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NATIONAL PARK SERVICE MORNING REPORT Monday, June 30, 2014 INCIDENTS Denali NP&P Follow-up On Park Flooding And Closures The park continues to recover from the serious flooding caused by torrential rains last Wednesday night. Park staff are working to repair flood damage with personnel from the Alaska Department of Transportation, which has jurisdictional responsibility for major repairs on the affected section of the Denali Park Road. Erosion by the raging Friday and Eureka Creeks at the far western end of the 92-mile-long road has left approximately a half mile of damaged road. Park managers and DOT staff flew over the impacted sections last Friday morning to assess the damage and began to formulate plans for the equipment and materials needed for the repair. Park road crews will focus on clearing debris from the portion of the road open to bus traffic and improve repairs made on Thursday. Alaska DOT was planning to begin moving heavy equipment into the park over the weekend, but major repair work will not begin until the road dries out. It is estimated that it may be up to two weeks before normal operations can resume at the end of the road. Park concessioner buses are operating on their regular schedule as far as Wonder Lake. Buses that would have continued on to Kantishna can now travel as far as the north end of Wonder Lake before turning around. [Kris Fister, Public Affairs Officer] Mesa Verde NP Rangers Respond To Multiple Simultaneous Asthma Attacks On the afternoon of Wednesday, June 18th, dispatch received a phone call from the park museum reporting an asthma emergency. The initial call was for one boy, traveling with a large group, who was reported to be barely breathing. Rangers soon arrived on scene and began treating him. While doing so, three more members of the same group began experiencing severe asthma-related breathing difficulties. Park Medic Mitchell Hauptman, Rangers Marcia Leastman and Brian Starkey, and fire EMTs Cristy Brown and Nancy Peters provided primary EMS care. Park staff from all divisions assisted with additional patient care, maintaining the helicopter LZ, and traffic management. Careflight 3 made two trips to Southwest Memorial Hospital in Cortez, Colorado, while Mancos Ambulance transported the additional two patients with the park medic on board. Park staff believe that the simultaneous severe breathing incidents may have been brought on by a combination of elevation, exertion, and dusty conditions. Since all members of the group had experienced similar environmental conditions, the entire group was seen as potential patients and monitored for complications. Supervisory Ranger Andrew Blake acted as incident IC. [Catherine Lyons] Redwood N&SP Vehicle With Driver's Remains Found In Park Lagoon Ranger Dylan Moe and California Highway Patrol officers responded to a report of a vehicle submerged in Freshwater Lagoon adjacent to Highway 101 near the southern boundary of the park on the morning of Wednesday, June 18th. Moe was informed by three fishermen that while boating they had observed a vehicle about 40 feet from the shoreline. Park biologists David Anderson and Kyle Max responded to assess any potential fuel/oil discharge, but also assisted with the recovery of the vehicle, which was located in about 11 feet of water, by diving to it and affixing tow hooks. The 2004 Mitsubishi SUV was found to have a deceased victim in the driver's seat. Preliminary investigation suggests that the SUV was traveling southbound on US 101, veered from its direct path of travel, traversed the northbound lane, and entered the middle section of the lagoon, where it became fully submerged and not visible from the roadway or shore. Evidence at the scene indicated that the accident took place nearly two years ago and may resolve a missing person report from that time period. The recent discovery of the car is being attributed to an unusually low water level of the lagoon. The victim's name and proximate cause of death are being investigated by the CHP and the Humboldt County coroner's office. [Marshall Neeck, Chief 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): Great Smoky Mountains NP - Darris Clabo, park trails supervisor for Great Smoky Mountains National Park , passed away on Wednesday, June 25th, at the age of 58. Arches NP - Some 400 visitors joined park rangers, volunteers, park partners, and local community members to celebrate the launch of the Arches National Park quarter on May 23rd at the park's visitor center. Fire and Aviation Management - The National Wildfire Coordinating Group has designated this week as a week to honor the memories of all fallen wildland firefighters and to reflect on lessons learned from different types of wildland fire accidents. 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 Service. This report covers activities in Congress for the week ending June 27th. Northeast Region - Robert T. Parker, a 14-year veteran of the National Park Service, has been selected as the superintendent of Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Monument. 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). --- ### --- |