Latest / EM Morning Brief / Preparedness Level 5 holds with 94 uncontained large fires; CISA adds three exploited vulnerabilities with Sunday federal deadlines

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Preparedness Level 5 holds with 94 uncontained large fires; CISA adds three exploited vulnerabilities with Sunday federal deadlines · EM Morning Brief

• 0:00
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• 0:04
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• 0:08
  Cedric: Good morning, I’m Cedric and this is your EM Morning Brief for Friday, August 28, 2026.
• 0:15
  Cedric: The country remains at National Preparedness Level 5.
• 0:19
  Cedric: Thursday’s national situation report counts 94 uncontained large fires and 21,854 personnel committed, down about 500 from the day before.
• 0:29
  Cedric: Year to date, 51,434 fires have burned just under 8 million acres, 164 percent of the ten year average.
• 0:38
  Cedric: Sixteen states have large fires, led by Oregon and Washington with 16 each.
• 0:43
  Cedric: Two international incident management teams and 212 fireline personnel from Australia and New Zealand are assigned to the Northwest and Great Basin, and 240 soldiers from Joint Base Lewis-McChord are working the Little Giant Fire in Washington.
• 0:59
  Cedric: Predictive Services forecasts west-southwest winds gusting 35 to 45 miles per hour with humidity of 5 to 20 percent today, with locally critical conditions from northeast California and northwest Nevada into southeast Oregon and southwest Idaho.
• 1:17
  Cedric: Thursday’s severe weather concentrated in the mid-Atlantic.
• 1:20
  Cedric: Flash flooding hit central and southern New Jersey, and Philadelphia International Airport went under a ground stop that produced 391 delays and 254 cancellations by 9 p.m.
• 1:32
  Cedric: In the Southwest, Extreme Heat Warnings run through Saturday evening for parts of southwest Arizona and southeast California, with afternoon highs forecast at 106 to 116 degrees.
• 1:44
  Cedric: In the Atlantic, Tropical Storm Dolly is moving west across the central basin at 24 miles per hour with 40 mile per hour winds.
• 1:54
  Cedric: There are no watches or warnings for any U.S.
• 1:56
  Cedric: territory, and the Hurricane Center expects Dolly to lose tropical structure before reaching the Leeward Islands.
• 2:04
  Cedric: On the cyber side, CISA added three vulnerabilities to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog Thursday, with federal remediation due Sunday for the ownCloud and Linux kernel entries.
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  Cedric: CISA also published five industrial control system advisories Thursday.
• 2:21
  Cedric: Two matter for this audience: a fuel management system flaw tagged to the emergency services sector, where fixes are not planned for two product variants, and a communications test set flaw affecting the energy and water sectors.
• 2:34
  Cedric: The Department of Homeland Security has no active National Terrorism Advisory System bulletin.
• 2:40
  Cedric: The State Department updated travel advisories for Bahrain, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Ethiopia on Thursday.
• 2:48
  Cedric: Let’s run through the states.
• 2:50
  Cedric: Alabama: The Sumter County Water Authority issued a boil water notice Thursday afternoon after a power outage affected the water system.
• 2:57
  Cedric: It covers Ward, Sumter 9, Highway 17 South, Whitfield, Highway 80, and Bellamy, and stays in effect until the authority lifts it.
• 3:07
  Cedric: Alaska: The Mukluk Fire near Tok is in mop up around structures, with roughly 250 firefighters working impacted neighborhoods.
• 3:16
  Cedric: Great Sitkin remains at Watch and Orange with slow lava effusion inside the summit crater.
• 3:21
  Cedric: Shishaldin and Kupreanof are at Advisory and Yellow.
• 3:24
  Cedric: No Alaska volcano changed alert level.
• 3:28
  Cedric: Arizona: Extreme Heat Warnings cover Gila, Graham, Greenlee, La Paz, Maricopa, Pima, Pinal, and Yuma counties through Saturday, with highs to 119 degrees.
• 3:39
  Cedric: The Maricopa County Heat Relief Network is operating its standing seasonal network of more than 200 sites.
• 3:45
  Cedric: No new local heat emergency was declared in the window.
• 3:49
  Cedric: Arkansas: The Pine Tree Road Fire in Union County reached 100 percent containment Thursday at 2,102 acres.
• 3:56
  Cedric: At its peak the fire forced about 150 evacuations.
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  Cedric: No homes were lost and no injuries were reported.
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  Cedric: California: Two Monterey County fires are driving evacuations.
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  Cedric: The Plaskett Fire in Los Padres National Forest grew to about 1,700 acres Thursday, with new evacuation orders and a full closure of Highway 1 from north of Gorda to a point south of Old Coast Road, with no reopening
• 4:22
  Cedric: estimate.
• 4:24
  Cedric: On the Timber Fire, now near 19,300 acres at 21 percent containment, the county upgraded several zones and added shelter in place orders at 1 p.m.
• 4:34
  Cedric: Thursday to support firing operations, with a hard Highway 1 closure between mileposts 42.6 and 50.
• 4:41
  Cedric: No public safety power shutoffs are active anywhere in the state.
• 4:46
  Cedric: Colorado: The state emergency operations center remains at Response Level 2 with all community lifelines stable.
• 4:53
  Cedric: The Aspen Acres Fire in Custer and Pueblo counties is at 102,004 acres and 82 percent contained, up five points from Wednesday.
• 5:02
  Cedric: The Elk Fire in Hinsdale County is at 7,257 acres and 46 percent.
• 5:08
  Cedric: A flood watch remains over the Aspen Acres burn scar.
• 5:12
  Cedric: Hawaii: Kilauea is at Advisory and Yellow, not erupting, with the summit eruption paused after Monday’s fountaining episode.
• 5:20
  Cedric: The observatory reports its monitoring network is mostly recovered from recent power and storm related outages.
• 5:27
  Cedric: Hurricane Lala recovery continues on Hawaii Island, with the emergency shelter at Naalehu Elementary still open and Highway 11 access to Pahala and Naalehu limited to emergency and essential travel.
• 5:40
  Cedric: Idaho: Lemhi County ordered evacuations Thursday evening for the Fourth of July drainage and Kriley Gulch after the Cherry Fire started along U.S.
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  Cedric: 93 between Salmon and North Fork.
• 5:52
  Cedric: Deputies went door to door.
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  Cedric: The fire was about 40 acres at the time of the order.
• 5:58
  Cedric: Separately, the Blaine County Sheriff lowered the Wildhorse Fire evacuation near Carey from Go Now to Set Thursday morning as conditions improved.
• 6:06
  Cedric: The Wildhorse Fire is above 74,000 acres at roughly 10 percent containment.
• 6:13
  Cedric: Indiana: Federal mobile registration intake centers open today for survivors of the August 11 storms, derecho, and flooding covered by the major disaster declaration.
• 6:23
  Cedric: Sites are open in Marion, Delaware, Fayette, Franklin, and Lake counties.
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  Cedric: No appointment and no documents are required to register.
• 6:32
  Cedric: State emergency management notes permanent recovery centers are still being sited, so these are registration events, not full service centers.
• 6:40
  Cedric: Replacement food assistance affidavits are due Monday.
• 6:44
  Cedric: Mississippi: The City of Meridian issued a precautionary boil water notice Thursday morning for north Meridian, bounded roughly by Highway 493, North Hills Street, 13th Place, 11th Avenue, and Poplar Springs Drive.
• 6:59
  Cedric: Crews are collecting samples and the notice holds until testing clears.
• 7:04
  Cedric: We have more to cover this morning, but first, a quick word from our sponsors.
• 7:09
  Cedric: Thanks for supporting our sponsors who help make EM Morning Brief possible.
• 7:13
  Cedric: Now, back to this morning’s updates.
• 7:16
  Cedric: Montana: The Sand Creek Fire in Beaverhead County is at 33,690 acres and 11 percent contained, with evacuations in effect and numerous structures threatened.
• 7:27
  Cedric: Four structures have been lost.
• 7:30
  Cedric: Nebraska: Thursday evening storms produced measured gusts of 74 miles per hour at Callaway and 70 miles per hour south of Lexington, with tree and property damage and power outages in northern Lexington.
• 7:43
  Cedric: A brief landspout was reported north of Mullen.
• 7:46
  Cedric: No emergency declarations resulted.
• 7:49
  Cedric: Nevada: Washoe County lifted all remaining Hawk Fire evacuation warnings Thursday and reopened affected roads.
• 7:56
  Cedric: The fire is holding at 15,085 acres and 93 percent contained, with 48 structures lost.
• 8:03
  Cedric: A Forest Service closure remains over the burn area, and the state demobilized its Task Force 1 canine search team.
• 8:11
  Cedric: New Jersey: This was the hardest hit state Thursday.
• 8:15
  Cedric: Flash flooding put near waist high water on North Avenue in Elizabeth, stranding and disabling vehicles, with the city setting a deadline to move stalled cars before impoundment.
• 8:27
  Cedric: Floodwater closed multiple roads around Glassboro and entered several buildings on the Rowan University campus, damaging vehicles in parking lots and flooding a residence hall lobby.
• 8:37
  Cedric: Delsea Drive near Pitman Downer Road was impassable Thursday evening, and Gloucester City residents reported water rising three to four feet on King Street.
• 8:46
  Cedric: The National Weather Service had forecast one to two inches with localized three to five inches and rates of one to three inches per hour.
• 8:55
  Cedric: Water had receded in most areas by Friday morning.
• 8:59
  Cedric: New Mexico: The Frijoles Fire in the Santa Fe National Forest is at 15,288 acres and 59 percent contained, with evacuations in effect and residences and communications infrastructure threatened.
• 9:14
  Cedric: The City of Texico lifted its boil water notice Thursday afternoon after repairs in the Upper Canyon area.
• 9:20
  Cedric: New York: New York City Emergency Management issued a travel advisory for all five boroughs through 11 p.m.
• 9:27
  Cedric: Thursday, with a flood watch citywide and a flash flood warning for Staten Island.
• 9:33
  Cedric: Staten Island Railway service was suspended between Huguenot and Tottenville because of flooding near Richmond Valley.
• 9:40
  Cedric: The city advised basement apartment residents to prepare to move to higher ground.
• 9:46
  Cedric: Oregon: The Clackamas County Sheriff issued a Level 3 Go Now order Thursday for the area east of Fish Creek as the Austin and Narrows fires burned uncontained, and Highway 224 closed east of Fish Creek.
• 9:58
  Cedric: The Mount Hood National Forest expanded its emergency closure to include Highway 224 and forest roads 46, 57, 63, and 70.
• 10:09
  Cedric: The Austin Fire is above 9,000 acres at zero percent containment.
• 10:14
  Cedric: Evacuations also remain in effect on the Hagen, Paradise, and McCully fires, while Wasco and Klamath counties eased levels on the Grasshopper and Wrights Spring fires.
• 10:24
  Cedric: Governor Kotek surveyed the fires Thursday and released National Guard figures for the season: about 100 personnel across 35 days, roughly 390 flight hours, and about 1.4 million gallons of water dropped.
• 10:39
  Cedric: Pennsylvania: The ground stop at Philadelphia International Airport ran for hours Thursday, and flight tracking showed 391 delays and 254 cancellations by 9 p.m.
• 10:52
  Cedric: A severe thunderstorm watch covering Berks, Lehigh, Northampton, Carbon, Monroe, and Chester counties was extended to 10 p.m., and a flood watch covered the Philadelphia metro through late Thursday night.
• 11:04
  Cedric: South Carolina: West Columbia issued a boil water advisory Thursday morning after a water main break on Sunset Boulevard.
• 11:11
  Cedric: It covers Sunset Boulevard from 1500 to 1920, plus Gambrell Street, Jones Avenue, Hammonds Hill Drive, Sabal Drive, and Kay Koon Lane.
• 11:22
  Cedric: This is the second break in two days.
• 11:24
  Cedric: The prior advisory was lifted Wednesday.
• 11:27
  Cedric: Texas: The Ross Fire in Palo Pinto and Jack counties reached at least 85,000 acres at 26 percent containment as of Thursday night, making it the second largest wildfire in North Texas history behind the 2011 Possum Kingdom Complex.
• 11:43
  Cedric: Jack County lifted its mandatory evacuation Wednesday, and voluntary advisories remain in both counties.
• 11:50
  Cedric: U.S.
• 11:50
  Cedric: 180 has reopened, and a temporary flight restriction stays over the fire area.
• 11:55
  Cedric: Four to five structures are reported damaged, with catastrophic damage to buildings at a Scouting America ranch property.
• 12:02
  Cedric: No injuries have been reported.
• 12:05
  Cedric: Washington: The Little Giant Fire in Chelan County is the largest committed operation in the country at 149,863 acres and 23 percent containment, with 2,076 personnel, evacuations in effect, and 26 structures lost.
• 12:22
  Cedric: The Sinlahekin Fire in Okanogan County grew about 1,200 acres to 156,699 at 56 percent, with crowning and long range spotting and 30 structures lost.
• 12:33
  Cedric: Three Queens, Grand Park 2, Goat, and the Wonderland Complex also have evacuations in effect.
• 12:40
  Cedric: Separately, Governor Ferguson and the Department of Commerce stood up a state donations coordination operation Thursday for Chelan, Ferry, Okanogan, Spokane, Stevens, and Yakima counties and for the Yakama Nation, the Colville Tribes, and the Spokane Tribe.
• 12:55
  Cedric: Only new, unopened items are being accepted, and the public intake channel is 211.
• 13:01
  Cedric: Wisconsin: Monday, August 31, is the deadline to apply for federal individual assistance or a Small Business Administration disaster loan for the April 13 to 23 storms and flooding.
• 13:14
  Cedric: Nineteen counties and the Oneida Nation are eligible.
• 13:17
  Cedric: All other states have no significant updates in the last 24 hours.
• 13:22
  Cedric: Let’s run through the territories.
• 13:24
  Cedric: Puerto Rico and the U.S.
• 13:26
  Cedric: Virgin Islands: There are no tropical cyclone watches or warnings in effect.
• 13:32
  Cedric: The Hurricane Center’s key messages note that heavy rain from Dolly or its remnants could reach the Leeward Islands late Saturday into Sunday, with possible impacts in the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, and Hispaniola Sunday and Monday.
• 13:46
  Cedric: Forecasters say considerable uncertainty remains on rainfall coverage and amounts.
• 13:50
  Cedric: The northeastern Caribbean is in severe to extreme drought, which raises runoff risk on hardened soils.
• 13:58
  Cedric: On St.
• 13:58
  Cedric: Croix, the Water and Power Authority reported Thursday that a new leak at Catherine’s Rest drew down the Kingshill storage tank and returned low or no pressure to gravity fed service areas as far down system as Frederiksted.
• 14:11
  Cedric: The authority is adjusting water hauler hours to hold pump station pressure and is asking customers to avoid cistern filling and other high volume draws.
• 14:21
  Cedric: Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands: The Weather Service in Guam advised Thursday that neither Tropical Depression 20W nor Invest 91W poses a threat to Guam, the Commonwealth, the Federated States, or the Marshall Islands.
• 14:36
  Cedric: Both will sustain the regional monsoon pattern.
• 14:39
  Cedric: Ahyi Seamount in the Northern Marianas remains at Advisory and Yellow with no signs of unrest.
• 14:45
  Cedric: The Small Business Administration’s business recovery center in Susupe closes permanently at the end of business today, though online applications continue and the economic injury loan deadline remains January 25, 2027.
• 15:01
  Cedric: The Commonwealth Healthcare Corporation extended the Emergency Prescription Assistance Program through September 30.
• 15:08
  Cedric: All other territories and the District of Columbia have no significant updates in the last 24 hours.
• 15:15
  Cedric: That wraps today’s EM Morning Brief.
• 15:17
  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.
• 15:25
  Cedric: Subscribe on the Emergency Management Network on Substack, or follow on your favorite podcast player.
• 15:31
  Cedric: EM Morning Brief is an EOC Voices Podcast.
• 15:34
  Cedric: Stay Safe.