Latest / EM Morning Brief / Hawaii declares statewide emergency as three Pacific hurricanes track west; severe storms leave more than a quarter million without power in Michigan

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Hawaii declares statewide emergency as three Pacific hurricanes track west; severe storms leave more than a quarter million without power in Michigan · EM Morning Brief

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  Cedric: Good morning, I'm Cedric and this is your EM Morning Brief for Friday, September 4, 2026.
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  Cedric: This is your final reminder: subscribe now.
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  Cedric: Once EM Morning Brief leaves Substack, the only way to receive new episodes will be through its RSS feed in your favorite podcast player.
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  Cedric: The Central Pacific carries the highest impact national item.
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  Cedric: The Central Pacific Hurricane Center is running advisories on three named systems: Hurricane Karina well east of the Hawaiian Islands, Hurricane Lowell several hundred miles south of the islands, and Hurricane Marie southwest of the southern tip of Baja California.
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  Cedric: Lowell is a Category 4 that briefly reached Category 5 earlier this week.
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  Cedric: Forecasters expect Lowell to stay well south of Hawaii through Saturday, then turn north, bringing it near Kauai and Niihau late Monday into Tuesday.
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  Cedric: No tropical watches or warnings are in effect for Hawaii yet.
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  Cedric: Swells from Lowell are already producing life threatening surf and rip currents along some shores, and those swells increase early next week.
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  Cedric: In the Atlantic, tropical cyclone formation is not expected during the next seven days.
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  Cedric: Wildfire remains at the top of the national resource picture.
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  Cedric: The national preparedness level stays at 5.
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  Cedric: The most recent interagency situation report, published yesterday morning, counts 142 active incidents, 78 uncontained large fires, and 19,102 personnel committed.
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  Cedric: Year to date the country has recorded 52,767 fires and just over 8.2 million acres, which is 125 percent of the ten year average for fire count and 161 percent for acres.
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  Cedric: Personnel are drawing down, off by 1,143 in a single day, as showers and cooler air move into the Pacific Northwest, Northern California and western Idaho.
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  Cedric: The Great Basin into Wyoming and eastern Montana stays dry and breezy.
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  Cedric: Two incident management teams and 212 fireline personnel from Australia and New Zealand are assigned in the Northwest and Great Basin, and five military airtankers are staged in California.
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  Cedric: On the cyber and federal side, CISA published eight new industrial control system advisories yesterday covering OPC Foundation, IXON, Rockwell Automation, Inductive Automation, Pyramid Solutions and Tycon Systems, plus updates to two earlier advisories and a joint G7 call to
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  Cedric: action on post quantum cryptography.
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  Cedric: Seven vulnerabilities added to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on Wednesday carry federal remediation deadlines of tomorrow, September 5, and five of them require forensic triage.
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  Cedric: That is an official update published roughly 48 hours ago, and it still governs agency action today.
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  Cedric: Let's run through the States.
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  Cedric: Hawaii: Governor Josh Green signs a statewide emergency proclamation yesterday covering Hurricane Lowell, Hurricane Karina and Tropical Storm Marie, while the state continues recovering from Tropical Cyclone Lala.
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  Cedric: The proclamation activates Hawaii National Guard units, activates the Major Disaster Fund, suspends the ten million dollar single emergency spending cap, and streamlines procurement, permitting and hiring.
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  Cedric: Six high water vehicles are moving to Kauai.
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  Cedric: The proclamation does not order evacuations, impose a curfew, or close schools, businesses or government offices.
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  Cedric: The relief period runs through November 1.
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  Cedric: Forecasters expect east winds of 25 to 35 miles per hour with gusts to 55 for Maui County and Hawaii island, and 20 to 30 with gusts to 50 for Oahu.
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  Cedric: Emergency managers on the westernmost islands have the weekend to complete preparations before the Monday night window.
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  Cedric: Washington: Four large fires have evacuations and closures in effect.
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  Cedric: Little Giant, northwest of Leavenworth, stands at 170,784 acres and 65 percent containment with 26 structures lost and 1,620 personnel assigned.
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  Cedric: Two hundred forty soldiers from Joint Base Lewis McChord are deployed in support, with an incident management organization assigned to the military contingent.
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  Cedric: Sinlahekin, one mile west of Tonasket, is at 166,290 acres and 38 percent containment with 30 structures lost and continued wind driven runs threatening residences.
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  Cedric: Three Queens, east of Snoqualmie Pass, is at 9,364 acres and 8 percent containment, threatening numerous residences and critical infrastructure.
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  Cedric: The Goat fire north of Ronald remains at zero containment with evacuations in place.
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  Cedric: Precipitation fell over several of the western fires yesterday.
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  Cedric: Michigan: Southeast Michigan absorbs two rounds of severe storms, one overnight Wednesday into Thursday and a second Thursday afternoon, with multiple tornado warnings across Wayne, Oakland, Livingston, Washtenaw and Macomb counties, wind gusts of 60 to 70 miles per hour,
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  Cedric: and two inch hail.
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  Cedric: As of this morning Michigan leads the nation with roughly 258,000 customers without power, about 5 percent of the state, with DTE Energy accounting for nearly 241,000.
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  Cedric: Oakland County is at about 98,000 customers out, Wayne at about 67,000, Washtenaw at about 31,000, and Livingston at about 28,000, or roughly 31 percent of that county.
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  Cedric: Schools closed across four counties, and state officials reported interstate closures from storm flooding.
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  Cedric: Texas: The remnants of Tropical Storm Edouard continue to drive flooding across the southeast corner of the state.
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  Cedric: A flood warning from the Lake Charles forecast office remains in effect for Hardin County and northwestern Jefferson County until 7:30 tonight, with water moving down Village Creek and the Pine Island Bayou system and numerous roads closed.
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  Cedric: About 30,000 customers remain without power, concentrated in Jefferson, Hardin and Orange counties.
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  Cedric: Separately, the President approved a major disaster declaration for July severe storms and flooding, activating public assistance for 19 counties.
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  Cedric: Requests for individual assistance in 30 counties and hazard mitigation funding statewide remain pending.
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  Cedric: Oregon: The McCully fire northwest of Baker City has active evacuations and closures, with 13,479 acres, 6 percent containment, one structure lost, and just over 1,000 personnel assigned.
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  Cedric: Fire behavior includes group torching and spotting, and numerous residences and communication infrastructure are threatened.
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  Cedric: Level 3 go now orders cover parts of Grant County.
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  Cedric: On the Mount Hood National Forest, the closure order for the Austin and Narrows fires has been expanded and Clackamas County maintains a Level 3 notice.
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  Cedric: Austin is at 12,610 acres and 8 percent containment.
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  Cedric: We have more to cover this morning, but first, a quick word from our sponsors.
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  Cedric: Thanks for supporting our sponsors who help make EM Morning Brief possible.
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  Cedric: Now, back to this morning’s updates.
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  Cedric: California: The Plaskett fire southwest of Big Sur is the largest personnel build in the country, adding 260 people to reach 1,668 assigned, at 29,123 acres and 1 percent containment.
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  Cedric: Evacuation orders remain for seven Plaskett zones and 13 Timber zones, with warnings across roughly 34 additional zones including three in San Luis Obispo County.
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  Cedric: Monterey County lifted the northern Highway 1 closure yesterday morning, while the California Highway Patrol holds a hard closure from Pacific Valley south to the county line.
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  Cedric: A temporary shelter in Carmel closed at midday, and a Cambria facility remains on standby.
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  Cedric: Maryland: Overnight storms with gusts near 70 miles per hour toppled trees onto homes and roads across the Washington metropolitan area.
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  Cedric: As of 5:00 this morning Pepco reported more than 25,000 customers out in Prince George's County.
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  Cedric: Prince George's County Public Schools closed all schools today because a large number of buildings and offices lost power.
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  Cedric: Another round of storms is forecast for the area.
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  Cedric: Pennsylvania: The City of Erie is under a locally declared state of emergency after overnight severe thunderstorms with gusts near 60 miles per hour downed trees and utility poles, blocked roadways, and cut power to nearly 20,000 Penelec customers in
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  Cedric: Erie County, including about 40 percent of city customers.
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  Cedric: Erie Public Schools, the county courthouse and Presque Isle closed.
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  Cedric: City officials urged residents to stay off roads and treat dark traffic signals as four way stops.
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  Cedric: Flash flood warnings also covered the state's western counties yesterday evening.
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  Cedric: Alaska: A magnitude 6.3 earthquake struck at 3:17 yesterday morning Alaska time, 84 kilometers south southwest of Nikolski in the Fox Islands, at a depth of 35 kilometers.
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  Cedric: The National Tsunami Warning Center evaluated the event and issued no tsunami warning, advisory or watch.
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  Cedric: USGS issued a green shaking alert with roughly 5,000 people estimated to have felt weak shaking, and an aftershock sequence in the magnitude 4.5 to 5.5 range has continued through this morning.
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  Cedric: No damage is reported.
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  Cedric: Kansas: The President approved two major disaster declarations for June severe storms, straight line winds, tornadoes and flooding.
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  Cedric: Public assistance is approved for 43 counties plus the Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska and the Kickapoo Tribe in Kansas.
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  Cedric: Separately, the Small Business Administration published a disaster declaration for the August 18 and 19 storms in Wyandotte County and contiguous counties, with a physical damage loan deadline of November 2 and an economic injury deadline of June 1, 2027.
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  Cedric: A grass fire near Towanda in Butler County prompted home evacuations yesterday afternoon.
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  Cedric: Missouri: Extreme heat warnings went out overnight from three forecast offices.
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  Cedric: The Kansas City office issued a warning at 4:18 this morning running through 8:00 p.m.
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  Cedric: Monday for parts of central, north central, northwest and west central Missouri, with heat index values of 100 to 110.
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  Cedric: Iowa and Illinois: An extreme heat warning issued at 2:37 this morning covers east central and southeast Iowa and northwest and west central Illinois through 7:00 p.m.
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  Cedric: Saturday, with heat index values of 100 to 110.
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  Cedric: New York: Flash flood warnings covered Erie County and neighboring counties last evening.
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  Cedric: Streets and basements flooded in Buffalo, Kenmore, Amherst, Cheektowaga and West Seneca as wastewater treatment plants were overwhelmed, producing sewage backups.
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  Cedric: Massachusetts: The Town of Maynard declared a five day state of water emergency and banned all outdoor water use after a main break drained roughly 1.5 million gallons, about a third of the town's stored water.
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  Cedric: The water remains safe to drink, though residents may see low pressure or discoloration.
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  Cedric: Virginia: A flash flood warning covered Arlington, Fairfax, Alexandria and Falls Church overnight after emergency management reported multiple water rescues with vehicles stalled in high water.
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  Cedric: Rainfall rates reached one to two inches per half hour.
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  Cedric: New Jersey and Delaware: A flood warning issued yesterday morning covered northern New Castle County and four southern New Jersey counties for urban and small stream flooding.
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  Cedric: Up to seven inches fell in some New Jersey neighborhoods and the shoulder of Route 322 was undermined.
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  Cedric: West Virginia: Flash flood warnings covered the Weirton area yesterday afternoon and evening with one to two inches fallen and multiple roads reported flooded.
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  Cedric: Idaho: The Department of Lands closed seven trails yesterday afternoon for the Crooked fire northeast of Idaho City.
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  Cedric: The fire is at roughly 9,900 acres and about 21 percent containment with about 600 personnel assigned, and the closures add to Forest Service orders running through the end of the year.
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  Cedric: Arizona: The Mount Emma fire in Grand Canyon National Park remains at 368 acres and zero containment with structures threatened.
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  Cedric: Showers and thunderstorms continue across the southeast corner of the state.
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  Cedric: South Carolina: West Columbia issued a boil water advisory after a main break affecting the 700 and 800 blocks of B Avenue and part of South Marble Street.
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  Cedric: Georgia: Hinesville issued a boil water advisory for city system customers after a main break on Highway 84 dropped pressure across part of the system.
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  Cedric: Florida: Lynn Haven issued a precautionary boil water notice after a two inch main break interrupted service yesterday afternoon, and the city says the affected area could expand during repairs.
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  Cedric: All other states have no significant updates in the last 24 hours.
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  Cedric: Let’s talk territories.
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  Cedric: District of Columbia: A flash flood warning covered the District overnight alongside northern Virginia after reports of multiple water rescues.
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  Cedric: Pepco reported more than 15,000 customers out in the District as of 5:00 this morning, and another round of storms is in the forecast.
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  Cedric: All other territories have no significant updates in the last 24 hours.
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  Cedric: That wraps today's EM Morning Brief.
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  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.
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  Cedric: Subscribe and follow on your favorite podcast player.
• 14:11
  Cedric: EM Morning Brief is an EOC Voices Podcast.
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  Cedric: Stay Safe.