INCIDENTS

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Cape Lookout NS/Cape Hatteras NS
Hurricane Alex Grazes Outer Banks

Hurricane Alex passed by the Outer Banks yesterday, bringing heavy rain and significant winds. Reports were received from Capes Lookout and Hatteras late yesterday afternoon:

Cape Lookout NS — The park had received calls from a park employee and a concession employee living on the Outer Banks who reported sustained winds of around 75 mph and gusts up to 100 mph. All park staff have checked in, and all were okay. With the hurricane's departure, park staff returned to headquarters to open the main offices and begin an impact assessment. The Harkers Island unit reopened in mid-afternoon, but the remainder of the park will remain closed until the assessments are completed.

Cape Hatteras NS — As of mid-afternoon, reports indicated that sustained winds were blowing around 45 mph and that gusts were in the 60 — 70 mph range — with one as yet unverified gust of 93 mph. Ocracoke reportedly had three feet of water in the village, and the ocean overwashed the north end of Ocracoke Island. Due to the original forecast that the storm would not be that severe, the park did not implement ICS, nor did they board up buildings. The Cape Point campground was closed at 6 p.m. on Monday, but other campgrounds remained open, albeit with few campers due to awareness of the hurricane's impending arrival. The park's visitor centers were closed yesterday, primarily due to lack of visitors. Liberal leave was in effect. Damage assessments will be undertaken as soon as the hurricane passes.

[Submitted by Jon Anglin, Acting Chief Ranger, CAHA; Wouter Ketel, Chief Ranger, CALO]

Grand Teton National Park (WY)
Armed Robbery in Park

Rangers and Teton County Sheriff deputies responded to an emergency 911 call from W.W., a resident of Kelly, Wyoming, at 10:45 p.m. on Monday, August 2nd. W.W. reported that he was the victim of an armed robbery that had just occurred along the Gros Ventre Road between the Gros Ventre Campground and the community of Kelly.  W.W. was driving home when he was hailed by a man who appeared to be distressed and in need of assistance.  When W.W. stopped to provide help, the man pulled a hunting knife on him and demanded that he empty his pockets and hand over his car keys.  The man took some money, threw both W.W.'s wallet and car keys into the sagebrush, and proceeded to walk westward on the Gros Ventre Road. The suspect is reported to be a white male with a full beard, who was wearing a gray sweatshirt, khaki shorts, and sandals at the time of the robbery.  Seven park rangers and six deputy sheriffs used a search dog and night vision goggles to comb areas along the Gros Ventre Road and throughout the campground looking for the man.  Although search efforts were temporarily halted at 2:30 a.m. Tuesday, park rangers resumed the search at daybreak. It was continuing at the time of the report yesterday afternoon.

[Submitted by Public Affairs Office]

FIRE MANAGEMENT

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NIFC/NPS Fire and Aviation Management
National Fire Situation Highlights — Wednesday, August 4, 2004

Preparedness Level 3

Initial attack was moderate in the Northwest yesterday and light elsewhere. Two of the 287 newly-reported fires escaped initial attack and became large fires; six other large fires were contained.

Very high to extreme fire indices were reported in Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.

Weather Forecast

Low pressure will settle off the coast of the Northwest Area today as a high pressure ridge strengthens over the Rocky Mountain Area. The pressure gradient between the two systems will provide windy and mainly dry conditions over much of the Great Basin. There will be a few thunderstorms today in the afternoon heating from southeast Montana southward down the spine of the Rockies. Most of the rest of the west is not expected to have much convective activity. Hurricane Alex will continue its march into the North Atlantic today and will remain well offshore.

Warnings and Watches

A RED FLAG WARNING has been posted today for gusty southwest winds and low relative humidity for northeast California, the northern two-thirds of Nevada, and southeast Oregon.

NPS Fires

For a brief supplemental narrative on each fire, click on the bar with the arrow. Internal NPS readers can link directly to full reports on each fire by clicking on the notepad icon; public readers of the Morning Report can obtain similar information by going to http://www.nps.gov/fire/news

{||inc|http://data2.itc.nps.gov/fire/includes/bill_table.cfm||}

National/State Team Commitments

Newly listed fires (on this report) appear below in boldface. Changes in the status of a fire (type of team, change from a fire to a complex, etc.) are also noted in boldface.

Fires are sorted by type of team; teams are listed in alphabetical order within each type by the IC's last name.

State	Agency	Team	IC	Fire and Location	8/3	8/4	% Con	Est Con
UT	USFS	1	Martin	Hawkins Fire, Dixie NF	35,190	35,232	60	8/6
UT	USFS	1	Martin *	Westside Complex, Dixie NF	4,800	4,800	N/A	N/A
WA	USFS	1	Lohrey	Pot Peak Complex, Okanogan-Wenatchee NF	38,980	39,110	60	UNK
WA	State	2	Berndt/ Andring #	Mill Canyon Fire, Northeast Washington	1,000	1,100	65	UNK
WA	USFS	2	Jennings/ Perry #	Freezeout Fire, Okanogan-Wenatchee NF	380	400	17	UNK
WA	State	2	Johnson/ Barnett #	Elk Heights Fire, Southeast Washington	358	358	100	CND
AK	State	2	Morcom	Boundary Fire, Fairbanks Area	503,362	503,362	35	UNK
ID	USFS	2	Saleen	Corn Fire, Salmon-Challis NF	-----	178	10	8/6
UT	USFS	2	Suwyn	Red Bull Fire, Unita NF	1,781	1,828	100	CND
OR	BIA	2	West	Log Springs Fire, Warm Springs Agency	13,539	13,539	90	8/4
WA	USFS	FU	Bonefeld	Rattlesnake Peak Fire, Okanogan-Wenatchee NF	500	560	N/A	N/A
CA	NPS	FU	Cook	Meadow Complex, Yosemite NP	5,176	5,176	N/A	N/A
MN	NPS	FU	Hall	Section 33 Fire, Voyageurs NP	1,400	1,400	N/A	N/A

* The Westside Complex — a wildland fire use fire — has been taken over by Martin's team.

# Washington State IMT

National Resource Commitments

Day	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun	Mon	Tue	Wed
Date	7/29	7/30	7/31	8/1	8/2	8/3	8/4
Crews	267	236	214	209	227	229	258
Engines	396	377	339	471	453	477	499
Helicopters	102	93	108	92	113	102	108
Air Tankers	1	0	0	1	1	0	2
Overhead	979	1,856	1,646	1,458	1,608	1,848	2,379

Further Information

This report is meant to present just highlights of the current fire situation. Two other NIFC sites provide much greater detail:

Full NIFC Situation Report (PDF file) — http://www.nifc.gov/news/sitreprt.pdf
National Fire News — http://www.nifc.gov/fireinfo/nfn.html

Information on NPS Fire and Aviation Management (FAM) and on park fires can be found at:

FAM — http://www.nps.gov/fire
Park fires — http://www.nps.gov/fire/news

OPERATIONAL NOTES

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Fire and Aviation Management
Fire Program Analysis Courses Announced

With the planned release of the Fire Program Analysis (FPA) software coming up October 1, a few courses have been scheduled to date. Additional courses are being planned. Formal course announcements and the nomination processes will be forthcoming in the next week or so, but since some dates are coming up quickly - I thought I'd get a heads-up out to folks now to plan around.

There are two fundamental courses that will be needed for folks at the field level managing the analysis to complete. These are:

• Performing Historic Analysis -
  
  This course will provide training and hands on experience with the new version of PCHA (Personal Computer Historic Analysis) software. This software will be used to develop the 'fire scenario' that will be fed into the FPA system. Scheduled Dates:
  • September 13-17 at McClellan Training Center - Sacramento, CA
  • September 20-24 at NCTC - Sheperdstown, WV
  • October 4-8 at NAFRI - Tucson, AZ
• Fire Program Analysis - Preparedness Module -
  

  This course will take up where the 'Performing Historic Analysis' course leaves off, and will provide training and hands-on experience needed to generate the remaining inputs for FPA-PM and run the analysis at the field level.
  Scheduled Date:
  

  • October 25-29 at McClellan Training Center - Sacramento, CA
  • (more dates/locations in planning)

For folks that will be using the system at the higher levels, e.g. oversight and budget formulation and allocation (many NIFC and other folks) there will be a separate 8-12 hour course that will be offered in January. For many regional and national level budget folks, this will be the only FPA related course that they will need to take.

For line officers and others that will need to understand the FPA system and program implications, but that will rarely interact with the system, a 2 hour briefing presentation is being developed. That also will be available for wide distribution and presentation by January.
[Submitted by Jeff Manley, jeff_manley@nps.gov, 208-947-3778] More Information...

Interpretation/Education Division
FY03 Cooperating Association Annual Report

The National Park Service Cooperating Association 2003 Annual Report of Aid and Revenue is now available. The report uses photographs, narrative and financial analysis to give the most complete picture of the successful long-standing relationship between the NPS and these partners in interpretation. Aside from the $26.1 million dollars given to the NPS as aid in 2003 for interpretation, education, and historical and scientific research, each narrative helps to tell the story of the non-financially quantifiable assistance given to NPS. It is the combination of the financial and non-financial assistance that relates the full value of our partnership with cooperating associations.

The full-color 57-page report is available for download by clicking on the Cooperating Association Annual Report link that appears in the In Depth column on the Cooperating Association page. An abridged version of the report is being printed and will be available in the near future. For questions or comments, please contact Rose Fennell, Servicewide Cooperating Association Coordinator at rose_fennell@nps.gov or at 202-513-7143.[Submitted by Rose Fennell, rose_fennell@nps.gov, 202-513-7143]

Submission standards for the Morning Report can be found on the left side of the front page of InsideNPS. All reports should be submitted via email to Bill Halainen at Delaware Water Gap NRA, with a copy to your regional office and a copy to Dennis Burnett in Division of Law Enforcement and Emergency Services, WASO.

Prepared by the Division of Law Enforcement and Emergency Services, WASO, with the cooperation and support of Delaware Water Gap NRA.