Hurricane Recovery Operations Continue (NPS Digest)

The National Park Service incident management team overseeing Hurricane Sandy recovery efforts in New York and New Jersey completed its twelfth day of operations yesterday. Currently working with the team are 500 National Park Service employees from 117 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, African Burial Ground and Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace. Work continued at other sites; today’s status reports follow:

Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island – A crane was employed to reset a fuel tank, a US Park Police boat and a storage trailer. Windows and doorways are being weatherized at both sites. The seawalls and walkways were assessed, as was the structural integrity of the visitor dock at Liberty Island. Debris removal continues on both islands. On Ellis, large pieces of debris were removed to facilitate access to buildings. Debris removal continues in park offices and concession-operated areas.
Castle Clinton – Castle Clinton remains closed until further notice.
Gateway – Trail and levee clearing is ongoing on East and West Trails in the Jamaica Bay Unit; resource advisors are working with crews on clearing other trails. Four loads of debris were removed from Frank Charles Park. Fencing and wall breaches have been repaired at Miller Field in the Staten Island Unit. Chipping has been completed at the Navy Lodge and debris were removed from along the North Carolina Road, within Fort Wadsworth (100 loads to date), and at Great Kills and Battery Weed. Assessments of park buildings, roadways and parking lots were conducted in the Sandy Hook Unit. Windows and doorways there are being boarded up, and crews are removing debris from park roads and buildings.
Fire Island – The east end adjacent to Smith Point County Park was partly reopened for pedestrian access to the beach, but the adjacent wilderness area (Otis Pike) remains closed. Visitors may walk to the breach at Old Inlet, but entering the water is prohibited. The Wilderness Visitor Center will be staffed from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., but the site has no power, electricity or bathrooms. Breach and overwash assessments and hazardous material removal continued. Hand crews and heavy equipment were used to continue debris cleanup along the shoreline. Maintenance staff continued the restoration of the Lighthouse Annex. Damaged boardwalk is being removed; where possible, damaged boards will be reused and/or salvaged.
Morristown – Fort Nonsense, the Washington Headquarters Museum and the Ford Mansion are open; Jockey Hollow, New Jersey Brigade and the Cross Estate remain closed. Archeologists and arborists completed air spade operations at Ford Mansion. Crews continued hazard tree removal on the Jockey Hollow and New Jersey Brigade trails, and work began on hazards on the New Jersey Brigade trails.

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.