Today’s brief tracks a multi-day severe weather outbreak across the central United States with damaging winds, large hail, and tornado threats from Missouri and Illinois into Wisconsin and Michigan. Kansas Governor Laura Kelly issued a state of disaster emergency, FEMA opens a Disaster Recovery Center in King County, Washington, and the Highway 82 Fire in Georgia continues with mandatory evacuations and 87 homes destroyed. We also cover updated CISA federal remediation deadlines tied to active exploitation, USGS volcano alert levels at Great Sitkin and Kīlauea, a 3.3 magnitude earthquake near Redlands, California, ground stops at Chicago O’Hare and Denver International, and a Cedar Rapids boil water advisory extension. EM Morning Brief is your concise daily update on national and state-by-state emergency management news. Produced by Sitch Radio, an EOC Voices podcast.

Key Takeaways

• Severe weather outbreak: Day 6 of a Mid-Mississippi Valley to Great Lakes severe weather pattern produced 77 mph wind gusts at Milwaukee Mitchell, tornado warnings near St. Louis, and 260,000-plus power outages across six states; SPC continues an Enhanced Risk into the Tennessee Valley for Tuesday.

• Kansas state of disaster emergency: Governor Laura Kelly issued a verbal disaster declaration Monday morning for storms, tornadoes, and flooding from April 25-27, enabling state resource support to local agencies.

• FEMA opens King County, Washington Disaster Recovery Center today: Center opens Tuesday at the King County Elections Office in Renton for residents affected by the December 2025 storms; Individual Assistance application deadline is June 10, 2026.

• Highway 82 Fire, Georgia: Approximately 22,615 acres burned in Brantley County at 6% containment; 87 homes destroyed; mandatory evacuations and an 8:30 p.m. to 6:30 a.m. curfew remain in effect; smoke continues to drift into north Florida.

• CISA federal deadlines (official update within five days): Federal civilian agencies have a May 4, 2026 deadline tied to the April 20 KEV additions, including PaperCut, JetBrains TeamCity, Kentico, Quest KACE, and Synacor Zimbra; SLTT and private operators should validate patches.

• Volcano alert levels: Great Sitkin remains at WATCH/ORANGE with continued lava effusion and dome rockfalls; Shishaldin at YELLOW ADVISORY; Kīlauea at YELLOW ADVISORY with eruption paused and next fountaining episode forecast May 2-6.

• Aviation impacts: FAA ground stops at Chicago O’Hare for severe storms produced 1,200-plus delays and 260 cancellations Monday; Denver International ground stop earlier the same day was lifted by afternoon.

• Iowa boil water advisory extended: Cedar Rapids boil water advisory extended through Tuesday after a second round of lab samples did not meet quality standards following the Mt. Vernon Road main break.

• Texas recovery: Wise County Judge issued a local disaster declaration and requested a state declaration after Saturday’s EF-2 (Runaway Bay) and EF-1 (Springtown) tornadoes that killed two and displaced at least 20 families.

• Utah hazmat evacuation lifted: West Bountiful 2,000-foot mandatory evacuation for the safe removal of decades-old dynamite stored next to a 2,500-gallon diesel tank was lifted just after 12:30 p.m. Monday with no injuries.

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Sources

National weather, NIFC, and SPC

• NOAA Storm Prediction Center, Day 1 Convective Outlook

• NIFC, Incident Management Situation Report (April 26, 2026)

• NIFC, National Fire News

• National Hurricane Center, Atlantic outlook

USGS earthquakes and volcanoes

• USGS Latest Earthquakes map

• USGS Volcano Notifications, Great Sitkin (April 27, 2026)

• USGS Volcano Notifications, Kīlauea (April 27, 2026)

• USGS Kīlauea Volcano Updates

FEMA

• FEMA, Disaster Assistance Center Will Open in King County (April 27, 2026)

• FEMA newsroom, press releases

• FEMA, Apply Separately for State, Federal Assistance for December Storms in Washington (April 21, 2026)

DHS and CISA

• DHS, National Terrorism Advisory System

• CISA, Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog

• CISA Adds Four Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (April 24, 2026)

• CISA Adds Eight Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (April 20, 2026)

Travel advisories

• U.S. Department of State, Travel Advisories

• U.S. Department of State, Worldwide Caution

Public health

• CDC, Health Alert Network

Aviation

• FAA, National Airspace System Status

• Newsweek, Denver Airport Issues Ground Stop Over Bad Weather (April 27, 2026)

• ABC7 Chicago, Strong storms bring O’Hare ground stop and flight delays (April 28, 2026)

California

• Spectrum News 1, Earthquake near Redlands downgraded to 3.3 magnitude (April 27, 2026)

• KTLA, Magnitude 3.4 earthquake rattles Inland Empire (April 27, 2026)

Florida and Georgia wildfires

• News4Jax, The Latest, Highway 82 Fire updates (April 27, 2026)

• WTOC, Brantley County wildfire grows past 20,000 acres (April 27, 2026)

• WUWF, Florida air quality threatened by continuing wildfires (April 27, 2026)

• UPI, Southeast wildfires explode in Florida and Georgia (April 27, 2026)

Iowa

• KCRG, Cedar Rapids precautionary boil water advisory extends to Tuesday (April 27, 2026)

Kansas

• Kansas Adjutant General’s Department, Governor issues disaster emergency for severe weather (April 27, 2026)

• WIBW, Kansas governor issues state of disaster emergency due to severe weather (April 27, 2026)

Missouri and Illinois

• The Watchers, Severe storms leave over 260,000 without power, 1 dead across Midwest (April 28, 2026)

• Washington Post, Strong tornadoes threaten millions in St. Louis, central U.S. (April 27, 2026)

Oklahoma

• CNN, Twin tornadoes spotted in northern Oklahoma (April 27, 2026)

• Fox Weather, EF4 tornado devastates Enid, Oklahoma

Texas

• CBS Texas, At least 2 dead, families displaced after severe storms slam North Texas

• WFAA, 2 deaths confirmed in storms that struck North Texas overnight Saturday

Utah

• KUTV, Mandatory evacuation order lifted for West Bountiful neighborhood after explosives removed (April 27, 2026)

Washington

• Courier-Herald, King County opens flood disaster recovery center (April 27, 2026)

• KING 5, King County opens Disaster Recovery Center as FEMA assistance is approved

Wisconsin and Michigan

• WTMJ, High winds cause major damage across Milwaukee (April 27, 2026)

• Associated Press, Fast-moving storms batter the Midwest, flooding streets (April 27, 2026)

• Wisconsin Emergency Management, SEOC Update 6, April Severe Storms and Flooding