The National Park Service incident management team overseeing Hurricane Sandy recovery efforts in New York and New Jersey completed its tenth day of operations yesterday. Currently working with the team are 435 National Park Service employees from 113 parks and 40 states, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia, with more staff continuing to arrive.

The following areas have reopened – St. Paul’s Church, Sagamore Hill, Morristown, Edison, General Grant, Hamilton Grange, Federal Hall and African Burial Ground. Work continued at other sites; today’s status reports follow:

• Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island – Debris removal continues, as does boarding of windows and doors to winterize the main immigration building. A museum item/area survey was completed.
• Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace – The site remains closed until further notice due to a lack of heat.
• Castle Clinton – The site remains closed until further notice.
• Gateway – Crews filled a 30-yard dumpster with debris at Frank Charles Memorial Park. Fencing was put in place to secure the bathhouse and open well at Riis Park. One hundred loads of woody debris have been removed from along North Carolina Road on Staten Island. Debris was removed from Battery Weed.
• Fire Island – The east end adjacent to Smith Point County Park was partially opened for pedestrian access to the beach. The adjacent wilderness area (Otis Pike) remains closed. Breach and overwash assessments continued, as did hazardous material removal. Hand crews and heavy equipment were used to remove debris from a mile of shoreline. Maintenance staff and an electrician started the restoration of the Lighthouse Annex. Fifteen hundred feet of damaged boardwalk has been removed; where possible, damaged boards will be reused and/or salvaged.
• Morristown – Archeologists and arborists utilized an air spade on a root ball at Fort Mansion. An architectural historian assessed damage to historic structures. The road to the Jenk’s family cemetery has been cleared. Hazard tree work continued on trails in Jockey Hollow.

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.
• Hurricane Sandy relief fund – E&AA has set up a relief fund web page where you can make donations in support of employees who were affected by the storm.
• Uniform donations – Information on donating uniforms to employees can be found at this web page.
• Facebook – A Facebook page managed by the IMT with updates on the response.
• Twitter – A Twitter page managed by the IMT with updates on the response.
• Flickr – A Flickr page managed by the IMT with images of the response.