Latest / EM Morning Brief / Texas Hill Country flooding kills two with 230 rescues; Oregon lightning bust forces full-town evacuation at Preparedness Level 4; Code Purple smoke blankets the Northeast

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Texas Hill Country flooding kills two with 230 rescues; Oregon lightning bust forces full-town evacuation at Preparedness Level 4; Code Purple smoke blankets the Northeast · EM Morning Brief

• 0:00
  Good morning.
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  I'm Cedric and This is your EM Morning Brief for Friday, July 17, 2026 and today's episode is sponsored by the NIMS store.
• 0:09
  Catastrophic flash flooding in the Texas Hill country leads the national picture this morning.
• 0:15
  Between 19 and 26 inches of rain fell on Kerr and Uvalde counties Thursday, triggering flash flood emergencies, killing two people and driving more than 230 water rescues.
• 0:27
  Flash flood warnings remain active early Friday for Uvalde, Edwards and Rio counties, and the Kerr county flood warning holds until 6pm tonight as flood waves move down the Frio, Nueces and Guadalupe rivers.
• 0:41
  Forecasters expect the heaviest rain threat to end Friday afternoon.
• 0:46
  The nation remains at preparedness level four, with 49 uncontained large fires and nearly 688,000 acres in the active incident footprint per the National Interagency Fire Center Situation Report.
• 0:59
  Official Update published about 24 hours ago.
• 1:03
  A central Oregon lightning bust has driven full town evacuations and FEMA approved a Fire Management Assistance Grant Thursday for Oregon's Lower Dry Creek Fire.
• 1:13
  Red flag warnings cover 16 zones across the Pacific Northwest and Great Basin this afternoon.
• 1:20
  In the tropics, the National Hurricane center gives an area of low pressure over the northeastern Gulf a 20% chance of development over the next seven days.
• 1:30
  Tropical Storm Elida in the East Pacific poses no threat to land.
• 1:35
  Canadian wildfire smoke is blanketing the Northeast and Mid Atlantic and Friday is forecast to be the worst day of the event.
• 1:43
  Pennsylvania is under a statewide Code Purple air quality alert with Code Red alerts across New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia.
• 1:54
  On the cyber front, CISA added three vulnerabilities to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog Thursday, covering Fortnet 40 Sandbox and Microsoft SharePoint flaws under Active exploitation patching.
• 2:07
  Both should move to the front of the line.
• 2:10
  Let's run through the states.
• 2:12
  Arizona the National Weather Service and Flagstaff issued flash flood warnings overnight for parts of Coconino and Yavapai county counties, including one specifically for the pocket fire burn scar issued at 2:36am Friday.
• 2:26
  Monsoon moisture keeps the burn scar flash flood threat elevated across northern Arizona today.
• 2:33
  California the Thorn Fire in southeastern San Diego county reaches 1,234 acres and 45% containment.
• 2:41
  Interstate 8 reopened to one lane in each direction Thursday night.
• 2:45
  Some evacuation orders and warnings were lifted and the temporary evacuation point at Golden Acorn Casino closed.
• 2:52
  Other evacuation orders remain in effect around the fire.
• 2:56
  In the north state, the Elephant Fire near Loyalton stands at about 13,016 acres and 31% containment with several evacuation zones in Lassen and Plumas counties downgraded or returned to normal status.
• 3:11
  Colorado the Aspen Acres fire southwest of Pueblo holds at roughly 99,800 acres and 36% containment after crews caught a spot fire that jumped a defensive line on the southwest side Wednesday.
• 3:25
  Officials now report at least 850 structures destroyed and mandatory evacuations still cover about 11,000 people in the Beulah, Colorado City and Wetmore areas, though some Custer county zones moved down to pre evacuation status Thursday.
• 3:41
  A community meeting is set for tonight at 7pm at the Raymond Aguirre Community center in Gardiner.
• 3:49
  Delaware A code red air quality alert is in effect for unhealthy fine particulate levels as the Canadian wildfire smoke plume moves through, with conditions expected to persist through Friday.
• 4:01
  Idaho the Turner Hill fire north of Bonners Ferry prompts expanded GEO evacuation orders covering Kings Row, Fleming Creek and Fawn Lane in Boundary County.
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  The fire is at least 75 acres with no containment and a type 3 incident management team has joined the response.
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  Maine A brief but violent storm swept the state Thursday afternoon, killing one person in Corinth when a tree limb struck a vehicle and knocking out power to about 60,000 customers at the peak.
• 4:32
  Central Maine Power restored more than 31,000 customers by Thursday evening in Rockland.
• 4:39
  A sudden squall tore the 90 passenger coastal cruise ship American Independence from its mooring, damaging the ship and the Safe harbor pier.
• 4:48
  Maryland Code Red air quality alerts cover the state for Friday with Code Purple conditions forecast for western areas including Hagerstown.
• 4:58
  Residents are advised to limit outdoor activity and sensitive groups should stay indoors.
• 5:04
  Minnesota Four fires on the Superior National Forest continue to burn with extreme fire behavior and zero containment.
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  The thumb Fire at 14,500 acres, Bear Trap at 13,500, Sioux at 7,368 after gaining more than 3,700 acres in a single day and Camp at 2,000.
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  50.
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  Evacuations are in effect on the Sioux, Bear Trap and Thumb fires.
• 5:28
  The Twin Cities metro also spent Thursday under extreme heat warnings with heat index values near 100 compounded.
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  New Jersey A Code red air quality alert is in effect statewide for unhealthy fine particulates from Canadian wildfire smoke, with Friday expected to be the worst day.
• 5:49
  The FIFA World cup final at MetLife Stadium on Sunday is adding operational attention to air quality in North Jersey.
• 5:56
  New York Air quality reached very unhealthy levels in New York City Thursday under a statewide air quality health advisory.
• 6:04
  State environmental and health officials issued a fresh advisory for Friday focused on western New York and the governor's office continues statewide condition updates, urging precautions.
• 6:16
  Oregon the Wasco County Sheriff's Office ordered the entire city of Antelope and surrounding areas to evacuate Thursday afternoon under a Level three Go now order as a new fire spread following a lightning bust that ignited more than 50
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  fires across Central Oregon.
• 6:33
  In southern Oregon, the East Evans Creek fire grows to 11,551 acres at 5% containment.
• 6:41
  The city of Shady Cove and Jackson county declared local states of emergency and zone JASS C017 upgraded to level three near Milton Freewater.
• 6:51
  The Lower Dry Creek fire burned about 5000 acres in under 24 hours, placing roughly 1700 people under Level 3 orders.
• 6:59
  FEMA approved a Fire Management Assistance grant for the fire Thursday.
• 7:04
  Pennsylvania the Department of Environmental Protection declared a statewide Code Purple air quality alert for Friday, escalating from Thursday's statewide Code Red.
• 7:15
  Everyone is advised to avoid prolonged outdoor exertion and sensitive groups should avoid outdoor activity entirely.
• 7:23
  Philadelphia is suspending trash and recycling collection Friday and closing city pools and spray grounds.
• 7:29
  Texas Two people are confirmed dead in the Hill country flooding and more than 230 rescues have been completed with roughly 2,350 responders deployed.
• 7:40
  Kerrville was placed under shelter in place and Uvalde under mandatory evacuations, with shelters open in Kerrville and Ingram downstream.
• 7:49
  Comal county ordered mandatory evacuations along the Guadalupe river from the county line to FM311 and Bandera county issued an urgent evacuation advisory for Riverside RV Park.
• 8:02
  Texas Water company Issued a boil water notice for dozens of communities served by its Canyon Lake Shores treatment plant, including Bolvird, Blanco Water Customers River Crossing and Mystic Shores after flood debris drove up turbidity at the Canyon Lake
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  intake.
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  Governor Abbott says the state has deployed more than 1300 personnel, 800 vehicles, 75 boats and 20 aircraft from 30 agencies.
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  Utah the Babylon Fire on the Mantee La Salle National Forest, the largest fire in the Nation, holds at 107,104 acres and 57% containment.
• 8:39
  The Cottonwood Fire near Beaver stands at 97,458 acres and 80% containment, with evacuations still in effect and 185 structures lost.
• 8:49
  Official update published about 24 hours ago.
• 8:53
  Virginia A Code Red air quality alert covers northern Virginia for Friday with Code Purple conditions forecast for the Winchester area.
• 9:01
  Forecasters call this potentially the region's worst air quality in years.
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  Washington the Kaiser Canyon Fire near Nespilum on the Coalville Reservation was mapped at roughly 2200 acres Thursday with level three go now.
• 9:16
  Evacuations covering Belvedere, Buffalo Lake Road and the Coulee corridor.
• 9:20
  State Route 155 and Buffalo Lake Road are closed and a shelter is open at the OMAC Community Center In Franklin county, the Neff Jones Fire grew to an estimated 1500 acres and prompted Level 2 get set evacuations.
• 9:36
  All other states have no significant updates in the last 24 hours.
• 9:41
  Let's run through the territories.
• 9:43
  District of Columbia A code red air quality alert is in effect for Friday as Canadian wildfire smoke settles over the region, with forecasters calling it potentially the district's worst air quality in years.
• 9:56
  Guam the Small Business Administration published its Federal Register notice for the Typhoon Bavi major disaster declaration Thursday, opening disaster loan application windows for eligible entities.
• 10:09
  Northern Mariana Islands the Commonwealth Utilities Corporation cancelled the boil water notice for the island of Rota Thursday, a recovery milestone after Super Typhoon Baby's direct hit earlier this month.
• 10:23
  Power restoration on Rota remains a months long effort.
• 10:26
  Puerto Rico the governor signed Executive Order 322026 extending the drought state of emergency to Rio Grande and Canovenas and the water Authority begins 48 hour water rationing cycles in those municipalities at 6am today.
• 10:43
  Separately, more than 100,000 Luma customers lost service Thursday after a Costa Sur generating unit failed, forcing rotating load shedding and officials warned of continued blackout risk overnight.
• 10:57
  US Virgin Islands live outage tracking shows roughly 16,000 customers, about 29% of the territory, without power as WAPA operates with limited reserve capacity, the highest outage rate in the country.
• 11:12
  All other territories have no significant updates in the last 24 hours.
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  That wraps today's EM Morning Brief.
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  New episodes drop Monday through Friday in the 5am hour PT, so the day starts with clarity instead of catch up.
• 11:26
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• 11:32
  EM Morning Brief is an EOC Voices podcast.
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  Stay safe.