Southeast Region
Parks Prepare For Hurricane Ivan
Today's report on preparations for Ivan is based primarily on reports received late last week. It will be updated early on Tuesday. Also included are some follow-up notes on cleanup from Frances:
Biscayne NP — A mandatory evacuation for all residents of the Keys was ordered at 7 a.m. on Friday morning. Those employees living on the Keys were accordingly released from duty. The park's island residences were also evacuated on Friday morning. About a quarter of the park staff has opted to leave the state.
Big Cypress NP — The park closed on Friday morning. Backcountry and hunting access were permitted until midnight on Saturday.
Everglades NP/Dry Tortugas NP — Dry Tortugas closed on Friday, and ferry boat and seaplane service were suspended. Fourteen employees will ride out the storm in Fort Jefferson. The M/V Fort Jefferson will move to safe harbor with the Coast Guard's Key West fleet. Everglades (including concessions) closed on Saturday. The park left most of its storm preparations in place from Hurricane Frances, thereby significantly reducing the time normally needed to prepare and shutdown the park.
Canaveral NS — All hurricane plan preparations were completed on Friday and the park has closed. Merritt Island NWR and the NASA complex have also closed.
Castillo de San Marcos NM/Fort Matanzas NM — Castillo de San Marcos reopened on Thursday, but Fort Matanzas remained closed due to lack of power. Preparations for Ivan were begun on Friday.
Desoto NM — The hurricane team began moving artifacts to high ground on Saturday. If the course of Ivan indicated a possible hit on the west coast of Florida, plans were to fully implement the hurricane plan and shutdown on Sunday.
Timucuan E&HP/Fort Caroline NM — All public use areas remain closed to visitation. Power is still out at both Kingsley and Fort Caroline, but has been restored to Fort George Island. The sites will remain closed until at least tomorrow. Employees will be in today to either complete work and reopen the park or to prepare for Ivan.
Reports from Ken Garvin, FMO, SERO; Linda Canzanelli, Superintendent,
BISC; Timothy Morgan, Chief Ranger, CANA; Charlie Fenwick,
Superintendent, DESO; Robert Degross, BICY; Rick Cook, EVER; Bob Panko,
IC, EVER; Gordie Wilson, CASA/FOMA; Brian Loadholtz, TIMU/FOCA.
Wrangell - St Elias National Park & Preserve (AK)
Four Overdue Kayakers Rescued from Park
On August 18th, Alaska State Troopers (AST) notified the park that
four kayakers were overdue from a trip on the Nizina and Chitina Rivers.
The search was managed under a dual command with AST. Chitina area
ranger/pilot Rich Richotte was the NPS IC. Richotte and maintenance
chief/pilot Will Tipton were on a flight in the area in the park's C-185
and conducted the initial investigation. They found the overdue party's
vehicle at the Chitina airport. Ranger/pilot Tom Betts was on a separate
flight in the area in the park's Aviat Husky. Betts then flew the search
with the Husky while Richotte and Tipton returned to manage the
incident. Betts spotted N.M. and G.C. waving yellow dry
bags on the bank of the Nizina River. Finding only two people at the
scene when there should have been four, Betts landed to determine what
had happened to the others. He learned that Oleg Abramov and Stanislav
Levitsky had begun hiking to McCarthy that morning. The landing area was
improved to make it long enough to get out with passengers on board.
Betts flew N.M. to McCarthy; while returning to get G.C., Betts
made several passes along the high banks of the river and eventually
spotted Abramov and Levitsky. An AST helicopter landed in a nearby
meadow and picked them up. Kennecott district ranger Marshall Neeck
conducted medical assessments on all four and found them to be in good
health. Interviews with the men revealed what had happened. The four had
been flown to the head of the Nizina River on August 10th. They hiked in
the area for two days, then began floating the rivers in inflatable,
two-person kayaks. One of the boats swamped within the first couple of
miles and they lost their dry bags, which contained a SAT phone, GPS,
and most of their food. They'd been afoot for five days, hiked
approximately 12 to 15 miles, and were "eating berries" at the time of
their rescue. All four had been well advised of river conditions
and area hazards by the air-taxi operator who flew them
in.
[Submitted by Tom Betts, Acting Chief Ranger]
Mount Rushmore National Memorial (SD)
Sturgis Motorcycle Rally
The annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally was held from August 9th through
the 15th this year. Heavy motorcycle traffic affected Mount Rushmore and
other area national park units, particularly Badlands and Devils Tower
(click on "More Information" below for a previously report on the rally
from the latter area). Motorcycle traffic was heavy for several days in
advance of the official start of the rally this year — another
manifestation of the recent trend of more bikers arriving in the area
before the rally gets underway. The result was that the park had to
contend with ten days of heavy motorcycle traffic and attendant
incidents. Rally officials have estimated that more than 500,000 people
attended this year's event. During the rally period, approximately
115,198 people on 79,447 motorcycles entered the park. This number is in
addition to visitors who entered in other vehicles. Rangers responded to
a dozen motorcycle accidents within the park or adjacent areas. There
were five illegal drug cases and one DUI. Rangers observed over 100
members of approximately fifteen different outlaw motorcycle gangs
wearing colors in the park. Motorcycle traffic at Mount Rushmore
was just over two percent greater than last year, making it the busiest
rally period in history, but the number of law enforcement related
incidents was down. The official dates for next year's rally are
August 8 — 14,
2005.
[Submitted by Mike Pflaum, Chief Ranger] More Information...
Yellowstone National Park (ID,MT,WY)
Two Fatal Accidents
On the afternoon of Saturday, August 28th, M.R., 45, who
had recently moved to Cody, Wyoming, from New Jersey, was killed in a
rollover accident at Lower Baronette Meadows, which is a few miles from
the park's northeast entrance station. M.R. was eastbound in a 2003
Dodge pick-up truck when the vehicle's wheels dropped of the edge of the
road. He apparently overcorrected, causing the vehicle to roll
violently. M.R. either wasn't wearing his seat belt or his seat belt
malfunctioned and he was thrown from the truck. He had died by the time
rangers arrived on-scene. Two weeks to the day later — on September
11th — a California man was killed in another single-vehicle
rollover accident. The man (whose name has not yet been released) was
westbound on the East Entrance Road near Mary Bay when his Chevy SUV
went off the road. As with the M.R. accident, it appears that he
overcorrected, causing the SUV to roll. He was thrown from the vehicle
and had died by the time rangers got there. These were the third and
fourth fatal MVA's in the park this year.
[Submitted by Public
Affairs]
FIRE MANAGEMENT
NIFC/NPS Fire and Aviation Management
National Fire Situation Highlights — Monday, September 13, 2004
Preparedness Level 2
Initial attack was moderate in southern California on Sunday. Ninety-eight new fires were reported, four of which became large fires — all in southern California.
The area command team and several Type 1 teams committed to the Hurricane Frances recovery effort have been repositioned in order to be prepared for Hurricane Ivan.
Very high to extreme fire indices were reported yesterday in Alaska, Arizona, California, Nebraska, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming.
Weather Forecast
A front will continue to march across the northwest quadrant of the country today, bringing showers and much cooler temperatures from Washington eastward through Montana. Winds will increase today south of the front in northern California and over the northern portions of the Great Basin. Hurricane Ivan is expected to move across Cuba as a very dangerous category four or five storm. Ivan is expected to emerge into the Gulf of Mexico Monday afternoon, eventually making its way towards the western coast of Florida.
Warnings and Watches
No warnings or watches have been issued for today.
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 |
9/10 |
9/13 |
% Con |
Est Con |
|
FL |
FEMA |
ACT |
Mann |
Hurricanes Frances/Ivan, Tallahassee |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
|
FL |
FEMA |
T1 |
Kearney |
Hurricanes Frances/Ivan, NAS Jacksonville |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
|
FL |
FEMA |
T1 |
McCombs |
Hurricanes Frances/Ivan, Atlanta, GA |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
|
FL |
FEMA |
T1 |
Oltrogge |
Hurricanes Frances/Ivan, Marietta, GA |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
|
FL |
FEMA |
T1 |
Studebaker |
Hurricanes Frances/Ivan, Marietta, GA |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
|
FL |
FEMA |
T1 |
Vail |
Hurricanes Frances/Ivan, Orlando |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
|
FL |
FEMA |
T1 |
Whitney |
Hurricanes Frances/Ivan, Marietta, GA |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
|
CA |
USFS |
T1 |
Gelobter |
Tuolumne Fire, Stanislaus NF |
------ |
600 |
20 |
UNK |
|
CA |
State |
T1 |
Henson * |
Old Highway Fire, Merced-Mariposa Unit |
------ |
1,700 |
10 |
UNK |
|
AZ |
NPS |
FUM |
Bird |
Marble-Jim Complex, Grand Canyon NP |
------ |
1,370 |
N/A |
N/A |
|
CA |
NPS |
FUM |
Weldon |
Bluff Fire, Lassen Volcanic NP |
3,148 |
3,304 |
N/A |
|
* State team
National Resource Commitments
| Day |
Tue |
Wed |
Thu |
Fri |
Sat |
Sun |
Mon |
|
Date |
9/7 |
9/8 |
9/9 |
9/10 |
9/11 |
9/12 |
9/13 |
|
|
|||||||
|
Crews |
139 |
152 |
144 |
110 |
47 |
22 |
87 |
|
Engines |
287 |
335 |
350 |
217 |
65 |
48 |
202 |
|
Helicopters |
47 |
49 |
51 |
36 |
26 |
14 |
28 |
|
Air Tankers |
1 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
Overhead |
866 |
851 |
733 |
1,234 |
922 |
213 |
352 |
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
Training and Employee Development
Jeri Hall Named Natural Resources Training Manager
Costa Dillon, superintendent Horace Albright Training Center, has announced the selection of Jeri Hall as the Servicewide training manager for natural resources at the Horace Albright Training Center. Jeri will also serve as the team lead for natural, cultural, and resource and visitor protection training. She expects to move her family to the Grand Canyon by September 20th.
Jeri Hall has worked for the National Park Service for over 25 years. Jeri comes to the position from Yosemite National Park, where she has been stationed for the last 13 years and was the deputy chief ranger for resource protection and wilderness management for the last four years. Jeri's recent assignments at Yosemite include a tour as chief of natural resources, a long-term acting detail as chief of resources management, and resource protection specialist/ management assistant to the chief ranger. Jeri served as the acting Pacific West Region employee development manager from October 2002 through February 2003.
Jeri's career spans multidisciplined assignments throughout the service as an interpreter, park ranger, natural resource specialist, geographic information systems specialist, management assistant, and regional resource management specialist. These assignments have been in parks, regional offices, and the Washington office. Jeri has a bachelor's degree from the University of Maryland, focused in resources management and environmental law. Jeri is a graduate of the third NPS Natural Resource Management Trainee Program and was the first recipient of the "Director's Award for Natural Resources Management" in 1989.
Craig Struble, the other half of this dual career couple, will relocate to the Grand Canyon later in the year. Craig is currently the heritage structures preservation program manager at Yosemite. Jeri and their kids, Molly age 9 and Bryan age 13, will move to the Grand Canyon in September.
[Submitted by Costa Dillon, Constantine_Dillon@nps.gov, 928-638-7989] More Information...
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.