Tropical Storm Bertha nears Louisiana landfall; wildfires hold at Preparedness Level 5 with 74 large fires; Northeast cleans up after flooding as extreme heat grips Texas

EM Morning Brief · Jul 22, 2026 · 8m · transcript

Tropical Storm Bertha closes in on a Wednesday night landfall in coastal Louisiana, with tropical storm warnings from the Florida Panhandle to the Terrebonne and Lafourche Parish line, 2 to 4 feet of surge possible near the mouth of the Mississippi River, and Louisiana’s State Emergency Operations Center on 24 hour operations. The nation holds at wildfire Preparedness Level 5 with 74 large fires, led by major evacuations in central Oregon and dozens of new lightning starts in northwest Montana. CISA adds four actively exploited vulnerabilities to its KEV catalog, the Northeast cleans up after…