NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
MORNING REPORT
Monday, January 11, 2010
INCIDENTS
Death Valley NP
Rangers Rescue Four Lost Hikers
On the evening of January 6th, rangers received a report of two missing hikers reported to be hiking a route through Sheep Canyon that had recently been featured in Backpacker magazine. Subsequent interviews with family and friends of the missing hikers revealed that there were actually four members of the party, all two days overdue. Three search teams deployed on the morning of January 7th and found numerous sets of footprints matching those associated with the vehicle parked at the mouth of the canyon. Around noon, an observer on an airplane from Lake Mead spotted a large white “X”, a signal fire, and a person waving at the plane on a ridge south of nearby Willow Canyon. One of the search teams located the other three individuals trapped in Willow Canyon shortly thereafter. A Navy Seahawk helicopter from China Lake Naval Weapons Center successfully hoisted all four of the hikers out of the canyon and delivered them to Ridgecrest Regional Medical Center. Initial reports were that one member of the party injured an ankle, and that the others were suffering from minor exposure and dehydration. Ranger Micah Alley served as IC during this incident. [Brent Pennington, Chief Ranger]
OTHER NEWS
The following stories are among those in today's edition of InsideNPS:
Director's Office - Flat Hat Chat Episode 4 has been posted to the web. This latest episode of Director Jarvis' monthly Flat Hat Chat video series focuses on climate change. NOTE: At present, these are only accessible to NPS employees.
Legislative and Congressional Affairs - This week's update on past and upcoming hearings and the status of legislation pertinent to the National Park Service.
Northeast Region - Bob Kirby has been selected as the new superintendent of Gettysburg National Military Park and Eisenhower National Historic Site. Kirby, currently superintendent of Petersburg National Battlefield in Virginia, will assume his new post in March.
Denver Service Center - Landscape architect Al Hollister retired at the beginning of the year following 45 years with the National Park Service.
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/
NPS serious incident submission standards can be found at the following web site: HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/waso/custompages.cfm?prg=45&id=8728&lv=2&pgid=3504" http://inside.nps.gov/waso/custompages.cfm?prg=45&id=8728&lv=2&pgid=3504
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Prepared by the Division of Law Enforcement, Security and Emergency Services, Washington Office, with the support of the Office of the Chief Information Officer. Edited by Bill Halainen ( HYPERLINK "mailto:Bill_Halainen@nps.gov" Bill_Halainen@nps.gov).
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