THE EMN NEWS DAILY | Tuesday, 22 September 2026
The remnants of Tropical Depression Fifteen-E southeast of Hawaii are now likely to become a tropical depression within a day or two, up from a medium chance over the weekend. In the eastern Pacific, Hurricane Polo reached Category 4 overnight with 130-mile-per-hour winds, and the Associated Press reports it reached Category 5 Tuesday, with a tropical storm watch posted from Tecpan de Galeana to Manzanillo, Mexico. Fay has lost its deep convection 570 miles southwest of the Azores and is expected to become post-tropical today. National Preparedness Level 3 holds with 95 incidents and 10,289 personnel, down 597, and three new large fires, including Chileno in Marin County with structures threatened. Evacuations are again listed as in effect for the Three Queens fire in Washington. The EMN NEWS Daily Brief is your concise daily update on national and state-by-state emergency management news.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Hawaii watch: The Central Pacific Hurricane Center’s 0200 HST outlook says the remnants of Fifteen-E, several hundred miles southeast of the islands, produced an increase in showers and thunderstorms overnight, and a depression is likely in the next day or two as the system moves west-northwest or northwest slowly. Sunday’s outlook carried a 60 percent chance over seven days. The system is not yet under advisories.
Hurricane Polo: The 0600 UTC intermediate advisory put Polo at 130 miles per hour and 955 millibars, 330 miles south-southeast of Manzanillo. The National Hurricane Center forecasts 4 to 8 inches of rain, with isolated totals of 12 inches, across coastal Guerrero and Michoacán through Thursday, with life-threatening flooding and mudslides possible. The core is forecast to stay offshore.
Atlantic: Fay weakened to 40 miles per hour and 1009 millibars at the 0900 UTC advisory, moving southwest at 9 miles per hour. It peaked at 70 miles per hour Sunday night without reaching hurricane strength and has no hazards to land.
Wildfire posture: Preparedness Level 3 holds with 95 incidents, 33 uncontained large fires, 1,968,316 acres and 10,289 personnel, a drop of 597, per the Monday situation report. Initial attack was light, with 46 fires, three new large incidents and seven complex incident management teams committed. Northern California dropped to Preparedness Level 2. Year to date: 56,651 fires and 8,542,800 acres, 125 and 146 percent of the ten-year averages.
New large fires: Chileno, nine miles east of Tomales in Marin County, California, is 341 acres and 5 percent contained, with structures threatened and 110 personnel. Mud Bayou on McFaddin National Wildlife Refuge near High Island, Texas, is 10,550 acres and 80 percent contained. Tabor on the Mark Twain National Forest near Pomona, Missouri, is 130 acres and 4 percent contained.
Northwest, clarification: Monday’s issue noted that Sunday’s situation report did not list evacuations on Three Queens. Monday’s report lists evacuations in effect again, along with numerous residences and critical infrastructure threatened. The fire is 9,566 acres and 23 percent contained, and command transfers from Northwest Team 2 back to the local unit today.
California: Dome in Yosemite National Park grew 663 acres to 3,047 and holds at 15 percent contained with 581 personnel. Floriston near Truckee rose to 65 percent contained and released 338 personnel. Lucas is fully contained, and California Team 6 now manages both Timber and Plaskett.
Water systems: Kalamazoo, Michigan, lifted its boil water advisory at 7 a.m. Monday after negative tests for E. coli and coliform. Western Michigan University and Kalamazoo Public Schools are staying on bottled water while flushing systems. At Monday’s council meeting, the public services director said the city received many comments on its communications and is working with the state on its public alert systems.
Cyber: CISA added one vulnerability to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog Monday, CVE-2026-7273, a stack-based buffer overflow in Zyxel GS1900 series switches, remediated by federal civilian agencies under Binding Operational Directive 26-04.
Federal assistance: SBA physical damage deadlines for the September 1 declarations close November 1 in Colorado and South Dakota and November 2 in Missouri and Texas. Economic injury applications stay open to June 1, 2027.
Fire weather: Highs in the mid to upper 90s from the lower Mississippi Valley through Tennessee with relative humidity near 25 to 30 percent. East of the Cascades, humidity falls to 15 to 30 percent with gusts to 25 miles per hour in the gaps, and northern California drops to 10 to 20 percent with poor overnight recovery. Isolated wet and dry thunderstorms in southern and western Nevada and along the Sierra Front. Today is the driest day of the week on the southern Front Range, with humidity in the teens.
SOURCES
Tropical weather
Central Pacific Tropical Weather Outlook: CPHC, 200 AM HST Sept 22
https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/mobile/text/refresh/HFOTWOCP+html/082337_HFOTWOCP.html
Central Pacific Tropical Weather Outlook: CPHC, 200 PM HST Sept 21
https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/text/refresh/HFOTWOCP+shtml/211137_HFOTWOCP.shtml
Hurricane Polo Intermediate Advisory Number 6A: NHC, 0600 UTC Sept 22
https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/text/refresh/MIATCPEP2+shtml/220540.shtml
Associated Press via KSAT: Polo strengthens to Category 5, Sept 22
https://www.ksat.com/news/2026/09/22/hurricane-polo-grows-into-a-category-4-storm-in-the-pacific-off-mexico/
Tropical Storm Fay Discussion Number 11: NHC, 0300 UTC Sept 22
https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/mobile/text/refresh/MIATCDAT1+html/212036.shtml
Tropical Storm Fay Public Advisory Number 12: NHC text via Cape Weather mirror, 0900 UTC Sept 22
https://capeweather.com/tropical-storm-fay-public-advisory-number-12/
Wildfire, national
NICC Incident Management Situation Report and Predictive Services discussion: Monday, Sept 21, 2026, 0730 MDT (live PDF, overwritten daily)
https://www.nifc.gov/nicc-files/sitreprt.pdf
IMSR archive
https://www.nifc.gov/nicc/incident-information/imsr
CISA
CISA Adds One Known Exploited Vulnerability to Catalog: CVE-2026-7273, Sept 21
https://www.cisa.gov/news-events/alerts/2026/09/21/cisa-adds-one-known-exploited-vulnerability-catalog
Binding Operational Directive 26-04: Prioritizing Security Updates Based on Risk
https://www.cisa.gov/news-events/directives/bod-26-04-prioritizing-security-updates-based-risk
Federal assistance
Federal Register: SBA notice, Texas, FEMA-4935-DR amendment, published Sept 14
https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/09/14/2026-18756/presidential-declaration-amendment-of-a-major-disaster-for-public-assistance-only-for-the-state-of
Federal Register: SBA notices for Colorado FEMA-4944-DR, South Dakota FEMA-4938-DR and Missouri FEMA-4939-DR, published Sept 9 to Sept 14 (links not recovered)
California, Texas and Missouri
NICC situation report: Chileno, Mud Bayou, Tabor, Dome, Floriston, Lucas, Timber and Plaskett, Sept 21
Washington
NICC situation report: Three Queens, evacuations in effect, Sept 21
Michigan
WMUK: boil water advisory lifted for affected Kalamazoo customers, Sept 21
https://www.wmuk.org/wmuk-news/2026-09-21/boil-water-advisory-lifted-for-affected-kalamazoo-customers
WOOD TV: Kalamazoo lifts citywide boil water advisory, Sept 21
https://www.woodtv.com/news/kalamazoo-county/kalamazoo-lifts-citywide-boil-water-advisory/
WOOD TV via Yahoo: Kalamazoo schools still using bottled water; council comments on communications, Sept 22
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/kalamazoo-schools-still-using-bottled-005006449.html
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