NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
MORNING REPORT
Wednesday, August 5, 2015
INCIDENTS
Death Valley NP
Mother And Child Rescued From Trail In Extreme Heat Conditions
On the afternoon of Monday, August 3rd, rangers received a report that a mother and son were experiencing severe heat exhaustion on the Golden Canyon Trail, a popular hiking route in Death Valley.
The father, now at the Furnace Creek Visitor Center, left his family on the trail and sought help when his wife and son were too exhausted to continue. Rangers responded to the visitor center and learned that the eight-year-old child and 49-year-old mother had just a half liter of water between them when the father left them an hour previously. The father also said that his wife and son had been vomiting and had been on the trail since 9 a.m. The air temperature at the time was 120 F.
Rangers immediately responded and began hiking the trail, carrying copious amounts of water and medical supplies. After roughly thirty minutes of searching, the rangers located the mother and son, who were lying face down in the shade of a cliff face. Both were responsive but were completely out of water.
Rangers administered care to both mother and son, who were stable and denied throwing up. Once they had been cooled, the rangers assisted them in walking out of the canyon. When they arrived at the ambulance, staged at the entrance to the canyon, the mother declined any further medical care for her and her son.
[J.D. Updegraff, District Ranger]
Canyon de Chelly NM
Heavy Rains Bring Flooding To Park
Over just a few short hours last Sunday, the park and surrounding area received a large amount of rain, hail and wind. Canyon residents were stranded inside the canyon overnight with rescue operations still underway.
There was one confirmed fatality, with several families still unaccounted for. Several agencies, including a Department of Public Safety aircraft, searched diligently throughout the night for stranded parties throughout the canyon.
At the time of the report on Monday, canyon roads were still inaccessible, hampering any rescue operations up canyon.
[Fernando M. Jones, Chief Ranger]
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):
Gateway NRA - On July 29th, Gateway's Sandy Hook Unit hosted the 31st Annual All-Women Lifeguard Tournament. The event was the largest in the tournament's 31 years. Participating were 27 teams from four states and a total of 277 lifeguards.
Mount Rushmore NM - In anticipation of hundreds of thousands of motorcycle riders participating in the 75th Annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, the park and several of its partners from the Black Hills are working to remind visitors about fire safety.
Jefferson NEM - The park has partnered with the YMCA of Greater St. Louis, the state, and the city of St. Louis in the development of a weeklong “Beyond the Concrete” day camp.
Horseshoe Bend NMP - On July 24th, representatives from several agencies came to the park to launch the Harold Banks Canoe Trail. The trail spans 25 miles of the Tallapoosa River, which flows from western Georgia to eastern Alabama.
Midwest Region - Christine Powell, a 20-year veteran of the National Park Service, has been selected as Midwest Region's new associate regional director for legislation, communications, planning and partnerships.
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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