Current Events

Record flooding puts Indiana under a federal emergency

The White River set a record 24.9-foot crest at Anderson, surpassing its 1913 high, on a day that also narrowed the childhood vaccine schedule and pulled 1.6 million dozen eggs into the highest-risk recall tier.

3 min read2026-08-17

Flooding

Trump approves a federal emergency as record floods hit Indiana¹

President Trump approved an emergency declaration for Indiana on August 16, authorizing FEMA to supplement the state, tribal and local response to severe storms, straight-line winds, tornadoes and flooding that began August 11.¹ The action is an emergency declaration, not the broader major disaster declaration. CBS News reported at least seven deaths that day, winds of 99 mph in Gary, and nearly 175,000 customers without power in the state's northwest.² The White River crested at 24.9 feet at Anderson, above the mark set in the 1913 flood. Governor Mike Braun had deployed the National Guard and requested the federal declaration the day before, when NPR counted three dead.³

Vaccine policy

Executive order limits the vaccines recommended for all children to 11⁴

Executive Order 14420, signed August 10, sorts the childhood immunization schedule into three tiers: vaccines recommended for all children, those for high-risk groups, and those left to shared clinical decision-making, with eleven vaccines in the all-children tier.⁴ NBC News reported that the order reduces the diseases every child is advised to vaccinate against from 18 to 11.⁵ The order gives an HHS task force 90 days to report on single-disease shots in place of combinations, starting with measles, mumps and rubella, and on alternatives to aluminum adjuvants.⁴

Food safety

FDA raises a 1.6-million-dozen egg recall to its highest risk level⁶

The Food and Drug Administration upgraded Midwest Poultry Services' recall of 1,589,577 dozen shell eggs to Class I, its most serious tier.⁶ Time reported that Class I denotes "a reasonable probability that the use of or exposure to a violative product will cause serious adverse health consequences or death," and that the mid-August upgrade followed genetic sequencing tying samples to the outbreak strain of Salmonella Enteritidis.⁷ The eggs sold under brands including Kroger, Simple Truth and Cal-Maine's Sunups across six states. The linked outbreak had sickened 98 people in 17 states, with 26 hospitalizations and no deaths, when it was last tallied.⁷

Inflation

Inflation eased to 3.4 percent in July as the Fed nears a September decision⁸

Consumer prices rose 0.1 percent from June to July and 3.4 percent over the year, down from 3.5 percent in June, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on August 12.⁸ Core prices, which exclude food and energy, rose 0.2 percent on the month and 2.5 percent over the year.⁸ NBC News reported that the print split Federal Reserve officials weeks before their September meeting. Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack said "Now is the time to act." Truist's chief economist read the same data as reason to hold, with the decision resting on the August jobs and inflation reports still to come.⁹

Trump approves a federal emergency as record floods hit Indiana1

Executive order limits the vaccines recommended for all children to 114

FDA raises a 1.6-million-dozen egg recall to its highest risk level6

Inflation eased to 3.4 percent in July as the Fed nears a September decision8

Sources

Trump approves a federal emergency as record floods hit Indiana¹

Executive order limits the vaccines recommended for all children to 11⁴

FDA raises a 1.6-million-dozen egg recall to its highest risk level⁶

Inflation eased to 3.4 percent in July as the Fed nears a September decision⁸