NATIONAL PARK SERVICE

MORNING REPORT

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

NOTICE

Southeast Region

Claudette Comes Ashore, Ana Dissipates, Bill Strengthens

Tropical Storm Claudette came ashore yesterday, bringing heavy rains but not much wind. Tropical Storm Ana has dissipated and at present has a less than 30% chance of again becoming a tropical system. Hurricane Bill is strengthening, but currently forecast to miss most land areas. Here are today's reports from parks:

Gulf Islands NS - Other than minor flooding along the Fort Pickens Road, Claudette had no impact on the park and all units have reopened.

Virgin Islands NP - Ana passed through the area yesterday morning. At about 5 a.m., the winds kicked up and rain bands covered St. Thomas and St. John. Rains tapered off in mid-morning, but brisk winds and heavy surf continued for some time. Hurricane Hole on the east end of St. John, a natural safe harbor for boaters, will remain open all week in the event that boaters want to take early precautions for possible impacts from Bill.

Everglades NP - Although Ana has lost its tropical storm characteristics, the park is still keeping an eye on it. The park's IMT met briefly yesterday to discuss preparations. As it is likely that coastal districts may feel the greatest impacts, preliminary work has begun to remove nonessential vessels from the water, shutter facilities, and advise park cooperators of preliminary preparations. The IMT will meet again this morning to assess the situation.

[Mark Hardgove, VIIS; Clay Jordan, GUIS; Larry Perez, EVER; Mark Ruggiero, SERO]

Grand Canyon NP

Missing Man Located

K.L., the 20-year-old German national who Flagstaff Police Department officers and Grand Canyon rangers have been attempting to locate since August 14th, reported in to his family on Monday night. K.L.'s father contacted Flagstaff PD yesterday morning and advised that his son had called in via mobile phone - alive and well and on his way to Vancouver, British Columbia, on his continuing tour of North America. [Shannan Marcak, Public Affairs Officer]

Yosemite NP

Woman Succumbs To Injuries Suffered In Fall

A hiker made a 911 call to park dispatch from the summit of Cloud's Rest (9,926 feet) around noon last Friday and reported that a 53-year-old woman had taken a tumbling fall from the summit and ended up on a ledge about 80 feet below, adding that other visitors had scrambled down to her location and reported that she was breathing but suffering from a severe head injury and unresponsive. Clifford Ashley, a wilderness patrol ranger, was in the area; he arrived on scene shortly thereafter, scrambled down to her, and began treatment. Yosemite's contract helicopter was launched and ranger/medics Jeff Webb and Matt Stark heli-rappeled to the ledge. They found that the woman - later identified as M.B. of North Hollywood, California - was shocky and extremely unstable. She was packaged and short-hauled with Stark to Ahwahnee Meadow, then taken to the Yosemite Medical Clinic to be stabilized before transport to a hospital. M.B. died of her injuries while at the clinic. [Jack Hoeflich, Incident Commander]

Yosemite NP

Poaching Suspects Charged

Criminal complaints against K.N. and brothers C.G. and Ch.G. were signed on Wednesday, August 5th, charging them with multiple counts of poaching, violations of the Lacey Act, aiding and abetting the commission of a crime, and many Title 36 CFR violations. The signing of these complaints marked the culmination of a year-long investigation which entailed the issuance of multiple search warrants and close cooperation between wardens from the California Department of Fish and Game, rangers from the Tuolumne Meadows Subdistrict and special agents from across the Pacific West Region. Over the past four years, the G.s and K.N. have poached multiple trophy-sized deer from inside Yosemite National Park. State charges are also pending. [Steve Yu, Special Agent]

Mesa Verde NP

Suicide Victim Found At Park Overlook

On the morning of Wednesday, August 12th, a park concession employee walked out to the Mancos Overlook, three miles from the entrance of the park, and discovered a man's body on the ground. The concession employee, a retired veterinarian, said that the man appeared to have died from a self-inflected gunshot wound, but that he was not able to see any firearm at the scene. Responding rangers closed the overlook to public access and found the firearm just below the overlook, where the victim had dropped it after shooting himself. The victim was identified as a 67-year-old man from Dolores, Colorado. A suicide note was found in his vehicle, which was in the overlook parking lot. The overlook was closed for approximately four hours until the investigation was completed. [Jessie Farias Jr., Chief Ranger]

OTHER NEWS

The following stories are among those in today's edition of InsideNPS:

Fire and Aviation Management - The NPS is about to step into the world of social networking through the efforts of the NPS Fire and Aviation Management Office, which is working to build a Twitter system that will be available to both the fire community and the entire agency.

Grand Teton NP - On Sunday, August 9th, the park held a ceremony to celebrate the opening of a new multi-use pathway that parallels the Teton Park Road from Moose to South Jenny Lake. Photo.

Rocky Mountain NP - This past July 29th marked the fourth anniversary of the line-of-duty death of seasonal park ranger Jeff Christensen. During a remembrance ceremony, the park introduced a line of high visibility safety apparel that is now being issued to field rangers for use during backcountry patrol and in search and rescue operations. Funds were raised by the family. Photo.

To see these and other stories posted on InsideNPS (or NPS Digest, its public version), click on one or the other of the following links (please note that not all stories in the former appear in the latter):

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

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

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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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