Homestead, FL: Everglades and Dry Tortugas National Parks began implementing their hurricane plan on Thursday, Aug. 25, in response to the forecasts for tropical weather system Invest 99L.
Dry Tortugas National Park will close to recreational activities at 6 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 27 and remain closed until the storm passes and staff are able to assess storm damage and safely open the park. Once the park re-opens, the ferry and seaplane concessions will resume day trips to the park, weather permitting.
While the park is closed to recreational activities, ships are permitted to transit park waters. Additionally, safe anchorage is permitted in the Garden Key and Bird Key harbors within the one nautical mile zone of Garden Key. Boaters are advised that no services, emergency or otherwise, will be available and the islands will be closed.
Everglades National Park and its concession operators will remain open. However, the Flamingo campground will close on Saturday night. The Long Pine Key campground is already closed for the summer season. Additionally, no backcountry permits for camping will be issued for Saturday or Sunday. Park visitors should check the weather before coming and exercise caution on roadways inside and leading to the park. Localized flooding is predicted and downed branches are possible.
In order to protect government property and visitor facilities spread across a large geographic area, the Everglades and Dry Tortugas Hurricane Plan calls for preparations to begin at 72 hours before predicted landfall. While this tropical system still has not been named, the forecast has continued to call for it to become Tropical Storm Hermine. All along, the predictions have also indicated that it may spin up quickly. The parks’ Incident Management Team will continue to monitor the storm and adapt plans as needed.
Updates will continue to be available on the parks’ websites and social media channels.
Dry Tortugas National Park - www.nps.gov/drto - click on Alerts
Everglades National Park - www.nps.gov/ever - click on Alerts
This and other park news releases are available at www.nps.gov/ever/parknews/newsreleases.htm
Source: U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service
