Latest / EM Morning Brief / Oregon and Washington Log Worst Fire Season Since 2000; CISA Warns Water Utilities on PLC Attacks; Deadly Flooding Hits New Jersey and New York

Transcript

Oregon and Washington Log Worst Fire Season Since 2000; CISA Warns Water Utilities on PLC Attacks; Deadly Flooding Hits New Jersey and New York · EM Morning Brief

• 0:00
  Good morning.
• 0:00
  I'm Cedric and this is your EM Morning Brief for Friday, July 31, 2026 and today's episode is sponsored by the NIMS store.
• 0:09
  The national wildfire picture remains at preparedness level 5, the highest tier.
• 0:15
  The National Interagency Fire center reports 85 large fires burning across the country, with nine new large incidents and more than 2.8 million acres involved in active fires.
• 0:27
  More than 27,000 firefighters and support personnel are committed nationally.
• 0:31
  The Northwest geographic area also remains at preparedness level 5, with 43 uncontained large fires in Oregon and Washington and 20 complex incident management teams assigned.
• 0:43
  The two states have burned a combined 2.19 million acres this season, officially their worst fire season since at least 2000.
• 0:52
  Official NIFC update published about 24 hours ago in Cyber CISA urges the water and wastewater sector to protect operational technology after threat actors targeting Internet exposed programmable logic controllers, changed passwords to lockout operators and altered device IP addresses.
• 1:12
  The agency says this activity has resulted in boil water notices and sustained manual operations, and it recommends disconnecting PLCs from direct Internet access, enabling password protection and allow listing remote connections.
• 1:26
  The alert, prepared with contributions from EPA and the FBI, follows malicious cyber activity that affected technology at more than 30 community water systems in Minnesota.
• 1:37
  CISA also releases 11 new industrial control Systems advisories covering products from vendors including Mitsubishi Electric Rock, Rockwell Automation and Schneider Electric.
• 1:49
  The most recent addition to the known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog.
• 1:53
  A hard coded password flaw in Cisco Secure Firewall Management center carries a remediation due date of August 1st.
• 2:01
  Official Kev update published about 48 hours ago.
• 2:05
  On the weather side, the Storm Prediction center places parts of the Ozarks and mid Mississippi Valley under a slight risk of severe thunderstorms today with damaging gusts and hail.
• 2:15
  The main threats and the Weather Prediction center highlights a slight risk of excessive rainfall from the upper Midwest into the Ohio Valley.
• 2:24
  Dangerous heat continues across the Southwest with highs of 110 to 120 degrees and widespread major to extreme heat risk across much of the West.
• 2:35
  In the Eastern Pacific, Tropical Storm Genevieve continues to weaken far from land and the Atlantic remains quiet.
• 2:43
  There are no current National Terrorism Advisory System advisories.
• 2:47
  FEMA records show no new disaster declarations in the past 24 hours and the State Department updated its Bangladesh Travel Advisory to Level 2 Exercise increased caution on July 30th.
• 3:00
  Let's run through the states.
• 3:01
  Colorado the Aspen Acres Fire northwest of rye stands at 101,961 acres and 66% containment in the Southwest US 550 between Ouray and Silverton remains closed into Friday as crews clear at least eight mud and rock slide areas left
• 3:19
  by flash flooding off the Gold Mountain fire burn scar earlier in the week.
• 3:24
  Hawaii Kilauea's summit eruption in Halemaumau is paused and the volcano sits at advisory alert level with aviation color code yellow after episode 52 ended early Wednesday.
• 3:36
  The Hawaiian Volcano Observatory reports reinflation at the summit and says another eruptive episode is likely.
• 3:43
  Federal investigators continue working the malicious cyber activity that affected technology at more than 30 community water systems across the state, forcing some utilities to manual operations.
• 3:55
  State officials report no compromise of any water supply and affected cities including South St.
• 4:01
  Paul River, Bram and Plymouth have restored normal or near normal operations.
• 4:06
  Attribution remains unconfirmed.
• 4:08
  The activity is the backdrop for CISA's National Water Sector Alert.
• 4:13
  New Jersey a 10 year old boy died in the rain swollen Passaic river in the city of Passaic after pushing his sister to safety and a search continues for a second child in neighboring Paterson.
• 4:25
  Firefighters rescued about 20 people trapped by rising floodwater.
• 4:30
  Several North Jersey locations recorded a full July's worth of rain.
• 4:35
  NEW York Nearly a foot of rain fell in parts of Columbia and Rensselaer counties in the 48 hours ending Thursday morning, driving water rescues and widespread road closures across the capital region.
• 4:48
  The state Emergency Operations center is activated and state swiftwater rescue teams are deployed in the Hudson Valley.
• 4:56
  Putnam Valley declared a 30 day state of emergency Wednesday evening after up to 4 inches of rain closed numerous roads and bridges, with travel prohibited on six local roads for five days.
• 5:08
  Oregon Oregon remains the center of the national firefight with more than 1.8 million acres burning, roughly 12,000 firefighters assigned and more than 10,000 residents under some level of evacuation.
• 5:22
  The Oregon Department of Human services activates a 247 statewide wildfire hotline at 1-833-699-0554 and the National Weather Service issues a fire weather watch for Saturday across north, central, northeast and southeast Oregon, where gusts to 40 mph and low
• 5:42
  humidity could test lines on the largest fires on the ground.
• 5:46
  The Row Creek complex near Fossil stands at roughly 305,000 acres and 42% containment after evacuation levels were raised on its southern end.
• 5:57
  The Big Grass Fire near the Idaho border is at about 303,000 acres and 15% containment and the Coleman Creek fire near Juntura holds at more than 180,000 acres with no containment.
• 6:11
  The Bench Fire near Warm springs at about 64,400 acres and 22% contained, has destroyed eight homes and five other buildings.
• 6:22
  The northeast corner of Camp Sherman is under a Level three Go now order, and the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs ask residents south of Shittike Creek to conserve water while firefighting draws keep tanks at critical levels.
• 6:36
  Texas the city of Frankston places all water customers under a boil water advisory until further notice due to a potential safety risk during a water system upgrade.
• 6:46
  The city expects to lift the advisory Friday, possibly as late as Monday.
• 6:51
  Utah the Babylon Fire southwest of Monticello reaches 107,189 acres and 95% containment as crews move toward full control.
• 7:02
  Washington the Kaiser Canyon Fire in the Nespelum and Okanogan area stands at 128,212 acres and 27% containment.
• 7:11
  The Sinlahaken Fire in Okanogan county grows to 10,527 acres with no containment and new Level 3 evacuation notices cover homes near Blue and Fish Lakes and along Lamansky, Sinlahecan and Stadler roads.
• 7:25
  In Chelin county, the Little Giant Fire holds at about 25,000 acres with no containment.
• 7:32
  Wisconsin One month remains for survivors of the April 13 to 23 storms and flooding to apply for FEMA individual assistance and SBA disaster loans.
• 7:41
  The deadline is Aug.
• 7:43
  31.
• 7:44
  More than $44.1 million has gone to 16,391 survivors across 19 counties in the Oneida Nation.
• 7:53
  All other states have no significant updates in the last 24 hours.
• 7:57
  Let's check in on the territories.
• 8:00
  Northern Mariana Islands the AJI Seamount remains at advisory alert level with aviation color code yellow.
• 8:07
  The USGS reports no underwater plumes over the past week and confirms that geophysical monitoring data streams interrupted by Typhoon Bavi have been restored.
• 8:17
  All other territories in the District of Colombia have no significant updates in the last 24 hours.
• 8:24
  That wraps today's EM Morning Brief.
• 8:27
  New episodes drop Monday through Friday in the 5am hour PT, so the day starts with clarity instead of catch up.
• 8:35
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• 8:40
  EM Morning Brief is an EOC Voices podcast.
• 8:43
  Stay safe.