NATIONAL PARK SERVICE

MORNING REPORT

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

INCIDENTS

Great Smoky Mountains NP

Passenger Killed When Trees Fall On Car

T.E., 39, of Sevierville, Tennessee, was killed on Sunday night by falling trees that hit the Nissan Altima she was riding in on Newfound Gap Road. Several large trees fell from the west side of the road directly onto the front passenger side of the vehicle just after the car had passed the Chimney Tops picnic area. The Nissan was driven by J.S., also of Sevierville. A third occupant, J.S.'S juvenile daughter, was sitting in the back seat of the car. The incident was reported by a park employee just after 8 p.m. The Nissan was severely damaged by the fallen trees, which caused the roof to collapse on the passenger side. Both J.S. and his daughter were able to climb out of a window. Before rescue personnel arrived on scene, a motorist with a chainsaw stopped to assist and began cutting the trees in an attempt to free T.E. Gatlinburg paramedics assisted rangers in employing the jaws-of-life to extricate her from the vehicle. She was pronounced dead at the scene. The S.'s were transported by Gatlinburg ambulance to the University of Tennessee Medical Center, where they were treated and released. T.E. was transported by a second Gatlinburg ambulance to Ft. Sanders Sevier Medical Center. Although high winds with gusts up to 70 mph had blown earlier in the day, they'd diminished significantly by the time of the accident. Soils, though, were highly saturated due to rainfall and snow melt. [Nancy Gray, Public Affairs Officer]

Buffalo NR

Lost Hiker Found Following Overnight Search

During the early evening hours of January 18th, dispatch advised rangers that a cell phone call had been received from a group of five college students who reported that one of their friends - 19-year-old S.J.S. of Rogersville, Missouri - had become separated from the group and was overdue by several hours after camping the previous night in the Ponca Wilderness. The caller also reported that S.J.S. had no previous camping experience, had an injured knee, and required two hearing aids to hear properly. Rangers conducted hasty searches of area trails until 1:30 a.m., but failed to find S.J.S.. They spike-camped overnight in the search area and resumed searching at first light along with additional rangers and park fire personnel. Shortly after 9 a.m., ranger Melissa Lamm came upon fresh, wet boot prints on dry slick rock along the Sneeds Creek Trail. She then found additional fresh signs and began moving quickly up the trail, following a series of fresh signs until she located S.J.S. as he slowly worked his way uphill. He was not injured, but reported that he had spent a cold, dark, hungry night after having lost his sleeping bag and lighter during a river crossing, run out of food, and broken his one light source. S.J.S. also reported that he'd quickly become disoriented after separating from the group, as he had no map, and that he'd wandered off trail for hours and had only stopped after he'd fallen over a 10-foot-high cliff in the dark. [Kevin Moses, Middle Buffalo District Ranger]

OTHER NEWS

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

Olympic NP - Twelve fishers were released last Thursday in Olympic National Park, continuing a three-year effort to reintroduce the animal to Washington State. Eight were released in the Graves Creek drainage of the Quinault valley and four in the Bogachiel valley.

Environmental Quality Division - The WASO Environmental Quality Division is currently revising the Director's Order 12 (DO-12) Handbook, which details the procedures by which the NPS carries out its responsibilities under the National Environmental Policy Act.

Intermountain Region - Sid Burwell has shared his love of the national parks by working as a volunteer in Intermountain Regional Office for the last 15 years, logging over 8,000 hours of volunteer service. 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/

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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