republican leaders basically begged the congressman to take the job. this was a couple of weeks ago. he reluctantly, eventually agreed to run only after issuing a series of demands from which he apparently backed down. demands including getting support, actually what he said was an endorsement from the republicans' three biggest groups. he didn't get that but he got their support. hard line freedom caucus as they call themselves which had its own conservative speaker candidate in the mix. in the end a majority of that caucus, that far right antiestablishment quote unquote freedom caucus gave congressman ryan their support. there are signs it won't fix the republican infighting in cock at all. hardliners are grumbling at minimum after congressman ryan announced his support for a budget bill that would prevent a budget shutdown. that freedom caucus promises to fight that bill calling it a compromise made in back room deals with president obama. now that happenings over the house as it gets ready for a final vote on the speaker. final vote wasn't today. that's tomorrow. today congressman ryan did not get the number of votes that he must have to win when the full house votes tomorrow. is he going up against the minority leader nancy pelosi. most republicans will vote for him but not all. mike emanuel isen capitol hill live with fox top story. mike, he needs 218 votes. he got 200 votes. what are people holding out for? what do we not know here? >> i talked to some leadership aids because a number of people from that house freedom caucus said they would support paul ryan on the house floor. we can tell that you daniel webster, who was the second leading candidate got 433 votes in the house republican conference. he told reporters just moments ago that he hopes he is not nominated on the house. so, what a lot of republicans are counting on is that people made their point in the lead-up to this republican conference vote this afternoon. 43 of them supported daniel webster. one supported kevin mccarthy the majority leader one supported marcia blackburn from tennessee. they are banking on in the end that people will come around and support paul ryan, who is talking about turning the page, making it a more inclusive process. fewer last minute deals. less back room deals which is the criticism. is he talking about a new era in the house of representatives, he needs to get 218 tomorrow morning. it's not a guarantee. but a lot of folks i have spoken with just now say they don't anticipate a problem on the floor in the morning, shep. >> talking about inclusiveness and getting it, mike, are frankly miles and worlds apart. these members of this right wing caucus. they are not for this budget deal and they are already squawking about it, aren't they? >> they are. they do not like the deal. it reminds them of the end of the john boehner era, so to speak. and ryan has said that he won't do this in the future there will be more buy-in from rank and file members. he has called for rules changes and statements that he has put out before this vote. and so he is saying that there will be a new era in the house of representatives that these house freedom caucus members will at least be able to have their voices heard before a deal is presented to the entire republican conference. and to the entire house of representatives. and so we will see if they are satisfied. we will be listening to see what they say the rest of today and tomorrow morning. but a lot of them have come out and said they don't like the deal. but they like what paul ryan is saying leading up to this election. and so a super majority of them said they would support him on the floor, shep. >> mike emanuel on the hill. thanks to. steven diamond for "the washington times." i see you yining. paul ryan saying inclusiveness is a new day for the house. how in the world is he going to do that? >> it's going to be really tough it. i guess the easiest way to put this is what i have heard from a number of members of congress, including folks who were happy with boehner and folks who weren't happy with boehner that paul ryan begins this with a lot of trust. where john boehner and eric cantor the former majority leader who was ousted in the primary last year and the current majority leader kevin mccarthy, you know, members liked him generally but they saw them as wheelers and dealers. guys who were in this for leadership purposes. paul ryan, by being so reluctant to take this office may actually start off in better position because when he comes back to them and says, guys, this is a deal i struck. and it's the best deal i can get. the lawmakers tell me there is already a lot of goodwill there. they believe ryan, that that really was the best deal they could get. look. i called them the suicide caucus. other people call them comey cozy caucus. the group of republicans for who there is no other al terriblive than 100 percent vote or zero percent vote. i'm told that's actually a very small number. a lota lot of those folks are actually folks who are not 100 percenters but they want to make sure they got the best possible deal at that moment. with boehner and mccarthy they weren't sure of that. they think paul ryan gives them a better chance at that. >> what sounds to me like you are saying is the chances are slimmer that the republican party falls apart than caucus falls apart. if we bring down the goose that lays the golden egg there is no more goose. >> remember, this is paul ryan. he is the guy who from 2011 through 2014 literally wrote the republican blueprint. his path to prosperity the budget that the house voted on all four of those years. the vast vast vast majority of house republicans have backed paul ryan's budget and, therefore, backed his vision. they are on board with where he is. the question has always been over tactics. hey, are we actually making enough steps towards that right now? given that he is the guy who wrote that plan, he starts off with that goodwill. that bodes fairly well for him in terms of being able to message for those republicans. >> so is it your sense that this group that has said no compromise, no compromise, no compromise, will now be willing to compromise because that's what you have to do to govern or will they continue to say if it requires a compromise, we will just stand here. >> i think you are going to find the group sort of split into two categories. there are absolutely some who will stay 100 percent and say no compromise. we get all or else we don't want to have anything to do with it. there are some of them. the question here is how many of those there are. we don't know right now and this is what we are going to be watching are to. tomorrow's speaker vote will tell us about that first real fight on spending bills as they come through in a couple months on the highway bill. those sorts of things that we will know how many of those people aren't real 100 percenters. they want to see a better deal coming out of the negotiations than they thought they got with boehner. >> thanks very much. good to talk with you. we have some breaking news. >> and the breaking news is on that blimp. and the pentagon tells fox news in the last 30 seconds it is not on the ground. the pentagon is now reporting this military blimp that broke loose in maryland has almost landed somewhere in pennsylvania, sounded good. this is not good. a military spokesman says the blimp is dragging a tether that's causing power outages along the path. i want to show you here. for a while the pentagon had f-16 fighter jets trailing this blimp as it continued out of control at 16,000 feet. it has these long tethers on it like it was tied to the ground. it's supposed to withstand a hurricane. it's supposed to do a lot of things. we'll get into more on this blimp. but imagine it's got this long tether on it that is really really strong, though not strong enough to have kept it on the ground in the first place. so that tether is dragging along, and we have a picture. the tether is dragging along and taking out power lines along the way. see this? this is a picture, the other one we have circled in red helpfully. very helpful the red circle, whoever did that there is the blimp right up there. at the moment it was over a school bus. the school bus is not in danger. the tether is dragging along ripping out pour outages. think what live power lines how much danger this is all alon the way. jennifer griffin has been monitoring this for the pentagon. i read it on some websites that i go to and they are kind of making fun of it. this is very serious. >> it's very serious, shep. in fact, we first realized that it was landing because a student at that school in bloomsburg, pennsylvania tweeted out a video of it coming close to that school bus, close to that school now the pentagon telling us it is landing. as you mentioned those power lines are causing a huge amount of problems. the military is scrambling military helicopters to surround it once it does come on to the ground. we're told it became untethered at 12:20 eastern time. it's called a joint land accrues missile defense elevated netted censor system. it was tethered at an enter lien proving grounds in maryland. two f-16 fighter jets were zam bled by norad new york city. it was carried by the wind at 16,000 feet at one point. this is a huge blimp, the size of a football field, shep. it's field with helium. the pentagon has been weighing how to bring it down. it provides persistent over the horizon radar surveillance. it can watch for manned and unmanned aircraft, crews cruise missiles. it has a 243-foot long tethered arrow stat. a mobile moring station. radar, communications pay loads. this is a very expensive piece of military equipment, shepard. >> jennifer, i want to show people what's happened here. we have just been able to get a power outage map and look at what's happened as it's gone along the way. all of these little red lightning bolt looking things here are power outages. it's our belief now that -- what do i do think of it? it's none of your business what i think of it. i hate it when computers ask me questions. 12200 customers here. >> jennifer, do we have any word on whether anybody has been hurt by this thing? >> so far no reports of any injuries. remember, this is a helium-filled balloon that is the size of, you know, a football field. it is enormous. i have passed it many times driving through maryland and seeing it on the horizon as it watches the coast line and protects the homeland. but being field with helium. that's extremely flammable. so clearly a lot of concern about where this will come down and how to secure it once it comes down and whether it may, in fact, catch fire. >> you mentioned protecting the homeland. interesting to me, and i hadn't read about this until today, but last month the "l.a. times" did a full report and an expansive one, extensive one on this program. you mentioned it's supposed to be protecting the homeland. the "l.a. times" called this a 2.7 billion-dollar zombie project it says by zombie project means it's costly. ineffect actual and simply impossible to kill jlens should have been up after 17 years when that crazy guy from florida rode his bird from florida to the capitol. it wasn't up and didn't notice it as a result. the "l.a. times" says the reliability has been poor. it's been supposed to be an air defense surveillance system that hasn't been working. software glitches have hobbled the thing. the milk white blimps can be hobbled by bad weather and deployed in combat zones would be vulnerable to enemy attack. what the "l.a. times" didn't know when it wrote this it's supposed to be hurricane-proof. you tether it and a hurricane won't get rid of it. today like nothing got rid of it or whatever it is that made it break free we don't have idea what it is. whoever thought it would be taking out power lines all along the way. what a disaster? >> incredible disaster, shepard. and really the question is why wasn't there redundancy? why wasn't there a second tether? how could something like this become untethered? that is going to be the question asked here. but as you mentioned, this is a multibillion-dollar defense project. it is an example of many many of the sort of white elephant programs that really represent the kind of waste that the defense budget has peppered throughout. and so i think there will have to be an investigation into was this worth it we have it and reran it in the last hour. we cannot get it on the air because we are ingesting. the world's most -- what's the word? frustrating word ingesting. that means he we cannot show you it as it wonders -- wanders across the landscape taking out power lines. i could take out my phone and shoot one of the other -- when we get back in a minute show you what jlens has accomplished anything that's ahead on fox news channel. it takes a lot of work... to run this business. but i really love it. i'm on the move all day long... and sometimes, i just don't eat the way i should. so i drink boost® to get the nutrition that i'm missing. boost complete nutritional drink has 26 essential vitamins and minerals, including calcium and vitamin d to support strong bones and 10 grams of protein to help maintain muscle. all with a great taste. i don't plan on slowing down any time soon. stay strong. stay active with boost®. >> that's great to know. former navy pilot randy aaronton. he flew as the attack pilot and flew with the homeland security. san diego. used these blimps to track smugglers along the border. this one likely designed to pick up cruise missiles used to fly around and follow these blimps all the time. randy, what do you make? >> well, you have got a problem because there is no way to bring that down except for maybe one of those f-16 vipers to shoot it down with 20-millimeter fire. but where will do you that? do that unpopulated area other problem is i understand it broke free cable about 3300-foot mark. you have 6800 feet of cable that's underneath this thing. eventually it's going to come down you you have static electricity kill people just as bad as electric chair and get people hit. acceleration get hit with this thing g.p.s.ing to to be bad. we have got to be careful with this and get the air force to do the right thing. >> what's the right thing? >> well, they are going to have to shoot it down eventually over some unpopulated area. maybe fly all the way up to the canadian border. heading northwest up toward from where it was in aberdeen, maryland up toward pennsylvania. let it keep drifting with the wind. eventually it will get in the prevailing -- go back to the west. get it somewhere where there is no population, you know, heavy population and then shoot it down. we will have to do that eventually. >> you read this "new york times" piece on jlens and basically the bottom line is it's terrible? >> i did. i think that's just overreaction. jlens designed. sort of what we did with customs. tracked smuggling airplanes flying low level with those things. also track vehicle. this was designed by raytheon to track incoming enemy cruise missiles that fly low altitudes and high speeds that we sometimes will miss on interceptors. >> except they tell us it doesn't work 17 years and $17.2 billion later couldn't find grandpa and whirlly bird flying from florida to the capitol. if it works there is no evidence of it. so you saw it do something? >> it does work. >> okay. you might be getting some people trying to redirect money somewhere else. as i understand it, offered 43 billion to this program army two of these things together there in maryland. three year test cycle going to end in a couple years, i believe. these things do work, i'm telling you. >> just as a point of reference. when grandpa unwhirly bird can come up the coast and jlens can get it done. the first thing we have ever seen it do effectively is take out power lines over pennsylvania. maybe it's found a snug glory or two down there on the non-border border. this is potentially crassic what's happening here. the way we can track where the thing is going is the fact that none of these people have power anymore. you want to know the flight it's taking? it's going this way? how do we know? because none of those people have power anymore. what's going to happen if that tether grabs a power line and ends up crashing down on people? >> the air force and trackers will have to track it down with fire. >> for a while they had f-16s following the thing. >> as i understand they still do, shep, is that true? >> they say they do. i don't know what to believe. all i know is power lines keep coming down and blimp-a-thon continues to the north and west until the prevailing winds take it west and hopefully they will be able to shoot it down. for now we will be joined randy it's nice to talk to you randy arrington. we have to get in another commercial break. when we come back our newspaper reporter has been covering this from pennsylvania about the path this thing has taken and the dangers ahead. stay with us. ♪ ♪ (charge music) you wouldn't hire an organist without hearing them first. charge! so why would you invest without checking brokercheck? check your broker with brokercheck. 23 minutes past the hour bloomsberg university as reported is without power thought because of this thing flying around with a string hacking down that's been taking out power lines and who knows what else. it's going through lancaster county, pennsylvania on its way north and west as it flies free like a bird with a string attached. tom knap is a reporter with register online what are you seeing there. >> it was pretty high above it when it went through lancaster county it started across the line around 6,000 feet up in the air. and why the time it left our county it was 15,000 feet. so it was moving up. >> it's now higher than its string, at least. >> there was some worry the tether is about 5,000 feet long. so there was some worry that it might suddenly dip and things might suddenly get hit. that didn't happen it moved up. i understand coming down up north of columbia county. smooth sailing here and with the cloud cover we didn't really see much at all in the sky. >> so much weather from your area up into the northeast and into the great lakes area today. a lot of it is left over from that hurricane that hit mexico and came across texas and through the deep south. now, i guess tom, the concern is if and when this thing -- one thing we know about things that go up they come down. >> eventually. >> and when it does, what that tether is going to do is because that tether is supposed to withstand winds hurricane force. >> pretty heavy tether. start doing damage if it starts dragging. i hope they have a plan in place. i don't know how they will control it if it comes down. >> have municipalities sent out warnings in your area? >> in this area, no. because around 12:30 when it first was announced that it was coming into our county, they thought it was descending. >> three hours ago? >> right. but then it started to go up. and mostly, you know, the ema here was worried about if people saw something in the sky they would be able to identify what it was there was not a lot of concern about it coming down here. it seemed to be on an a upward track and we knew it was going north of us. >> i guess they see this, jennifer griffin talks about seeing it all the time in the washington, d.c. area because you are used to it. but you come floating across my farm in northwest, mississippi i'm going to be afraid the little martians are on the way in here. >> it's unusual site. i don't know if if you have seen pictures of this type of balloon not a typical weather balloon or pleasure balloon it looks like an aircraft. it's a strange looking thing. >> tom knap on the line with us online in lancaster, pennsylvania. tom, thanks. >> my pleasure. >> the thing about it is it is going up and down. snoopy they call this jlens blimp. the army has previously lost control of these things but in that case it was over afghanistan. now they have lost control of it over the east coast of the united states. one thing if you read this "l.a. times" article on the thing, there is no good news. at the call it a zombie project $2.7 billion over 17 years. and according to the reporting of the "l.a. times," which is disputed by the pentagon, it can't really do what it's supposed to do. that's why they call it a zombie project. ineffect actual, lots of money but you can't kill it. like some things of this nature. so, fly it does. and as we approach the bottom of the hour, and the top of the news, we will continue with this. we are looking for more video of it as it heads north and west on a rainy afternoon in north america. our passion to make it real. ♪ but i've managed.e crohn's disease is tough, our passion to make it real. except that managing my symptoms was all i was doing. and when i finally told my doctor, he said humira is for adults like me who have tried other medications but still experience the symptoms of moderate to severe crohn's disease. and that in clinical studies, the majority of patients on humira saw significant symptom relief. and many achieved remission. humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened; as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. before treatment, get tested for tb. tell your doctor if you've been to areas where certain fungal infections are common, and if you've had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have flu-like symptoms or sores. don't start humira if you have an infection. ask your gastroenterologist about humira. with humira, remission is possible. >> a fox report now. headlines from the fox news desk. a man barely escaping instant electrocution after he fell on to the third rail of a subway track. facing two people who robbed them and one of them used a taser on him. they say a thin cover on that third rail may have saved his life. a woman in michigan says she heard a loud crash, walked out of her house and found a ford mustang on her roof, obviously. happened outside lansing. the driver lost control of the car that headed down the hill next to the woman's home. nobody hurt. and prince harry set to meet with president obama in the oval at this hour. earlier today, the prince visited injured troops at army base in virginia. he started england invictus games for wounded service members and he is bringing the competition to florida next year. we'll continue to chase the balloon run amuck after this. >> as far as we know the blimp is still moving. there are all kinds of condition flicking reports. we know it's been moving more because we have updated the power outage map. now more than 20,000 people are without power, according to the power company. and they are just adding every few minutes. see these numbers? it starts in maryland, remember. and just -- it's making its way west. and can i count more than 20,000 just by adding up the numbers in all of these little red dots. it's insane. so, it's clearly not on the ground yet. it doesn't matter what they say because we are adding more power out every few minutes. then it's still moving. justice green took the video of the blimp on the loose a minute ago. did you think okay i hear this on the radio or i see this online or my phone or something and i'm going to take a perk or did you just walk outside and there the thing was moseying by. >> we walked outside and there was a lady parked next to her and said what is this thing? i said i don't know. i looked up in the sky and never seen like this moving real slow above the treetops and not making any noise at all. it moseyed out of view and then we started hearing explosions. >> explosions? >> explosion, that is correct. transformers were beginning to blow. the blimp or balloon, whatever you might be calling it had a 5,000-foot cable attached to it that was not connected to anything loose. >> you could see that. >> we could see that yes. >> and like that's what was grabbing these power lines and stuff, right? >> that is correct. from what i have gathered. >> so, people are just kind of stop, looking up going it's a bird? it's a plane. >> nobody gave us warning it was coming. i didn't hear about it until i seen it. >> so, and could you estimate how quickly it was moving along there? >> not very fast. when it came through here, i would say maybe of course it was up pretty high probably going quicker than it looks, maybe 5 or 10 miles per hour. >> yeah. and they -- they are trying to convince us that it was going back up but this doesn't look like it's all that high. i mean, go ahead. >> it was very low. >> if it has a thousand foot tether and it's reaching the ground, it's lower than 5,000 feet. >> that would be correct. >> i don't think anybody could dispute that. >> no. >> so you saw it move out of frame there and went on about your day? >> well, not exactly on about the day because we didn't know what was going on and then we started hearing these transformers blow up. and then i couldn't tell you how many cops came down our street chasing it. and we finally got one of the officers stopped and he let us know what was going on from what he knew. >> what did he say? >> he just said that we needed to be clear. watch our heads because this thing had a thousand foot cable attached to it and no direction for it. it it could go anywhere it wants to go. he also told us it was ripping guardrails out of the ground. i don't know where that was at. >> ripping guardrails out of the ground? >> yes. >> that's insane. >> it definitely-owe i have never seen anything like this. >> wow. i want to get to jennifer griffin real quickly at the pentagon. thanks a lot. again, he shot the video that we are watching there in the little box on the left-hand side of the screen. still pictures of what this thing looks like on the right. jennifer police say ripping out guardrails we know that 20,000 people are without power. do you have an update on this thing. >> what we know is the pentagon says it's still descend ising. as you heard from your guest, it has about a mile long of this melts chained cable that it's dragging behind. that's what's causing most of the damage. i misspoke earlier, shep, when i talked about helium being flammable. in fact, it's the opposite. it's not -- it's not filled with hydrogen which you remember the hindenburg was flammable. this is not flammable. there are concerns about, again, where is this going to come down? they are chasing it as justice green was describing. the police are chasing it near bloomsberg in pennsylvania. it was flying at 16,000 feet. now it's well below 5,000 feet if that chain is actually hitting the ground. that's what we know at this point in time. i can confirm, shep, that this is a program, this j lens program was a multibillion-dollar program that the army tried to kill in 2010. and was overruled by pentagon chiefs. in fact, the vice chairman of the joint chiefs wanted to keep it as a way to, perhaps, defend the homeland against missiles coming into the homeland. it has not worked very effectively as have you documented and other journalists have documented. in fact, it wasn't working according to the head of norad on that day when that plane flew close to the capitol. there were big questions on capitol hill about that at the time. the blimp is made by raytheon. so there will be big questions as to how it became untethered and whether it was ever really provided the kind of surveillance that the u.s. military had claimed it would. >> here is a weird thing. from what i'm hearing now, norad says we have the capability to remotely deflate this thing. question. if you have the capability to remotely deflate this thing. and it's dragging a string along and taking out power lines and uprooting guardrails, how about you deflate the thing? has anybody asked that question? [ laughter ] >> i'm sure people are asking that question as we speak, shep. it is possible, as you said, from eyewitness accounts this blimp is looking semi defaith fleeted at this point. it's possible it takes time to deflate and they're bringing it down at this moment. i know there were discussions in this building here in the pentagon about how best to bring it down, how safely best to bring it down to the ground. >> new photo of the thing. oh, look at this. it's fall and the trees are beautiful and there this thing is just moseying. you know, it's funny in a way. you know, and it reminds me of balloon boy because everything does. but this is much more serious. i mean, if i live in anywhere in this path and i have got kids or pets or grandparents. this could kill somebody, the fact that the police or authorities at norad had to put down a request 911 if they see the blimp the size of a football field, what does that say? he mean it, really becomes almost laughable except it's very serious. it's even more serious if you look at how much money has been wasted on this army program that the army tried to kill back in 2010, shep. >> you know, norad is so good at tracking santa claus, for instance, on tracking santa claus on christmas eve yet we have this 2.7 billion-dollar project floating over lancaster, pennsylvania and uprooting guardrails. trace gallagher is watching with us. this seems like the sort of thing that if the world were like anchored would actually be happening in california. >> just to give you an idea, shep. you and jennifer just talking about norad we called norad and asked them hey, there are reports this thing has a deflate mechanism on there and their response was that's a very good question. we will find out the answer for you. now, if you go on to norad's website, there are points saying this thing is supposed to be able to withstand hurricane force wind and not leave the tethers. if it does get untethered they have a number of systems that are able to bring this thing down safely. clearly those systems have not been put to use so far. you have talked about that tether? we learned that is a kevlar wire, shep. it's about an inch thick. as you said it's more than a mile long dragging on the ground. what it's used for is to relay data. we talked about this thing being able to detect enemy aircraft. it has data and relays power going to it. if this thing is tethered, it's supposed to be able to stay up in the air for 30 days. which it's not tethered which now it's not, then that time would be less, but nobody has explained to us how much less time it would actually be able to float around up there. you talk to a pilot earlier and he said well the only thing they can do now is shoot this thing down, but we are not so sure because now they are saying well, if you shoot holes in this thing, in fact, their quote is you can make it look like swiss cheese and the thing is still not going to come down because apparently the airplane on the outside of the ship is the same on the inside of the ship. no matter how many holes you shoot in it, it's going to take a while for the helium to actually dispatty and for this thing to come down. so, right now they have got a pickle on their hands because they don't know what to do. you can't do some explosive on there because it's so close to the ground you have no idea what effect that would have. so right now for the time being, our understanding until norad and raytheon call us back is this thing is going to kind of traipse up and down, going toward the canadian border, dragging that electrified mile long wire along the way, knocking out power. knocking down whatever is in its path. oh no you can't go up and touch it because if you do it's electric find and you will be killed. there is a lot of questions right now, shep, and we have gotten very few answers from norad except that they really, at this point, are hoping that they can figure out these different systems in place to actually bring this thing down. >> a new picture here. not the one with the circle, that's an old -- no, that's it it we are getting good at circles. in addition, i just updated the how many people have power outages map. and it was 20,000 just a few minutes ago, remember. now it's up above 26,000. so, balloon with string continues to meander and sort of wander across the pennsylvania countryside. and now, although this didn't just happen, defense secretary ash carter has spoken with reporters on this matter. i'm going to quote this. quoting: -- this is from the defense secretary of america, quoting: >> my understanding is, from having seen these break loose in afghanistan on a number of occasions, we could get it to descend and then we will recover it and put it back up, unquote. from the defense secretary ash carter in a short briefing at the pentagon. quote: this happens in bad weather, unquote. question: when this happens in bad weather, how are you able to bring it down? and before you bring it down, is it standard operating procedure for it to it take out power lines and uproot guardrails? and along the way, does anyone get hurt normally when it comes down in bad weather? my understanding is from having seen these break loose in afghanistan on a number of occasions, context, they break loose in afghanistan on a number of ooccasions with tether hanging down. now it's going along the country size happened on a number of occasions in afghanistan. so we are going to fly you it over maryland and let's see what happens. >> well my father has just texted, if it turns south shoot it down. you wonder what they are doing. look at the pictures of this thing. one more time. this -- whatever it is, this thing that doesn't work, that we put up over maryland, even though we knew that it comes down all the time in afghanistan, but once it gets down we put it back up. it does this in bad weather. really? it's called and you have got to love. this this thing is called the joint land attack cruise missile defense elevated netted missile system or jlens to be used as part of a missile system. it doesn't work and why the way the long cable attached to it that's more than a mile long might take out power lines. paul worth is with us. he is from the power company ppl electric utilities. i have been monitoring your website. it looks like the numbers of those affected just keep rising. >> well, actually, the number has been going down. we started at about a little over 30,000 customers and we have been restoring power by switching. and now we are at about 17,800 customers who are still without power in that area of the damage. >> no thanks to this balloon. he mean, do you have any idea how many of your lines were downed? >> well, we know that we have one power line that is damaged and one power line pole which is broken. wasn't don't have a complete damage estimate yet we expect to get that shortly. >> it broke a pole. >> yes, that can happen when the wires are stressed and it can bring the pole down. >> interesting. it's a matter of rerouteing, is that what you said? >> we can re-route power from other sources to restore power to many of the customers even before the repairs are made. there still will be some number of customers we don't know how many who will be without power until repairs are complete and right now we don't have an estimate of when that will be. we will start repairs immediately. >> impressive work just getting people back online on a gray and rainy day across the region. that's impressive. >> thank you. >> this thing is not is so impressive though. they call you and go, hey, watch out for your power lines? >> we did not receive advanced notice, no. >> it's nice to talk to you paul wirth from ppl, the power company. 30,000 customers it started out with without power as this jlens thing that doesn't work very well went flying along. jennifer griffin is forwarding some information from defense sources about how poorly this thing operates when it actually remains tethered as apparently designed. we probably should have suggested that someone read the manual in that appendix in the back when it says, yo, in case it breaks free, here is what you do. my father says something other than a bird contemplating migrating? oh, that's my brother, yes. oh, that's my brother. yes, but dad is going to take care of it if it heads south. you know, it's all fun and games in power outages unless and until it grabs ahold of somebody who is walking along with a baby carriage, who didno look up and see the thing floating along. we'll keep up with it. there's other news as well. the dow is on a soaring. why is the dow up 1% on the day? we'll get to that. hang on. i'i've been an elementary school teacher for 16 years. it is really difficult to afford living here in san francisco. i went into foster care my freshman year of high school. i think there was like 9 people living in a 3-bedroom house. claudia: 40% of the mission rock housing will be for low- and middle-income families. there will even be housing for people like micaela who are coming out of the foster-care system. micaela: after i left the foster-care system, i realized that i just couldn't do it on my own. not knowing where you guys are gonna go that night and just stay, like, it sucked not knowing that. mission rock -- it's completely different from anywhere that i've lived. it looks so much prettier. the atmosphere -- it just gives off possibilities. like, i have a chance. i can print out like six different ways to get to work. i would be proud to have someone like micaela be my neighbor. i would love to have somebody like claudia be my neighbor. claudia: i feel like it's part of what san francisco should be. continuing cover ram of the run away blimp. now we know that it is doing touch and goes. if you're a pilot and you're learning to land, you come in. you touch. you rev it up and you go back up again. that's what this balloon is doing with its tether. we know this because kim daisy from wbal is tweeting this. it's not completely down yet but it's doing touch and goes in pennsylvania. it's a norad rep just said the same thing, the blimp is doing touch and goes. that's from our own martin fin, producer. they didn't want to say more than that and they're working on the latest location. rick is headed to that location. he's on the road in our rapid response vehicle. also funny. rick, what's up? >> we're not move that fast yet because it's pretty heavy traffic on i-280 west. about 140 miles from pennsylvania where we're now hearing -- yeah, well -- >> oh, there's the truck. >> we're actually in a ford. but we are headed that way. and we're now hearing from the chief meteorologist of whio that norad is saying the run away military blimp is down outside of bloomsburg, pennsylvania and that law enforcement is securing the scene. this is on twitter. we haven't been able to confirm it but we do know police in columbia county have been getting 911 calls about power outages and problems associated with this blimp and that tether that's been dragging along the ground as you've been recording separate. we've learned that tether is maid of vectran a super fiber, a manufactured fiber. very strong like kevlar. a high performance thermoplastic multifilament yarn spun from vectra liquid crystal poller or lcp, in case you were wondering. it's strong stuff. it's hitting power line, knocking down trees. knocked out a lot of power -- sorry, traffic lights. and also reported, columbia university -- blooms berg university closed because it lost power. and so did many other businesses and government offices as well in that area. they're having big problems there but we're now getting this report that the blimp may, in fact, be down. >> but this report that it was doing touch and goes, that's accurate? >> well, it was doing that. it may still be doing that. again, we have this new report from a meteorologist in that region who says that he's hearing from norad that the blimp has actually now gone down. when we reached out to the local police department, they said they couldn't talk to us because they were dealing with their own crisis, which presumably is this blimp and trying to secure it. >> i've been watching. the cars are passing you on the right. how do you explain this? >> well, i'm not driving. >> who is driving? >> if i was driving we would be passing everyone. >> who is drive? >> paul. >> that figures. >> he's doing a fine job. >> paul, if the non-kevlar kef lan string grabs your vehicle and pulls you away, i'm blaming leventhal. we will have a blimp that doesn't work in just a moment. fortunately it's commercial break time here on fox news channel. america's choice for news and information on cable. not the kind of cable that does not tether balloons. the kind that brings you television magic. stay tuned. it wouland it turned onif you turned oeverywhere else.ne room but that's exactly how traditional cooling and heating systems work. so you pay more than you should. but mitsubishi electric systems give you a better way... with no waste and lower energy bills. control temperatures precisely in one or every room ... ...with no new ductwork. so everyone can enjoy ultimate personal comfort. mitsubishi electric cooling and heating. make comfort personal. all right. i'm watching this coverage of this blimp that's been running around loose and now reportedly down. i'm thinking to myself, everywhere i look as i switch around, everywhere i look, people are talking about what a waste of $1.4 billion. a graphic image of waste in washington. i'm thinking to myself, it happens now and then, we spend billions on solar credits, on companies that go bust. we spend over $700 billion on a financial rescue package that didn't measure up. we spent trillions of dollars on food programs that still leave millions of ki