * * 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). --- ### --- |