Pepco. But back here theyre trying to figure out what caused the insulator to break off and cause all the problems. Now the power outage to the university of maryland so hard that the College President closed the campus at 2 00 p. M. More on the situation there now, bruce. Reporter power is coming back on to parts of the campus at this point but there are some estimates that it may be as late as 11 00 tonight before they get the power fully restored here at the university of maryland. Prince George County fire said it had to pull a half dozen people off of stuck elevators and university crews may have pulled another half dozen people off of stuck elevators. There were long waits for shuttles as people rushed to the tours. Thousands of students started a mass exodus after the president here canceled classes. Inside the Student Union a recretement went on under emergency lights but many classrooms pitch black. All the lights went out through campus and then a strange buzzing noise. It took social media and smart phones for some of them to figure out the campus was shutting down. The professor pushed through and we ended up having class. In the dark . Chinese lit in the dark . You wouldnt believe it unless i said it. On Campus Library the power went out and then the fire alarm went off. And a 10minute break between sessions so i ran to my room to finish it off. Reporter luckily that was a practice test. Dozens took opportunity to pick up frisbee games. Its one big party. But without the animal house food fight. Reporter thanks, bruce. Now the massive power outage caused the smithsonian to shut down and forced disappointed tourists outside. Reporter a bunch of federal workers were also sent home. Reporter sent home and a lot out on the sidewalks now. There was no sign of panic down here. Not one person could we find who felt the city was under some kind of terrorist threat. Were still seeing the downtown area fully restored but lets take a look at what we found earlier today as the power went out. We tried to get in the alley. The smithsonian. Reporter the crowds were locked outside the National Archives because the museum was left in the dark. We were supposed to meet here in 10 minutes and i expected to see the drinking life in america. Now well have to go have a drink. Reporter the smithsonian reported outages in many of its buildings. It will be a walking outside tour then. Reporter Traffic Signals were effected near the mall area. Some people became stuck in el elevators. No injuries, no panic. Whats the plan . I think well check out the theater and see where lincoln was murdered. Reporter other affected federal buildings included the u. S. Capitol, irs, state department. A number of federal workers in buildings that lost power, those workers just went home. We didnt know what was going on. Nothing like that. Reporter thousands of tourists in town for spring break where the Cherry Blossoms seemed to take them in strive. Did you see anything . No. In there for 5 minutes. You disappointed . A little. Reporter we want to show people the tourists are out here and the local businesses love this because while the tourists cant get into the museums theyre not going anywhere. This is National Cherry blossom week and also spring break. This is a big deal to the city local economy. Coming up at 6 00 well take you to northeast washington and the campus. We were there covering an all together different story when the power went out. Looking forward to that. They wont forget this at all. The pictures of the Power Outages from our area are really impressive. Russ, what are you looking at . Reporter d. C. Is a city with no shortage of news cameras and this may be remembered among the most documented power failures here. A pool camera captured the moment just before 1 00 when the pump to the fountain went dry. You can see that. The state department in midbriefing. Watch this. Theyve agreed to do so. Correct. And second hi brenda. Everywhere . The whole building is out. Reporter d. C. Is notoriously crazy traffic went crazier with no stoplights and those that tried to go underground found this. In this case the backup systems is what pepco is blaming for the outage. Saying customers who didnt have a backup system didnt have black outs. Reporter thank you. And breaking news now effecting metros line. The station is closed at this hour because the escalators going underground are not working so buses are taking riders back from the Medical Center station. Well keep tabs on this and keep you up to date if and as this situation changes. Today is the first of three yellow alert days. Topper has more. Reporter were going to have showers and perhaps the thunderstorms and chaos already around the metro area. Notice were picking up different colors the yellows and oranges and reds. Thats the heavier activity. If you get home the next hour or so, youre okay. But out toward leesburg, the showers on your doorstep and heavier activity to the west and south. This is moving toward marshall and eventually fairfax. Right now nothing severe. Just heavier downpours possible with the showers and thunderstorms. 8 00 tonight theres a pretty good area of showers. Heavy rain at least. Out 66 westbound, heaviest activity along the maryland pa border. Still mild at 10 00. Low 60s. 67 down town with a few leftover showers and thunderstorms. Well come back and talk about the yellow alert for tomorrow and thursday has nothing to do with storms. Authorities confirm Carbon Monoxide poisoning is what killed a family of eight. The bodies discovered yesterday may have been there up to a week. They were killed by fumes from a generator brought inside after the power was cut off. Scott has more on what we learned. Comes more clear how horrific this tragedy is. Reporter the latest developments come from the local utility delmar power. Just this afternoon they said the power had been cut to this when the utility discovered an illegally connected stolen meter that apparently had been on the house for quite some time. Delmar power shut that down on march 25. Police believe rodney todd sr. Resorted to a generator. The fumes killed him and his seven children. In a house that had not been hooked up to electricity legally since october of last year. The bodies discovered monday after a coworker reported the family missing for more than a week. Today grief but also anger. The community and the system failed this father. It failed him. He has seven kids in the house, and the man is working fulltime. With no benefits. And thats what angers me. Reporter five of had children attended the Princess Ann Middle School nearby. Grieving. Feel sorry for their loss. Its really a shame. Terrifying. Sad. My kids play with them kids. They come to the house ride bikes together. Reporter a School Social worker was sent to investigate last week. The superintendent is john gattis. Knocked on the door and did not see anything out of normal. Just hurts. Hurts. This hurts me. Reporter todds family overwhelmed with grief. In life he just wanted to do everything that was right. He was setting a good example for his children. When they said he went going to work, i knew something was wrong. And the kids wasnt going to school. I knew something was wrong. Reporter unfortunately among some of the things that were wrong is this apparent illegal power hookup that had been disconnected. Delmar power says it disconnected the stolen meter for safety reasons and to comply with its protocols. Not because of nonpayment of bills since apparently there was never ever Legal Service here to begin with since he was here living with his children. Reporter the childrens mother has not lived with the family since 2013. That is according to court records. In the wake of these tragic fires, the maryland fire marshal is i should say the deaths, the fire marshal is putting out these tips. First never run a generator inside or near an entrance to your home. Never let your car idol in the garage. And idle in the garage and never use a gas range or clothes drier for heating. Schedule preventive maintenance for fueled fire appliances. Install and maintain working smoke alarms and Carbon Monoxide detectors. We have more information to keep your family safe at wusa9. Com. We are just Getting Started on wusa 9 news add 5 00. A maryland mother charged in the death of her toddler learns her fate. Thats coming up at 5 30. Plus the yellow alerts are up. Topper is back with more on our week of rain. The Postal Service unveiled a new stamp today. But some say. All the lanes are now open on richmond highway. This was the scene this morning after a 14inch water main broke. At one point airfax water says the repair is done and traffic is moving again. A student died today from what the principal calls an undisclosed the virus. The student is madison small. The school is offering counseling. The cause of the students death is under study by the medical examiner but they say theres no reason to believe there is a danger to the community at this time. Another event by the power outage today was the ceremony for a new stamp. The stamp which was issued today commemorates the beloved poet and author dr. Maya angelou but there was controversy over the quote that was chosen. We know this unveiling was impacted by the power outage. Tell us more about that. Reporter power actually cut out on oprah but it was towards the end of the event and she just carried on without it. Actually quoting without a script from a phenomenal woman. It began with just as much excitement. [ music ] dancers, civil rights leaders the first lady, oprah and regular people all gathered to celebrate the unveiling of the stamp and the life of the woman on it. The bodacious life she dared to live in a way that dazzled and gave meaning to all of us who knew her and millions who didnt. Reporter the stamp features a quote but some say its wrong. A columnist wrote its actually from a Childrens Book written in the 60s from joan walish anglin and while she said it, she didnt write it. They were contacted by reporters. Looking back we would have used an actual quote from her words. Reporter but they say the quote is associated with her. The point of this is to honor maya and we think the stamp does that. Reporter her grandson was not phased by it and says the family was just thrilled by the stamp. She reached people with words and didnt speak to the one group of black woman or anyone. She spoke to the world. Reporter the part of the stamp that really shows her. Dazzling with her smile. All the tragedy and victory and the excitement and the moments of despair and everything in one smile. Reporter its that kind of spirit that brought all of these people out for a stamp. Im excited to be alive to witness it. I just think its amazing. Reporter . We call this game time now. 3d. 3 degree guarantee. I cant even read my hand writing. So what were going to do at 11 00 at night is see how i did the night before when i forecasted the High Temperature at national. Thats the official temperature. So let me go to the graphics. So yesterday i went 75 for today tuesday. Well see if im in 3 degrees or if im wrong or right. Youre saying that the high of the day could happen at midnight. Yes tonight well play the game and tomorrows high will be the midnight temperature tonight. Its a 24 hour high. Usually occurs in the afternoon. But sometimes it doesnt. So. Live look outside. Its still dry in the immediate metro area and along the i95 corridor. They really are popping now and i think saturday or sunday it will be perfect and coincide nicely with the Cherry Blossom parade. 70 now. Winds out of the south at 10. Cold front begins to move through. Heres the radar. You see green and also yellows and reds and oranges. These are heavier shower s and perhaps a thunderstorm. This is right along i66 to the northwest of warrington. Rolling into fairfax at 6 0 this. This is what the rush hour doesnt need, is wet roads. Remember your windshield wipers on and headlights on as well. Yellow alert tomorrow for drizzle and showers and probably commutes maybe both commutes wet tomorrow. Bus stop temperatures 48 to 54. Mid50 downtown. 8 00 kind of a miserable morning. Weve had temperatures in the 70s the past couple of days. 53 downtown. Maybe upper 40s around clark clarksberg. Not a pretty day. By 1 00, a lot of clouds and still drizzle. Temperatures still in the mid50s. By 5 00, maybe 54 downtown. Maybe upper 50s out in the winchester area. For the most part 50s tomorrow. 9 00 tomorrow night still upper 40s low 50s. Another batch of rain begins to move in. Showers even a thunderstorm possible tonight. Winds become east, northeast at 10 00. Morning were just left with showers and drizzle. Get the northeast wind. Its not a pretty sight for the midatlantic. Afternoon mostly cloudy and cool. Nothing heavy. Only 54 to 59. Winds northeasterly at 10 00. If you watch the day planner 53 at 7 00. 52 at 9 00. 52 at 11 00. Even though the high tomorrow is 60s, dress for the low to mid50s tomorrow. 60 on thursday. Yellow alert. Showers and drizzle. Well monitor friday. Warmer showers and thunderstorms we go back in the warm sector upper 70s. Monitor that for a yellow alert as well. Morning looks great. Upper 60s saturday. Back in the mid70s monday. And mid70s tuesday with showers and storms returning. We have more now on todays big story. Those widespread outages across parts of d. C. And maryland. Joni has more on what some of you are saying on social media. Reporter hashtag d. C. Power outage started trending on twitter after the first outages were reported. Here are some of the photos. The National Portrait gallery tweeted in case you want to see what a museum looks like during a Power Outages. Michael tweeted a photo of university of maryland students taking a test with their phones. And a dark metro station. And one more that allison shared of oprah speaking in the dark. So we have more of those photos in the dark during the outage on our website wusa9. Com. Actually have pictures on facebook and twitter i took too. Starbucks sweetens the pot for employees on their College Tuition program and you wont need jedi powers to watch all six star wars this week. And kentucky senator. The calls of a massive fire that destroyed a warehouse is still under investigation. The fire broke out yesterday afternoon on Ashland Drive and capital heights. The winds caused the flames to switch directions. The total damage more than a one and a half million dollars. People at nearby businesses say they saw it all happened. Were probably devastated because of the two fire trucks and the damage to their property and supplies and material. Reporter now a go fund me is set up to replace one of the engines. Umd. And may the streaming be with you. Starting on friday all six star wars movies will be available on google play and amazon and they come with extras. Still ahead the boston bombing trial the evidence jury members are considering right now. A maryland mother charged in the death of her toddler learns her. At last check the number of customers is feeer than 1,000. The Utility Company says the outage occurred at 12 30 when a transmission conductor broke at a switching station. That effected a power line operated by pepco and the outage was felt across d. C. And parts of maryland including the white house. Museums on the National Mall and university of maryland. Some traffic lights were out at many big intersections and several metro stations went dark until backup power came on. The power is back on for most people. There is a guilty verdict in the abuse case of a toddler found dead last year. A judge found Stephanie Williams, the mother guilty of first degree child abuse. Stephanie has more more. Reporter a judge agreed that Stephanie Williams knew or should have known that she needed prompt treatment that could have saved her life. Reporter her mother never took her to the hospital. Williams guilty of child abuse that carries a max behind bars. Its a little comfortable but it will never bring her back. It over a year that we have been waiting for this day. Reporter theyre two of several foster parents that banded together to make the law happened. It allows possibly abused children back into potentially dangerous homes. As soon as they come to your home you treat them like your own and care for them and love them and thats where you dont understand a mother who doesnt defend her child and should risk her life or her own child. Especially knowing that her husband or significant other was the cause of her little girls death. Reporter she was placed with foster parents after she was found with two rib and skull fractures found in her parents care. Doctors diagnosed her with cerebral palsy. Authorities couldnt prove abuse so the parents got her back. Several weeks later she was dead from injuries prosecutors say she sustained while in her fathers care. States attorney charlie smith. I think its important to know that they have a responsibility to protect children and fail to do that. Reporter Stephanie Williams is back in court for sentencing on april 14. And Franky Williams has a trial date set for may 27. He pleaded not guilty. A d. C. Teenager is dead shot in southeast. Police found 16yearold luke holt on 37th street and she was pronounced dead at a local hospital. If you have any information, police want to hear from you and you could be eligible for 25,000. A southeast d. C. Woman is behind bars tonight accused of stabbing a metro station manager. This happened in march at the stadium armory metro. Melissa langly asked for a free ride. When he said no, she spit on him and stabbed him on the left side. The manager is recovering from his injuries. The officials running to be the republican nominee for president today doubled today when rand paul declared it. Reporter rand paul says washington is broken and its going to take an outsider to fix it. Im putting myself forward as candidate for president of the united states. Reporter the first term republican senator from kentucky launched the white house bid. Liberty and limited government. The washington machine that gobbles up our freedoms and every nook and crannies of our lives must be stopped. Reporter he is looking to expand the base to win the gop nomination. Many republicans dont like talking about the issues he has talked about because theyre fearful of getting voted off the island. Reporter rand paul faced a crowded republican field with fellow senator cruz and bush and others to join. We have become part of the washington machine. Thats not who i am. The worker was assisting an aid group in sierra leone and this is the second patient to be treated for ebola at nih. Davis was given a slim chance of surviral after a motorcycle crash. And lane bryant takes on victorias secret. Is it a case of sour grapes . Well have all of that next. We have a yellow alert for tonight for showers and perhaps a thunderstorm. Well show you radar and some heavier activity developing west of leesberg. You go out 50. Thats moving to the east. Well track those for. Lets go trending now. Lane bryant is showing women what sexy really looks like. The plus size brand launched women in numerous sexy ways. Lane bryant is using social media to further challenge conventional beauty standards. You can use the hashtag im no angel if you want to participate. This may be a facebook first. A brooklyn judge allowed a woman to serve her husband divorce papers with a private message on social networking site. He moved out and was making himself hard to find. Now she gets to message her soon to be ex once a week until he acknowledges it. Wisconsin coach bill ryan took a shot at players who only go to college one year before the nba. We dont do a rent a player. You know what i mean. Try to take a fifth year guy. Thats okay. If other people do that, thats great. I like trying to build from within. Its just the way i am. In todays world you have to adapt to whats happening throughout college. There are many kids who dont go even the whole four years because of opportunities. Business opportunities. Reporter coach k said he would support a rule change that allows High School Players to go straight to the nba. Why not. Thats something debated for a long time. Donald trump hit the tennis court today with Serena Williams. Coming up, we unveil his new state of the art tennis facility. Hes got a swing there. Its an area code thats also a workout. Well thank you, cable for taking longer to upload our family movies. For the slower internet upload speeds. For taking longer to upload my files to the cloud. For making me wait longer to share my photo albums. And for never upgrading to 100 fiber optics thank you cable. Thank you cable, because if we never had you. We wouldnt know the incredible difference verizon fios makes. In Customer Satisfaction studies, fios is rated 1 in Internet Speed and reliability 8 years running. Plus, fios has the fastest wifi available from any provider, and the most on demand titles to your tv. So join the millions who experience the difference fios makes. Hurry now is the best time. Its your last chance to get a fios triple play online at an amazing 79. 99 a month guaranteed for two full years. Plus, get a 300 bonus with a 2year agreement. Hurry its your last chance offer ends april 18th go to verizon. Com thefacts today. D. C. Mayor has lifted the travel ban to indiana and a change in policy comes after indiana amended its religious freedom law. John mccain says he will run for a sixth term in the u. S. Senate next year. The 78yearold senator from arizona says he is running for reelection because there is a lot more to do. But a sixth term may not be a sure thing for mccain. Tea party groups are angry with mccains support for overhauling the immigration system and theyre looking for a candidate who better falls in line with their values. Blues legend bb king is improving. The 89yearold was rushed to a hospital in las vegas over the weekend. His daughter says it was due to dehydration and her father is doing better now. King has type 2 diabetes and six months ago he had to cancel eight tour dates because of health problems. A fitness class is borrowing a few steps from miami night life. The exercises making working out more like going out. Reporter it may look like its time to party. But at 305 fitness its time to sweat. It was all about the parties, about you know, fun. The music. The, you know, dancing. Reporter named for miamis area code, 305 class goers jump and shake while a dj spins. The black lights and music and energy level. Nothing compares to it. Reporter the 55 minute sessions are made up of sports drills, interval training and dance moves. Its one of the benefits of it. Its a mental release as well. Reporter the idea is to disguise the exercise. I used to look at working out as a drag. Reporter regulars say the class is therapeutic. I leave with a smile on my face. Reporter enjoying a workout because it makes you want to get up and dance. Reporter 305 fitness is here in the district, new york city and hosting popups in other cities. The workout is also a hit with groups. 305 hosts custom bachelorette and birthday parties as well. I know you want to go all 305. I do. Wait until after it comes. You go too topper. I need to go post baby too. Ill record it. No, you wont. Youll blackmail me. Not going to happen. Showers and storms beginning to move in from the west. We have a yellow alert tonight and a yellow alert tomorrow and thursday. Lets start with a live look outside. Pretty nice in town. Still dry. Temperatures still 70. Winds still out of the south at 10. Watch the winds. They go east, northeast overnight. That will signal a maurtime air mass and cold relatively cold wednesday and also thursday. Heres the radar over the past hour. You can see mainly green and a little yellow and red showing up now. Nothing severe but some could produce heavy rain. Just to the west of leesberg and aldy and heavier activity thats red west of haymarket way out i66. This one is moving off to the east and will eventually hit darnstown at 6 11. Nothing severe but heavy rain possible. And perhaps even into Sugarland Run at 6 02. Moving east at 27 miles per hour. So yellow alert wednesday for showers and drizzle. Yep. Not thunderstorms. Bust out temperatures. A little chillier now. Upper 40s to mid50s. Take the umbrella and the kids and you too will need a jacket. I know not everybody is in school but some schools are in session. Morning commutes will be wet for most. And evening commute will also be wet but nothing heavy. Just kind of a nuisance type drizzle. Okay. Here pwas the future heres the future cast. 8 00 tonight kind of emphatic on the lines and showers and thunderstorms. We have the chance for a thunderstorm into 1 00 in the morning. The atmosphere is still a little bit unstable. Temperatures still in the 60s by 8 00. By morning back in the upper 40s to mid50s with light rain or showers. 8 00, not a pretty sight. Roads will be wet. Nothing heavy but temperatures 50, frederick 49, leesburg 50. Its going to feel rather chilly tomorrow. Light rain showers drizzle nothing crazy heavy. 9 30 tomorrow night. Another round of showers moves in. Still in the upper 40s and low 50s. Day planner 53 to start. 52 at 11 00. 52 at 1 00. Maybe a little cool but dress for the 50s tomorrow. Yellow alert thursday, more showers and drizzle. Boom. Back in the warm skt sector on friday with showers and storms. Weekends still looks great. Upper 60 saturday for the parade. Mid70s monday. Perhaps more showers tuesday with highs again in the mid70s. When a facility has the name donald trump attached to it you know its going to be extravagant. He was in town with Serena Williams to unveil the new 10 million tennis facility in sterling, virginia. I talked about the new facility and of course the return of his friend tiger woods to the golf course. I bought the club six years ago and weve had tremendous membership and golf courses are among the best in the country. We have the pga seniors championship coming soon and a lot of championships. I thought we had a fantastic tennis group here. I guess a tennis population. And i thought id do something special. We built this and serena says its the best facility she has ever seen. Thats an honor. She was here to cut and ribbon and shes a great person and friend of mine. You dont see these facilities any more. Especially theyre trying to build the sport of tennis back up. I called her and said, could you come and cut a ribbon. She said absolutely. She wants whats good for tennis and the kids. She is very much oriented towards young children. She said its the best ive ever seen. So having her here was a great honor and she came all the way from florida to do this. I want to ask you before i let go. Were cbs with the masters this weekend. Tiger woods. How good is it to see him back . I love tiger. Hes a great guy and amazing champion and he just has to be loose and whether he does well or not he will end up doing well. Tiger is a special guy. He is a really nice person and hope he does great. And for somebody like you at the top of their game, every now and then you have setbacks. How does somebody at the top of their game deal with the pressure and keep from the nerves and the uncertainty . Thats such an interesting question. You just have to keep Going Forward and forget what people think. I heard from a friend of mine that tiger is chipping beautifully. Shot 67 yesterday in a practice round. He will ultimately do well. He is a special guy. Reporter he said theyd have senior pga championship here but did elude to other tournaments at his golf course. Wouldnt be surprised if we see it in the near future. Seems pretty swanky. Marble floors. Doubledecker. His son eric says they trumped it out. Theres a new word. Trumped it out. Tiger did address the media today for the First Time Since deciding to return. Thats coming up later in sports. Coming up next, a happy ending to the story of the nfl Football Player whose daughter was in the fight of her life against an aggressive form of cancer. And coming up at 6 00, new information on that tragedy that killed. Its been a tough news day but we have a remarkable story about leah still and her dad devon. The world has been cheering on her fighting cancer and now she is cancer free. An amazing story. Jim sat down with devon and his daughter. Did you ever think it possible the strongest person you would know would be a little girl . No. I didnt know what true strength was and didnt know a 4yearold was going to show me theres no rule book. We just handled it the best way we could. Reporter but leah and her dad would get unextected help. The bengals changed their mind and signed him to the team. That meant he could keep his health insurance. I never get used to this type of stuff. Reporter devon still traveled between cincinnati and philadelphia where he and leahs mom made sure she got through each treatment. Doctors called still to tell him that her body was cancer free. I wasnt sure how to handle it. Thats something ive been waiting months for. Its almost like you dont know whether you can trust it. I really understood what the doctors were saying. I just started crying and looked to the backseat and started hugging my daughter. Reporter there may not have been a rule book when they started the battle against cancer, so together they still wrote their own. I am leah strong is the story of her journey and a guide for other families facing similar struggles. She is wise beyond her years. This has made her grow up a lot and hopefully you know she gets older and really understands the magnitude of what she did and how hard she fought and how much she helped other families going through pediatric cancer will help her grow even more. Reporter leah is not exactly totally out of the clear because she still receives treatments. Wusa 9 at 6 00 starts now. The lights are slowly coming back on for thousands of customers after an equipment failure knocked out power. Thank you for joining us. Peggy joins us now from the switching station in maryland where the power failure got started. Reporter thats right. It doesnt look like much for the tens of thousands of people who lost power today. But i tell you what. When people heard and saw this, they say it sounded like an explosion and saw flames in the air. Take a look at some of the video. What happened was according to a pepco spokesperson at 12 30 today one of the ceramic coil insulators fell to the ground and burned. Theyre littered here. The fire was caused when the insulators hit the 230,000 volt transmission line fell. Blue and green. Sparks. So the whole sky was like blue and