Region. And i thank everyone for their support as we work through this. Let me tell you that the shutdown today was necessary. Since we began at midnight, metro teams have identified 26 areas were damaged, jumper cables and connector boots exist. The inspection is nearing completion, but i would anticipate this number to grow slightly even higher, slightly. Let me just share with you what we did. While the system was closed at midnight last night. We segmented the system into 22 underground inspection zones where six of hundred jumper cables are located. This includes all areas of all lines. Each of the 22 zones were inspected by teams that were looking for defects, and jumper cables, connecting boots, that were damaged or improperly positioned, infiltration and debris that could burn near cables. The teams are covering approximately 100 miles every tunnels supported by 14 prime movers for supplies and materials. Behind those teams were multiple cable crews who were making repairs to any areas that were identified and needed immediate repair. What we found, if you take a lock at this map behind me, if you could, what we found was as of 5 00 p. M. , we found as i mentioned the 26 affected areas, completed 19 of the zones, we got three more to do, and thats why were roughly 86 there in terms of inspection. Weve identified 26 areas that require replacement repair. Weve accomplished 18 of those to dathan we have eight that are open. On the map is generally showing you where these are located, some of these obviously have multiple, multiple ones in one area. Thats why you dont see all 26 up there. The red marks are what we have internally called show stoppers, where we would not be running trains if we came upon these conditions. So there is three of those mcpherson, far got north, and at potomic avenue. Let me also introduce a video that we have that shows you the type of work that was undertaken and then also what we found. So this is a crew walking down the track to inspect, this is a jumper cable, between the third rail annex pan sean joint of third rail, this is the cable with the freight to freight cable. In is why this is in shutdown. As bad as it looks, they were imminent for fire, but clearly this is the hazardous condition that we should not we cannot except. Our focus today has been basically to identify and mitigate these fire risks immediately. And again, this is why this system was closed. In terms of next steps, as of 5 00 p. M. , again, weve completed 18 of the 26. Before 5 00, at 5 00 a. M. , before 5 00 a. M. Tomorrow, we will finish the immediate repairs for all 26 and any additional ones that we find over the next few hours. If we do not, so we will open the system tomorrow at 5 00 a. M. F we are not able to repair any of those, as we come upon them, basically what we will do is we will go into single tracking mode and or bus bridges between stations, but our intention basically is to finish all of the the evening. We have the teams in place, in place to do it, and what we found so far we are confident we can get there. Although, again, i want to caution, we still have about 10 percent of the system still under inspection. So with that, before i take any questions, i would like to turn it over to the chairman. Okay, thank you, paul. And good evening to everyone. And first i want to take this opportunity to thank paul and all of the metro staff and others who have come in to help with this enormous effort. And enormous effort it was that began at midnight last night, and have worked tirelessly all the way up until now, and will continue to work until 5 00 thursday morning, to identify and correct any problems in our metro system. Secondly i want to say to all of the people in metro and the region we are sorry this had to this, we are aware of the inconvenience it caused by closing down the system for the 29 hours but we still believe today that we made the correct decision because of safety that none every just good conscious could send those trains out, even with full knowledge of the participant of what the situation was, knowing the risks that we had, presentation by paul here today i think confirms that we made the correct decision there are issues and we are repairing those issues. Todays exam somebody why metro is so important to our region. The commute in was difficult, the commute home is even more difficult. And i think it is important to remember that metro is not some stands alone or sayings, metro is us, metro belongs to the residents, and the businesses in the district, in virginia, in mary the federal government we are metro. All of us. We own metro, we participate in metro. It is our organization. It is very important everyone remember what happened today, and invest in our future, we have capitol plan coming around, one year capitol plan will help us assess what has to happen for the future every metro. Five year capitol plan we want to put together and we are going to need investing in a that capitol plan. I go back to the board, 1991, 25 years ago, when the discussion centered around the regional funding dedicated source from metro, dedicated funding source. And here i stand, 25 years later, as the chair chai main of the board of metro again, and no progress has been made on the unconscionable, so as we go forward, i hope this is a wakeup call for the entire region. For the district, for virginia, for maryland, and for the federal government that we need to invest in our system once and for all, we need to establish the dedicated funding source, and once and for all we need to support metro. I recognize, i have been around 25 years, as elected official, that the worse time to ask for more money or more support is when you are doing poorly. I recognize that. And it is paul, myself, my board, who are all very committed to metro who are going to show you that we are turning this organization around, going to make the hard decision that is are necessary to make this the shining example of regional, and the region it was that i left here in 2,000, we will do our part to make this a safe system, and then the region has to do its part to support metro. So, i want to thank you all for coming out here today. Again, i want to thank the resident of the region, the businesses, the people who support and participate in metro, we are sorry for the inconvenience, it appears we will be opening tomorrow at 5 00, and we will, again, look forward to working with all of to you make this a great system. So with that let me go back to paul and he and i are available to take any questions you might have. Paul . General manager of, chairman of the board there, jack evans talking about the shutdown, the unprecedented shutdown that began at midnight last night. They say the shutdown was absolutely necessary, but the good news is they will reopen tomorrow morning at 5 00 a. M. The general manager does not rule out the possibility that there may be some single tracking issues that they have to do tomorrow obviously, hes optimistic it wont be the case, but it sounds like theyve gotten the bulk of the work done, i think he said 86 of the work done at this point and expect to be able to finish the rest that far during the next 11 hours. The thing they mentioned i believe there are 91 different stations systemwide, they did 22 or there were 22 zones every inspections they had to do in those different zones, they found 26 damaged jumper cables, 18 of those have already been repaired and they do expect as they continue the rest of the inspection to find more damage, but they say, again, at the very least, if they find more damage, and they are not able to run lines, like were used to, they will single track or they will bring in buses to go around those particular metro rail stations. All right, well have more on all of this and the rest of todays news coming up in just a couple. Moments. Do stay with us. Shutting down the entire et inspection has never been done before. So what was being worked on, how are riders absorbing the impact . Tom fitzgerald live at Mcpherson Square with reaction tonight. Fits, what did folks tell you out there . Interesting interesting to watch that News Conference just now. Because you heard the general manager talk about where we are right now. This is Mcpherson Square. This in essence has been the ground zero of this latest metro meltdown literally. It was in this tunnel that the gm paul went inside down in that tunnel looked on those tracks and saw these afraid wires for himself, monday morning, and it was within 24 hours that this decision was made, to shut this system down today. Generally the reaction has been one of resignation, nobody as happy about it, but a lot of them say they understand it, but that didnt change the fact they had to figure out a new way to get to work today. There is Something Interesting if if got shutdown today. That something are jumper lines. Now, these are like power strips. They sends electric into the third rales, then that electric then powers the train. But metro has had a big problem last year. They had 216 smoke incidents and 79 fires in 2015. Thats double, double 2014 number. The shutdown is meant to assess how many of those are damaged, and the inspectors found what they saw was alarming, damage to the electrical jumper cables was described as disturbingly similar to exactly what was located after the plaza fire in january of 2015, which, as we know, killed carol glover of alexandria. And then what e riders nerves, trying to figure out how to get to work, trying to navigate their way around the summer. One summed it up like this, metro is sick and it needed to get to the doctors and today creativity was key. What did you do . Toyed take a bus. Drove part of the way and walked to the other part of the way. Oh, i had to drive. Jogged. You jogged into work . Yes. Metro inspection teams are quite large, and theyve several people on them, among them, contractors, edge nears, metro staffers, as well, we have seen several teams proceed back into the Mcpherson Square tunnel here, even though they had spent most of the day down there today, we will of course remain here and let you know if there are any more development. We are live in Mcpherson Square, right now we turn it over to fox5 matt ackland standing by. Matt . 395, la font plaza, wanted to come here to give you idea how the afternoon rush is doing. It is slow going, but ive been around here along the 6 00 hour. It doesnt look any busier than it typically does at this time. Typically could you get some stop and g weve noticed traffic has stopped a little bit. What we though is happening, because dc officials really sprung into action late last night after they got the word. Police offers verse been dispatched across the city at major intersections, and theyre basically getting folks to go through those intersections. Now, you might be thinking, what about the intersection with red light cameras . What if i get a ticket . But the chief issued an order today saying if an officer actually pulls you through one of those intersections, and there is a red light camera there, well, the District Of Columbia is not going to fine you for that oil at the police officer. Looking at 395, this direction here, i think, joe is showing, thats going toward maryland, this is coming out of the district going toward virginia, but i have to tell you it, looks pretty good. I think a lot of people either stayed home or maybe they left a little early today. Back to you guys in the studio thank for the update. Remember to stay with fox5 for the latest on the metro shutdown. We will be keeping you updated here on the air, as track inspections continue tonight. You can always connect with us on line at fox5dc. Com as well as on facebook, and twitter. Well be right back. Hey hows it going, hotcakes . Hotcakes. This place has hotcakes. So why arent they selling like hotcakes . With comcast Business Internet and wifi pro, they could be. Just add a customized message to your wifi pro splash page and youll reach your customers where their eyes are already on their devices. Order up. Its more than just wifi, it can help grow your business. You dont see that every day. , wifi that helps grow your business. Comcast business. Built for business. Waiting for Cherry Blossoms to reach peak, what about a cherry frappuccino . Starbucks says it is a blend of strawberries cream with White Chocolate sauce, also topped with whipped cream and sprinkle of mocha green tea powder. Cherry blossom chap chino is time, it is available now through the first day of spring, which is sunday. I didnt hear anything about cherriesing in it. I didnt hear anything about it, either. I wonder if they served this up other places but they call it something else, too . Cherry blossom frappuccino. Oh, ya, call it the Cherry Blossom thing. Something else somewhere else. Sure makes me want to have one though. Looks good. It got pushed back to last week, or middle of next week which is good. We have little bit of cool down for the weekend, gorgeous today, 74, beautiful. Great day. And while we werent expecting a lot of rain, there are one, two cells that have popped up. One of which is rather strong, traveling along 66 near manassas. Got little lightning with it, too, it has probably heavy downpours, but thats about the only thing going on at the moment, so most of you, will stay dry, as our frontal boundary comes on through, really is a very nice evening although we have cooled down just little bit to 68 degrees. Here is a look at one of the chad. He tweets under the name dc food safety and he says sue and sean im seeing some great spring colors, scenic spring run and indeed so many of these i guess those are tulip trees, not positive, or maybe magnolias that bloom this time of year. At any rate everything is going to be coming to life here in the next several days. Cooler temperatures the past couple of days, helped to keep that pollen countdown. But it may be little higher tomorrow. Because of the heat we had today. Heres where temperatures are right now. We have fredericksburg at 77, gate erring beg down to 68, still a lot of want here just to the west, but front is going to be coming through not a lot of cold air behind it, but just enough lift to maybe give us a couple of showers and storms and again, it has been pretty isolated. Temperature right now 68, where do we go for the next few hours here in the city slow drop off into the upper 50s, as we go forward tonight, and again, i want to get you as well as the fact that still very warm down to our south and east, 80 degrees, but you can see, we drop little bit behind the front into the 50s, still some cold air smoke up on weather map but march known for that, lots of contract, so you can see, would look at radar, not a loft rain around. What we do have impact full storm here between gainesville and oak tan, moving due east, Manassas Park area probably getting good rainout of there. Put it in motion, berk probably in the already getting it, crossing over 995 here, in just little while. Put few cities on so you can track it yourself. It is already on berk or just about it will certainly continue to influence west springsteen, grove ville, alex andre, a next 25 minute, one patch down to the south toward the bottom portion every Prince William county will move toward dale city and triangle, that does not have quite as much energy with all of that ahead after front. You can see not much behind it. So keep shower or storm through 7 00 east of the city, 62 degrees in the district, 11 00 about 60 degrees, so not real cold overnight. Maybe few spot, getting down into the 40s, as we clear out little later we stay right around ooh for the district again with isolated evening showers or storms, then clearing getting little cooler but we bounce up, Saint Patricks day not bad at all. Sunny nice, could be couple of showers around, in the afternoon and evening, of temperature of 68. Little breezy as well, but all Things Considered pretty good day. So if you are doing some celebrating let us help you plan out your day, 11 00 a. M. Temperature 59. In the recall breeze at 2 00. But up to 65 degrees, and by 5 00 couple of showers around, 68 degrees, breezy day, most places will be a little bit above average tomorrow at 71 for fredericks berg, not as warm as today was, but not bad at all. Little bit on the breezy side. Quick look at future cast womenment back to good sunshine by the noon hour and just a couple of spotty showers around in the evening. Now, got to talk about this, on our fox5 accuweather seven day forecast, havent changed our thinking too much about sunday being a rainsnow mix. But could there be enough snow in some spots, to put down grassy slushy coat coating. That could happen. And we will continue to watch the sunday forecast, that could also begin saturday night with a rainsnow mix into sunday, then things settle down forthe first part of next week, but little cooler for few days, so dont do any early planting just yet. Well be right back. Now awhere you can create itthe perfect home. 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