NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
MORNING REPORT
Thursday, October 15, 2009
INCIDENTS
Buffalo NR
Rangers Deal With Multiple Searches Over Weekend
Rangers were involved in three search and rescue missions and the evacuation of a visitor with a broken ankle last weekend:
Early on Saturday afternoon, a report was received that two juvenile hunters were missing in the rugged Cecil Cove area in the Upper Buffalo District. The subsequent search, which involved 73 people from 13 agencies, was managed under unified command between the park and Newton County Sheriff's Department. A hasty search of area trails was inconclusive, so a perimeter was established and attraction techniques were used throughout the night. The two hunters were found by a search team member at one of the fixed perimeter points on Sunday morning.
A park visitor broke his ankle at the Kyles Landing campground around 4:30 p.m. on Saturday. Rangers were committed to the above search and therefore unable to get to the scene of the accident in a timely manner, so an ambulance and volunteer firefighters were dispatched to the scene. The injured camper was taken to an area hospital.
Several members of the search team seeking the two hunters had to be redeployed on Saturday to a search for a missing hiker in the nearby Ponca Wilderness. The hiker was found by a Newton County deputy who was assisting with the SAR.
Within hours of the conclusion of the search for the two hunters on Sunday, rangers and Searcy County deputies responded to a report of a 12-year-old girl missing from the Tyler Bend campground. She was found unharmed within three hours.
[Jeff West, Law Enforcement Specialist]
Natchez Trace Parkway
Bicyclist Killed While Riding On Parkway
D.A., 48, was biking south near milepost 208 on the Trace late on the morning of October 9th when he was struck from behind by a southbound Ford Escape. Rangers from the Tupelo District responded along with county deputies and EMS personnel. They found him unconscious and unresponsive and were unable to revive him. It appears that D.A. may have been struck as the Escape was attempting to pass and D.A.'s bicycle veered into the northbound lane. [Calvin Farmer, Acting Chief Ranger]
OTHER NEWS
The following stories are among those in today's edition of InsideNPS:
Submerged Resources Center - During the first three weeks of September, a joint Isle Royale - NPS Submerged Resources Center team engaged in an extensive diving project to document the condition of submerged cultural resources in the park.
Civil War Sesquicentennial - At the end of September, 35 individuals from National Capitol Region, WASO and various partner organizations met in Harpers Ferry to discuss plans for the quickly approaching sesquicentennial of the Civil War (CW 150). Photo.
Blue Ridge Parkway - A section of the parkway has been closed south of Asheville due to the high risk of a slope failure near Mt. Pisgah.
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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