leaving in its wake more than 130 dead and more than 1,000 injured. the most vicious strike was without question here in joplin, missouri where today many were able to get back into their battered communities for the first time, searching for anything the storm may have left behind, though most still can't shake the haunting memory of how this all happened. >> the sound -- i'll never, ever get that sound out of my head. >> tammy beerly and her husband were trapped in their car when the tornado hit. >> he stopped because we knew we were done for. he held me and started -- started dreaming and we just held each other because we knew it was over. we were gone. we should not be alive. >> reporter: she is thankful, though still in shock, unsure of how or where to start picking up the pieces. >> it's just -- it's all gone. it's just all gone. and you don't know where to start. where do you start? >> it is an overwhelming struggle to survive, now faced by thousands of families in the wake of the storms. >> it is a task they will continue to work through here while dealing with more wind and rain over the next several days. >> in joplin, missouri, jay gray, news 4. >> now for a closer look at the conditions producing those tornadoes, doug kammerer joins us with the very latest on the storm system that's cutting a new path of destruction through the south and midwest. >> tornados on the ground right now once again in some of the areas that have been affected over the past couple of days and now let's take a look and show you what some of the twisters have done, the region which is just down to the south and east of kansas city, missouri. you can see it there making its way right through the mobile home park and fortunately from this one it did not look like too many manage injuries here and let's show you digital doppler radar, this is where the storms were yesterday. we saw 14 people die as a result of the storms yesterday. mostly in towards kansas and in towards oklahoma and down towards parts of texas and most of this area, there's not a whole lot of people here and you have oklahoma city and the dallas area and that will be about it. now today we're looking at a much more populated region where the storms hitting and there have been tornado warnings for st. louis and right around downtown st. louis and another storm that was on the ground earlier and once again, these storms are making their way toward the east. notice one thing here. notice this rotation. this is the storm, the huge storm making its way across the country. any time you have a spin in the upper levels of the atmosphere like this it does not take a whole lot to get spin on the ground and spin up those tornadoes into one of these severe thunderstorms. that's exactly what's happening right now and across the mississippi valley and notice as well down around memphis, st. louis, indianapolis and springfield, illinois, all under tornado watches and under the gun for the potential of more deadly tornadoes and we'll continue to watch this system as it progresses off to the north and east, but the good news is after tomorrow, things calm down dramatically. >> we'll see you in a few minutes. thank you, doug. behind each of the numbers that stands behind the concern is a member of someone's family. we talk to a woman who at the age of 25 finds herself a widow alive thanks to her husband's selfless act of love. >> it happened so fast and all of the pillows were flying off of us and the one thing i managed to do is keep one in front of my face. >> and glasses flying and debris and it's noisy and loud and where you were both hooem home at the time and what did your late husband do when the storm struck? you were together and i read that he sheltered you. he covered you. he just has so much love. >> for more on that story and the latest on the severe weather tune in to "nightly news" with brian williams right after this broadcast. >> metrotransity police trying to track down a group of carjackers. this morning, a father and his daughter were attacked by men wearing masks and they had guns during the carjacking at the largo town center. last friday, a similar scene occurred at the new carolton station. chris gordon is at metro station with more on the suspects. chris? >> they struck twice in a week and today's carjacking was so brazen, imagine driving a stolen vehicle across five levels of a parking garage and past customers and security cameras and out of a gated exit all the while leaving the injured victims behind. >> just after 7:00 a.m., metro police investigated a carjacking in the metro garage. four suspects wearing ski masks con fronted a father and daughter from buoy, maryland, in the stairwell, robbing them of personal items, money and car keys. >> they confronted the individuals and a struggle ensued where the male subject was struck about his head and the female was subsequently shot in the abdomen. >> less than two hours after the carjacking, police tracked the stolen vehicle through its onstar system. it was abandoned on bannicer drive on northeast washington. these pictures of the 2010 camaro and they were taken and posted on wpod.com. george watson who lives here watched. >> it had the guys with the long guns. so they had weapons drawn? >> yeah. >> what were they wearing? >> bullet-proof vests. at the metro station, some customers who use the parking lot say they may choose to get dropped off. >> i take the metro back and forth every day so it's very concerning. >> when we went to the top floor of the metro garage we saw no signs of increased police patrols. at the exits there are security cameras. police are looking through footage for clues and metro board member alvin nichols who represents prince george's count i has been assured that transit police are taking every precaution to protect the public. >> that we do everything that we can to find out how it happened, why it happened and the folks who caused this to happen are apprehended as quickly as possible. >> metro police say this carjacking is similar to the one that occurred last friday morning at the new carolton station when four suspects stole a man's 2004 gray audi station wagon. this vehicle was seen at the largo town center station. we believe these two cases are related at this time. >> reporter: now police say the same four suspects struck again and they want anyone with information to call 911 if you can help them find the suspects or that gray audi station wagon that they apparently stole and are still driving. that's the latest from metro headquarters, back to you now in the studio. chris gordon. thank you, chris. inspectors with the state comptroller's office are making sure that we're getting what we paid for at the pump. a surprise inspection was conducted at a shell station in beth dais this morning as part of the program to make sure the gas being sold around state is up to par. this station passed its test. inspectors say if the station fails the pumps were shut down until the problem is fixed. a looming budget battle over tax increases and sharp service cuts fizzled at the d.c. council today. city leaders say they found enough money to restore cuts and balance the budget. tom sherwood has the good news about the cost of parking in the city. >> reporter: security officers blocked some people at the door, calling the protest bed sheet a potential weapon. an officer stood guard in the council chamber as everyone expected a tense fight over budget cuts and tax increases. an improving economy has boosted tax revenue by tens of millions of dollars eliminating the need for any drastic cuts. and probably 95% of all the things that people in this room have asked me for. >> our hope today is that the council will work to fully restore those cuts before their job is done on the budget. >> still advocates for social services stood kwie thely for the move to kill the mayor's plan to kill revenue for hiking taxes on those who earn more than $200,000 a year. >> we don't think that people making over $200,000 will be too opposed to that or run out of the city because of it. >> a member citing the fresh revenues expected killed the income tax increase and mayor gray said he'd go along. more than 8.5% income tax rate, the highest in the region and third or fourth highest in the nation that it doesn't service well to raise it even higher and the council voted to slash parking meter rates from $2 an hour to $1 an hour if revenue hold up this summer, it came after an outcry. tom sherwood, news 4, washington. >> itself been quite a busy day in london for president obama. they met with david cameron at the prime minister's house, both leaders held a cookout for u.s. and british members of the armed forces. >> then it was on to a joint news conference. later, the president addressed both houses of parliament. >> he is the first american president to be invited to address parliament at westminster hall since world war ii. >> in his speech the president said the u.s. and britain will continue to play an essential role in bringing peace and prosperity to the world. >> coming up, the homicide house revealing the deadly connection between the murder of a d.c. teacher and the killing of a father and his daughter. >> criminal charges may be in the works for former presidential candidate john edwards and the woman who broke up his marriage is part of the investigation. >> a judge rules on whether the man accused of trying to assassinate a congresswoman not competent to stand trial. dan, what's aed in sports? >> doreen, matinee baseball in milwaukee. the nationals trying to end their streak against the brew crew and we'll tell you who is the hottest athlete in the world. also, red skins kick retainer brandon banks back on the field there are indications tonight that former presidential candidate john edwards could be indicted soon on criminal charges. sources close to the investigation told nbc news last night that the justice department has given prosecutors the authority to file charges. the case centers on allegations that political contributions were used to keep edwards' mistress in hiding while he ran for the democratic nomination in the 2008 election. there was no immediate comment from edwards. his lawyers have said in the past that they're confident the former north carolina senator did not break any campaign laws. the man accused of gunning down six people and trying to assassinate congresswoman gabrielle giffords in january made a court appearance today. noelle walker was inside the tucson, arizona, courtroom as the judge made a ruling on the mental competency in jared lee loughner. >> reporter: before he was accused of shooting into a crowd of people in a tucson, arizona parking lot before he allegedly killed six of those people and tried to assassinate congresswoman gabby giffords. before all that. there are signs that jared lee loughner was a disturbed young man. he appeared in court for a mental competency hearing. he sat for 45 minutes and then an outburst. loughner yelled thank you for the freak show. she died in front of me. moments later the judge declared loughner mentally comp debt to stand trial for now. >> the defendant has to participate in the proceedings if as a result of the mental disease or defect, he's not able to do that, then the proceedings cannot continue. >> the judge had to ask himself two questions. does jared loughner understand the 49 charges against him and can he participate in his defense, court documents filed by two different psychiatrists who evaluated loughner indicate the answer to both those questions is a resounding no. >> but that does not mean within a month or two months he'll be restored to competency and be right back in the criminal court to proceedings to continue. 90% of the time the defendant is eventually able to stand trial. while the course of justice is altered for now, shooting victim susie heilman's life has been altered forever. heilman brought the youngest victim, christina taylor green to that fateful congress on your corner event. >> what i want i can't have. i want christina back. i want my life back. >> heilman believes ultimately justice will be served. >> however long it takes. i have nothing, but time. >> loughner will be evaluated again in four months. >> loughner will be committed to a mental hospital to see if they can make him competent to stand trial however long that takes. i'm noelle walker, news 4, tucson. >> coming up tonight, the end for "the oprah winfrey show." traffic oishgs-66 in virginia is usually a mess and now they'll mission accomplished this morning for two astronauts with the space shuttle endevour. they spend serve hours extending a robotic arm that will be used on the international space station in the future. their mission also boosted power on the russian side of the station. this friday will mark the u.s. space shuttle program's final space walk. >> doug's here with more about what's happening with the wild weather out in the midwest and what we can expect for our holiday weekend. >> and the good news is last time we saw the tornado outbreak was around alabama in the tuscaloosa area and that storm is moving our direction. >> this storm is not moving anywhere close us to and we're not going have to deal with the severe weather here over the next couple of days. our weather is going to be a lot hotter and that's what we'll have to deal with, but first let's talk about those tornadoes that are going on out to the west right now and yesterday that storm system on the radar picture was back to the west. we're talking about an area that we did see those in in oklahoma, around kansas and also down toward texas. let's take a look outside right now and they digital doppler radar to see where the storm is. yesterday it was centered right on top of wichita. we saw tornadoes down toward oklahoma city and around the kansas city area and down through dallas, texas. today that tornado-producing storm is much more to the east and here it is right here and we'll actually zoom in? show you where the storm is right now coming through kansas city and here's the big spin in the upper levels. it brings a lot of moisture out of the gulf of mexico and many of the storms will start to spin and they will give us a chance of tornadoes. numerous storms with tornadoes on the ground ask there has been a lot of damage just to the south of st. louis and now into illinois as well where they have seen tornados on the ground and into the indianapolis area. has this year been abnormal? you better believe it. we'll show you just the deaths this season. so far we've seen 490 deaths so far in 2011. the record, 1953 was 519 deaths. that was for the entire year and the average is 57. 1953 we saw those tornadoes once aga again, east of the mississippi in flint, michigan and in wooster, massachusetts. two big cities, once again hit by very strong f-4 and f-5 tornados and our tornados have been f-4 or ef-4 and ef-5 in tuscaloosa and the outbreak that killed 300 people and around joplin, missouri area. two outbreaks combining to produce a big, deadly toll and that's exactly what we saw just about 50 to 60 years ago and it does not happen very often and hopefully we will not see these in the next couple of days. nice and warm, but it's going to be getting hot. temperatures tomorrow will get up around 90-degree mark and it will get up to the mid-60s. the dew point is 62 degrees and not too bad right now. winds out of the south at 9 miles per hour. i think it will be a very nice evening as temperatures across the region or at least into the 80s and 82 in leonardtown and fredericksburg and 87 degrees and 83 degrees back toward sterling, reston and the hearn donne area. >> look at raleigh. there's the 90-degree temperature and we are going see these 90s try to get closer to us today tomorrow and we have got hit 90 in the region and i think we'll hit it during the day tomorrow and we may not be done yet. we're looking at a very, very warm forecast. future cast showing what's happening tonight and not much in the way of shower activity tonight at all in the next couple of days. tomorrow, the best chance will be west of washington and back toward winchester, martinsburg and kull pepper and charlottesville, along i-81. this is friday afternoon around 5:00. the i-95 corridor to the east and not looking much at all, but back to the west we're watching a better chance of showers. you will see a better chance of showers on friday and on saturday and then on sunday, we i think we all see a better chance for at least some thunderstorm activity and we are not going see a lot of storms this weekend and most of us should stay on the dry side. light wind, 77 to 82 degrees as you make your way through the night tonight. tomorrow night, mostly clear and a really nice start. winds out of the southwest at 5 to 10 miles per hour. as we move on through the day tomorrow, look athis, sun, a few clouds, breezy and hot. a bit humid, 86 to 90 and winds will be out of the southwest in 10 to 20 miles per hour. temperatures on friday back into the 08s with a 40% chance of showers. saturday more of the same. temperatures in the mid-80s with a 40% chance of showers and most likely to the west of washington. sunday, nice and warm. a high around 87. so far, memorial day is good. what do we want on monday when most people will be at the beaches, along the chesapeake or the river? more along 90 degrees and sunny condition, but it will be humid and tuesday and wednesday we could be in the low to mid-90s and this could be the start of a heat wave coming up and at least we have the chance for shower activity there and speaking of this holiday weekend we're starting something brand new and it will be awesome. we'll have a ton of fun doing this. i'll come to your backyard and do the weather live. i'm not going to be wearing a suit. >> i was going say. you're not going wear a suit and tie? >> i will wear sandals and a bathing suit -- >> okay, i'll wear a shirt, too. e-mail us at [email protected] if you would like us to come to your backyard and do the weather live. we'll have fun doing so. send us pictures of that yard and let us know why you want us to come over. >> you do want to be invited back. >> if you'll do the bathing suit thing, do it now. >> mid-july. i had the cast on for a while. mid-july, maybe. >> thank you, doug. coming up on news 4, the brave dogs fighting on the front lines of the military's top missions. ♪ ♪ >> some shoppers in mare landes caught off guard by a high school project. >> vandals are leaving their mark on doensz of cars and the investigators can't decode the message they're leaving behind. buyers walk away from homes for all sort of reasons. the price is too high. the color is wrong. the kitchen's not big enough, but what if the house were a murder scene? would that make a difference? what about two murders? or three? would you still consider it? i'm pat collins, i'll have the story coming up on news 4 at 6:00. coming up in sports, the u.s. open right around the corner and we're going to take a tour of one of congressional's toughest halls and a brewer's pitcher doing damage to the nationals on the mound >> a new round of severe weather is ripping through the midwest now causing more damage to homes and businesses there. officials say they now believe that most of those who are unaccounted for from that tornado in joplin, missouri, on sunday have survived the storm. a federal judge has ruled the man accused of shooting congresswoman gabrielle giffords and killing six others is mentally incompetent to stand trial. jared lee loughner will be sense to a federal facility to restore his competency. metro police are looking for four suspects who may be responsible for two carjackings. this morning a woman was shot and her