|
NATIONAL PARK SERVICE MORNING REPORT Friday, August 22, 2014 INCIDENTS Mount Rainier NP Bodies Of Three Climbers Recovered On August 19th, recovery operations were successfully conducted for three bodies located by air operations on August 7th. They are believed to be members of the party of six climbers that went missing from Liberty Ridge in late May ( HYPERLINK "http://classicinside.nps.gov/headline.cfm?type=Incidents&id=6986" click on this link for the original report). Due to the risks associated with inserting personnel into an area frequented by rock and ice fall, the crew of a Northwest Helicopters MD-530 employed a remotely controlled Heli-Tech grabber device mounted on a 100-foot-long line to retrieve the bodies. Eight rangers assisted in the planning and execution of the mission. The bodies were turned over to the Pierce County medical examiner's office, which will work on identification. No evidence of additional bodies was encountered during the operation. [Patti Wold, Information Officer] Grand Teton NP Search For Missing Concession Employee Continues The ongoing search for A.S., a Russian national employed at Dornan's, a restaurant in Moose within the park, was complicated yesterday by a simultaneous manhunt for three people who attempted to break into an employee dorm room at Jackson Lake Lodge. Rangers and Teton County Sherriff's Office personnel began the manhunt yesterday morning. Jackson Lake Lodge security officers had reported that three young men were actively breaking into and entering an employee dorm room at the Lodge around 9:00 a.m. When they attempted to contact the three men, they fled into the woods. Security officers also reported that one of the three men matched a description of Aleksandr A.S., the subject of an ongoing search reported in yesterday's edition. Rangers and deputies set up containment around the lodge. Roadside checkpoints were also set up around the park, and drivers were instructed not to pick up hitchhikers. At no time during this incident were visitors in any danger. All three men were found around noon. They received mandatory citations to appear in federal magistrate's court on trespassing charges. The three were not associated with A.S., as first thought. The two incidents are not related. A tip received by park staff on Thursday afternoon indicated that A.S. began a hike from the Taggart Lake trailhead at 9 a.m. on Monday. Efforts to locate him yesterday were unsuccessful and the search continues. [Jackie Skaggs, Public Affairs Officer] Grand Canyon NP Falling Victim Rescued From Below South Rim On August 20th, a 22-year-old visitor from California fell off the South Rim near the Hopi House Gift Shop, suffering non-life threatening injuries. The man, who reportedly suffers from a seizure disorder, experienced a seizure while walking near the edge. Fortunately, his fall was arrested when his leg wedged in the crook of a tree limb, limiting the distance he fell to about 20 vertical feet. The man's father immediately climbed over a small rock wall on the edge and down into the trees his son was stuck in. Rescuers were able to extricate the father without ropes, but the son's injuries required full immobilization and a vertical technical rescue. [Brandon Torres, Branch Chief of Emergency Services] Grand Canyon NP Woman Bitten By Rattlesnake Rescued Just after sunset on August 18th, a woman camping along the Colorado River with a commercial river trip was bitten twice - once in each hand - by a small rattlesnake. The woman was reportedly attempting to pick the snake up when the incident occurred. Thunderstorms in the area prevented a helicopter response until after midnight. An Arizona DPS Rescue flight crew out of Flagstaff using night vision goggles successfully flew the woman out of the canyon to Flagstaff Medical Center, where she was admitted for several days while receiving anti-venom treatment. Rattlesnake bite incidents requiring anti-venom administration are very rare at the Grand Canyon. [Brandon Torres, Branch Chief of Emergency Services] 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): Office of Communications - Director Jarvis visited Chicago yesterday and heard from neighbors and advocates supporting the inclusion of the city's historic Pullman neighborhood in the national park system. Office of Communications - As an initial step in the decision-making process to determine whether grizzly bears should be restored to the North Cascades ecosystem in Washington state, the NPS will begin developing an EIS this fall. Fire and Aviation Management - A facilitated learning analysis treats an accident as a notice that there are risks involved in work that have not been accurately understood, that employees have become complacent about, or that are not being managed appropriately. Geologic Resources Division - Twenty-one interns from the Mosaics in Science internship program met with Secretary Jewell on August 5th and talked with her about their experiences interning this summer with the National Park Service. Servicewide Training Calendar - Added to this week's calendar - a new online training course entitled “Introduction to the Career Academy for Natural Resources” and a course on interdisciplinary resource protection and law. 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). --- ### --- |