INCIDENTS

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Eastern Areas
Update on Hurricane Recovery Operations

Here's today's roundup of post-hurricane reports:

Gulf Islands NS — Rick Brown's Eastern incident management team is on-site and assisting park staff in recovery operations. Yesterday's priorities included locating twelve still unaccounted for employees and providing for the immediate needs of all park employees impacted by the storm, continuing the park-wide damage assessment, and setting up an incident command post in the park maintenance area. Preliminary assessment is that 85% of park resources have been severely impacted by the storm. The park headquarters/visitor center was inundated by the storm surge, with up to a foot of water inside the building. The general area around the headquarter complex is an extensive debris field that includes hazardous materials, house furnishings, hot tubs, building materials, boats, and personal effects. Tree damage is extensive and five government vehicles were destroyed. The above photos of the Fort Pickens area show the extent of damage to maintenance offices, bookstore, and curatorial storage areas.  One wing of the building was separated from its foundation and relocated.

Canaveral NS — The park's turtle population was ravaged by Hurricane Frances. Three species of sea turtles regularly nest on the park's 24 miles of beach — loggerhead, leatherback and green. The nesting season generally extends from late April to early September, overlapping Florida's June through November hurricane season. This makes nests laid later in the season susceptible to storm surges associated with tropical storms and hurricanes. On August 13th, Hurricane Charley passed northwest of the seashore, damaging buildings and trees. However, since the storm made landfall on Florida's west coast, there was no storm surge and negligible damage was done to the beach. Three weeks later, on September 5th, a different scenario occurred. Hurricane Frances made landfall southeast of the park, bringing a storm surge which removed three to four feet of sand from the park's beach and washed away approximately 1,150 sea turtle nests, 46% of the total nests in the park. During most years, the majority of turtle young would have hatched by this time. This year, though, unusually cold ocean temperatures delayed nesting and 1,400 nests still remained on the beach. Only 230 nests were found after the hurricane had passed. Several other observations are noteworthy: The 2,500 nests established in 2004 was the lowest total recorded since 1988, far below the 1989 to 2003 average of 3,800 nests a year. In addition, an expected biennial peak in nesting green turtles did not occur. A few sea turtles remain undeterred.  Since the storm, 35 new nests, all greens but one, have been deposited on the park's beach. Pelagic birds suffered from the hurricane as well.  While looking for sea turtle nests, park staff counted the carcasses of 348 Cory's shearwaters along the 24 miles of beach.

Chattahoochee River NRA — The park sustained major storm damage from Hurricane Ivan, including 200 downed trees, five miles of washed out roads, raw sewage spills in two units, loss of 500 linear feet of split rail fencing, and flooding of several park buildings. The headquarters area was without power for 27 hours and it took 88 hours to restore phones and computer links. Park staff and volunteers worked throughout the weekend to open up many of the units. A SET team comprised of personnel from the Forest Service and Martin Luther King, Jr. NHS arrived on Sunday to help clear debris and silt. As of yesterday, half of the downed trees had been cleared from entrance roads and trails. The Paces, Vickery and Whitewater Units remain closed due to the raw sewage spills and a collapsed road. Facility manager Richard Lutz is IC for the incident.

Blue Ridge Parkway — Tropical Storm Ivan came sooner and left more quickly than expected, but its sustained winds of 30 to 40 mph and gusts of more than 60 mph, coupled with saturated ground, knocked down hundreds of tree and have forced the closure of sections of the Blue Ridge Parkway. As with Frances, this storm hit the western North Carolina parkway sections harder than those in Virginia.  Many areas received upwards of 5 inches of rain, and the strong winds caused an estimated 600 to 800 trees to fall on the motor road in the Pisgah District between Linville Falls and Cherokee. Maintenance crews have cleared fallen trees from several sections of the parkway and the 469-mile scenic road is now open from mile 0 to mile 305 at Grandfather Mountain, from mile 308 just south of US 221 at the Linville community to mile 317 at Linville Falls, and from mile 325 just south north of Spruce Pine to 334 at Little Switzerland.  With the exception of mile 382 to 384 between US 70 and US 74A at Asheville, the road is also open from 375 to mile 412 (US 276), and from 455 at US 19 near Maggie Valley to mile 469 at Cherokee.  Additional sections between Asheville and Mt. Mitchell State Park are expected to open later this week.  The Price Park campground and picnic area remain closed but may reopen later this week.  Most visitor centers and concession-operated lodges and restaurants are open.  Exceptions are the Museum of North Carolina Minerals, which has no electric service, and Crabtree Meadows, which received minor storm damage and is within a currently gated section of the parkway. Park headquarters has no electric or phone service and remains closed.  Preliminary estimates indicate that it will cost $2 million to repair damage to the Blue Ridge Parkway by Ivan — far less than the $12 million inflicted by the remnants of  Hurricane Frances just over a week ago. Clean-up and repairs from Ivan are largely from fallen trees and most are likely to be made in the coming weeks and months. The major slides that occurred during and shortly after Frances' tremendous rainfall included loss of road sections on steep slopes at high-elevation.  These will require drilling and contracts for work that could take up to a year.   Media interest in storm damage has been high and members of the region's travel and tourism community have voiced concerns that storm damage and lengthy closures will deter visitation. Compounding those concerns, a section of I-40 west of Waynesville, North Carolina, has been severely damaged by river erosion and NC DOT officials say they do not know how long those repair will take.  

Delaware Water Gap NRA — Road and river closures stemming from Friday night's rains continued yesterday. As of 10:30 a.m. Monday morning, the Delaware River, as measured at the Montague river gauge, had fallen to 16.2 feet, down from its Saturday night crest of 28.4 feet. The river normally runs at 5 to 6 feet at this gauge and flood stage is 25 feet. The river flow at Montague was about 52,000 cubic feet per second (cfs) on Monday, considerably above its normal mean of just over 8,000 cfs but well below the peak flow on Saturday of nearly 170,000 cfs. Only two previous floods on the Delaware River — one in 1903 and the other in 1955 — have exceeded these peaks. National Weather Service forecasters are predicting a continuing steady decline in river height over the next several days. Because the river is still running high and fast and is filled with debris, the park is continuing its closure of the river corridor to all use from Milford to Delaware Water Gap. The river will remain closed until further notice. Road closures continue in the park as crews remove trees and debris and assess damage to road surfaces, shoulders and bridges. The section of Route 209 from its junction at Route 206 near Milford to its junction with Route 739 has been reopened, but the section from Route 739 south to the intersection with Bushkill Falls Road in Bushkill remains closed and will not be reopened until Federal Highway Administration engineers examine the bridges at Dingmans Creek and Toms Creek to determine their structural integrity. Fast moving stream waters eroded the earth behind the abutments and wing walls under these bridges. All feeder roads between SR 2001 and Route 209 from Route 739 to Bushkill are also closed. River Road remains closed from just north of the town of Shawnee to park headquarters. Old Mine Road in New Jersey is closed from Millbrook Village south to Interstate 80 and will remain closed indefinitely due to undercutting at its south end. The Kittatinny Point Visitor Center remains flooded and inaccessible. Most public use areas and many other smaller roads in the park also remain closed.

Upper Delaware NS&RR — Protection, resource management and maintenance staff were involved in a variety of SAR, EMS and other responses over the period from Saturday through Monday. Preparations began on Friday with the removal of all items at risk to high water, as the National Weather Service had predicted a crest of 13 feet (four feet below flood stage at Barryville). Canoe liveries and bridge construction companies were warned to expect exceptionally high water. At 6 a.m. on Saturday, rangers were asked to help evacuate 23 people from a campground and housing development within the floodway. By this time, the Weather Service had revised its prediction and was forecasting a crest of from 26 to 28 feet by midnight. At the time of the evacuation, the river was up to between 16 and 18 feet. Rangers rescued one man from the housing development who was attempting to recover his dogs by riding his lawn mower across an access road covered by more than 18 inches of fast-moving water. Park staff also assisted in the evacuation of residents from flood-prone areas in Narrowsburg. By the time the river crested, it had reached 24.09 feet on the Barryville gauge and was flowing at 112,200 cfs. This is the second highest level in the 64 years since observers began keeping records and was eclipsed only by the 1955 flood (26.4 feet and 130,000 cfs). The level associated with Ivan was eight times the height, 98 times the cfs and approximately 10 to 12 times the speed of the normal summertime river flow. Damage to park equipment and facilities was minimal. One storage garage was flooded to a depth of 18 inches, other buildings to two or three inches.

Reports from Peter Givens, IO, Incident Management Team, GUIS; Nancy Poe, CHAT; John Stiner, CANA; Phil Noblitt, PIO, BLRI; Bill Halainen, IO, Incident Management Team, DEWA; Al Henry, Chief Ranger, UPDE.

FIRE MANAGEMENT

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NIFC/NPS Fire and Aviation Management
National Fire Situation Highlights — Tuesday, September 21, 2004

Preparedness Level 2

Initial attack was light yesterday, with 144 new fires nationally. One new large fire was reported; four others were contained.

Very high to extreme fire indices were reported yesterday in Arizona, California, Idaho, Nebraska and Nevada.

Weather Forecast

Surface high pressure building into the Great Basin will lead to moderate offshore winds today across southern California. The winds are expected to usher in very low humidity as well. The offshore winds will likely persist into Wednesday morning. Elsewhere, upper level low pressure will move out of the eastern Great Basin today leading to a slow warming and drying trend across most of the intermountain West.

Warnings and Watches

A RED FLAG WARNING has been posted today for strong northeast winds and low humidity over the mountains and below the canyons and passes of southern California.

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

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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	9/17	9/21	% Con	Est Con
FL	FEMA	ACT	Ribar	Hurricanes Frances/Ivan, Orlando	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
GA	FEMA	ACT	Williams-Rhodes	Hurricane Ivan, Atlanta	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
FL	FEMA	T1	Anderson	Hurricane Ivan, Milton	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
FL	FEMA	T1	Bennett	Hurricane Ivan, Pensacola	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
FL	FEMA	T1	Ferguson	Hurricane Ivan, Eglin AFB	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
AL	FEMA	T1	Lohrey	Hurricane Ivan, Baldwin County	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
AL	FEMA	T1	Sexton	Hurricanes Frances/Ivan, Maxwell AFB	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
FL	FEMA	T1	Vail	Hurricanes Frances/Ivan, Orlando	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
AL	FEMA	T1	Wilcock	Hurricane Ivan, Escambia County	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
FL	FEMA	T2 @	Houseman	Hurricane Ivan, NAS Jacksonville	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
FL	FEMA	T2 #	Koehler	Hurricane Ivan, Lakeland	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A

@ North Carolina state team

# Florida state team

National Resource Commitments

Day	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun	Mon	Tue
Date	9/15	9/16	9/17	9/18	9/19	9/20	9/21
Crews	88	33	52	48	37	11	7
Engines	116	69	70	69	58	40	19
Helicopters	18	10	13	17	8	6	7
Air Tankers	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Overhead	358	331	942	290	609	76	94

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

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Fire and Aviation Management
National Burned Area Rehabilitation Coordinator

Dates: 09/15/2004 - 10/13/2004
The incumbent serves as a National Burned Area Rehabilitation (NBAR) Coordinator for the National Park Service (NPS).  The incumbent provides national policy development and oversight for the NPS Burned Area Emergency Stabilization and Rehabilitation programs.  Develops and provides program guidance.  Provides policy interpretation for RBAR Coordinators.  Reviews and approves emergency stabilization plans, ensuring that approved plans comply with NPS Policy.  Develops and maintains a cost-tracking record in coordination with RBAR Coordinators for all Burned Area Emergency Response (BAER) projects, ensuring that funds are properly transferred and accounts activated.  Assists the Fire Management Program Center (FMPC) Fire Program Planning Manager in determining national program funding needs for each budget formulation cycle.  Works with the Department of the Interior BAR program manager and with counterparts in other bureaus.  Works with national, regional, and park natural and cultural resource managers, facility managers, interpreters, and communications personnel. See full announcement for KSAs.[Submitted by Sue Vap, sue_vap@nps.gov, 208-387-5225] More Information...

Training and Employee Development
Human Resources Specialist

Dates: 09/17/2004 - 10/07/2004
An exciting opportunity is currently being advertised on USAJobs to serve as Manager for the NPS Entry and Mid-Level Intake Programs.  The following is a list of major duties associated with the vacancy announcement for the Manager of the NPS Entry and Mid-Level Intake Programs (Announcement# NPS WASO-04-053). 

This position is located at the Capital Training Center, Washington, DC. The position serves as the manager of the Entry and Mid-Level Intake Programs. The Intake Programs provide entry and mid-level employment opportunities for a broad range of job series in the National Park Service. The types of positions selected for the programs are based on the succession planning needs of the Service. Participants are selected using program objectives and the merit selection process. Once selected, employees participate in a two-year multi-faceted, extensive developmental curriculum. Successful program graduates are prepared to become future leaders in the National Park Service.

The incumbent is responsible for funds development and expenditures forecasted in excess of $2 million annually. Manages national employment and career development programs for the National Park Service. Collaborates with members of the training community, park managers, occupational specialists, as well as individuals and organizations from outside of the Service in order to facilitate learning experiences for the Intakes. Establishes and coordinates the activities of a Servicewide Intake Advisory Board and other ad hoc groups in support of program objectives. Writes budget requests, prepares financial plans, procures supplies, equipment and services, and monitors expenses for a staff of three and the participants of each program located throughout the National Park System. Writes or oversees the preparation of program policies, guidelines, and procedures with relevancy to all levels of the NPS and in an environment of rapid organizational change and relatively rare precedents. Monitors the implementation of a recruitment strategy in support of both Intake objectives and NPS goals with broad outreach efforts to underrepresented groups through existing and innovative marketing strategies, development of new media devices, and field trips to targeted employment sites. Collects and analyzes NPS-specific information on demographic, employee development, and performance management needs from the National Leadership Council, central offices, program centers, park cluster teams, and parks. Identifies specific development needs of trainees for up to sixteen different career fields.

Occupations represented in the program will change over time as the succession planning needs of the NPS fluctuates. Serves as the key liaison among central and field offices on Intake issues thereby facilitating maximum efficiency in use of training resources. Develops handbooks, guides, job aids, and learning tools in various facets of career development in the National Park Service. Prepares the Intake Servicewide curriculum, incorporating all appropriate needs assessment elements.

Permanent Change of Station (PCS) costs may be covered.  Applications will be accepted from all sources.

NOTE:  This is a re-advertisement. Candidates who applied under previous announcement MUST re-apply to receive consideration.[Submitted by Clarenda Drake, Superintendent, Clarenda_Drake@nps.gov, 202-354-1400] 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.