NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
MORNING REPORT
BLACKBERRY EDITION
Wednesday, September 28, 2005
INCIDENTS
Gulf Coast Areas
Update on Recovery from Hurricane Rita
Big Thicket NP
The Central IMT (Eddie Lopez, IC) is charged with assisting the parks and employees affected by Hurricane Rita, primarily Big Thicket NP, and with supporting emergency response in communities around the park.
Helping people through adversity continues to be the team's primary goal. As was noted yesterday, the team has been asked to provide assistance to the 520 residents of the nearby Alabama-Coushatta Indian Reservation and to emergency responders in the communities surrounding the park.
On Monday morning, the team was able to bring the first truckload of food into the reservation, which is adjacent to the Big Sandy Unit of Big Thicket NP. Late Monday evening, a catering truck was onsite providing the first hot meals most of the 520 residents in the village had eaten since Hurricane Rita struck last Saturday. The same caterer will also begin serving hot meals to National Park Service emergency workers, park employees and families at Village Mills by sometime Wednesday.
As the only federal emergency response in the area until today's arrival of a FEMA team in the nearby town of Kountze, community members have been stopping by the park visitor center seeking emergency assistance. Their immediate needs for food, water, medical treatment and gasoline are being met in order to enable them to leave the storm-ravaged area. The entire region remains without power and has very little phone service. A caravan with a large tanker of gasoline and diesel accompanied by 20 electric generators left Johnson City for Big Thicket yesterday morning.
Several families are now being put up in motels outside the area. Emergency stabilization efforts are underway for homes of eight Big Thicket employees. Twenty electric generators are set to arrive late today to provide emergency power to those choosing to stay in their own homes. Ten RV's are also expected by week's end to provide temporary housing.
Incident commander Eddie Lopez flew by helicopter into the area on Tuesday to meet with deputy incident commander Mike Pflaum and the other team members on the ground to map out the next phase of the emergency stabilization effort. The ICP was being relocated from Lyndon B. Johnson NHP in Johnson City to a motel in Huntsville in order to be nearer the site of the emergency work. The new ICP will be fully functional this morning.
A total of 54 people, including some Big Thicket National Preserve employees, are dedicated to the emergency recovery effort in Southeast Texas.
Cane River Creole NHP
The park reopened to the public on Tuesday morning following the installation of a number of temporary barriers to protect visitors and employees from dangerous situations (hanging limbs, collapsed cisterns, etc.). The park is back to normal operations. The assistance from the IC team in addressing the damage from Hurricane Rita is helping tremendously.
[Al Nash, IO, Central IMT; Ken Garvin, Regional FMO, SERO; Laura Gates, CARI]
Gulf Coast Areas
Update on Recovery from Hurricane Katrina
The following reports were submitted on Tuesday's activities.
Jean Lafitte NHP&P/New Orleans Jazz NHP
The National IMT (JD Swed, IC) is charged with both assisting the employees of the two parks and with overseeing the overall NPS response to the hurricane.
All incident activities resumed in full yesterday at the team's Thibodaux ICP and in the field. The team has also been tasked with managing recovery efforts for two units impacted by Hurricane Rita - Cane River Creole National Historical Park and Vicksburg National Military Park. Vicksburg is currently managing its own recovery operation with its own staff, but may require assistance at a later time. Most of the damage at this time appears to be debris on roads and trails and some water leaks into offices and storage spaces. The team is also providing oversight and support to Eddie Lopez's Central IMT at Big Thicket National Preserve.
Employee Assistance Branch - An employee assistance letter from the superintendents of New Orleans Jazz and Jean Lafitte went out on Tuesday to park employees, providing information on the current situation at the parks and the direction the parks would be taking in terms of dealing with employee duty stations, details, transfers, etc. There are two CISM staff still based at the Thibodaux ICP in the Wetlands Acadian Cultural Center. They and other branch staff continue to provide assistance to employees on an as-needed basis and are working to locate a mental health provider for long-term services. The realty specialists were demobilized yesterday, as in three days they have not been able to locate any properties for rent or sale in the vicinity.
Resources and Facilities Branch - The chipper crew assessed the damage at Cane River Creole NHP, where they removed some debris and tree limbs that had landed on structures. They attempted to check damage to the roofs of some of the buildings, but the pitch was too steep to be safely ascended. Arrangements will be made to have this done by contractors. The crew will return to Barataria to restore utilities there and try to get the sewage lift stations in operation. Most of the work to set up a temporary headquarters for the two parks at Barataria has taken place, as soon as the lift stations are operational, power has been restored, and the computers have been hooked up to NPS systems. City electricity has now been restored to Jean Lafitte headquarters at 419 Decatur Street and to the New Orleans Jazz Visitor Center. But they are still without water. A hazardous materials group will be added to operations tomorrow. This group consists of a private contractor who will be removing the gasoline, diesel oil, pesticides and other hazardous materials that had been stored in containers in a locker that was turned upside down by flood waters, and a Public Health Service industrial hygienist who will monitor the operation.
Law Enforcement Branch - Branch staff have relocated their base from Lafayette to a facility being provided by the sheriff's office in Lockport, Louisiana, which is significantly closer to New Orleans. The LE staff escorted a JELA employee to her residence so that she could retrieve belongings before heading out on an extended detail assignment and provided security for a Red Cross food distribution center in Algiers.
Gulf Islands NS
The Pacific West IMT (Denny Ziemann, IC) is charged with assisting employees and helping with the rehabilitation of the Mississippi District.
Crews are working on the islands again. Priorities are making repairs to the boat docks and debris clean-up. Hurricane Rita pushed a lot of debris up into the marshes and it will have to be gathered up and removed. With the reactivation of the park's LCM (a former Navy landing craft), some heavy equipment has been moved to the islands. The addition of bobcats and mules results in faster and more efficient clean-up of the islands. Crews continue to clean-up debris and perform emergency stabilization projects in the visitor center and park housing at Davis Bayou. As of today, crews have removed more than 25,000 cubic yards of debris from Davis Bayou alone. All incident personnel were happy to hear that a break in the hot, muggy weather is expected this week.
The SET team continues to provide law enforcement and EMS services to the park and incident.
With the return of park personnel to Gulf Islands, the EAP branch is continuing to serve park employees by providing advice and assistance with claims and emotional support. A CISM team has been ordered to assist park employees with their return to work.
Information Directory
A web site has been established as a repository for official documents related to hurricane recovery operations: HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/waso/waso.cfm?prg=15&lv=1" http://inside.nps.gov/waso/waso.cfm?prg=15&lv=1.
[Kris Fister, IO, IMT, JELA/JAZZ; Shauna Dyas, IO, IMT, GUIS]
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Prepared by Visitor and Resource Protection, WASO, with the cooperation and support of Delaware Water Gap NRA.
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