NATIONAL PARK SERVICE

MORNING REPORT

Thursday, July 15, 2010

INCIDENTS

Gulf Coast Parks

Gulf Island Volunteers Honored For Service

Gulf Islands has held an evening event to recognize volunteers who've been working to provide the public with current information on spill operations. The membership of the team managing the response in South Florida will be changing this week, with some new people coming on board. Here are the details:

Gulf Islands NS - Park public information volunteers working on the oil spill incident gathered for a potluck dinner and recognition evening with incident volunteer coordinators earlier this week. These volunteers serve as the park's eyes and ears on the beaches and provide the public with the most recent health and safety information concerning oil on the beaches and in the water. Volunteers also answer questions regarding minimum impact techniques used to clean up oil on the park's sensitive lands. Most of the volunteers hail from the local community and feel that volunteering is their way of helping and coping with a difficult situation.

South Florida Parks (Big Cypress, Biscayne, Desoto, Dry Tortugas, Everglades) - The South Florida NPS incident command was set up to support the five south Florida parks. The team has evolved over the duration of the oil spill to respond to NPS-specific needs in the south Florida area and has extended its operations to support and coordination with Canaveral NS. The team began as a Type 3 team made up of park staff, transitioned to a Type 2 team from Intermountain Region, and then scaled down to a smaller team that includes an incident commander, PIO, lead resource advisor, chief of finance, document lead, and two liaison officers, one stationed at the Florida Peninsula Incident Command Post and one in Key West. The scaled-down team consists of retired NPS professionals who were willing to travel to south Florida for 30-day assignments. The team's other duties, such as safety, reverted to the individual parks. This scaled-back structure was put in place due to the uncertainty of oil product impacts on the south Florida parks and to make it possible to quickly ramp up should oil impacts be identified in the area of concern. The current team has been in place for 30 days and is now transitioning to new ADs who will also serve 30 day periods working closely with park superintendents and staff to coordinate activities, share information, and address park concerns and spill-related issues. This will be a transition week, with Phil Perkins replacing Jay Wells at Key West, Bob Panko replacing Fred Bird at Homestead, and Larry Murphy (retired submerged resources) going out to Dry Tortugas. Gary Davis, Julie Bell, Dan Kimball and Bill Pierce will still be on the incident. This team has been able to support extensive planning and preparations for the parks in south Florida so that response plans are in place and needed resources are clearly identified. These plans include baseline inventories for each of the five parks, including collection of field data and implementation of a data management plan. Team members have worked with the USCG to update the area contingency plans to address the full range of possible oil impacts, including tar balls, sheets of oil, subsurface oil, and other types of potential impact to park resources. The team has also developed a volunteer plan, modeled after the Gulf Island volunteer plan, that will be put in place as appropriate. The team PIO continues to communicate regularly with other PIO's working on the incident and to keep the team informed of the broader public information strategies being developed

Jean Lafitte NHP&P - No new developments.

Padre Island NS - No new developments.

For more information on the NPS, DOI and national oil spill responses and for a link to the BP online oil spill safety training needed by all incident staff, please see the following sites:

HYPERLINK "http://www.nps.gov/aboutus/oil-spill-response.htm" NPS Oil Spill Response

HYPERLINK "http://www.deepwaterhorizonresponse.com/go/doctype/2931/53023/" Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Response

HYPERLINK "http://www.doi.gov/deepwaterhorizon/index.cfm" DOI Oil Spill Response

HYPERLINK "http://www.deepwaterhorizonresponse.com/go/site/2931/" National Oil Spill Response

HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=viewnpsnewsarticle&type=Conferences&id=1957" Oil Spill Safety Training

HYPERLINK "http://www.geoplatform.gov/gulfresponse/" GeoPlatform

HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/waso/custommenu.cfm?lv=3&prg=1006&id=9336" NPS ICS 209 Incident Status Summaries

HYPERLINK "http://classicinside.nps.gov/documents/NPS%20-%20Public%20Health%20Notice%20SIGNAGE%206-26-10.pdf" Gulf Islands Public Health Precautions Notice

HYPERLINK "http://www.nps.gov/archive/features/oilspillresponse/OilSpillSafety/index.htm" Public Health Service Oil Spill Safety Video

HYPERLINK "http://www.nps.gov/archive/features/oilspillresponse/" Oil Spill Media Page

[Andy L. Fisher, Gulf Coast Oil Spill Response]

Yosemite NP

Man Rescued From River At Top Of Cascading Waterfalls

On the afternoon of July 6th, Wawona rangers responded to a report of a man stranded on a rock in a small pool among cascading waterfalls in Chilnualna Creek. Incredibly, the 21-year-old man sustained no injuries after falling into the creek and being swept over a 10- to 15-foot-high waterfall into a small turbulent pool. He was able to climb up onto a small rock in the middle of the pool, but had no way to reach the shore and another waterfall below him. A short-haul rescue was attempted, but determined to be too hazardous. Rescuers were able to rappel to him, then ascended with him approximately 30 vertical feet back to the top of a rock ledge on the shore. Had the man continued over the next waterfall, the fall would have likely been fatal. Investigation of the incident revealed that he was one of a group of ten young men who had been climbing around the waterfalls and that they had attempted multiple creek crossings, one of which took him into the swift moving water. They persisted even though they knew the water was high from runoff. All ten were issued citations for creating a hazardous condition and one citation was issued for possession of a controlled substance. [Chad Andrews, Park Ranger]

Rocky Mountain NP

Injured Hiker Rescued From Lost Lake Area

Rangers received a call yesterday afternoon from the International Emergency Response Coordination Center, reporting that they'd received an emergency activation signal from a HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SPOT_Satellite_Messenger" SPOT device from a point near Lost Lake in the northeast section of the park. Two rangers, one a park medic, flew to the location in a Grand Teton NP helicopter that is in the park to support operations on the Cow Creek Fire. They found a 27-year-old man who'd suffered a broken leg after sliding 30 yards down a snowfield above the lake. He was flown out and taken by ambulance to Estes Park Medical Center. [Kyle Patterson, Public Affairs Officer]

Ozark NSR

Teenager Drowns In Current River

On the morning of Sunday, July 4th, a 14-year-old boy from Mounds, Illinois, was swimming in the Current River near the Big Spring Campground with his aunt and cousins when he lost his shoe and entered the swift current in an attempt to retrieve it, despite his aunt's instructions to swim back to the bank. The swift rapids quickly carried him downstream into deeper water. His aunt entered the water but was unable to reach her nephew due to the swift current. Two men who were camped near the location heard the cries for help and immediately responded in a boat. They found the boy approximately 200 yards downstream from where he was last seen and pulled him from the water. A registered nurse who was camped at the Big Spring Campground also heard the commotion and responded. The nurse immediately started CPR and the boy was transported to the boat landing, where protection rangers and other NPS employees arrived to help. A ranger used an AED and delivered two shocks to the boy while CPR was being performed. Shortly thereafter, an ambulance and medical helicopter arrived on scene. Paramedics continued CPR, but all efforts to resuscitate him failed and he was pronounced dead. Lower Current District Ranger Martin Towery was IC. [Jodi Towery, Law Enforcement Specialist]

OTHER NEWS

The following stories are among those in today's edition of InsideNPS. To see the full text, including images, NPS employees should go to the InsideNPS HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=index" home page. Non-NPS employees can see most (but not all) of them at HYPERLINK "http://home.nps.gov/applications/digest/" NPS Digest:

National Mall - With the help of community input, the National Park Service has completed and released a long-term vision for restoring the beauty and ensuring the sustainability of America's front yard, the National Mall.

Joint Acquisition and Finance Committee - During the week of June 28th, the Acquisition Management Council and MABO leads Servicewide met at NCTC to discuss the Service's acquisition program. Concurrently, the Finance Committee, consisting of AOC staff and regional finance officers and/or comptrollers, met to discuss information and Servicewide issues related to the finance community. Photo.

Appalachian Trail - Thirty dedicated trail volunteers and partner staff along with 30 youth from Groundwork USA participated in the AT's first Youth Leadership Summit in the White Mountain National Forest in New Hampshire during the last week in June. Photo.

Cape Lookout NS - With restoration and safety-related modifications to the Cape Lookout lighthouse completed, park staff have begun making preparations for the reopening of the lighthouse to visitors. Photo.

Joshua Tree NP - Superintendent Curt Sauer has announced that he will be hanging up his flat hat at the end of September after 35 years of federal service. Photo.

NPS incident submission standards can be found online at the HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/waso/custompages.cfm?prg=45&id=8728&lv=2&pgid=3504" serious incident notification web page.

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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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