here, snapping a bunch of them. back over here, to the right, they're inspecting some of the feeder lines to the home. this is good news to the neighborhood, as tens of thousands of other marylanders are still in the dark tonight. >> reporter: hurricane irene fueled more than wind and waves. it's now fueling the tempers of bge customers. more than 100,000 still without electricity, after four days. >> i think they need to look at the businesses more. >> reporter: patrick hess owns this denny's in edgewood. since sunday, he has lost $50,00050,000 and laid off 60 employees. >> at this point, nobody seems concerned about the time. >> reporter: the closures affect 1,000 workers. >> we have people that work paycheck to paycheck. and they're not going to get that this week. >> reporter: what's your take on bge's response to this storm? >> i'm disappointed. >> reporter: state senator nancy jacobs says bge should stop focusing on private homes until businesses are back online. >> obviously, they don't care enough about the jobs, or they'd be getting these businesses back up so people could feed their families. >> reporter: but some homeowners are losing patience, too. even yelling at repair crews. >> it's frustrating. gets out of hand. you feel for the customer. but it's not our fault that they're out. it's mother nature. >> reporter: bge has 5,000 local and out-of-state workers on the job, many working 16- hour days. >> i didn't get to see my family. gihome, go to sleep, get up and go to work. >> rest assured, we're not going to stop until we get all of our customers back. and we're gone toking to -- going to continue to make significant progress over the next couple of days. >> reporter: so the crews right now are kind of working their way down the road. looks like your house could be next. what do you think of that? >> i would be very happy. because i spent two days in damascus. >> trying to get some power? >> yeah. i had to go because i had medical problems. >> well, good luck to you. i hope you get your power back on any moment. >> reporter: bge says as of now, they have restored power to about 80% of those affected by the storm. their goal is to have everyone restored by the end of the week. we're live in govens, adam may, wjz eyewitness news. >> my fingers are crossed for that nice lady. maryland's eastern shore. mike hellgren just toured some of the damage with governor martin o'malley. hi, mike. >> reporter: hi, mary. we have spent the past several days, looking at the worst of the damage across maryland. and many of the victims we talked to said they don't have time to cry about it. they just want to get back to some semblance of normal. >> this is the room that vanished outside. and this is the living room where i was sitting, 10 minutes before it came right through the ceiling and we would have been stabbed to death. >> reporter: sandra torano considers it a miracle she's alive, after a tree crashed into her home in annapolis, inches from where she sat, obliterating her home. >> it just fell this way. >> just rumbled kind of? >> shook, rumbled, loud -- louder than the first earthquake. >> reporter: this was one of the governor's first stops as he toured parts of maryland, where hurricane irene hit the hardest. >> for a lot of these folks, they lost things they'll never get back. but they're resilient people. and we all need to focus on what we can still achieve. >> it's all a team effort, trying to get people back to where they need to be. >> reporter: some in millington were left with little more than the clothes on their back. from the air, you can see the flood that covered more than a dozen homes here. >> lost everything. >> oh, no. how long have you lived here? >> almost 30 years. >> there's going to be more problems when the water continues to come down from the north and comes back down here. so it's not over yet. >> reporter: the recovery will take months. and lots of money. for those who narrowly escape, though, there's no price tag on survival. >> so it's another chapter in the book of life. >> it's been a long, hard chapter for a lot of these people. anne arundel county executive john leopold, pushed his gain in seamance. -- acceptance. fema is also assisting. reporting live in queen queen anne's county, mike hellgren, wjz eyewitness news. >> mike, thank you. complete coverage continues now in north baltimore. derek valcourt has more on efforts to clean up all of those knocked-down trees in the storm. >> reporter: if there was any debate about the strength of the storm, you don't have to look very far to find trees that can help put that debate to rest. trees like this one are everywhere. and it follows that cleanup crews are not far behind. >> all the pressure is up in the maple tree right now. >> reporter: business is booming for the people who make a living on trees. around maryland, irene whips down thousands. like this tall pine on john meadow cross, northern baltimore county backyard. >> it's too big of a job for the handyman around the house to do. it's a professional job. >> reporter: luckily, he's a long-time customer of keel tree experts, when -- one of dozens of companies up to their elbows in branches. >> we got all kinds of work. we got a bunch of trees on houses. we have a stack of things like this that we have to get to. >> what happens with wood like this, pretty much all of it gets recycelded. -- recycled. >> reporter: some of the trees so large, companies like baltimore tree experts need a crane to move them. >> reporter: so many calls, they say it will be weeks before they can get to all of their clients. right now, they have to prioritize. homes with tree damage like this one, come first. >> the tree laying in the yard at this point. it's going to be sometime before we can get to that. >> reporter: all of them agree, in terms of tree damage, irene has been brutal. >> reporter: also, brutal, the price tag facing some of these homeowners. huge trees like this one, can cost in the range of several thousand dollars to remove some property. and we've talked to homeowners who have nine to 10 trees like this, down on their property. we're live, derek valcourt, wjz eyewitness news. >> that is just the most massive tree, i feel like i've ever seen. thank you. several days after irene, rivers around the northeast are still rising. some of the worst flooding is in new jersey, where thousands have been forced to leave their homes. the floods are deep enough to submerge cars. president obama will visit the town of patterson on sunday, to view the damage. and we are getting a better look at irene's impact on connecticut. dozens of beach front homes are flattened and reduced to rubble. so far, irene is blamed for at least 44 death negligence 13 states. -- 44 deaths in 13 states. stay with eyewitness news for complete coverage here in maryland. for more on the damaged power outages and excerpts on the pictures and video, log onto wjz.com. right now, we are tracking another tropical storm brewing in the atlantic. bob turk has the latest on the national hurricane center. bob? >> and just in at 5:00, the storm has increased its speed a little bit. the storm, an hour or two ago, was down to 62. now, it's 68-mile-per-hour winds. getting close to hurricane force, which will be 74. it's heading off now to the west/northwest, pretty quickly at 20. expected to be category 2 or 3 storm by sunday night or monday. somewhere southeast of new england. and all of the models, literally, all of the models now, have been making a big turn. either between the united states and the leader or eastern. one or two have it close to bermuda by the middle of next week. so looks like it probably won't have a direct impact on the united states, except for wave action by next week. but another system. see that stuff southwest of florida, that could become a tropical depression by later in the weekend. might each be -- even be named lee, eventually. but looks like that will be headed toward the texas area, where they actually could use the rain. they've had about a year of drought conditions there, and extremely hot summer. so that may have some beneficial results to it eventually down the line. for us, kind of a quiet weekend coming up. a little warm. i'll have that forecast coming up. mary? >> bob, thank you. a young man is murdered in baltimore, just two months after he came to america, to find a better life. 20-year-old big bahadder gurom spent most of his life in a refugee camp in south asia. he moved to baltimore, seeking freedom and safety. instead, he was shot and killed during an apparent attempted robbery. it happened on august 23rd, outside the apartment. detectives are asking for help to find the suspect. anybody with information should call police. maryland state police uncover new information in a cold case murder. detectives just identified skeletal remains found in carroll county more than two years ago. went missing 14 years ago. and someone stumbled on her bones in westminster, march of 2009. detectives are asking anyone with information about the murder to come forward. >> reporter: right now, last- minute preparations are under way for the baltimore grand prix. that means plenty of road closures and traffic headaches for drivers downtown. weijia jiang has a look at the last-minute touches. >> reporter: ready? set? it's almost go time. wjz spotted one of the first indy race cars to hit the streets of baltimore. and these just-released virtual images, give us a behind-the- wheel of what drivers will see as they race through them. >> a little bumpy in places. tight and narrow. there isn't much room for driver error. >> reporter: but first, the city has a long road ahead. >> we have about 45, 50 people working in our office. >> reporter: crews need to shut down major streets to finish building. all of conway will be closed wednesday night. on thursday, i-395 will follow. to keep traffic flowing, officers will be stationed at every major downtown intersection. >> we have traffic signals planned to develop to help flush these streets. we posted them for no parking. we will be telling no violators. >> reporter: teams take a pit stop between races to fuel up, pump tires and regroup. and then there's this job, prepping the speed machine. typically, it takes 15 people to get her done. >> we ripped this apart. we build gear box. brakes, fuel system. >> reporter: with the countdown officially on, everyone here has a job, so dozens more of these can wow thousands of fans. >> reporter: teams will start rolling out the car. and all of the big races officially start on saturday. of course, we'll bring you all of the coverage you need. right here in downtown baltimore. weijia jiang, wjz eyewitness news. >> the two-mile course is expected to completely be built by somebody by tomorrow night. >> i would not be surprised if weijia weijia traded in the vehicle she had for that. >> trading up. still ahead at 5:00. a multibillion-dollar deal. the lawsuit, that could have stopped millions of mobile phone users. i'm alex demetrick. coming up, the major sewage spill the damage hurricane irene has caused. i'm monique griego. close friends of robyn gardner are keeping a close eye on where gary giordano is being released. a beautiful wednesday out there. but will you need your umbrella this week? bob turk will have the updated first warning forecast. ,,,,,,,,,,,,,, hurricane irene keeps on giving. in this case, it's millions of gallons of raw sewage. the storms triggered spills in a number of baltimore streams. >> reporter: when electricity was lost, it knocked a dozen sewage companies offline. >> when they lose power, the stations can't pump. and there's an overflow. so we had a large overflow over the weekend. >> reporter: 16 million gallons of raw sewage spilled in the waterways. stretches of the jones falls have been posted offlimits. other affected waterways include the patapsco river, beaver dam run, gun powder river and fac river. meanwhile, they have been restored. >> pumping stations are up and running. they're doing well. >> reporter: the work is far from over. >> reporter: a major 54-inch county line. the line carries one-third to one-half of all of sewage. >> that's about 17 million gallons a day. so every day that we have until we repair the line is 17 million gallons. >> reporter: and all of that sewage is going into the pacaps -- patapsco river. turning the water gray. it's one more thing this neighborhood is coping with. >> i feel more upset because we don't have electric. so we can go in the house and get away from the snell. but they were very good, explaining what they were going to do. and they said they were going to get out of here as soon as possible. >> reporter: and stop a spill that might have triggered a surge. alex demetrick, wjz eyewitness news. >> baltimore's department of public works hopes to have the pipeline repaired by friday. meanwhile, the sewage flows freely. if you're waiting for someone to get home from work, let's check on the roads with sharon gibala, live at wjz traffic control. >> hi, kai. a whole lot to talk about on the roads this afternoon. a new accident, on 29. you're going to want to watch for that one on 29 northbound. that's going to be at route 32. also watch for a crash in parkville. pedestrians, struck in the city on north charles and east center. another one on south monroe, at east eagle. and one more, east belvedere. a crash in harford. downed tree in pikesville, blocking park heights avenue. take stevenson road instead. another downed tree in darlington, blocking southbound darlington road at harmony church road. there's a look at your drive times n. the 20s on the top and west sides of the beltway. it's going to be very slow going on 395, very shortly. take a live look outside at 395, at spaghetti junction. because of the grand prix, between 7:30 tonight and 6:00 a.m. tomorrow, 395 will be closed between mlk and conway. other closures that are currently active are going to be on conway, between light and howard. you're also looking at plat street, camden street, hopkins streets, and south charles. this traffic report is brought to you by bill's carpet fair. bill's has it all for you. call. back over to you. >> sharon, thank you. what a nice day out there. things aren't that nice, though, for a lot of folks, i understand that. but at least we have decent weather. but let's take a look at temp. bright sunshine. a few high clouds. 81. the dew points down again. east/southeast winds at 8. the barometer continues to rise. come back and take a look at the end of the week and the weekend forecast after this. ,,, we're following breaking news. chopper 13 is over the scene of an accident now that is tying up traffic. let's go to captain mike perry with more. >> this is west pedonia road. single vehicle accident. apparently a minivan left the roadway, struck a pole. several family members inside, including several children, baltimore county police and baltimore county fire are on the scene. rendering assistance to this family. there's no word on how serious the injuries are. biit is -- but it is causing traffic injuries. and baltimore county police are still here, and the road is blocked. back to you on tv hill. >> thank you, captain mike perry. >> we'll check in with bob turk in the first warning weather center. bob. >> we've had three really nice, beautiful, dry, sunny days. looks like it will continue a little longer. 77, oakland. ocean city at 76. we are at 81 now. and the dew points actually come down to around 56. last time it was 58. generally around the 80-degree mark. a few spots in the upper 80s. tonight, not quite as cool as it was last night. because you have a bit of a southeast flow. right now, east wind at 8. generally, that will stay with us overnight. it will be pretty light. a few high clouds in the area. now, to the west of us, shower activity this afternoon. across the great lakes. into indiana. it was pretty hot out there. indianapolis got to 55 this afternoon. the actual area, clouds and showers, mainly passing to the north. there may be a sprinkle in the afternoon. looks like it the probably get free. generally, until we get to the weekend, pretty quiet weather. and by the weekend, higher pressure looks over us tonight. will eventually slide off to the south. and that's going to allow some warmer air to come in again in texas, temperatures over 100 this afternoon. even in oklahoma, like 106 this afternoon. still plenty of hot air in the southern plains. high pressure, moves down to the south. a little more humidity. and a little warmer by the weekend. and just the front coming through, could get us scattered showers. saturday, sunday, and maybe again on monday. slight chance of that. but it's going to be warm, until next week. temperatures are probably close to 85 to 90, look like all weekend long. so we'll call it humid for this time of year. not like midsummer humidity. but there will be a front approaching early next week. and that will start cooling us down again. now, this tropical thing, in the gulf, could cause a lot of rain along the texas gulf coast. eventually, may move up to the mississippi valley. it's possible some of that moisture, if it does develop, could be moved off to the east coast, with a flood. we'll keep watching that for you as well. right now, looking out on the bay. tomorrow, southeast winds, pretty light, really, at 5 knots. also other a nice day to be on the waters. sunrise. bay temp, still around 76 degrees. and tonight, clear, comfortable again. just a few high clouds. might open the windows. 62, very pleasant. tomorrow, a little warmer than today by maybe 1 or two degrees, with sunny to partly sunny skies. we're talking high clouds. tomorrow's high, 84. but still relatively dry. and relatively comfortable. and friday, looks like we'll end the week. maybe a degree or two cooler. we'll talk about the weekend in a few minutes. >> all right, bob. thank you. straight ahead at 5:00. a strange way to earn cash. why you could receive money for breaking into facebook's website. a maryland football player, killed at practice. how it happened. and a message from his dad. ,,,, 5 anyone 29. thanksthanks for staying with wjz. here are some of the stories people are talking about tonight. the prime suspect in the disappearance of robyn gardner of maryland, will not walk free. the decision came down from a judge in aruba, a short time ago. well, an aruba judge decided to keep gary giordano locked up for an additional 60 days, while investigators build their case against him. almost a month after, gary giordano was last to see her there. >> i definitely believe he's involved in it. >> tom snider still works behind the bars at one of the favorite spots in frederick. >> i want to know the truth. i want to know what happened. an aruban judge decided to keep giordano locked up for another 60 days. giordano claims gardner drifted away while snorkeling. while those who knew her say his story didn't add up. >> i hope the police... have something if they're not calling anybody yet. >> reporter: giordano's father appeared on the today show yesterday. >> the least i can do it stand up for my son and tell the world that what they have been hearing about him is not true. he's not a monster. >> they are keeping close tabs on what are happening in aruba. >> search crews have scoured aruba, high and low, looking for gardner. but nothing turn said up. and some fear she'll never be found. >> i don't know what's going to happen. but i want to see closure of some sort. i want to see somebody charged for this. >> reporter: and aruban authorities are asking anyone with information on this case to contact them. >> reporter: investigators say giordano took out a $1.5 million accidental death policy on gardner, before s