NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
MORNING REPORT
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
INCIDENTS
Gulf Coast Parks
Spill Response Transitions To A Focus On Restoration
Admiral Thad Allen (Ret.), national incident commander for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, will be passing the torch to Admiral Paul Zukunft, unified area commander, on September 30th. This represents the formal transition from the Level 1 and 2 emergency actions in capping the BP Maconda well and capturing oil to Level 3 restoration efforts and oil capture operations, which will be directed from a unified area command in New Orleans. The DOI incident command post which NPS staffed in Mobile, Alabama, has demobed, though some DOI, NPS and Fish and Wildlife Service staffers remain as part of Mobile branch operations. Field operations supporting NPS and FWS resource advisors, who are generally resource management specialists conducting monitoring activities, continue out of Daphne, Alabama. The Daphne field operation center also provides administrative support for all NPS/FWS deployments for this Gulf cleanup. By September 30th, the US Coast Guard will have opened a new website ( HYPERLINK "http://www.restorethegulf.com" www.restorethegulf.com) and closed its Deepwater Horizon website. The NPS and FWS have a significant role in the unified area command, focusing on sensitive lands recovery, providing oversight to BP's shoreline cleanup assessment technique/teams, and supporting natural resource damage assessment and restoration work. Beach cleanup continues at Gulf Islands in areas of Cat, West Ship, East Ship, Horn, and Petit Bois Islands in Mississippi and Perdido, Ft. Pickens and Santa Rosa in Florida. Resource advisors are monitoring upwards of 500 cleaning crew members. Stats vary by day, though - for example, a total of nearly 7200 pounds of oil debris was collected on September 23rd, while, on another day at Ft. Pickens, more than 14,000 pounds of oil debris was collected. Cleanup efforts are expected to continue at least through November, with expectations of ramping up in the spring after winter storms. About 300 NPS and FWS staff are committed to the unified area command. NPS costs over the past 157 days since the emergency began, recoverable under pollution response funding authorization, hover around $8.3 million.
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.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.nps.gov/aboutus/oil-spill-response.htm" NPS Oil Spill Response
HYPERLINK "http://www.deepwaterhorizonresponse.com/go/site/2931/" National Oil Spill Response
HYPERLINK "http://www.restorethegulf.gov/" Restore The Gulf
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
[Holly Bundock, Gulf Coast Oil Spill Response]
Crater Lake NP
Dog Survives Car's Plunge Into Crater Lake
Visitors S.M. and T.S. were enjoying the view from an overlook near North Junction on the evening of September 11th when their vehicle, a 2003 Volkswagen Passat, rolled into the caldera. Further investigation revealed that the Passat rolled backwards in an arc across the parking area for approximately 100 feet, through a narrow opening between the rock wall and a clump of trees, and finally over the edge of the caldera, plunging more than 1,100 feet until it came to rest in 10 to 30 feet of water on the edge of Crater Lake. The initial investigation indicated that S.M. had failed to set the parking brake when she got out of the car. S.M.'s dog, “H.,” a Dingo-Akita mix, was in the vehicle at the time of the accident and was ejected through the sunroof of the falling vehicle, but suffered only minor injuries. It took the dog approximately 15 minutes to make its way back up approximately 600 feet of talus slope to the parking lot. The Passat and associated debris within the caldera were later removed by a helicopter from T.S.G.A. Two loads were hauled out, and the pilot was also able to employ a grappling hook to extract some of the larger items scattered along the caldera wall, such as a seat, bumper, and muffler. [Marsha McCabe]
Lake Mead NRA
Search Underway For Missing Hiker
A search is currently underway for 16-year-old S.M., who was reported missing on Saturday. S.M. is believed to have gone hiking somewhere in the area between Gold Strike Canyon and White Rock Canyon. He is 6' tall, weighs 150 pounds, and has short blond hair and blue eyes. He was last seen wearing a white t-shirt, gray shorts and white sunglasses, and carrying a black backpack. He had bottled water and was carrying a couple of Bibles with him. According to his mother, S.M. hiked from their home in Henderson near the I-215 and U.S. 93 interchange to the recreation area. He had been keeping in touch with his mother by text message. His last text message was on Saturday just after 7 p.m., telling her that he could see the Colorado River and he was near Hoover Dam. She drove to pick him up at their prearranged meeting point at the Hoover Dam Visitor Center at 7:45 p.m. When he failed to arrive by 10 p.m., his mother reported him missing to a Hoover Dam police officer. Rangers and Hoover Dam officers immediately began a search of the area that lasted until 3 a.m. Sunday. The search was resumed at 6:30 a.m. that morning, but no sign of him has yet been found. Anyone who may have seen S.M. hiking or has information regarding his whereabouts should contact the National Park Service at (702) 293-8998 or (800) 680-5851. [Andrew S. Muñoz, Public Affairs Officer]
Rocky Mountain NP
Hiker Falls To His Death On Longs Peak
Three hikers on the Keyhole Route on Longs Peak saw a hiker take a 300-foot fall early on the afternoon of September 25th. Rangers were advised via cell phone and were on scene about three hours later. The hiker did not survive his fall. At the time of the report, his identity had not yet been determined. [Kyle Patterson, Public Affairs Officer]
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 home page ( HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=index" http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=index). Non-NPS employees can see most of them on the NPS Digest page ( HYPERLINK "http://home.nps.gov/applications/digest/" http://home.nps.gov/applications/digest/):
Antietam NB - On September 14th, the new Heart of the Civil War Heritage Area Visitor and Exhibit Center opened at Antietam National Battlefield.
Office of International Affairs - On Tuesday, September 21st, Director Jarvis was pleased to host and meet with his counterparts from the Canadian and Mexican agencies that manage their nation's national parks and protected areas. Photo.
Grand Canyon NP - U.S. Mint, National Park Service and State of Arizona officials commemorated the launch of the Grand Canyon quarter, the fourth in the America the Beautiful quarter-dollar series, in a ceremony at the park on September 21st. Photo.
Pacific West Region - Frank Dean, a 34-year veteran of the National Park Service, has been confirmed as the new general superintendent of Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Photo.
Chief Information Officer - Zahid Chaudhry has joined the National Information Services Center as an enterprise web mapping specialist for the Resource Information Services Division. Photo.
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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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