INCIDENTS

---

Richmond National Battlefield Park (VA)
Floods From Gaston Sweep Through City and Park

On the afternoon and evening of Monday, August 30th, nearly a foot of rain fell on the city of Richmond and surrounding area, causing massive flooding throughout the area. Parts of the park are in the city itself, other units are well out to the north and east, as is shown on the park map found at http://www.nps.gov/rich/ ri_auto2.htm. As of yesterday afternoon, here's how they stood:

• Chimborazo Medical Museum/Headquarters — Power is out and the basement is flooded.
• Gaines Mill — The unit is closed due to the washout of 90 feet of Watt House Road, which leads to the site, and will be closed until further notice. A ranger living on the other side of the washout has been isolated by the washout.
• Beaver Dam Creek — A major portion of the creek bank under the pedestrian bridge was washed out.
• Cold Harbor VC — The visitor center was closed by has reopened.
• Tredegar VC — The visitor center has reopened.
• Malvern Hill — The battlefield has reopened.

Maggie Walker NHS, administered by Richmond NBP, is also without power and suffering from roof leaks.

Although all employees are accounted for and okay, education specialist Pat Ferrell had a harrowing experience. She was headed home from Tredegar VC when waters began to rise in that area of the city, which is low and near the James River. Police directed her up Main Street, but the water soon rose around her car. As she was explaining the situation to her husband on her cell phone, water began entering the car. She opened the car door just wide enough to get out and climbed onto a nearby train trestle. People on the balcony of an Amtrak station across the street saw her there and motioned for her to climb higher. When she did so, she saw that water was everywhere and was not receding. She clung to the trestle for over three hours, expecting that either the flood water would dissipate or that someone would rescue her. Neither occurred, and no one was to be seen (the people in the Amtrak station had been rescued). By this time it was 9 p.m. Ferrell could see that the water had gone down, so she jumped in, uniform and all, and swam across Main Street, bumping into cars that were underwater beneath her as she did so. She reached the Amtrak station and climbed to the second floor. Although nobody was there, she was able to use a pay phone to reach her husband and to dry off with some paper towels from a bathroom. Around 1 a.m., she saw fire trucks and cars nearby and waded through the water to them. When she emerged, nobody said anything to her, and it was only later that she realized it was because she was in uniform and people thought she was part of the emergency response. In any case, she got home okay and reports that she now has some good stories to teach in her first aid and CPR classes.
[Submitted by Cindy MacLeod, Superintendent]

Biscayne National Park (FL)
Preparations Underway for Hurricane Frances

The park has begun pulling boats and trailering them to Everglades and shuttering island residences. These operations are being begun today because they take the longest time to complete safely. A decision will be made this morning on when to begin hurricane preparations throughout the rest of the park. An all employee meeting will be held at 1:30 p.m. this afternoon. Hurricane Frances has many of the characteristics of Hurricane Andrew, which has raised concerns among park staff about the scope and intensity of its impacts if it hits the area.
[Submitted by Linda Canzanelli, Superintendent]

FIRE MANAGEMENT

---

NIFC/NPS Fire and Aviation Management
National Fire Situation Highlights — Wednesday, September 1, 2004

Preparedness Level 2

Initial attack was light on Tuesday. A total of 115 new fires were reported, three of which became large fires.

Very high to extreme fire indices were reported yesterday in Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming.

Weather Forecast

High pressure will break down today across the northwest and western sections of the Northern Rockies as a front moves across the region. The front will cause showers and thunderstorms in Washington, northern Idaho and western Montana. Winds will increase south of the front across northern California, the Great Basin and ahead of the front in eastern sections of the Northern Rockies. There will also be the possibility of some dry lightning across lower elevations. In Alaska, a frontal system will move into the center part of the state providing the focus for some rain showers today. Hurricane Frances is expected to remain off the coast until late this weekend.

Warnings and Watches

RED FLAG WARNINGS have been posted for winds, high temperatures, low relative humidity and dry fuels for northeast Wyoming and western South Dakota, and for strong gusty winds and low humidity for parts of northern and central Nevada.

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/Incident and Location	8/31	9/1	% Con	Est Con
AK	State	2	Blume	Camp Creek Fire, Delta Area	173,940	174,000	40	9/30
AK	State	2	Kurth	Taylor Highway Complex, Tok Area Forestry	1,288,985	1,304,963	NR	UNK
UT	BLM	2	Saleen	Big Canyon Fire, Moab Field Office	-----	3,500	5	UNK

* State incident management team

National Resource Commitments

Day	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun	Mon	Tue	Wed
Date	8/26	8/27	8/28	8/29	8/30	8/31	9/1
Crews	146	134	127	57	87	70	69
Engines	174	200	155	126	108	132	138
Helicopters	57	45	45	31	45	47	41
Air Tankers	6	0	0	0	0	0	1
Overhead	1,338	1,335	1,055	747	829	661	535

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

PARKS AND PEOPLE

---

Alaska Region
GS-0303-5/6/7 Admin Tech

Destination of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, and famous for it's beaches of gold and the abundant wealth that can be found in the surrounding mountains! Nome is located 102 miles south of the Arctic Circle and 539 air miles from Anchorage. Alaska Airlines provides daily jet service; air time is about 75 minutes. The hills surrounding Nome are home to bears, musk oxen, moose, caribou, migratory waterfowl from around the world and salmon that spawn in the streams. Summer temperatures average in the mid-60's during the day and mid-40's at night. If Nome sounds like the place for you, Western Arctic National Parklands has a job for you there! We are currently advertising for a full-time permanent Administrative Services Technician, GS-0303-05/06/07 for our Nome office on USA Jobs; www.usajobs.opm.gov. (This position is also being advertised through local hire authority with the local job services in Nome and Kotzebue.) This is a re-advertisement and applicants that applied to the first announcement are encouraged to reapply. The incumbent will be responsible for providing administrative and support services including budget reconciliation, compilation, consolidation and tracking; finance; procurement; property and information management and human resources. Salary range, including COLA, is $39,127 to $48,458 annually. Relocation costs are authorized for this position. Government housing is available. The closing date for this announcement is September 27. If you're interested in this opportunity, please call Brad Bennett at 907-443-6101 or Jan Maslen at 907-442-8315 for more information! (Source: Jan Maslen, Chief of Administration, Western Arctic National Parklands)
[Submitted by Jan Maslen, jan_maslen@nps.gov, 907-443-2522]

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.