The National Park Service incident management team overseeing Hurricane Sandy recovery efforts in New York and New Jersey continued its work yesterday. Operational efforts on Tuesday were similar to the past few days – specialized support crews provided assistance for employee emergency needs, conducted damage assessments, and removed debris in the affected areas.

The Employee & Alumni Association of the National Park Service, managed by Eastern National, donated 40 cash cards worth $250 each (total donation of $10,000) to help National Park Service employees displaced by the storm. United States Geological Survey staff visited Fire Island National Seashore to evaluate the breach in the island cut by Hurricane Sandy.  The Texas Baptist Men’s Group, a non-government organization, arrived with 40 volunteers to set up a First Responders food tent at Floyd Bennett Field in Gateway National Recreation Area.  Cape Cod’s fire crew worked on debris removal from Liberty Island on the grounds around the Statue of Liberty

A nor’easter is forecast for Wednesday and Thursday of this week, bringing high winds gusting to 50 miles per hour and cooler temperatures.  Beach erosion and overwash is expected in coastal areas along Long Island Sound and shoreline. A National Park Service task force has put a contingency plan in place based on predicted weather conditions to ensure the safety of individuals responding to the incident during inclement weather.

Response operations will continue today to assist National Park Service employees and park units while favorable weather conditions persist.  Stabilization and preparation efforts will be a focus with the approaching storm.  Alternative support projects, such as equipment maintenance, administrative work, and documentation, have been identified if inclement weather causes unsafe work conditions for crews in the response area.

There are currently 283 National Park Service employees committed to recovery operations. Collectively, they represent 101 National Park Service units in 38 states, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia.

Visitation to the Facebook site has reached nearly 17,360 individuals to date. The Twitter site continues to re-tweet incoming information from the parks and other agencies.

More information on the response can be found at these websites:

• Hurricane response and recovery – A webpage with current information on the NPS response to Hurricane Sandy.
• Resource needs shopping list – A ”shopping list”  of incident management team positions that still need to be filled, updated daily.
• NPS Superstorm Sandy Response – A Facebook page managed by the IMT with updates on the response.
• SandyResponseNPS – A Twitter page managed by the IMT with updates on the response.