NATIONAL PARK SERVICE

MORNING REPORT

Monday, January 27, 2014

INCIDENTS

Obed W&SR

Two Kayakers Rescued Through Interagency Effort

On the evening of January 12th, rangers and Morgan County rescue squad members responded to a 911 call from a 28-year-old man who said that he and a 32-year-old companion had been kayaking from Obed Junction to Nemo on the Obed River when they experienced problems and became separated. The caller said that he was lost and cold and did not know where his friend was. 

After locating the caller's position with the help of Morgan County dispatch and the man's cell phone, rangers paddled across the river at Canoe Hole and began looking for him, finding him around 10:30 p.m. Rangers escorted him back to the other side of the river, where the rescue squad was waiting to transport him to the ambulance.

Shortly after rangers began a ground search for the second man, a Tennessee Highway Patrol helicopter located him along the river downstream of Alley Ford.  With the help of GPS coordinates and guidance provided by the crew onboard the helicopter, Obed and Big South Fork rangers found him just after midnight.

Both men were suffering from exposure when found, but were treated and released by Morgan County Ambulance service. 

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[Matt Hudson]

OTHER NEWS

The following stories are among those in today's InsideNPS. To see the full text, 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 Morning Report web page ( HYPERLINK "http://www.nps.gov/morningreport/" http://www.nps.gov/morningreport/):

Office of Communications - The Smithsonian Institution, the National Park Service, and the State Department are collaborating on a special, three-part online conference series during which students will be able to interact with experts and other classrooms from around the world to learn how diplomacy has shaped our country.

Learning and Development Division - The Learning and Development Division has announced the launching of a pilot new division chief leadership program. The program will target new division chiefs within their first two years of assignment.

Office of Legislative and Congressional Affairs - This week's update on past and upcoming hearings, newly introduced bills, and the status of legislation of interest to the National Park Service. This report covers activities in Congress for the week ending January 24th.

Yosemite NP - Retired NPS employee Tom Pimentel was killed in a car accident on the evening of Friday, January 17th. His grandsons were in the car with him, but sustained only minor injuries.

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The Morning Report is 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@contractor.nps.gov" Bill_Halainen@contractor.nps.gov).

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