- Subject: NPS Morning Report - Monday, September 9, 1996
- Date: Mon, 9 Sep 1996
NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
MORNING REPORT
To: All National Park Service Areas and Offices
From: Division of Ranger Activities, Washington Office
Day/Date: Monday, September 9, 1996
Broadcast: By 1000 ET
INCIDENTS
96-511 - East Coast Areas - Follow-up on Hurricane Fran
Reports on the impacts of Hurricane Fran have been received from a number of
Eastern parks. Of particular note is the fact that the flooding along the
Shenandoah and Potomac Rivers has in most cases been as or more severe than
that which occurred during January, making this the first year since the
National Weather Service began keeping track early this century that areas
along those rivers have been hit by two major floods. As of Sunday night,
the Potomac was flowing past Little Falls in Maryland at more than 300,000
cubic feet per second (cfs) - 130 times the normal volume. When the
Shenandoah River crested on Saturday, it had a flow rate of 153,000 cfs, or
more than 200 times its typical rate.
o Shenandoah - Winds in excess of 60 mph and more than five inches of
rain - which followed five inches or precipitation received during the
days just before the hurricane's arrival - caused serious flooding and
major tree damage in the park. Skyline Drive and all park facilities
except Skyland Lodge were closed at 9 p.m. on Thursday, and wind and
rains arrived at 3 a.m. the following morning. The hurricane dropped
trees along the entire length of Skyline Drive and elsewhere throughout
the park. Power was lost in all areas except the entrance station in
Front Royal. Flooding led to contamination of the park's water systems
and knocked out the sewage treatment system. Following the storm's
passage, crews began opening roads, beginning with Skyline Drive from
Thornton Gap to Skyland, freeing the 250 guests and staff at the
facilities there. All were evacuated without incident. Crews have
also reached required occupants at Big Meadows and Simmons Gap and
opened a single lane for traffic to and from those locations. The
park's Type III incident management team is overseeing recovery
operations, including road clearance, damage assessments, and response
to emergency requests from hard-hit local communities (mostly in
opening roads). The park remains closed. The team plans to turn
management of the incident back to the park districts this morning.
o C&O Canal - The park completed all preparations for the hurricane and
for the flooding forecast for the Potomac River by Friday. All 36
hiker/biker campsites were evacuated and closed; the drive in
campgrounds at Spring Gap, Fifteenmile Creek, McCoys Ferry and Antietam
Creek were evacuated and closed; the Williamsport visitor center at
Cushwa Basin was evacuated and closed; and equipment and materials were
staged in anticipation of the need to sandbag the Great Falls Tavern,
clear debris, remove downed trees, and undertake related recovery
actions. The Shenandoah River, which joins the Potomac River at
Harpers Ferry, crested at 20 feet over flood stage Saturday night, and
the waters of the Potomac rose with equal rapidity. The entire park
was officially closed at noon on Saturday, and park staff began
sandbagging Great Falls Tavern and barricading access points. The
Potomac crested along much of the park's length on Sunday; although
waters have not yet full receded, it's clear that much of the extensive
repair work from last January's flood - including 15,000 hours of labor
rendered by 3,500 volunteers - has been washed away. Sandbags around
the tavern held, however, and the building has apparently been spared
from any serious damage.
o Harpers Ferry - No word has yet been received from the park, but media
reports indicate that the area is closed due to severe flooding.
Employees moved more than 5,000 artifacts from the museums and exhibit
halls along low-lying Shenandoah Street. By Sunday afternoon, about
two dozen historic buildings on the street were flooded and the street
was covered with chest-high water.
o George Washington Parkway - The Potomac River flood gauge at Little
Falls toward the north end of the park crested at almost eight feet
above flood stage yesterday evening. That mark was two feet below the
high water mark recorded in last January's big floods, but damage is
nonetheless considerable. Many segments of the parkway, particularly
from Key Bridge south to Mount Vernon, remain closed. The Mount Vernon
bike trail has sustained considerable damage, but the scope of the
flood's impacts here and elsewhere will not be known until flood waters
recede.
o National Capital Parks - East Potomac Park was flooded and closed on
Friday. Anacostia Park was also closed. Flooding subsequently forced
the closure of Rock Creek Parkway. At the Tidal Basin near the
Jefferson Memorial, NPS workers built a levee over the weekend to keep
the Potomac from flowing down 17th Street onto Constitution Avenue.
o Monocacy - The park visitor center and trails were closed to the public
on Friday. The visitor center was evacuated and all contents were
removed.
o Fort Sumter Group - Although wind gusts as high as 50 mph were reported
in Charleston, neither Fort Sumter nor Charles Pinckney were damaged.
Both reopened on Saturday. Moores Creek, located near Wilmington and
in the storm's path, sustained significant damage. The eye of
Hurricane Fran passed directly over the park, with winds in excess of
100 mph in the eye wall. Two-thirds of the park was flooded to depths
of from three to six feet, including all of the battlefield.
GUCO - Between 30 to 40 large hardwood trees were uprooted and fell across
trails and several roads. Numerous pine trees were also downed throughout
the park. Electrical power was knocked out to all park facilities, but was
restored by Friday evening. Park employees worked to clear enough of the
area to permit reopening of the park to visitors on Sunday.
MOCR again - Full clean-up efforts will be undertaken once the creek
subsides. All park employees are reported to be okay.
MOCR or GUCO - Most are still without electricity, however, and it may be a
week before all power has been restored in the city of Greensboro.
o Blue Ridge - The hurricane caused extensive flooding and tree damage
over a 64-mile section of the parkway from its beginning point to the
James River. A number of trees and utility lines fell across the
parkway. The Otter Creek campground was closed due to flooding. Heavy
rain damaged the roof of the park's maintenance facility in Vinton,
near Roanoke. The park hoped to reopen the road and restore all
visitor services in relatively short order.
o Fredericksburg/Spotsylvania - Winds up to about 60 mph and heavy rains
struck the park at 4:30 a.m. on Friday. By 9 a.m., the two
battlefields had to be closed to the public because of numerous downed
trees. The remaining battlefields - Chancellorsville and Wilderness -
were closed by 1 p.m. Park visitor centers remained open. Crews of
maintenance workers and rangers worked throughout Friday and Saturday
to remove downed trees. The park was reopened at 3 p.m. on Saturday.
Damage to park facilities was minimal.
o Cape Hatteras Group -The three parks in the group - Cape Hatteras,
Wright Brothers and Fort Raleigh - reopened at noon on Friday. With
the exception of flooding on the north end of Ocracoke Island and the
resulting layer of sand and debris covering the road, there were few
indications that a hurricane had passed over the area.
o Cape Lookout - The park suffered no significant damage. Headquarters
was closed on Friday due to a power outage and the inability of some
employees to get to the office.
o Cumberland Island - The park reopened on Friday morning. The ferry
schedule resumed at 9:00 a.m. Thirty camping parties and all employees
who reside on the island were evacuated on Wednesday without incident.
o Fort Pulaski - The park was undamaged and reopened to the public at
7:30 a.m. on Friday.
o Kings Mountain - The park received only moderate wind gusts and rain,
with no damage beyond minor tree falls on trails and fire roads. No
areas were closed.
[Greg Styles, IC, SHEN; Kevin Fitzgerald, CHOH; Gary Pollock, GWMP; Sandy
Ailey, PIO, NCFA; Jim Fox, BLRI; Bob Woody, CI&VS, CAHA; Newt Sikes, CUIS;
John Breen, FOPU; Andrew Loveless, Superintendent, KIMO; John Tucker,
Superintendent, FOSU; Chuck Harris, CR, CALO; Mike Johnson, CR, FRSP;
Washington Post]
96-517 - San Juan (Puerto Rico) - Hurricane Hortense
The park began implementing its hurricane plan yesterday morning, as the
hurricane threatens to bring winds and six to twelve inches of rain to the
island. Maintenance teams were called in on overtime to start placing sand
bags and securing facilities not in use by visitors. A decision on whether
or not to open the park today was to be made yesterday evening. [Mark
Hardrove, IC, SAJU]
[Additional, non-hurricane incident reports pending...]
FIRE ACTIVITY
NATIONAL PREPAREDNESS LEVEL - Level IV
The national preparedness level has gone down one step. Preparedness Level
IV goes into effect when the following conditions are met: Two or more
geographic areas experiencing incidents requiring Type I teams. Competition
exists for resources between geographic areas. 450 crews or nine Type I
teams committed nationally.
LARGE FIRE/INCIDENT SUMMARY
% Est
State Unit Fire/Incident IMT 9/6 9/9 Con Con
OR Umatilla NF Tower T1 50,650 50,650 100 CND
Wallowa-Whitman NF Salt Cx T2 73,925 68,925 100 CND
Willamette NF Moolack Cx T2 11,715 11,735 90 9/12
Umpqua NF Spring T1 13,869 15,260 86 9/12
MT Custer NF Shepard Mtn. T1 10,000 12,800 60 9/12
WY Bridger-Teton NF Aspen Hollow T2 2,435 2,435 30 NEC
Big Horn NF Stockwell II T1 1,200 2,880 20 9/14
CA Angeles NF * Camp -- - 855 100 CND
AK Statewide 10 fires -- 342,723 342,723 -- LPS
NC Fort Bragg * Hurricane Fran T1 Managing receiving and
distribution center
Heading Notes
Unit -- Agency = BIA area; NF = national forest; RU = CA state resource
or ranger unit; RD = state ranger district; District = BLM
district; NWR = USFWS wildlife refuge
Fire -- * = newly reported fire (on this report); Cx = complex; LSS =
limited suppression strategy; CSS = containment suppression
strategy
IMT -- T1 = Type 1; T2 = Type II; ST = State Team
% Con -- Percent of fire contained
Est Con -- Estimated containment date; NEC = no estimated date of
containment; CND = fully contained; NR = no report; LPS = limited
protection status
NPS FIRE NOTES
Yellowstone - The park currently has six prescribed natural fires (PNFs)
burning within its boundaries - the Coyote (3,354 acres) and Pelican (1,412
acres) are the largest, with none of the remaining four larger than 16 acres.
The Coyote is being jointly managed by the park and the Gallatin NF. It
began as a lightning-caused fire on June 26th. Less than 60 percent of the
total fire area is actually burned. Area and trail closures have been
implemented to provide for public safety and will remain in effect for the
immediate future. All closures will be reevaluated on a daily basis.
Temporary area closures include the following: the Specimen Creek and Pine
Creek trails near Jardine, Montana; the Hellroaring and Coyote trails, both
in the park and the Absaroka Beartooth Wilderness; and portions of four other
trails in the wilderness area. The area closure will remain in effect until
weather and fire conditions allow for safe backcountry travel. The Pelican
fire, also lightning-caused, started on August 11th, and is burning well away
from the Fishing Bridge developed area. The Coyote fire is the first PNF in
the Gallatin NF, which just completed a fire management plan that permits
such fires. Bill Clark from the Service's Boise office took the NPS
prescribed natural fire management team to Yellowstone last week to manage
the Coyote and the other PNFs. When the Coyote threatened to cross into the
forest, the forest supervisor asked the NPS to manage the entire fire and
provided a delegation of authority - the first time such an arrangement has
occurred.
NPS/NICC - According to statistics prepared by the Service's office in Boise,
86,068 of the 86,738 fires which have occurred to date have been caught by
initial attack, with only 652 - fewer than one percent - becoming large
fires. Those 652 fires, however, account for about 75 percent of the acreage
burned to date - 4,378,094 out of a total year-to-date figure of 5,822,036
burned. The office also reports that more than 675 structures have been
burned in wild fires this year, the majority (347) in Alaska.
NUMBER OF NEW FIRES (FIVE DAY TREND)
NPS BIA BLM FWS States USFS Total
Wednesday, 9/4 2 5 7 1 26 43 84
Thursday, 9/5 0 5 7 0 33 23 68
Friday, 9/6 - - - - - - -
Saturday, 9/7 - - - - - - -
Sunday, 9/8 3 6 21 0 33 26 89
TOTAL COMMITTED RESOURCES (FIVE DAY TREND)
Crews Engines Helicopters Airtankers Overhead
Wednesday, 9/4 342 277 106 2 1,977
Thursday, 9/5 362 276 86 8 1,903
Friday, 9/6 --- --- -- - -----
Saturday, 9/7 --- --- -- - -----
Sunday, 9/8 254 196 87 8 1,479
CURRENT SITUATION
Moderate initial attack activity was reported yesterday, but there was no
significant activity on any of the remaining large fires. Resource
mobilization through NICC continued to decline.
NATIONAL OUTLOOK
No significant fire activity is forecast.
[NICC Incident Management Situation Report; Doug Erskine, NPS/NICC; Marsha
Karle, PIO, YELL]
OPERATIONAL NOTES
Submission pending.
MEMORANDA
No submissions.
EXCHANGE
No submissions.
MEETINGS, CONFERENCES AND EVENTS CALENDAR
The calendar will appear in the Tuesday Morning Report.
Distribution of the Morning Report is through a mailing list managed by park,
office and/or field area cc:Mail hub coordinators. Please address requests
for the Morning Report to your servicing hub coordinator.
Prepared by the Division of Ranger Activities, WASO, with the cooperation and
support of Delaware Water Gap NRA.
--- ### ---