Today’s EM Morning Brief covers CISA’s May 20 KEV expansion (seven CVEs, including two 2026 Microsoft Defender flaws), an active wildfire posture led by California’s Sandy Fire (22 percent contained, more than 17,000 residents under evacuation) and the Texas Panhandle’s Hunggate Fire, the lifted Line Fire evacuations in Quay County, New Mexico, and a Mid-Atlantic severe weather complex that produced tornado warnings in Virginia and North Carolina and Severe Thunderstorm Watches across New Jersey, New York City, and West Virginia. We also note FAA ground stops at DFW and Dallas Love Field, the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory’s outlook for Kilauea episode 48, and continuing CDC HAN guidance on the cruise-linked hantavirus cluster and the Ebola outbreak in the DRC. 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

• CISA KEV expansion: Seven CVEs added on May 20, including two 2026 Microsoft Defender flaws (CVE-2026-41091, CVE-2026-45498). Federal civilian agencies face binding remediation deadlines; critical infrastructure operators should prioritize patching Defender on incident-response endpoints.

• Wildfire posture: National Preparedness Level 2, with 16 uncontained large fires. Drought conditions over 60 percent of the country continue to drive the season.

• Kilauea episode 48 watch: HVO maintains ADVISORY/YELLOW, with episode 48 forecast May 23-25; expect precursor spattering and overflows.

• California — Sandy Fire: 2,100 acres, 22 percent contained, more than 17,000 residents under evacuation orders, one home destroyed; sheltering in place at Rancho Santa Susana Community Park and Ventura County Fairgrounds.

• New Mexico — Line Fire: All evacuations and road closures lifted; 30,144 acres at 90 percent containment.

• Texas — DFW/Love Field ground stops: More than 400 cancellations tied to May 19 thunderstorms; Hunggate Fire 14,000 acres, 30 percent contained, forward progress stopped.

• Mid-Atlantic severe weather: Tornado warnings, 60-70 mph winds, and outages reported across New Jersey, New York City metro, Virginia, and North Carolina, with three injured in Perquimans County, NC.

• West Virginia severe weather: Severe Thunderstorm Watch 236 in effect for 26 counties; Slight Risk for excessive rainfall through early Thursday across the Ohio Valley.

• State Department posture: Mexico Level 2 overall; Level 4 “Do Not Travel” remains for Colima, Guerrero, Michoacan, Sinaloa, Tamaulipas, and Zacatecas.

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Sources

CISA

• CISA Adds Seven Known Exploited Vulnerabilities to Catalog (May 20, 2026) — Defender and legacy CVEs added with active-exploitation evidence.

• Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog — Authoritative KEV list and remediation deadlines.

• ICS Advisories Index — May 19 ICSA-26-139-01 through 05 included.

NIFC and Wildfire

• NIFC IMSR — May 19, 2026 — Daily Incident Management Situation Report.

• National Fire News — Current PL2, large-fire totals.

• NIFC Statistics — Year-to-date wildfire totals.

USGS

• Kilauea Volcano Updates — Halemaumau pause, episode 48 forecast.

• USGS Volcano Notice — May 20, 2026 — Latest HVO operational notice.

• Significant Earthquakes 2026 — M6.6 East Pacific Rise event; PAGER green.

NHC and NWS

• NHC Graphical Tropical Weather Outlook — No tropical formation expected next 7 days.

• SPC Day 2 Convective Outlook — May 20, 2026 — Severe risk corridor.

• NWS Active Alerts — Current watches and warnings.

CDC and HHS

• HAN Archive — 2026 Multi-country Hantavirus Cluster — Cruise ship cluster guidance.

• HAN — Ebola Outbreak in DRC and Uganda — Bundibugyo virus advisory.

State Department

• Mexico Travel Advisory — State-by-state level breakdown.

California

• Sandy Fire Incident Page — CAL FIRE — Containment, evacuation orders, sheltering.

• Sandy Fire Live Updates — ABC7 — Evacuation zone detail and impact context.

Hawaii

• HVO Kilauea Update — May 20, 2026 — Operational status and episode 48 outlook.

New Jersey

• Severe Thunderstorm Watch Issued for All 21 NJ Counties — Watch coverage and outage context.

New Mexico

• Quay Wildfires Burn More Than 38,000 Acres — Containment, evacuation lifted.

• NM Fire Info — Line Fire Update — Official New Mexico fire information portal.

New York

• NYC Weather Alert — Severe Thunderstorm Watch (May 20, 2026) — Multi-state watch coverage.

North Carolina

• Storms Move Off Coast; Severe Weather Leaves 3 Injured in Hertford, NC — Tornado warning area and damage summary.

Texas

• Over 400 Flights Canceled Across DFW and Love Field — KERA — Ground stop and delay impact.

• Ground Stop Lifted at North Texas Airports — WFAA — Resumption and ongoing ground delay program.

• Multiple Wildfires Burning in TX and OK Panhandles — ABC7 Amarillo — Hunggate Fire status and acreage.

Virginia

• Storms Clear After Leaving Damage, Tornado Warnings Across VA, NC — 13NewsNow — Outage counts and damage assessment.

West Virginia

• NWS Charleston, WV — Severe Thunderstorm Watch 236 and warning detail.

• SPC Day 2 Convective Outlook — Ohio Valley excessive-rainfall risk.

Good morning.

CISA expanded its Known Exploited vulnerabilities catalog on May 20, adding seven CVEs with evidence of active exploitation.

CISA also released five new ICS advisories on May 19, ICSA 26.139.01 through 05, bringing fresh OT side guidance for asset owners.

Official update published 24 hours ago Wildfire activity remains the most active National Lifeline Story the National Interagency Fire center reports national preparedness level 2 with 16 uncontained large fires burning across the country and roughly 118 new fires reported in the latest IMSR cycle year.

To date, 26,568 wildfires have burned more than 1.9 million acres.

Drought continues to drive the season, with more than 60% of the country in drought conditions.

The Hawaiian Volcano Observatory keeps Kilauea at advisory with an aviation color code of yellow.

The Halemaumau eruption is paused.

Summit reinflation is underway since episode 47 ended May 15 and forecast models put episode 48 between Saturday, May 23 and Monday, May 25.

On the weather and aviation side, severe thunderstorms swept the Ohio Valley, Mid Atlantic and southern New England through Wednesday evening, with a separate slow moving system threatening southwest Texas overnight into Thursday.

The National Hurricane center continues to show no tropical cyclone formation expected over the next seven days in the Atlantic, Caribbean or Gulf.

The State Department's Mexico travel advisory remains at Level 2 overall, with Level 4 do not travel guidance still in effect for Colima, Guerrero, Michoacan, Sinaloa, Tamaulipas and Zacatecas.

The CDC Health Alert Network continues to carry its earlier May advisories on the cruise ship linked Andes Hantavirus cluster and and the Ebola Bundebudjo outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda.

No US Cases tied to either outbreak are reported.

Ventura County Fire reports more than 17,000 residents under evacuation orders across Ventura and Los Angeles county zones, including Bell, Burrows, Chesbrough, Meyer, Canyon, Sage, Susana and several Simi Valley zones.

A temporary evacuation point is open at Rancho Santa Susana Community park, with large animal sheltering at the Ventura County Fairgrounds and small animal sheltering at the Simi Valley Animal Shelter.

The cause remains under investigation.

The Hawaiian Volcano Observatory's May 20th kilauea update keeps the volcano at advisory and yellow with glow visible at both summit vents overnight.

Lava fountaining episode 48 is forecast for May 23 through May 25, and the observatory notes that lava spattering and overflows from the vents are expected to precede that next fountaining episode.

No significant activity is reported along the east or southwest rift zones.

New Jersey the National Weather Service held a severe thunderstorm Watch across all 21 counties into Wednesday evening with wind gusts up to 70 mph.

Possible severe thunderstorm warnings covered Hudson, Union and southern Essex counties, with a line of storms moving east through the New York City Metro corridor.

Utility reporting cited roughly 24,000 customers without power at the height of the storms, with trees down reported in North Brunswick, Spotswood, Toms river and Wall Township.

New Mexico Officials report that all evacuations and road closures connected to the line fire in Quay county have been lifted as of Wednesday.

The fire has burned 30,144 acres and reached 90% containment, with crews holding lines through hot, dry and windy conditions and securing the right flank.

Residents of Nara Visa evacuated last week as the lightning caused fire ran east toward the Texas border have been allowed to return.

Crews continue to mop up and patrol the perimeter.

New York Severe thunderstorm warnings extended into Manhattan, Brooklyn and Staten Island Wednesday evening as the same line that hit New Jersey moved through the New York city metro with 60 mph wind gusts and penny size hail reported.

The watch also covered parts of the Hudson Valley and Connecticut border.

Operators across the metro reported localized outages and downed limbs into the evening.

North Carolina the National Weather Service issued a tornado warning Wednesday for portions of northeastern North Carolina, covering Camden, Pasquotank, Currituck and Perkamons counties.

Storms damaged seven mobile homes at Longview Estates in Perkins county, with three people transported to hospitals.

Crews assessed damage as the storms moved offshore.

Texas the Hungate fire in Randall county has burned an estimated 14,000 acres and is 30% contained, with forward progression stopped after evacuations and road closures earlier this week along the Texas Panhandle.

Separately, an FAA ground stop at Dallas Fort Worth International and a parallel ground stop at Dallas Love Field tied to the May 19 Thunderstorm Complex drove more than 400 flight cancellations across the two airports, with average delays at DFW reaching 45 minutes before the ground stops were lifted into a ground delay program.

Travelers were advised to confirm status with carriers as the storm system continues to drive flash flooding and wind impacts across central and North Texas.

Virginia Severe storms tied to Wednesday's Mid Atlantic complex brought tornado warnings into Hampton Roads and the Coastal Plain, with damaging winds reported across multiple counties.

Dominion Energy reported roughly 1, 100 customers without power, with the majority of the outages concentrated in Portsmouth and Poquisson.

Storms cleared offshore by late evening as crews assessed damage.

WEST Virginia the National Weather Service issued severe thunderstorm watch 236 covering 26 Central, Northern, Southern and western West Virginia counties Wednesday afternoon.

Into the evening, specific severe thunderstorm warnings were issued for Kanawha county and the area near Gasaway and Rock cave with reported 60 mile hour wind gusts and quarter to half dollar size hail.

The Weather Prediction center kept a slight risk for excessive rainfall in place across the Ohio Valley into early Thursday, with soils already saturated from earlier rounds of rainfall.

All other states and territories have no significant updates in the last 24 hours that wraps today's EM Morning Brief.

New episodes drop Monday through Friday in the 5am hour PT, so the day starts with clarity instead of catch up.

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