NATIONAL PARK SERVICE

MORNING REPORT

Thursday, August 21, 2008

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INCIDENTS

Southeast Region

Tropical Storm Fay Moves Up Coastline

Tropical Storm Fay continues to be an issue for some parks in the southeastern United States, while others have reopened to the public. Here's a status report, as of yesterday evening:

Everglades NP/Dry Tortugas NP - The park reports little damage. One park concession tour boat suffered some minor damage in the storm, but is expected to be repaired and running by today. Employees in Key West who were evacuated to Fort Jefferson were to return to their normal duty stations yesterday. Both Everglades and Dry Tortugas opened to visitors again at 10 a.m. on Wednesday.

Big Cypress NP - The park reopened on Wednesday and is back on a regular operations schedule. As noted previously, the storm caused no significant damage.

Biscayne NP - The park reopened at 1 p.m. on Wednesday. No damage is reported.

Canaveral NS - The park is closed and will not reopen until the storm has passed.

Castillo De San Marcos NM - The park will be closed until storm danger has passed. No staff have been evacuated.

Timucuan Preserve/Fort Caroline NM - The two parks closed at 11 a.m. yesterday morning.

Cumberland Island NS - The park closed at 3 p.m. on Wednesday and does not plan to reopen until Saturday.

[Larry Perez, EVER; Richard Bryant, TIMU/FOCA; Dennis Parsons, CUIS; Susan Gonshor, BISC; Mark Ruggiero, SERO; Dean Ross, WASO]

Baltimore-Washington Parkway

Reckless Driver Sentenced To Jail Term

Early on the morning of Saturday, October 6, 2007, A.W. was traveling north on the Baltimore-Washington Parkway at approximately 80 to 100 mph, passing vehicles from the left to right lanes, striking the shoulder curbs, and passing vehicles on both shoulders. She subsequently struck the rear of a Mazda operated by a 78-year-old woman. The force of the collision forced the woman's vehicle off the parkway into the woods, causing the Mazda's driver's seat to break backwards and propelling her out of her shoes and seatbelt into the rear seat, where she landed upside down. She suffered severe brain injury trauma in the accident and is now in a vegetative state with 24-hour care. A.W. admitted that she was reaching for items at her feet and that each time she reached down she depressed the accelerator and had her head down below the dashboard. She also admitted that on one occasion she almost struck a vehicle. While reaching down on another occasion, she hit the Mazda and the airbag deployed, but she continued driving about a quarter mile past the scene of the collision. Several other drivers witnessed the above events, with some stopping to help the driver of the Mazda. On Tuesday, August 5th, A.W. was sentenced in federal court after pleading guilty to six out of ten charges against her. She was found guilty of failing to control vehicle speed on a highway to avoid collision and reckless driving. The four remaining charges were merged with the reckless driving charge. A.W. was sentenced to six months incarceration, five years probation (during which she must submit to counseling), and five years forfeiture of driving privileges. Park Police Detectives Michael Horman and Michelle Ludwick are credited with providing the thorough investigation that led to A.W.'s conviction. [Sergeant Robert Lachance, Public Affairs Officer]

OTHER NEWS

Other stories can be read on InsideNPS at one or the other of these two sites:

NPS readers - HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=index" http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=index

Non-NPS readers - HYPERLINK "http://home.nps.gov/applications/digest/" http://home.nps.gov/applications/digest/

Please note that both publications carry a combined NIFC/NPS fire report. That is generally posted around 8 a.m. Eastern.

Among the stories in today's edition are the following:

NPS Alumni - Retired supervisory park ranger Gene Parker died last Saturday in his home in Bedford, Virginia. Gene was well known throughout the Service for his contributions to tracking and woodland operations training.

Recreation Fee Program - The National Park Foundation and Olympus Imaging America, Inc. challenge everyone who can point and click to grab their camera, head to a federal land, and enter the 2008 Share the Experience photo contest. The contest opened August 18, 2008 and runs through December 31st.

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Submission standards for the Morning Report can be found at the following web site:

HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=viewnpsnewsarticle&type=Announcements&id=3363" http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=viewnpsnewsarticle&type=Announcements&id=3363

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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