- Subject: NPS Morning Report - Tuesday, September 17, 1996
- Date: Tues, 17 Sep 1996
NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
MORNING REPORT
To: All National Park Service Areas and Offices
From: Division of Ranger Activities, Washington Office
Day/Date: Tuesday, September 17, 1996
Broadcast: By 1000 ET
INCIDENTS
96-511 - C&O Canal (Maryland/D.C.) - Follow-up on Hurricane Fran
Approximately 90% of the park reopened to the public on Friday, September
13th, as a result of intensive efforts by the entire park staff. The
standard for opening the towpath was lowered as a result of lessons learned
during the January flood; only those areas which poses serious threats to
life or property remain closed, pending additional short-term or long-term
repairs. At present, the bridges and boardwalk on Olmsted Island and all
park campgrounds and hiker/biker campsites remain closed. The contract to
desilt the canal and repair the towpath from Georgetown to Lock 5 and from
Lock 18 to Violette's Lock, the first major contract initiated to repair
January's damage, began on schedule on September 5th, and was resumed
following the brief delay caused by Hurricane Fran. The work should be
completed by Christmas, which will permit the reopening of those two sections
to canal boat operations by next spring. Detailed damage assessments are set
to begin later this week. Repair and rehabilitation projects stemming from
those assessments will be incorporated into the January flood recovery plan.
[Kevin FitzGerald, CV&RP, CHOH]
96-531 - Cape Hatteras (North Carolina) - Tornado
A tornado struck the Oregon Inlet campground at 4 a.m. this morning. Ivey
Evans, a former NPS employee, received minor injuries when his camper was
demolished; Evans refused transportation to a hospital, however, and was
picked up by his son, who works in the area. There were no other injuries,
and preliminary investigation indicates no damage to any facilities.
Additional information to follow. [Mike Anderson, Acting CR, CAHA; Steve
Smith, ACSO]
96-532 - Denali (Alaska) - Search and Rescue
Around noon on Friday, September 13th, rangers at the west end of the park
received a message broadcast on the park radio frequency saying: "Down at
Anderson Pass with injuries." Repeated efforts to establish radio contact
and gain additional information were unsuccessful. Rangers then contacted
ERA, Inc., a helicopter tour operator, to determine if they had any
helicopter in the area. They advised that they did, and the rescue
coordination center at Elmendorf AFB subsequently confirmed that they'd
received emergency locator transmitter signals from that approximate
location. A coordinated rescue effort was begun which involved an Air
National Guard C-130 and Pavehawk helicopter, ERA helicopters, NPS employees
and aircraft, and sundry medical personnel. The downed helicopter was found
in the pass at 3 p.m. The pilot and one passenger were okay, but a second
passenger had suffered possible back injuries. All were evacuated. Weather
at the time of the crash was marginal, with a low cloud ceiling and snow
showers. The NTSB is investigating the accident. [Jane Tranel, PIO, DENA]
[Additional reports pending...]
FIRE ACTIVITY
NATIONAL PREPAREDNESS LEVEL - Level II
The national preparedness level has dropped another step. Preparedness Level
II is in effect when the following conditions are met: One geographic area
experiencing high fire danger. Numerous Class A, B, and C fires occurring
and a potential exists for escapes to larger (project) fires. Minimal
mobilization of resources from other geographic areas occurring. The
potential exists for mobilizing additional resources from other geographic
areas.
LARGE FIRE/INCIDENT SUMMARY
Sun Mon % Est
State Unit Fire/Incident IMT 9/15 9/16 Con Con
OR Umpqua NF Spring T2 16,005 16,005 95 9/20
MT Crow Agency Sugar Beet -- 800 800 100 CND
UT Salt Lake District Tabby Mountain -- 5,500 5,500 100 CND
AK Statewide 8 fires -- 154,568 154,568 -- LPS
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
NUMBER OF NEW FIRES (FIVE DAY TREND)
NPS BIA BLM FWS States USFS Total
Thursday, 9/12 2 2 11 1 97 61 174
Friday, 9/13 0 12 22 0 62 187 283
Saturday, 9/14 1 2 7 0 69 49 128
Sunday, 9/15 1 11 3 0 24 12 51
Monday, 9/16 0 4 3 0 37 10 54
TOTAL COMMITTED RESOURCES (FIVE DAY TREND)
Crews Engines Helicopters Airtankers Overhead
Thursday, 9/12 152 207 70 3 985
Friday, 9/13 146 196 76 1 1,133
Saturday, 9/14 77 96 47 0 629
Sunday, 9/15 83 88 40 0 680
Monday, 9/16 44 45 34 0 475
FIRES AND ACRES BURNED
Year-to-date Five-year average
Number of fires 89,661 61,053
Acres burned 5,989,370 2,200,374
CURRENT SITUATION
Unseasonably cold and wet conditions are being reported over most of the
West. As a result, there has been very little fire activity.
NATIONAL OUTLOOK
Cold and wet conditions are expected to persist through today.
[NICC Incident Management Situation Report]
OPERATIONAL NOTES
National Wilderness Steering Committee Meeting - The National Wilderness
Steering Committee (NWSC) held it's second meeting in Seattle, Washington and
North Cascades National Park during the week of August 26th. The NWSC was
established as a direct result of a 1993 wilderness report ("Wilderness Task
Force Report on Improving Wilderness Management in the National Park
Service") and the Director's personal commitment to bringing the NPS to the
forefront of wilderness management. The committee is currently addressing
four major initiatives intended to meet the goals identified in the report.
These include:
o development of an education and constituency-building strategy;
o the improvement of NPS wilderness management accountability;
o the development of Servicewide wilderness guidelines; and
o the development of a Servicewide wilderness training program.
Anyone interested in the details and progress of NWSC efforts can keep posted
by contacting Wes Henry or Jim Walters. A wilderness bulletin board was also
recently established and will soon post all information produced by the
committee. Committee members are Judy Alderson, Dick Anderson, Bill Briggle,
Tim Cochran, Maureen Finnerty, Wes Henry, Craig Holmquist, Randy Jones, Doug
Morris, Uwe Nehring, Alan Schmierer, Ralph Tingey, Karen Wade, and Jim
Walters. [Jim Walters, IMFA]
NPS-53, Special Park Uses Guideline - Copies of the draft revised NPS-53 are
still available to anyone interested in reviewing and commenting on the
guideline. To obtain a copy of the guideline and companion procedures
workbook, send a cc:Mail message to Dennis Burnett at NP-WASO-POPS. Type
NPS53 on the subject line; no text is needed. Three files will be
automatically returned to you. They are accompanied by a file entitled
README.1ST which gives full instructions on how to expand the two compressed
files. All comments must be sent via cc:Mail to Dick S. Young at NP-COLO by
November 15th. [Dick Young, RAD/WASO @ COLO]
MEMORANDA
No submissions.
EXCHANGE
No submissions.
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.
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