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Flash Flood Warnings and Urban Search‑and‑Rescue Deployments Across the Southwest · EM Morning Brief

• 0:00
  Cedric: Good morning, I'm Cedric and this is your EM Morning Brief for Wednesday, September 30, 2026.
• 0:06
  Cedric: The remnants of Hurricane Polo are driving the day's largest life safety operation.
• 0:12
  Cedric: The National Weather Service in Albuquerque carries flash flood warnings, flood warnings, flood advisories and a flood watch across New Mexico this morning, after warnings ran through Tuesday night in Curry, Quay and Roosevelt counties.
• 0:26
  Cedric: Two federal urban search and rescue teams are working in the state.
• 0:31
  Cedric: Nevada Task Force 1 arrived Tuesday with 45 members and multiple boats on a deployment of up to two weeks, and Oklahoma Task Force 1 brought two swiftwater rescue teams out of Oklahoma City and Tulsa.
• 0:45
  Cedric: New Mexico National Guard swiftwater personnel and light medium tactical vehicles, rated to cross three feet of water, are pre-positioned statewide.
• 0:54
  Cedric: The same moisture plume is spreading into Arizona and Texas.
• 0:57
  Cedric: Maricopa County crews ran three water rescues Tuesday, including a man pulled from the roof of a vehicle caught in a wash.
• 1:05
  Cedric: El Paso activated its Emergency Operations Center at Level 3 and opened five free sandbag sites.
• 1:11
  Cedric: Texas keeps its State Operations Center on 24 hour operations with more than 1,900 state responders and over 1,500 pieces of equipment staged for flood response.
• 1:23
  Cedric: (Official update published about 34 hours ago.)
• 1:27
  Cedric: On the federal side, CISA added CVE-2026-86950, an out of bounds write affecting multiple Apple products, to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on Tuesday, and published seven industrial control system advisories the same day covering MikroTik RouterOS, Lantronix cellular gateways,
• 1:46
  Cedric: VIVOTEK camera firmware, Toptech terminal automation and three connected device lines.
• 1:52
  Cedric: The U.S.
• 1:53
  Cedric: Embassy in Bogota issued a security alert Tuesday on elevated risk of attacks in Colombia's Norte de Santander department.
• 2:01
  Cedric: Let's run through the states.
• 2:03
  Cedric: Arizona.
• 2:05
  Cedric: A Flood Watch covers Maricopa and Pinal counties as Polo's moisture moves north.
• 2:10
  Cedric: Phoenix area crews handled three rescues Tuesday: a box truck swept into a wash with the driver escaping on his own, a motorist removed from a flooded roadway, and a man recovered from the roof of a vehicle trapped in
• 2:22
  Cedric: rushing water.
• 2:23
  Cedric: Parts of the Phoenix metro took more than an inch of rain in 24 hours, and the Weather Service issued flash flood warnings for isolated areas.
• 2:33
  Cedric: California.
• 2:34
  Cedric: The Dome Fire in Yosemite National Park, Mariposa County, stands at 5,291 acres and 31 percent containment on Cal Fire's incident page as of Tuesday evening.
• 2:45
  Cedric: The national situation report lists 5,259 acres at the same containment, and the small difference reflects different reporting cutoffs.
• 2:54
  Cedric: The Chilnualna Falls Trail and areas near the fire are closed, the park remains open, and smoke is affecting El Portal and Wawona.
• 3:02
  Cedric: The Timber Fire is at 25,349 acres and 88 percent contained with numerous structures still threatened.
• 3:10
  Cedric: Florida.
• 3:12
  Cedric: NWS Key West carried a Coastal Flood Warning from Tuesday afternoon through 7 a.m.
• 3:16
  Cedric: Wednesday, and the 3 Alpha Sierra fire is at 330 acres and 16 percent contained.
• 3:23
  Cedric: Hawaii.
• 3:23
  Cedric: Hurricane Nolo, a Category 2 storm with 100 mph winds, sat about 310 miles west of Lihue on Tuesday moving north at 8 mph, and the National Hurricane Center carries a Tropical Storm Watch for part of the Papahanaumokuakea Marine
• 3:38
  Cedric: National Monument.
• 3:40
  Cedric: Kauai and Niihau face periods of heavy rain into the weekend, with 4 to 6 inches forecast for Kokee, Waimea, Koloa and interior areas and 3 to 4 inches for Niihau.
• 3:51
  Cedric: Flooding and mudslides are possible in steep terrain, and west side gusts reach 30 to 40 mph.
• 3:58
  Cedric: We have more to cover this morning, but first, a quick word from our sponsors.
• 4:04
  Cedric: Thanks for supporting our sponsors who help make EM Morning Brief possible.
• 4:08
  Cedric: Now, back to this morning’s updates.
• 4:11
  Cedric: Maryland.
• 4:11
  Cedric: WSSC Water is holding an essential water use only request for all 1.9 million customers in Montgomery and Prince George's counties.
• 4:20
  Cedric: The Potomac Water Filtration Plant, which supplies roughly 70 to 75 percent of the system, lost its only active power feed at about 4:30 a.m.
• 4:29
  Cedric: Tuesday.
• 4:30
  Cedric: A second feed had been out since mid September for Pepco maintenance.
• 4:35
  Cedric: Pepco restored that feed by about noon, internal electrical problems delayed the restart, and the plant returned to normal operations at about 3:45 p.m.
• 4:44
  Cedric: WSSC Water says drinking water remains safe, reports no indication of a cyberattack, and asks customers to skip outdoor watering, laundry, dishwashers and routine flushing while storage refills.
• 4:57
  Cedric: The utility plans to reassess Wednesday morning.
• 5:01
  Cedric: New Mexico.
• 5:01
  Cedric: Socorro County declared an emergency and urged residents to shelter in place, with many roads impassable.
• 5:08
  Cedric: Chaco Canyon is closed Tuesday and Wednesday after a major road collapse on County Road 7900, with Thursday the earliest reopening.
• 5:17
  Cedric: At least four roads in southern New Mexico closed Tuesday for standing water, and the Radium Springs arroyo overflowed, inundating Highway 185.
• 5:27
  Cedric: Clovis, which took roughly 10 inches of rain last week, plans an emergency declaration Thursday.
• 5:33
  Cedric: The Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District reports heavy strain on irrigation and drainage infrastructure.
• 5:39
  Cedric: In Bernalillo County, curbside trash collection is paused and Waste Management landfills are closed.
• 5:46
  Cedric: Oklahoma.
• 5:47
  Cedric: The Honey Fire is at 333 acres and 80 percent contained with structures threatened, and the Stone Bridge Fire is at 175 acres and 80 percent contained with residences threatened.
• 5:59
  Cedric: Texas.
• 6:00
  Cedric: El Paso is the focus.
• 6:01
  Cedric: The city's Office of Emergency Management activated its Emergency Operations Center at Level 3 on Tuesday, a posture it calls increased readiness, and El Paso Water and El Paso County are running five free sandbag distribution sites.
• 6:16
  Cedric: A Flood Watch ran through 6 a.m.
• 6:18
  Cedric: Wednesday alongside a Wind Advisory, and city crews worked 15 weather related incidents Monday.
• 6:24
  Cedric: El Paso Electric reported about 17,758 customers without power Tuesday afternoon across nearly 50 separate outages caused by severe thunderstorms, with restoration estimated for 7:45 p.m.
• 6:39
  Cedric: The Weather Service expects the heavy rain threat to expand from Far West Texas across most of the state through midweek, and a magnitude 3.1 earthquake struck near Stanton early Wednesday.
• 6:50
  Cedric: Washington.
• 6:52
  Cedric: A magnitude 4.2 earthquake hit about four miles west northwest of Wauna, near Gig Harbor, on Tuesday afternoon.
• 6:59
  Cedric: Shaking was felt across the Puget Sound region and briefly paused a Seattle City Council meeting.
• 7:04
  Cedric: No damage or injuries are reported, and USGS puts the chance of a magnitude 3 aftershock within a week at 37 percent.
• 7:12
  Cedric: On the fire side, the Sisi Fire is at 4,325 acres and 15 percent contained with residences threatened, and the Three Queens Fire in Kittitas County is at 9,575 acres and 33 percent contained with critical infrastructure threatened.
• 7:30
  Cedric: That wraps today's EM Morning Brief.
• 7:32
  Cedric: New episodes drop Monday through Friday in the 5:00 AM hour P.T., so the day starts with clarity instead of catch-up.
• 7:39
  Cedric: Follow on your favorite podcast player.
• 7:41
  Cedric: EM Morning Brief is an EOC Voices Podcast.
• 7:44
  Cedric: Stay Safe.