The board this morning

Water, not fire, is the confirmed hazard today — active NWS flood warnings in Florida and Colorado, dozens of rescues reported on the Georgia-Tennessee line

By The FirstResponders Desk

Good morning. NWS Melbourne FL has issued Severe Flood Warnings for Seminole, Brevard, Lake and Volusia counties in Florida; NWS Pueblo CO has issued one for Bent County, Colorado. The Guardian reports that heavy rain and flash flooding hit communities along the Georgia-Tennessee border late Wednesday into Thursday morning and forced dozens of rescues, with the National Weather Service warning: "Seek higher ground now!" For your shift: the warnings are live. Expect swiftwater call volume and welfare checks where water has cut roads. Treat the quoted warning as the standing instruction it is.

On the rescue side, Fox News reports a helicopter hoist of a hiker who fell hundreds of feet on Utah's Mount Timpanogos and was lifted from a narrow ledge. CBS News reports that a 6-year-old boy missing two days in the eastern Kentucky woods was found Wednesday, and that searchers described the conditions of the search.

Fire items are all unconfirmed. An unconfirmed report describes a fatal house fire in Brooklyn, New York, with more than 200 firefighters said to have responded — no agency has confirmed the incident or any casualty count, so do not carry a figure. Satellite fire detections are reported over Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Tennessee; these are unconfirmed heat signatures, not agency-confirmed fires. An unconfirmed report describes returning Santa Ana winds with wildfire and surf warnings in Southern California. Wildfire Today reports the term "firewave" narrowly missed Word of the Year recognition. Firefighter Close Calls marks the 1938 line-of-duty death of an FDNY firefighter of Ladder 35 who fell down a dumbwaiter shaft during overhaul at a Manhattan tenement fire.

Law enforcement: the Tampa Bay Times reports a Pinellas County deputy misused license-plate-reader databases to track his estranged wife, per the sheriff. The Oregonian and ABC News report a postal worker shot two coworkers at the main Des Moines USPS office before being taken into custody. Cleveland.com reports a man wanted in a fatal Lorain parking-lot shooting surrendered and was charged with murder. NBC News reports an Oregon college student, held at knifepoint, escaped and was then shot by police, and has filed a federal civil-rights case against Albany and Benton County. The Los Angeles Times reports two people charged with concealing a man's death in a Santa Barbara apartment. NJ.com reports dog-rescue owners accused of shooting a pit bull, with 12 dogs found in what officials called deplorable conditions. The New York Post reports French riots tied to "ultra-left" activists and, separately, a Mexican judge arrested in the Ryan Wedding drug case.

Two further reports are unconfirmed by any agency: an account of police firing on a car with a baby inside in Mississippi, and an account of a security worker stopping an active shooter at a Florida Citibank campus. Carry both as unconfirmed.

What to watch: the Florida and Colorado flood warnings remain active per the NWS; the reported Southern California wind event is worth tracking but is not yet agency-confirmed.