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NATIONAL PARK SERVICE MORNING REPORT Thursday, December 4, 2014 INCIDENTS Mount Rainier NP Injured Hiker Rescued At Panorama Point Late on the afternoon of December 2nd, a 911 call was patched through to Mount Rainier dispatch from an injured 61-year-old hiker who had broken his lower leg in a fall. He slipped on a steep icy slope and fell 50 feet just above Panorama Point, coming to rest after hitting a rock hard enough to result in a compound fracture of both lower leg bones of one leg. A group of skiers descending from Camp Muir fortuitously came upon the accident site and the injured hiker. The group was better prepared than the great majority of backcountry travelers and was able to radio park rangers with the GPS coordinates and other pertinent information. They then went to great lengths to protect, rewarm and care for the man for several hours of cold and windy conditions while rescuers were summoned to the park to perform a carryout. Teams from Tacoma Mountain Rescue, Seattle Mountain Rescue and Olympic Mountain Rescue were battered by high winds as they performed the late night evacuation by rescue litter. The operation included several steep-angle technical roped lowerings down the icy slopes of Panorama Point. Rescue efforts continued into the wee hours of the morning. The injured hiker was then transported by ambulance to the hospital. [Glenn Kessler, IC] 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): Yosemite NP - Yosemite National Park's waterfalls - bone dry since July due in part to the ongoing drought in California - are flowing again following two days of significant rainfall throughout the region. Today's Almanac - Coastal rain and mountain snow are forecast for northern California, Oregon and Washington. A second disturbance will bring moderate to heavy rain to much of southern California and the Southwest. Fire and Aviation Management - Fire protection interns contributed 4,600 work hours in 21 National Park Service sites this summer to help improve structural fire prevention. Vicksburg NMP - Park staff helped in recovery efforts following a fire that burned three buildings on the grounds of the Mississippi Agriculture and Forestry Museum in Jackson, Mississippi. National Capital Region - Manassas National Battlefield Park planted three aspens near the historic Stone House in late November to replace white poplar trees that were threatening the foundation of the historic Civil War structure. Tuskegee Airmen NHS - Ranger Robert Stewart has served as a model for a monument commemorating American participants in the Battle of Bladensburg during the War of 1812. 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). --- ### --- |