NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
MORNING REPORT
Wednesday, May 20, 2015
INCIDENTS
Amistad NRA
Rangers Assist In Recovery Of Bodies From Rio Grande
On Wednesday, April 29th, rangers were asked to join a mutual aid response at the Amistad International Dam, where a construction accident had occurred.
Upon arrival, they found that a craned had overturned and was partially dangling over the edge of the dam on the US side. Witnesses confirmed that a large window washing-type basket containing two International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC) employees had disconnected from the crane when it tipped over and plummeted into the Rio Grande River, approximately 300 feet below.
Over the next two days, park divers/rangers Drew McGahan and Patrick Reimann assisted in the SCUBA search and recovery operation and helped recover the two missing IBWC employees.
This was a multi-agency effort, managed under ICS. Also participating were personnel from the International Boundary Water Commission, U.S. Border Patrol, Val Verde County Sheriff's Office, Texas DPS, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, and several other local agencies. The Val Verde County Sherriff's Office and OSHA are investigating.
[Regina Klein Dissler, Chief Ranger]
Delaware Water Gap NRA
Rangers Intervene In Suicide Attempt
On the afternoon of Friday, May 15th, park dispatch received a call from the Pike County 911 Center advising that the vehicle of 22-year-old woman, thought to be suicidal, had been found in the Milford Beach Parking Lot. Pike County 911 also advised that the woman's parents were in route to Milford Beach.
As rangers were responding, further information was obtained indicating that the woman had been found by friends, but the exact location was unknown. Rangers arrived on scene at Milford Beach shortly thereafter, approximately the same time as the parents.
After a brief search of the area, rangers were able to find the woman, who had cut her upper forearm with an Exacto knife, causing a three inch laceration. A friend of the woman had succeeded in taking the knife away from her prior to the rangers arrival and had thrown it into the river.
The woman cooperated with rangers and was transported to the hospital via ambulance for treatment and mental health evaluation.
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[Joe Hinkes, Law Enforcement Operations Supervisor]
OTHER NEWS
The following stories are among those in today's webpage editions of InsideNPS (available to NPS employees only) and the Morning Report (available to all readers):
Crater Lake NP - The National Fish Habitat Partnership has named Sun Creek in Crater Lake National Park one of the ten “Waters to Watch” in 2015 due to the park's success in a long-term effort to restore the endangered native bull trout.
Cuyahoga Valley NP - Mark Woollams, an English teacher and doctoral student at Kent State who also worked as a dispatcher for the park, passed away on May 5th of natural causes.
Lake Mead NRA - The park is participating in National Bike Month by asking employees to participate in the Federal Bike Challenge, a competition that promotes bicycling to and from work as often as possible during the month of May.
Geologic Resources Division - Courtney Schupp joined the Natural Resource Stewardship and Science directorate's Geologic Resources Division as a term coastal geologist last week.
Intermountain Region - Wayne Prokopetz, a 40-year veteran of federal government service, has been named superintendent of Big Thicket National Preserve.
To see the full text of these stories, readers should go to one or the other of the following sites:
NPS employees - HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=index" http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=index
Non-NPS employees - HYPERLINK "http://www.nps.gov/morningreport/" http://www.nps.gov/morningreport/
The Morning Report is produced by the Office of Communications with the support of the Office of the Associate Director for Information Resources. Edited by Bill Halainen ( HYPERLINK "mailto:Bill_Halainen@contractor.nps.gov" Bill_Halainen@contractor.nps.gov).
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