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National Preparedness Level 5; Northeast flash flooding; Idaho declares disaster on Big Grass Fire · EM Morning Brief

• 0:30
  Good morning.
• 0:30
  I'm Cedric and This is your EM Morning Brief for Thursday, July 30, 2026 and today's episode is sponsored by the NIMS store.
• 0:39
  The nation remains at Preparedness Level 5, the highest level on the scale.
• 0:44
  The National Interagency Fire center reports heavy initial attack activity with 309 new fires in the latest reporting period.
• 0:52
  Firefighters are working to suppress 84 large fires across the country, including nine new large incidents.
• 0:59
  A total of 26,036 firefighters and support personnel are engaged nationwide.
• 1:05
  The Northwest geographic area remains the center of activity at its own preparedness level 5, with 45 uncontained large fires and 18 complex incident management teams assigned in Oregon and Washington.
• 1:19
  International support includes an incident management team and fireline personnel from Australia and New Zealand and four military MAF FS air tankers are staged at Klamath Falls, Oregon and Redding, California.
• 1:33
  In the east, slow moving storms produce major flash flooding from the Catskills to the Capital Region of New York and across New Jersey, Pennsylvania and New England.
• 1:43
  Rainfall totals reach 5 to 10 inches in parts of New York with county emergency declarations, evacuations, water rescues and an Amtrak Hudson Line suspension.
• 1:53
  Two storm related deaths are reported in New Jersey.
• 1:57
  In the middle of the country, extreme heat keeps the grid under stress.
• 2:01
  A federal section 202 emergency order directing Southwest Power Pool to run needed generation remains in effect through August 3rd.
• 2:10
  Heat advisories cover much of north and Central Texas and Jacksonville, Florida activates emergency cooling centers.
• 2:18
  On the cyber front, CISA adds one known exploited vulnerability to its catalog CVE2026 23116 a static credential flaw in Cisco Secure Firewall Management center that is being actively exploited in the Pacific.
• 2:34
  Episode 52 of the Kilauea Summit eruption ends early Wednesday after about 7.4 hours of lava fountaining that reached roughly 500ft and the observatory says episode 53 is likely.
• 2:46
  The Atlantic is quiet with no development expected for seven days.
• 2:51
  Hurricane Genevieve is weakening in the East Pacific, far from land and post Tropical.
• 2:55
  Fausto passes north of Hawaii, keeping dangerous surf on east facing shores.
• 3:01
  Let's run through the States.
• 3:04
  The Raleigh fire starts Wednesday afternoon near Aubrey in Fresno county and triggers evacuation orders for three zones.
• 3:11
  Cal Fire stops forward progress at approximately 30 acres with 20% containment.
• 3:17
  Two structures are destroyed and evacuation orders are downgraded and then lifted the same evening in Kern county.
• 3:23
  The Fish Fire stands at 4201 acres and 47% containment with all evacuation warnings lifted.
• 3:33
  Florida Three new large fires are reported in the State.
• 3:37
  Holy Land 6L28 and Loggerhead.
• 3:40
  In Jacksonville, the city activates its emergency cooling center contingency plan under an extreme heat warning with heat index values forecast near 113 degrees and offers free bus rides to cooling sites.
• 3:53
  Hawaii the Kauaihai Road fire is a new large fire on the big island at 700 acres and 0 containment 2 miles southeast of Kauaihai village at Kilauea.
• 4:04
  Episode 52 of the summit eruption ends at 2:36am HST Wednesday.
• 4:09
  The volcano stays at advisory with aviation Code Yellow and Tephra.
• 4:13
  Fall is limited to the closed area of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.
• 4:17
  Post Tropical Fausto brings gusty winds and dangerous surf to east facing shores as it passes north of the islands.
• 4:25
  Idaho governor Brad Little declares a fire disaster emergency and deploys the Idaho National Guard to the Big Grass Fire, which burns across the Oregon Idaho border in Oyhee and Malheur counties.
• 4:37
  The federal situation report lists the fire at 292,087 acres and 5% containment, while state reporting puts it near 301,000 acres and 7%.
• 4:48
  Official federal figures are favored here.
• 4:51
  Level three go now.
• 4:52
  Evacuation orders cover South Mountain, Pleasant Valley, Triangle and surrounding areas, with Silver city at level 2.
• 4:59
  Set status Kansas the Kansas Department of Health and Environment announces a boil water advisory for a portion of Potawatomi county rural Water District 4 and an adjacent city.
• 5:12
  Separately, the boil water advisory for Valley Falls in Jefferson county is rescinded.
• 5:18
  Louisiana the federal grid emergency posture continues amid dangerous heat.
• 5:23
  Department of energy emergency order 2022637, issued at Southwest Power Pool's request, directs the grid operator to dispatch specified generation as needed to maintain reliability through 11:59pm CDT, Monday, August 3rd.
• 5:39
  It is the second such federal intervention in about two weeks and state outlets report continued rolling outage risk.
• 5:46
  Official order issued about four days ago.
• 5:48
  Risk posture remains active.
• 5:51
  Maryland Power restoration continues after Tuesday's flash flooding storms across Central Maryland.
• 5:57
  About 3,900 BGE customers remain without power as of Wednesday afternoon, with the utility expecting most service back by Thursday.
• 6:06
  Massachusetts Flash flood warnings cover much of western Massachusetts Wednesday, including Springfield, Chicopee and Westfield, with a flood warning for Berkshire County.
• 6:17
  Most of the state records 1 to 4 inches of rain, with up to 7 inches in parts of Berkshire county and numerous road closures.
• 6:27
  Gov.
• 6:27
  Mike Kehoe requests a presidential major disaster declaration for nine southern Missouri counties hit by the July 9 through 11 flash flooding.
• 6:36
  Preliminary damage assessments total more than $26.5 million, with Iron county alone above 19.7 million, well past the statewide threshold of 11.9 million.
• 6:48
  It is Missouri's third federal disaster request of 2026.
• 6:53
  Nevada The Secret Pass Fire burns about 4,3500 acres at zero containment in Star Valley, roughly 30 miles east of Elko, with numerous residences threatened.
• 7:04
  Two Nevada National Guard helicopters are mobilized and a Type 3 Incident Management Team takes command.
• 7:11
  New Jersey Storms drop 3 to 6 inches of rain, with several North Jersey locations logging a full July's worth of rain.
• 7:20
  Patterson first responders rescue at least 20 people from floodwaters, a 32 year old man dies after a lightning strike in Monroe Township and the body of a 10 year old boy is recovered from the Passaic River.
• 7:32
  While the search continues for a 10 year old girl, the state emergency operations center is activated.
• 7:40
  New York 5 to 10 inches of rain fall from the Catskills to the Capital district with nearly 12 inches recorded at Kodak in Rensselaer County.
• 7:49
  A Civil War era mill collapses in Skodack.
• 7:53
  Low lying areas of Livingston Manor evacuate and the Village of Liberty.
• 7:57
  Columbia county and Rensselaer county each declare states of emergency.
• 8:02
  Columbia County's declaration includes a travel advisory through 7am Thursday.
• 8:07
  Amtrak suspends Hudson Line service between Rensselaer and New York Penn Station for much of Wednesday due to high water and debris on the tracks.
• 8:17
  Oregon Roughly 24,000 Oregonians remain under some level of evacuation notice with 31 large fires statewide and more than 1.5 million acres burned this season.
• 8:29
  The state invokes the Emergency Conflagration act for the Grasshopper Fire in Wasco county, the 11th invocation of 2026 with evacuations in effect east of Mount Hood on the larger incidents.
• 8:42
  The Row Creek complex in Wheeler county reaches 300,597 acres on Inciweb with about 33% containment and some evacuation levels are reduced as crews make progress.
• 8:55
  The Hay Creek complex holds level one and two evacuations with reductions for Antelope and Shineko.
• 9:02
  The Coleman Creek Fire near Juntura stands at more than 180,000 acres with evacuations and road closures in effect.
• 9:10
  Pennsylvania the same storm system drops 3 to 6 inches across Eastern Pennsylvania.
• 9:16
  In Redding, crews rescue a family with a young child from a vehicle stranded in floodwater.
• 9:22
  Washington the Kaiser Canyon Fire on the Colville Reservation in Okanagan county grows to 126,402 acres at 16% containment.
• 9:32
  Level 3 Go now.
• 9:33
  Evacuations expand Wednesday for the North Armstrong Meadows zone and Columbia River Campground as the fire pushes into Ferry county toward Omack Lake.
• 9:42
  1016 personnel are assigned in Stevens County.
• 9:46
  The Bradin hill Fire burns 4,094 acres at 0 containment with Level 3 orders for the Gifford area.
• 9:53
  The SCIO fire on the Gifford Pinchot National Forest is a new large incident.
• 9:59
  Wisconsin governor Tony Evers declares a state of emergency in response to Monday's EF3 tornado through Appleton, Neenah and Menasha official Update published about 40 hours ago.
• 10:12
  68 people were treated for non serious injuries.
• 10:15
  Outages topped 130,000 customers at their peak and Menasha residents still face power outages and shelter needs as response operations continue.
• 10:25
  All other states and territories have no significant updates in the last 24 hours.
• 10:31
  That wraps today's EM Morning Brief.
• 10:34
  New episodes drop Monday through Friday in the 5am hour PT, so the day starts with clarity instead of catch up.
• 10:41
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• 10:47
  EM Morning Brief is an EOC Voices podcast.
• 10:50
  Stay safe.