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NATIONAL PARK SERVICE MORNING REPORT Thursday, June 5, 2014 INCIDENTS Yosemite NP Visitor Survives Plunge Into Yosemite Falls Around noon on Wednesday, May 28th, park dispatch received an emergency call from a group of backpackers who reported that one of their number had fallen into the Middle Cascade of Yosemite Falls. The victim, a 22-year-old man from Union City, California, was on a backpacking trip with three of his friends. When they stopped on their return trip at the Middle Cascade at the base of Upper Yosemite Fall, he fell into the water while reaching for his sunglasses. He was swept several hundred feet through the 675-foot-high Middle Cascade into an eddy in a pool of water, where he was able to climb onto a large boulder in the middle of the cascade. Immediately upon receiving the call, a Yosemite search and rescue team was dispatched to the location of the incident along the Upper Yosemite Fall Trail. At the same time, the park's contract helicopter was ordered out for a reconnaissance flight. With members of the initial ground team acting as spotters from the edge of the gorge, the helicopter inserted Ranger Ed Visnovske via short haul to the man's location. He was found to be slightly hypothermic, but otherwise uninjured. Visnovske and the man were then short hauled to Yosemite Valley, where the man declined medical treatment. Yosemite Valley District Ranger Jack Hoeflich was IC for this rescue. Click on the link below for a video of the rescue. Note that it takes a while before the short-haul rescue gets underway. HYPERLINK "https://docs.google.com/a/contractor.nps.gov/file/d/0B7WHSnk88oevNm9pZWxJVkwtQVk/edit" https://docs.google.com/a/contractor.nps.gov/file/d/0B7WHSnk88oevNm9pZWxJVkwtQVk/edit [Kari Cobb, Public Affairs Officer] Blue Ridge Parkway Visitor's Life Saved Through Effective CPR, AED Use Ranger Stephen Dollinger received a report of CPR in progress at the Price Park Picnic Area during the Memorial Day weekend. When he arrived at the scene, he found two bystanders performing CPR on a 79-year-old woman in the picnic area restroom. Dollinger took over CPR. Blowing Rock Fire and Rescue soon arrived and administered one AED shock. The woman's pulse was restored, but she still needed assisted ventilations. She was transported to Watauga Medical Center, where she is in good condition. She should soon be transferred to a hospital near her home. [Dave Bauer, Highlands District Ranger] OTHER NEWS The following stories are among those in today's webpage editions of InsideNPS (available to NPS employees only) and the Morning Report (available to all readers): Richmond NBP - On Tuesday, June 3rd, Richmond National Battlefield Park culminated its two-week commemoration of the battles of Totopotomoy Creek and Cold Harbor, key parts of Ulysses S. Grant's 1864 Overland Campaign. Palo Alto Battlefield NHP - The park's Junior Ranger Day event encouraged children from the Rio Grande Valley to learn about the variety and significance of national parks across the nation. It featured traveling trunks from many of the featured parks. Tallgrass Prairie NP - As part of National Park Week, local elementary school students took part in an art contest that challenged them to create "green" messages for placement on visitor center parking lot car stops. Gettysburg NMP - On Sunday, May 25th, two honorable military awards were bestowed upon John Reid, National Park Service historic weapons supervisor and a park ranger at Greenbelt Park. To see the full text of these stories, readers should go to one or the other of the following sites: NPS employees - HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=index" http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=index Non-NPS employees - HYPERLINK "http://www.nps.gov/morningreport/" http://www.nps.gov/morningreport/ 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). --- ### --- |