NATIONAL PARK SERVICE

MORNING REPORT

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

INCIDENTS

Grand Canyon NP

Rangers Rescue Injured Man From Elves Chasm

Park dispatch was notified of the 911 activation of a SPOT satellite locator device in Elves Chasm around 1 p.m. on the afternoon of Friday, November 13th. The chasm consists of a series of waterfalls and pools in a high-walled canyon about 30 miles downriver from Phantom Ranch. The 911 activation of a SPOT device transmits location coordinates and a non-specific emergency call for help. A second activation at the same location was reported approximately 30 minutes later. At the time of these activations, the park's helicopter was unable to respond due to high winds and poor visibility, so a plane already in the air on another mission was dispatched to fly reconnaissance over the area. About an hour later, dispatch received a satellite phone report from a private river trip leader advising that a 39-year-old man had fractured his lower leg in multiple places when he took a fall in Elves Chasm. Because their satellite phone was not getting a signal at the time, a member of the group activated the 911 function on their SPOT device. Now in contact with the group, rangers were able to work with them over the phone to consider their self-rescue options. Unfortunately, self-rescue was not possible, and weather conditions did not improve enough for the helicopter to fly that evening. With over-the-phone guidance from park rangers, trip members made the injured man comfortable for the evening. Early the next morning, he was lifted from Elves Chasm by short-haul (suspended on a 150-foot line below the helicopter) and transported to a flat area where he could be loaded into the helicopter and flown to the South Rim helibase. From there, he was transported by ground ambulance to Flagstaff Medical Center. Although there has recently been a great deal of publicity about 911 activations of SPOT devices for non-emergencies, this situation exemplifies the value of these devices when used appropriately in emergency situations. [Shannan Marcak, Public Affairs Officer]

OTHER NEWS

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

NRPC - The Natural Resource Program Center has announced the names of the 50 National Park Service areas that will be receiving new Olympus Stylus Tough-8000 cameras for their winning photographs in the recent joint Olympus-NRPC photo contest.

Jean Lafitte NHP&P - Ground was broken on November 13th for a new visitor center at Chalmette Battlefield, site of the Battle of New Orleans in 1815. The old center was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Photo.

Timpanogos Cave NM - Timpanogos Cave National Monument is raising the bar for sustainable park operations. Over the course of the past two years, the park has converted 55% of its fleet from vehicles with traditional gasoline engines to CNG (compressed natural gas), electric, biodiesel, or gas/electric hybrids. Photo.

WASO Public Affairs - This week, the first two participants in the Service's new World Heritage Fellows program - Bernard Ngoru from Kenya and Nuno Rodrigues da Silva from Brazil - arrived at their host sites. 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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