What we know is according to the local sheriffs office, there are confirmed fatalities. There were about 70 people on board this amtrak cascades train. It derailed around 7 3 hat went right over interstate 5, a curve in the track. Its a normal curve, but we also, according to amtrak, this train was going about 80mph. So one of i think the top questions for many people is speed, the bend in this curve as n. T. S. B. Is already making its what went wrong. But i think its also fair to say that right now people are focused on recovery, because there were 70 people on board that train. And the pictures weve seen so far, notable to train thats upside down thats on interstate 5, but also the other ones that are hanging over, and, of course, the cars and vehicles that officials now confirm were also truck that were on interstate 5 as a result of this collision. You can see that one car there upside down. It looks like it may have burned. Another car landed on top of it, and all the way back, as far back as that train went, the number of cars we have not been able to nail down, probably somewhere in the area of ten or 12 went off the track. Some went off the embankment. At least one witness told us he witnessed multiple injuries. We are told there are fatalities. And as norah mentioned, vehicles on the southbound side of the road were struck by this train as it landed on i5. Thats the last thi i keep thinking about those people, guys, on the highway, going to school, going to work, wherever they were going. Youre driving down the highway, the last thing you expect is a train to come flying in the air on top of your car. They will be focusing on recovery right now, but one thing they will look at is the engineer and the conductor. They will look at toxicology reports, cell phone records, and they will look at his familiarity and training on driving this particular route. So a lot of questions need to be answered before they can come up with any kind of conclusion. The n. T. S. B. On its way to we want to bring back in former n. T. S. B. Chairman mark rosenker, who i think is still with us. Mark, theres a camera on this train, is there not . Thats correct, anthony. There are actually two now as a result of the pennsylvania crash that was coming around the corner much past 188. Amtrak decided to not only have cameras that had already been ac theyve got them now inside so you can actually see what the engineer was doing, which would, in fact, tell us if he was distracted in any way, had a medical emergency. But they will do a meticulous job of, one, doing the interviews with not only the crew members, but as many passengers as possible. This video, interestingly enough, may show any type of track anomaly as the train was coming over, and it will also through the actual recorder, the event recorder on board the locomotive, show if, in fact, the engineer attempted to do any type of braking. An emergency braking would be absolutely amazing, and it may have been a contributing factor to the accident if, in fact, there were problems with the track. Reporter why would the breaking have been a contributing factor . Because it could have been moving so fast, and it could actually get a kind of a pushpull effect as the cars begin to come on top of each other. Mason yeah, we just want to point out to people who are looking at this now, it is difficult to tell, but it appears that there may be people inside the train. Actually, it might have been a reflection of people down on the highway. There you can see the massive response of first responders. The door on the car that is dangling looks open, so hopefully people were able to get out of that car. We this know that the one passenger we spoke to said he had to kick out the emergency window to get out of the car on the embankment, which would have been behind the image youre looking at now. This is a live picture of the scene in dupont, washington. Again, this is a train, this was amtrak train 501, cascades service, which travels from seattle to portland. It had come out of tacoma, a brandnew station in tacoma, which literally opened for friday. It was about 45 minutes out of tacoma. It was rounding a curve just on one side of this overpass youre seeing now, when it suddenly went off the tracks, and as you can see, at least one car landed on southbound interstate 5 upside down. Another car right behind it was stopped by the car in front of it, and it is still dangling there, and every subsequent car behind it is off the tracks with the exception of the locomotive at the very back of the train, which is the only thing that still stayed on the tracks, according to the passenger we spoke with earlier. Reporter kris van cleave is on the phone and has additional information. Kris . Reporter it looks like these tracks belong to a freight rail train. Thats one of the reasons why gayle asked about positive train control earlier. Amtrak doesnt own these tracks, so these tracks would be maintained by a freight rail, and mark can about why that situation is concerning. Youre going to start seeing multicolor tents along the scene. There thats part of the triage effort. Thats what the focus will be on, making sure everybody is off that train and getting people medical care. So theres going to be an area where theres probably a red tarp or a red tent. Thats going to be your critical injuries. Then youll have a yellow one. Those are more walking wounded. That could be broken bones or other sorts of somewhat serious injuries. Then you have a glen area where people who are not terribly hurt or not hurt at all are going to be checked out. So right now the focus is going to be search, rescue, and transporting the injured. Once theyve gotten everyone accounted for and treated, then you really sort of move into your investigation mode and can start trying to figure out what went wrong. But right now its trying to get handle of how many people were on that train, was it 70, was it 75 for everybody. How many vehicles were involved . Can you get to everyone . Can you get them help . Thats where they are now. And, kris, we are seeing right now a lot of what youre talking about, the green, yellow, and red tents. We can see a lot of passengers who are Walking Around with blankets. They appear to be moving on their own. Thats certainly a good sign. This train, as we know, weve been told it can carry up to 250 people. Conflicting reports of whether its 70 or 75. But its on the low number, but it was also very early in the journey of this train. They already started the triage process you were talking about. And for the next probably couple of hours, thats going to be the focus. Once they get a head count, thats when well start to get some real solid information. Right now were in that stage of breaking news where numbers will change a little bit here and there as this goes on. The other thing to think about here is how many vehicles on the roadway were impacted from this. This fell across a very major interstate in the washington area. The Pierce County sheriff, and Pierce County covers the city of dupont, confirms there are injuries and casualties. This is a very significant development. You mentioned those two tents. It looked like that yellow tent, broken bones, looked quite busy. So a lot of activity there, attending to the injuries of those on board this amtrak train that derailed early this morning. Norah, the most critical will go to harborview, a levelone Trauma Center in washington state. You have the option to airlift those people if there is an open area nearby. Harborview is a very good medical center. Thats where you would take your most severely injured. And then its going to be a do about this major artery that you have closed. Its a major logistic issue. You dont want to complain about traffic at a time like, this but its a major issue when you have with one of your major northsouth freeways closed. To kris point, the department of transportation in washington saying that major artery will be closed for an indefinite period of time. You can see why with that train car upside down on the tracks. Our coverage will continue throughout the day on your local news on this cbs station and our 24hour streaming news network cbsn. Watch it at cbsnews. Com. An well be back with special reports as more information becomes available to us. You can watch complete coverage from the scene tonight on the cbs evening news with jeff glor. This has been im Norah Odonnell with gayle king and anthony mason, cbs news, new york. For news 24 hours a day, go you are just tuning in to wusa news at noon, we are continuing to follow the breaking news from washington state. A highspeed amtrak train has derailed, and its hanging over a bridge 50 miles south of seattle. Some injuries and casualties have been reported. Emergency services are on the scene. Amtrak management is responding, and we are certain the National Transportation safety board from our area will send someone to the area. It was just before 8 00 a. M. When a local train derailed. Less than 10 minutes later, cbs news reported 7075 passengers were on board wh we will continue to follow the story, and we will have more during this newscast and on our wusa 9 mobile app. The soonest they can get me out is the 21st. I will not get to my destination until the 22nd. The power is back on at the countrys busiest airport, but that does not mean every flight is ready for takeoff. More than 1,000 flights were stranded yesterday at atlantas airport because of a power outage. It was caused by a fire at an underground electrical facility. They didnt get the power back on until close to midnight, and now things are slowly returning to normal at airports across the country, but as we said, not out of the woods yet. Wusa 9s evan koslov went and heard local nightmares. Reporter this is the line at the delta location. People have been waiting for quite a here. Some folks were trying to leave yesterday, and they are still here. Still, trying to smile. Reporter what do you do when youre stuck in line at the airport . For this guy, turn to music [instrumental music playing] why did you pull out your violin . So many sad passengers are trying to get home today, and we are stuck at national airport. Reporter why not lighten the mood with christmas melodies. For other passengers, no cheery music is following them. We were scheduled to fly out yesterday at 3 00. Reporter thats tara and baby shaya. Reporter you have two bottles left and three diapers left . Yeah, family will have to pick us up. We dont have any option. Im going from here to cincinnati to tampa to pensacola to avoid atlanta. We are actually. Reporter and then theres these guys trying to get to disney world. The kids are so disappointed. It was supposed to be a good day today. Reporter these two had to sit on the tarmac for 2 hours. So, maybe the worst trip of your lives . No reporter you have had plenty . Its probably in the top five, but we have had way worse reporter who can complain when theres music. Wusa 9. Evan tells us they are offering a refund or ticket change to anyone impacted, and they are not allowing minors to travel on their own today while the delays are widespread. As many of you know atlanta is the nations busiest airport. Washington dulles was number 23. Regan international was not even on the list. Plenty of you on social media. John says are you telling me a major airport has no backup power . Laura says im on hour 7 flying into birmingham instead of atlanta. Hot mess. For flight status information, go to wusa9. Com, and you can click on the flight tracker app we have there for you. [instrumental music playing] and we have been telling you about our give Hope Campaign with Childrens National all week long. Your generosity is ever growing. So many of you have visited wusa9. Com givehope and used the link to buy a toy for a child in the hospital for the holidays. Choose a gift, pay for and ndle its that simple. Its available 24 7. We continue to need your help. T consumers must weigh the convenience of Online Shopping with the risk of having their items stolen. Are porch pirates more ram pant rampant this time of the year . Reporter its the time of the year police are warning not to let mr. Grinch into your home for the holidays. Keep your doors locked, lights on, and presents out of sight. We are verifying if theres more burglaries this time of the year. Our verify researchers looked at numbers for montgomery, arlington, and Prince Georges County, and we spoke to dc police, and we found trends. Summer is the prime time for house crime. In arlington, breakins over the summer more than doubled. In 2016, june to august, dc police said they responded to 547 burglaries, and thats about 6 a day for the entire summer. Li months being the hot spots for breakins, so police tell us thats not surprise. Burglaries happen more in the summertime. Thats when more families are on vacation, making it open season for thieves, but Stafford CountyPolice Confirm they have actually seen an uptick in thieves burglarizing businesses this holiday season, so, yes, there are still some grinches that strike during the holiday season, but we can verify, false the prime time for burglaries is not the holidays, its the dog days of summer. If you have something you want verified, let our team of researcher the get to the bottom of this. You can find us on facebook or twitter or send an email to verify wusa9. Com. The people of Northern Virginia may soon start to pay higher taxes under the governors proposal that will announced today it will help real estate, sales, hotel stays, and wholesale gasoline. The new tax revenue of 65 million a year will be on top of the 85 million that are already contributed for metro and other transportation services. The plan still needs approval from the general assembly. Now wusa 9s first alert weather. We certainly have been enjoying a lovely afternoon. Its quiet out there right now, at 50 degrees, and the high temperatures today, 50 to 55 degrees, and its comfortable out there with the southwest winds at 5 miles an hour. We have seen them coming from the east, and later this afternoon, switching directions. 55 right now, and tomorrow, warmer, and if you want that taste of spring, we have it coming up. 60 tomorrow, and then wednesday, cooling off, and theres a cold front coming tuesday night. We will see the temperatures falling into the upper 20s with clouds and forecast, headed into the long Holiday Weekend with christmas coming upon us. There will be a cold front headed our way on saturday. Thats going to give us a rain chance. Every day of the weekend is a rain chance, friday, saturday, and sunday, and even christmas day. Showers with slightly cooler weather headed our way. I want to pause the clock at 7 30 p. M. On friday. At this point, looking at widespread showers across the area. The widespread showers friday night into saturday morning. Saturday f you have to make your errand or lastminute shopping, you to fend off the rain drops. The rain is with us, and it will not taper off until after 5 00 saturday evening. Waking up sunday, its dry out there. The redskins game will be featured right here, and 1 00 sunday afternoon, youre looking at cloudy skies, and showers are holding off until after the game. Its after 10 30 p. M. On futurecast on sunday night. Look at the widespread showers, its the back end, mixing with rain and precipitation, and even snow in the far outwestern area of maryland. On christmas morning, its a wet christmas, not quite a white christmas. You can see the pink line is indicating we could see a wintery mix. It could be rain and flurries or rain and sleet mixing in. On the back end, around hagerstown and cumberland, it will not be cool enough to support all snow for those areas, but the dc metro, showers. We are far out and the forecast has some wiggle room. Stay with us for updates on this 6 00 christmas day, looking like theres still showers out there. If youre headed down to fedex field to watch the broncos take on the redskins, during game time, partly cloudy. The high of 55 today, and we will warm up nicely tomorrow. Going to feel like spring out there, and the high right around 60. The warmup is short lived, and we are down to 50 starting with the winter mix, and rain chances friday through sunday, and then the highs will be in the 50s. More weather when we return. In case you missed it, a High School Choir from Prince Georges County made it on the bill board charts, and last night they performed at the Kennedy Center after being last week. They are from largo high school, and their al bum is called rejoice album is called rejoice. If you want to get your hands on it, its only 9. 99, and all parodontax, the toothpaste that helps prevent bleeding gums. If you spit blood when you brush or floss you may have gum problems and could be on the journey to much worse. Help stop the journey of gum disease. Try parodontax toothpaste. Z2m7ez z16fz we are continuing to follow the amtrak Train Derailment south of seattle, washington, and the National Transportation safety board officials are on their way to the scene over interstate 5. As many as 75 people were on the train when it derailed and crashed on to the road below. We are told some of those hurt are drivers who were pinned in their cars when the train fell will have much more on our wusa 9 mobile app and beginning on wusa 9 news at 5 00. Thats it for us at noon, thank you for the good weather news, at least for tomorrow, and just became whatever whayoure about to dout to do after you get coffee. Nothing comes before coffee. 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