NATIONAL PARK SERVICE

MORNING REPORT

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

INCIDENTS

National Park of American Samoa

Tropical Cyclone Rene Causes Little Damage To Park

Tropical Cyclone Rene passed almost directly over the Manu'a Islands on Saturday and was headed directly for the main island of Tutuila when it suddenly veered south, missing the main island by about 30 miles. There was lots of rain and wind, but no major damage has yet to be reported. NPS offices came through the storm undamaged. There was significantly more wind on the Manu'a Islands, though. Power and water there remain out and phone service is intermittent. Park workers are stranded on Ofu Island, but they are well provisioned with stored water and food at the Ofu Ranger Station. It appears that it will be possible to get them back home by today or tomorrow. All park staff and most VIP's have been accounted for and are okay. [Mike Reynolds, Superintendent]

Gila Cliff Dwellings NM

Cliff Dwellings Reopen With Limited Access

With the placement of a temporary foot bridge on Thursday, February 11th, visitor access to Gila Cliff Dwellings is now possible via a one mile hike or bicycle ride up New Mexico Highway 15 from the West Fork Bridge to the trailhead. The cliff dwellings accordingly reopened on Saturday. Access across the damaged north approach will be over a 35-foot-long gangway on loan from Elephant Butte State Park, installed by NPS and USFS staff. A Wilderness Ranger District fire crew from the Gila National Forest and NPS staff finished temporary reconstruction of damaged portions of the Cliff Dweller Canyon Trail and removed ice up to the cliff dwellings on Wednesday. While the cliff dwellings will be staffed daily from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., as is normal for this time of year, there will be no scheduled tours and entrance fees will be waived until vehicle access can be reestablished. Lower and Upper Scorpion Campgrounds are open to pack-in camping and all trailheads into the Gila Wilderness in the area are open. Visitors must be at the Cliff Dwellings trailhead by 4 p.m. and should plan on beginning the hike across the West Fork Bridge from the parking area at Woody's Corral by 3 p.m. No water or electricity is available above the bridge due to damage to utility lines when the approach began eroding, so visitors should fill water bottles at Woody's Corral or the Gila Visitor Center. Access may change if future flood waters cause significant additional damage to either approach, which would force removal of the foot bridge or make the highway bridge's south approach unsafe. The highway bridge remains closed to motorized traffic, with no estimate of when it may reopen. The New Mexico Department of Transportation hopes to begin reconstruction after March 22nd, when engineering design work is complete - water levels in the Gila River permitting. [Steve Riley, Superintendent]

OTHER NEWS

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

Office of Public Affairs - The National Park Service is flying high, thanks to astronaut Bob Behnken. Behnken, currently orbiting the Earth aboard the space shuttle Endeavour, is carrying several National Park Service items in his personal allotment.

Public Health - Last year, the NPS Office of Public Health piloted an innovative and successful program to place volunteer epidemiologists in national parks in order to augment park-based public health capacity. Applicants are now being sought for positions for this year.

Yosemite NP - Kathleen S. Morse, forest supervisor for the Lassen National Forest in northern California, has been selected as chief of planning for Yosemite National Park.

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/notify" http://inside.nps.gov/notify

* * * * *

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).

--- ### ---