NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
MORNING REPORT
Thursday, January 31, 2008
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INCIDENTS
Lava Beds NM
Two Women Rescued Near Park Boundary
On the afternoon of Sunday, January 27th, a 68-year-old woman and her 43-year-old daughter attempted to reach the park's south boundary in their four-wheel-drive pickup via a 14-mile-long Forest Service road that is not maintained during the winter. They made it about two miles before becoming stuck in a snowdrift. They were unable to call out via cell phone due to a lack of service, so the daughter attempted to walk into the park to get help. She walked for three hours during one of the worst winter storms of the season before she finally got cell service and was able to call 911. Modoc County Sheriff's Office personnel tried to respond, but were hampered by whiteout conditions. Park chief ranger Terry Harris was contacted at 6 p.m. and asked to help find the daughter, who by now had been hiking for three-and-a-half hours. Harris used his four-wheel-drive patrol vehicle to traverse the road, but was impeded by high winds, whiteout conditions, and snow drifts over four feet high. He could not find the daughter, but was able to drive within 100 yards of the stranded vehicle before being blocked by a five-foot-high drift. He hiked to the pickup and found that the mother was in no immediate danger. Rescue personnel from the sheriff's office advised that they were about an hour from the scene and would handle the mother's rescue so that Harris could continue the search for the daughter. Harris and the dispatcher from the sheriff's officer were able to direct the daughter back to the access road, where Harris subsequently found her. She'd been walking for four hours by that time. She was treated for mild hypothermia and driven to Lava Beds. Sheriff's officers and local volunteers rescued the mother via snowmobiles later that night. Mother and daughter were reunited on Monday morning. There are no plans to recover the vehicle until the storm abates. [Terry Harris, Chief Ranger]
Yellowstone NP
Sex Offender Convicted And Sentenced
Old Faithful rangers located and served a felony warrant on J.B., a convicted sex offender, last July. NPS investigators charged him with failing to register as a sex offender (18 USC 2250(a)) and a federal grand jury subsequently indicted him on that charge. The case stemmed from an investigation begun a month earlier into a case from 2002 that had been reopened. Rangers and agents learned that J.B. had been regularly traveling from state to state since 2001 without registering as a sex offender, as required by both federal and state law. On January 2nd, J.B., who'd pled guilty to the charge, was sentenced in federal court. J.B. was:
sentenced to serve 167 days in federal custody (time already served);
placed on five years' supervised release;
required to submit to DNA sample collection and additional processing, photographing and fingerprinting by federal probation officers;
ordered not to access the internet with any filtering device or to make any attempt to conceal names of internet sites visited;
barred from possessing or receiving any sexually-oriented telephone or electronic material;
ordered not to associate with any children under 18 years old (except in the presence of a responsible adult who has been made aware of his criminal history);
ordered to report his residence address immediately to local law enforcement offices (per provisions of the federal Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act); and
required to submit at any time to a warrantless search of his person, property, papers, or computer by any law enforcement or probation officer with reasonable suspicion concerning a violation of terms of release and/or unlawful conduct.
Click on this link for a copy of the original report: HYPERLINK "http://classicinside.nps.gov/headline.cfm?type=Incidents&id=3561" http://classicinside.nps.gov/headline.cfm?type=Incidents&id=3561
[Brian S Smith, IMR Special Agent in Charge, Intermountain Region]
Sequoia-Kings Canyon NPs
Update On Avalanche Fatality
Additional details have been received on the avalanche fatality reported yesterday. Late on Sunday night, the park received a report that two winter travelers were overdue from a winter backcountry trip in Sequoia National Park. A search and rescue effort began immediately. Early on Monday morning, two teams of rescuers with advanced technical winter travel skills began skiing from Wolverton, near Giant Forest, toward the Pear Lake ski hut, looking for signs of the two men. About five hours later, searchers located the body of M.C., 39, among trees at the bottom of an avalanche chute. A medical assessment was conducted, but no sign of life was found. The two rescue teams then joined and followed the tracks of the second man, who was found in good condition and escorted out of the backcountry by the team. The two men had spent Saturday night at the Pear Lake Ski Hut, approximately six miles from Wolverton. On Sunday, they left the hut, intending to ski and snowboard out, but were caught in a severe snow and windstorm that caused whiteout conditions. They were carrying a tent and camping gear and camped overnight at Heather Lake, approximately four miles from Wolverton. They set out again on Monday morning but lost the trail. They were crossing a steep slope where the avalanche occurred. The initial investigation indicates that both men were swept more than 200 yard downslope in the avalanche. Both men were experienced in safe winter over-snow travel and knowledgeable about avalanches. Each was equipped with an avalanche beacon. They appeared to have followed safe practices for traveling in avalanche zones. However, with the recent heavy snowfall after a significant rain earlier in the week, conditions were especially unstable at the time the avalanche occurred. These conditions delayed recovery of the body until Tuesday. A team comprised of six members of the Tulare County Sheriff's Office search and rescue team, four rangers and two local volunteer search and rescuers, with the assistance of a helicopter, recovered the body and transferred it to the Tulare County coroner. Parks staff can recall no avalanche deaths in Sequoia and Kings Canyon in the past several decades, though the southern Sierra Nevadas often have high avalanche danger. [Alexandra Picavet, Public Affairs Officer]
OTHER NEWS
The following stories (among others) can be read on InsideNPS (internal) or NPS Digest (external):
Servicewide - A statement recently released by the American Geophysical Union (AGU), the world's largest scientific society of Earth and space scientists, updates the organization's position on climate change - the evidence for it, potential consequences from it, and how to respond to it.
HYPERLINK "http://home.nps.gov/applications/digest/headline.cfm?type=Announcements&id=6180" http://home.nps.gov/applications/digest/headline.cfm?type=Announcements&id=6180
Competitive Sourcing Office - The NPS competitive sourcing program office has a new website. A link is provided.
HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=viewnpsnewsarticle&type=Announcements&id=6182" http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=viewnpsnewsarticle&type=Announcements&id=6182
Northeast Regional Office - Johnnie Mae Medford Smith, confidential executive assistant to the regional director for Northeast Region, will retire on February 1st after more than 40 years of federal service. Photo.
HYPERLINK "http://home.nps.gov/applications/digest/headline.cfm?type=PeopleNews&id=1820" http://home.nps.gov/applications/digest/headline.cfm?type=PeopleNews&id=1820
Crater Lake NP - After 29 years in fire management and law enforcement, Ken Hay is leaving the National Park Service. He has accepted a position as park superintendent for programming and development with the city of Klamath Falls, Oregon. Photo.
HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=viewcommunityarticle&type=PeopleNews&id=1819" http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=viewcommunityarticle&type=PeopleNews&id=1819
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Prepared by the Division of Law Enforcement, Security and Emergency Services, Washington Office, with the support of the Office of the Chief Information Officer and Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area. Edited by Bill Halainen ( HYPERLINK "mailto:Bill_Halainen@nps.gov" Bill_Halainen@nps.gov).
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