NATIONAL PARK SERVICE

MORNING REPORT

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

NOTICE

Since your correspondent will be on the road all day on Tuesday, this incident summary is being sent to you on Monday evening. The Morning Report will again come out at its regular time beginning on Wednesday.

INCIDENTS

Gulf Islands NS

One Rescued, One Drowns In Rip Current

Park lifeguards were on the stand at Johnson Beach on Perdido Key on the afternoon of April 24th when they received a report of two people in trouble in the ocean about 300 yards up the beach, outside of the guarded area. The lifeguards began a staggered response in order to also maintain coverage of the lifeguarded beach. The first lifeguard responded by ATV. When he arrived on scene, he saw a 20-year-old woman about 25 to 30 yards from shore on a sandbar. He swam out to her and found that a second person had been pulled out to sea by a strong rip current at that location. The guard determined that the woman was not in immediate danger and told her to stay put while he swam further out from shore and looked for him. About 20 yards out, the guard found a very heavyset 59-year-old man floating face down in the water. He flipped the man over and began pulling him to shore. At about this time, a second guard who'd sprinted up the beach arrived on scene. He found that the woman had left the safety of the sandbar, that she was trying to get back to the beach on her own, and that she'd gotten caught in a rip current and was floundering in water over her head. He swam out to her, pulled her to shore, then swam back out to assist the first guard in the physically challenging effort of getting the man back to the beach. As they were pulling him on shore, a third lifeguard, a paramedic ranger, and an Escambia County FD unit all arrived. Basic and advanced life measures, including CPR, were begun. Escambia EMS arrived and transported the man to a medevac helicopter. He was flown to Baptist Hospital, where medical personnel worked on him for about 20 minutes before declaring him dead. The woman was checked at the scene and found to be okay. Paramedic/ranger Leslie Wells is leading the investigation. Yellow cautionary surf flags were posted at Perdido Key at the time due to rip current conditions. Due to these conditions, lifeguards made several other rescues over the course of the weekend. [Clay Jordan, Chief Ranger]

Natchez Trace Parkway

Visitor From Netherlands Killed While Biking On Trace

E.H., 51, of the Netherland was biking south on the parkway near milepost 231 on the afternoon of April 22nd when she was hit from behind by a southbound 2009 GMC Suburban. Rangers, Chickasaw County deputies, and Van Vleet VFD personnel all responded. E.H. died at the scene. The exact cause of the accident remains under investigation. [Allen Etheridge, Chief Ranger]

OTHER NEWS

The following stories are among those in today's edition of InsideNPS. For those of you within the NPS, the link is HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=index" http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=index ; for those of you outside the NPS, the link is HYPERLINK "http://home.nps.gov/applications/digest/" http://home.nps.gov/applications/digest/ . Remember that these stories will not appear until after midnight on Monday; that is, effective 12:01 a.m. EDT Tuesday….

Office of Public Health - The National Park Service is closely monitoring the recent appearance of swine influenza in Mexico and the United States. A new web page has been created which will have regular updates on developments. A link is provided.

Office of the Chief Information Officer - The rapid growth of social networking sites has taken the internet world by storm. Just how risky are these sites? Will we be able to access them from work? The answers lie in an analysis of the risks.

Golden Gate NRA - Superintendent Brian O'Neill suffered a stroke earlier this week and has been hospitalized. The family has sent along a report on his recovery.

US Park Police - On April 18th, officer April Ramos Mertz of the San Francisco Field Office was recognized by the Mothers Against Drunk Drivers for her outstanding efforts at drunk driving enforcement and education at their annual California awards ceremony in Sacramento.

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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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