Where the week happened
Each numbered area is one of the stories below, drawn over the counties its warnings covered.
- Flash flooding in the Ohio Valley, Sep 21–22
- Flash flooding in New Mexico and Texas, Sep 22–26
- Flash flooding in California, Sep 23–24
- Severe storms in the Gulf Coast, Sep 21–22
The same areas as a list
- 1. Flash flooding in the Ohio Valley and Mid-Atlantic, September 21 to 22 · Water · 66 counties drawn
- 2. Flash flooding in New Mexico and Texas, September 22 to 26 · Water · 38 counties drawn
- 3. Flash flooding in California, September 23 to 24 · Water · 4 counties drawn
- 4. Severe storms in the Gulf Coast and Ohio Valley, September 21 to 22 · Storms · 182 counties drawn
When it happened
- Fewer warnings
- More warnings
- Impact on people reported
View as a table
| Day | Warnings | Story on the map | Documented impact on people |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 21 | 1,292 | 1, 4 | Yes |
| Sep 22 | 871 | 1, 2, 4 | Yes |
| Sep 23 | 611 | 2, 3 | Yes |
| Sep 24 | 535 | 2, 3 | Yes |
| Sep 25 | 595 | 2 | — |
| Sep 26 | 346 | 2 | — |
| Sep 27 | 370 | — | — |
1Floodwater drives families from their homes in Vinton County
SEP 21, 12 AM UTC
First warning
Athens County, Ohio
SEP 22, 3 AM UTC
Considerable threat
Harlan County, Kentucky
SEP 27, 1 AM UTC
Last warning
Adams County, Indiana
- Flash flooding — coloured as water. 66 counties in the Ohio Valley, Sep 21–22.
At Xena Place in Vinton County, Ohio, flooding forced Arianna Collins and her family from their apartment on September 21. “It went from drizzling to flooding my apartment in less than ten minutes,” Collins told Spectrum News 1. The family received food and slept at a nearby Red Cross shelter, the outlet reported.
Flood warnings had begun in neighboring Athens County the previous evening. In Vinton County, part of the Ohio Valley flooding marked 1 on the map, Sheriff Ryan Cain temporarily closed roads as rising water stranded residents. Spectrum News 1 reported that Cain said 60 people had to be evacuated during the flooding.
In Amesville on September 21, the Ames-Bern Volunteer Fire Department completed four water rescues after vehicles were overcome by floodwater, according to the Athens County Independent. Roads into and out of town closed around noon. Residents and their animals sheltered at the fire station while waiting for the water to recede.
Late that evening, the weather service issued a flash flood warning carrying a considerable damage threat for Harlan County, Kentucky. By the following evening, a weather service warning for parts of Athens, Vinton and Washington counties still reported flooding and numerous road closures, according to the warning reproduced by GovOneStop.
The difficulty leaving home continued beyond the initial rescues. On September 23, the Ohio News Network reported that Cain said damaged driveway culverts and bridges prevented some Vinton County residents from getting out. Across the reporting reviewed for this flooding, no deaths or injuries were reported.
Flood alerts by the numbers: every published month, by state and county.
2Flash flooding brings an emergency to Monte Aplanado, Canon and Ledoux
SEP 21, 8 PM UTC
First warning
Hale County, Texas
SEP 22, 2 AM UTC
County order
Lamb County, Texas
SEP 22, 7 PM UTC
Catastrophic threat
Mora County, New Mexico
SEP 22, 7 PM UTC
Particularly dangerous
Mora County, New Mexico
SEP 22, 7 PM UTC
Emergency declared
Mora County, New Mexico
SEP 22, 8 PM UTC
Considerable threat
Colfax County, New Mexico
SEP 22, 10 PM UTC
Catastrophic threat
Mora County, New Mexico
SEP 22, 10 PM UTC
Particularly dangerous
Mora County, New Mexico
SEP 22, 10 PM UTC
Emergency declared
Mora County, New Mexico
SEP 22, 11 PM UTC
County order
Socorro County, New Mexico
SEP 23, 11 AM UTC
County order
Doña Ana County, New Mexico
SEP 24, 10 PM UTC
Catastrophic threat
Lincoln County, New Mexico
- Flash flooding — coloured as water. 38 counties in New Mexico and Texas, Sep 22–26.
In Monte Aplanado, Canon and Ledoux on September 22, the weather service told residents to seek higher ground. Its Albuquerque office declared a flash flood emergency in Mora County, part of the New Mexico and Texas flooding marked 2 on the map, and warned of life-threatening water at crossings, streets and underpasses.
The warnings had begun in Hale County, Texas, on September 21. That evening, Texas officials announced a flood-related road closure in Lamb County. By the following afternoon, the Mora County warning carried both a catastrophic damage threat and a particularly dangerous situation designation.
FLASH FLOOD EMERGENCY FOR MONTE APLANADO, CANON AND LEDOUX AS WELL AS THE RITO CEBOLLA
The emergency language appeared again in Mora County later that afternoon. Socorro County officials subsequently urged caution with travel and home safety. The next morning, Doña Ana County emergency managers sent the instruction “Prepare to Evacate.” That instruction did not state a hazard.
On September 24, the weather service in Albuquerque issued the headline “FLASH FLOOD EMERGENCY FOR HONDO.” The warning milestones also show a catastrophic damage threat in Lincoln County that afternoon. On September 26, another emergency named Socorro and Luis Lopez.
Warnings across New Mexico and Texas were most numerous on September 25, as local officials continued sending flooding notices and announcing road closures. Those messages document repeated danger and instructions to residents, not a verified casualty or damage assessment. No toll could be sourced for this flooding.
Flood alerts by the numbers: every published month, by state and county.
3Flooding closes Utah Trail and leaves debris on Route 62 in California
SEP 23, 3 PM UTC
County order
Kern County, California
SEP 24, 9 PM UTC
First warning
Riverside County, California
SEP 24, 9 PM UTC
Considerable threat
Riverside County, California
SEP 24, 10 PM UTC
County order
Los Angeles County, California
SEP 25, 2 AM UTC
Last warning
Riverside County, California
- Flash flooding — coloured as water. 4 counties in California, Sep 23–24.
Near Twentynine Palms at 3:12 p.m. on September 24, significant flash flooding closed Utah Trail south of Amboy Road. The closure appears in PerilIQ’s compilation of storm reports, attributed to emergency management.
The weather service in Las Vegas then issued a flash flood warning covering Twentynine Palms and its military base, within the desert flooding marked 3 on the map. “At 315 PM PDT, emergency management reported thunderstorms producing heavy rain across the warned area,” the warning said. The warning, published by KESQ, instructed motorists not to drive on flooded roads.
At 3:24 p.m. that afternoon, a law-enforcement report recorded lane closures on State Route 62 east of Joshua Tree because of flash-flood debris. PerilIQ’s compilation attributed the closures to the California Highway Patrol. For drivers, the reported obstruction was debris on the roadway, not just standing water.
Elsewhere that afternoon, the weather service in Phoenix warned of dangerous flows at low-water crossings in rural Riverside and San Bernardino counties, according to its advisory reproduced by GovOneStop. It directed drivers to turn around at flooded roads. No deaths or injuries were reported in the reviewed accounts of the desert flooding.
Flood alerts by the numbers: every published month, by state and county.
4Storms bring down trees in Buchanan County and Walnut Cove
SEP 21, 4 PM UTC
First warning
Fayette County, West Virginia
SEP 22, 4 AM UTC
Last warning
Claiborne County, Tennessee
- Severe storms — coloured as storms. 182 counties in the Gulf Coast, Sep 21–22.
In Fayette County, West Virginia, a severe thunderstorm warning went out early in the afternoon on September 21. It began a sequence extending from the Ohio Valley toward the Gulf Coast, shown as 4 on the map. The documented local impacts included fallen trees in Virginia and North Carolina.
At 3:25 p.m. that afternoon, an emergency call center reported a large tree down on a road in Buchanan County, Virginia, near Breaks Interstate. The weather service in Charleston recorded the account in a preliminary storm report archived by Iowa Environmental Mesonet.
At 4:56 p.m., another emergency call-center report placed a fallen tree in the Walnut Cove area of Stokes County, North Carolina. That account appeared in a preliminary weather service report from Blacksburg, reproduced by RoofTalk. It documented a tree down, without establishing a wider damage total for the community.
The broader outbreak brought wind, hail and tornado warnings, with the last severe thunderstorm warning ending in Claiborne County, Tennessee, just after midnight. Those warnings describe dangers across the affected area; they do not establish that every warned hazard occurred in either community. The preliminary reports document the fallen trees, while the reviewed reporting found no deaths or injuries reported for this storm episode.
Tornado alerts by the numbers: every published month, by state and county.
How BePrepared monitors this, all year
This report exists because we already monitor the whole country. Every couple of minutes, around the clock, we read the emergency alerts going out across all fifty states and territories, and we keep them. A month of that record is what you have just read.
The national picture is the part most people never see. What matters to you is much smaller: which of these warnings would have reached your street, and what the risks around you look like on an ordinary day.
That is what BePrepared is for. Put in your ZIP code and you get the picture for where you live — the flood, fire and storm history around you, the dams and facilities nearby, and a plan for your household rather than a general one. With a free account you can keep a watchlist of the places you care about, like your home, your parents' address, and your kids' school, and set what you want to hear about.
Where it hit hardest
Counted as distinct warnings, and as the days a county spent under one. A county is the smallest area these warnings describe.
Warnings by region
- Ohio Valley154
- Southwest102
- Texas83
- Gulf Coast67
- Southeast44
Most days under a warning
- Lake County, IL8 days
- Pike County, IL8 days
- Calhoun County, IL8 days
- Pike County, MO8 days
- Clinton County, IA8 days
- Scott County, IA8 days
- Marion County, MO8 days
- Ralls County, MO8 days
Where the warnings landed
- Flooding
- Severe storms
- Safety & civil
- Everything else
Flooding3,649 warnings · 596 counties
Severe storms1,204 warnings · 347 counties
Safety & civil171 warnings · 111 counties
Tornadoes42 warnings · 16 counties
Fire28 warnings · 14 counties
View as a table
| County | State | Warnings | Most frequent kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lincoln | NM | 79 | Flooding |
| Chaves | NM | 75 | Flooding |
| El Paso | TX | 67 | Flooding |
| Harlan | KY | 57 | Flooding |
| Lincoln | WV | 55 | Flooding |
| Otero | NM | 53 | Flooding |
| Athens | OH | 52 | Flooding |
| Roosevelt | NM | 51 | Flooding |
| Curry | NM | 51 | Flooding |
| Meigs | OH | 48 | Flooding |
| Vinton | OH | 46 | Flooding |
| Hawaii | HI | 46 | Hurricane & tropical |
| Hudspeth | TX | 45 | Flooding |
| Washington | OH | 43 | Flooding |
| Socorro | NM | 43 | Flooding |
| Wayne | WV | 41 | Flooding |
| Gilmer | WV | 40 | Flooding |
| Lake | IL | 40 | Flooding |
| Doña Ana | NM | 39 | Flooding |
| Bell | KY | 37 | Flooding |
The human record
What it cost, and who reported it
These figures are not ours. Our archive records that a warning was issued, never what happened next, so every number here comes from the organization named beside it and was retrieved on September 28, 2026.
Toll
60people evacuated
Vinton County Sheriff Ryan Cain said 60 people had to be evacuated during the flooding.
Source: Spectrum News 1
Displaced
5people sheltering
Amesville Mayor Mike Ford reported that five people and their animals were sheltering at the fire station while waiting for floodwater to recede.
Source: Athens County Independent
Displaced
Families evacuated from Vinton County's Xena Place apartment complex included Arianna Collins and her family, who received food and slept at a nearby Red Cross shelter on September 21.
Source: Spectrum News 1
ArchiveOur records show flash flooding warnings covering this area on September 21.
Rescue
4water rescues
The Ames-Bern Volunteer Fire Department completed four water rescues in Amesville on September 21 after vehicles were overcome by floodwater.
Source: Athens County Independent
In their words
Xena Place resident Arianna Collins described how quickly water entered her apartment before she was rescued just after midnight.
“It went from drizzling to flooding my apartment in less than ten minutes.”
Arianna Collins, Xena Place resident rescued from her flooded apartment, to Spectrum News 1 Source: Spectrum News 1
Toll
0injuries
0fatalities
Kern County Fire Department reported zero injuries and zero fatalities in the September 23 Virginia Incident hazardous-materials release in Bakersfield.
Source: Kern County Fire Department
ArchiveOur records show flash flooding warnings covering this area on September 23.
In their words
Long Beach Peninsula resident Charley Snyder told NBC4 that the prospect of another swell arriving before coastal defenses were restored was unsettling.
“Everything is not built back up again, so it’s a little nerve-wracking for sure”
Charley Snyder, Long Beach Peninsula resident, to NBC4 / NBC Los Angeles Source: NBC Los Angeles
Closed
Firefighters established a perimeter around the Virginia Avenue vapor cloud, and law enforcement closed the roadway while hazardous-materials and environmental-health personnel assessed the release.
Source: Kern County Fire Department
Closed
PerilIQ's compilation of September 24 storm reports records an emergency-management report that significant flash flooding closed Utah Trail south of Amboy Road near Twentynine Palms at 3:12 p.m.
Source: PerilIQ, reproducing storm reports attributed to emergency management
Closed
PerilIQ's compilation records a 3:24 p.m. September 24 law-enforcement report that the California Highway Patrol closed lanes on State Route 62 east of Joshua Tree because of flash-flood debris.
Source: PerilIQ, reproducing storm reports attributed to law enforcement
ArchiveOur records show flash flooding warnings covering this area on September 24.
Damage
A National Weather Service preliminary storm report recorded a 911 call-center report of a large tree down on a road in Buchanan County, Virginia, two miles north-northeast of Breaks Interstate, at 3:25 p.m. on September 21, 2026.
Source: National Weather Service Charleston, archived by Iowa Environmental Mesonet
ArchiveOur records show severe storms warnings covering this area on September 21.
Damage
A National Weather Service Blacksburg storm report reproduced by RoofTalk recorded a 911 call-center report of a tree down in the Walnut Cove area of Stokes County, North Carolina, at 4:56 p.m. on September 21, 2026.
Source: National Weather Service Blacksburg, reproduced by RoofTalk
ArchiveOur records show severe storms warnings covering this area on September 21.
Response
On September 22, 2026, the National Weather Service Charleston issued a flood watch including Logan and Wayne counties, West Virginia, through 8 p.m. September 23, stating that flash flooding remained possible rather than confirming impacts in those counties.
Source: National Weather Service Charleston, reproduced by Now in USA
ArchiveOur records show severe storms warnings covering this area on September 22.
Response
At 3:18 p.m. CDT on September 22, 2026, the National Weather Service Huntsville issued a special weather statement covering Madison and Morgan counties, Alabama, advising people outdoors to consider sheltering inside a building while a radar-tracked thunderstorm near Triana threatened strong winds and small hail.
Source: National Weather Service Huntsville, reproduced by GovOneStop
ArchiveOur records show severe storms warnings covering this area on September 22.
For 3 of these stories, research looked for reported deaths and injuries and found none. As far as the record shows, no one was hurt.
The numbers behind this report
Every warning counted once, by type, place, day and hour, with the method below and the whole table downloadable at the end of the page.
What was warned about
| Alert type | Warnings | Messages |
|---|---|---|
| Special Weather Statement | 1,001 | 1,003 |
| Severe Thunderstorm Warning | 614 | 614 |
| Flash Flood Warning | 484 | 484 |
| Small Craft Advisory | 470 | 2,628 |
| Flood Advisory | 417 | 417 |
| Flood Warning | 306 | 455 |
| Flood Watch | 129 | 162 |
| Beach Hazards Statement | 126 | 392 |
Where
| State | Warnings |
|---|---|
| TX | 411 |
| NM | 392 |
| NC | 204 |
| KY | 193 |
| OH | 189 |
| CO | 179 |
| AL | 174 |
| WV | 149 |
The busiest hour of the period was 5pm local time, with 370 warnings.
Counties reached most often
| County | State | Warnings |
|---|---|---|
| Lincoln | NM | 79 |
| Chaves | NM | 75 |
| El Paso | TX | 67 |
| Harlan | KY | 57 |
| Lincoln | WV | 55 |
| Otero | NM | 53 |
| Athens | OH | 52 |
| Roosevelt | NM | 51 |
| Curry | NM | 51 |
| Meigs | OH | 48 |
A county with no alerts is not a county with no risk. It can mean a quiet period, or a hazard that this feed does not carry.
When the warnings arrived
View as a table
| Local hour | Warnings | Of which most severe |
|---|---|---|
| 12am | 114 | 0 |
| 1am | 133 | 4 |
| 2am | 153 | 1 |
| 3am | 119 | 0 |
| 4am | 122 | 2 |
| 5am | 112 | 1 |
| 6am | 108 | 0 |
| 7am | 81 | 3 |
| 8am | 88 | 4 |
| 9am | 109 | 3 |
| 10am | 132 | 1 |
| 11am | 131 | 5 |
| 12pm | 136 | 7 |
| 1pm | 206 | 3 |
| 2pm | 319 | 1 |
| 3pm | 336 | 6 |
| 4pm | 369 | 6 |
| 5pm | 370 | 8 |
| 6pm | 324 | 6 |
| 7pm | 291 | 7 |
| 8pm | 225 | 10 |
| 9pm | 249 | 5 |
| 10pm | 187 | 7 |
| 11pm | 206 | 3 |
The feed repeats itself
View as a table
| Stage | Count |
|---|---|
| Messages received | 10,521 |
| Of which updates | 6,123 |
| Of which cancels | 0 |
| Distinct warnings | 4,620 |
| Counties reached | 2,215 |
How severe they were
- Minor
- Moderate
- Severe
- Extreme
- Not classified
View as a table
| Severity | Warnings |
|---|---|
| Minor | 1,172 |
| Moderate | 1,538 |
| Severe | 1,798 |
| Extreme | 93 |
| Not classified | 19 |
What people were told to do
- Avoid
- Follow instructions
- Shelter
- Everything else
Where those instructions came from
- Shelter (647) — 147 corroborated as flood, 57 corroborated as tornado, 443 with no hazard stated in the alert text
- Evacuate (9) — 4 corroborated as flood, 2 corroborated as wildfire, 3 with no hazard stated in the alert text
View as a table
| Response | Warnings | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Avoid | 2,167 | 46.9% |
| Follow instructions | 1,202 | 26.0% |
| Shelter | 647 | 14.0% |
| Prepare | 282 | 6.1% |
| Monitor | 243 | 5.3% |
| Unstated | 64 | 1.4% |
| Evacuate | 9 | 0.2% |
| All clear | 5 | 0.1% |
| No action | 1 | 0.0% |
What this report cannot tell you
- This report records the warnings that were sent: when, where, and what people were told to do. It cannot say whether anyone received them, whether they acted, or whether they had anywhere to go.
- Deaths, injuries, damage and acreage come from the news organizations and agencies named beside each figure. Our own records measure warnings, never outcomes, and are never the source for a toll.
- A county is the smallest area these alerts describe, so "a county was warned" does not mean every street in it was at risk.
- Where no figure has been reported, this report says so rather than estimating.
How these numbers were counted
Counted SEP 21, 2026 – SEP 28, 2026 · Frozen at publishThe alert figures in this report — how many warnings, where, when, and how severe — come from the alerts this archive received from FEMA IPAWS and the National Weather Service between September 21, 2026 and September 28, 2026, counted once and frozen when the report was published.
Deaths, damage and acreage are not ours and are never drawn from this archive. Each is attributed to the organization that reported it, above.
What was counted
- cap_status = 'Actual' (tests, exercises and demos excluded)
- SAME test codes RWT/RMT/DMO/NPT/NAT excluded, and any event type containing "test"
- An event is the first message of a CAP identifier chain; updates and cancels are counted separately
- Alert time is cap_sent, falling back to ingest time when the feed omits it
- Counties come from the alert geocodes (SAME/FIPS); statewide codes are not counted as counties
What these numbers cannot tell you
- Lead time is the gap between when an alert was sent and when it takes effect. This archive collapses CAP onset into effective, so for many products those are the same instant by design — it is not a measure of forecast warning time.
- 34 alerts expire exactly 24 hours after they were sent because the feed omitted an expiry and the ingest substitutes a default. They are excluded from the duration distribution rather than charted as real forecasts.
- Evacuation and shelter figures are RESPONSE counts. They record what people were told to do, not what caused it; where the alert text does not name a hazard, the row is reported as unstated.
- Hour-of-day figures use each alert’s own local time, resolved from its state. Alerts spanning several states resolve to the first state in their geocodes.
- National Weather Service alerts began arriving in volume on 2026-06-12. Earlier months hold only the handful that reached this archive by other routes, so they undercount weather alerts badly and cannot be compared with later months.
- Population figures are not available for these counties, so alert counts are reported per county and never per resident.
This archive
Collection began 2026-03-27. National Weather Service alerts began arriving in volume on 2026-06-12 (a small number reached the archive by other routes from 2026-03-31). Months from 2026-07-01 onward can be compared with each other; earlier ones cannot.
For newsrooms and researchers
Use these figures
Journalists, emergency managers and researchers are welcome to reuse anything in this report, including the underlying counts, with attribution. Version 1 of these figures is frozen: if a correction changes them, it appears above as a dated note rather than silently replacing what you cited.
BePreparedSolutions.co. "Flooding displaces Ohio families and closes California desert roads." Alert Pulse, September 28, 2026. https://bepreparedsolutions.co/reports/alert-pulse/week-2026-09-21
Source: BePrepared Solutions, Alert Pulse (2026). Alert counts from FEMA IPAWS and National Weather Service feeds; casualty and damage figures as attributed in the report.
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The embed updates itself if we publish a correction, so it never goes stale the way a screenshot does.
The CSV carries the same frozen figures as this page, keyed to version 1.