News Release

NPS Incident Management Team Hurricane Update for the Caribbean Parks, Wednesday, October 4, 2017 – 5pm

Date: October 4, 2017
Contact: Rob Parrish, 917-509-4426

Incident information

Photos of Hurricanes Irma and Maria damage and response

San Juan, PR. – The NPS Eastern Incident Management Team (EIMT) continued its efforts to assist national parks in the Caribbean with their recovery from Hurricanes Irma and Maria. The primary focus remains to supply the impacted parks, park employees, and their families with the resources and tools necessary to recover and return to normal operations. Consistent electricity and communications are still problematic.

The EIMT continues to meet with employees to help them and their families through the process of recovering from the hurricanes. The NPS Motor Vessel Ft. Jefferson returned to San Juan Wednesday night with thirteen Virgin Islands employees and their family members aboard. Caribbean Parks Superintendent Randy Lavasseur met the Ft. Jefferson at Pier 10 to greet all aboard. Everyone is safe and will begin the process of working with the EIMT and other NPS park units to find temporary positions or details until conditions in the Virgin Island will permit their return.

Enabling local employees to return work at other Caribbean parks as they are able is another part piece of the stabilization effort. Crews with chainsaws removed debris in areas of San Juan National Historic Site, a vital task for the local community. In addition, teams continued to assess and repair the damage to the parks’ infrastructure and artifacts.

This morning Superintendent Lavasseur issued a challenged to all involved in the recovery. “If you see a wall in front of you, find a way over, around, or through,” he said. Despite setback and obstacles, the IMT and the local park employees continue to do just that.

Closures

• Virgin Islands National Park, St. John – CLOSED
• Virgin Islands Coral Reef National Monument, St. John – CLOSED
• Christiansted National Historic Site, St. Croix – CLOSED
• Buck Island Reef National Monument, St. Croix – CLOSED
• Salt River Bay National Historical Park and Ecological Preserve, St. Croix – CLOSED
• San Juan National Historic Site, Puerto Rico – CLOSED

Additional updates on the status of these parks can be found at http://go.nps.gov/hurricane. Due to power and communications problems, no update was released for the Caribbean parks on Tuesday.

~NPS