Transcripts For WRC News4 Today 20140122

Good morning, everyone, im aaron gilchrest. Im eun yang. Welcome to news4 today. It is not just the snow and ice that could be a problem this morning, but all the wind. It is blowing snow everywhere, and its making it feel very cold this morning. Lets check in with storm team 4 meteorologist chuck bell. Good morning. Good morning. And a good morning, everybody. Windchill advisories are posted. They officially go until noon. But just because the windchill advisory expired at unanimous, dont think for a minute that all of a studs going to turn balmy and nice outside of a sudden its going to turn balmy and nice outside. Windchills will be back above minus five. That doesnt sound like a bargain. The snows over, though theres plenty of blowing snow around. I could see the moon, and at times the snow would blow off the awnings of other downtown buildings. You could almost get a snow swirl out there. Current temperatures, Single Digits and low teen. Current windchills, minus seven in town. Minus ten in the panhandle of west virginia. Almost minus ten into southern maryland. So your planner, windy and cold. Its 12 right now. Most of the suburbs by 6 00 a. M. Back down to about nine degrees. And then rising today only up into the upper teens. If youre lucky, youll see a temperature of 20 degrees today. So how that lucky . I mean come on take that luck to vegas. That should be in the ugly truth, man. Thats terrible. For folks traveling around the beltway, im still tracking an earlier accident on the outer loop. It is single vehicle, and it is off to the right shoulder lane. You see police are still on scene. Elsewhere in our town, well shoot over to charles county. Traveling along 301, looks pretty clear here. I can tell you the commute to get to 301 is where it can get dicey on the local roadways. Heads up there. In event awe have megan mcgrath, what are in vienna, we have megan mcgrath. What are you seeing out there . Reporter well, were moving around, and yeah, were in vienna at this point. Take a look here. Were at the intersection of chain bridge road, 123, at germantown road. 123, id call that sort of mediocre rd conditions here. Weve got a lot of slush on the side of the roadway here. Very slick. Take a look at germantown road. Really not in great shape at all. Very much snow packed. We have seen a number of plows go through just in the few minutes that weve been here. But you can see still not the greatest conditions out here. Very, very slippery. Lets take a look at video that we shot on the outer loop of the beltway a little while ago. At the express lanes. Another trouble spot. We saw plows in the area, but take a look here. Even with the attention that those express lanes are getting, they are not in great shape. If youre traveling through tysons corner, on the beltway, my recommendation would be to stay in the main lanes. Theyre in much better shape. Theyre basically just wet at this point. Also keep in mind, if we can look live back here, if youre walking, out and about, this is a sidewalk here at the intersection. Weve got snow on top, undermanaged in it, though, listen underneath it, though, listen to that crunching ice here. Very, very slippery conditions. Now we are going to be heading down 66. Were on the move to give you a good look at all of the Road Conditions out there. Danella, back to you. All right. We will see you then. So as we noticed, megan was showing the sidewalks are covered with ice. I want to show you this this is New Hampshire avenue at valley brook drive. Good thing schools are canceled. You can see, hardly can see the sidewalk and road. This part of New Hampshire avenue, not pretty clear at all. Once you get further down New Hampshire avenue, heading south, it does get clear. If folks have to head out of the house, they have to use caution. Back to you. Youre absolutely right. Thank you. Well stay in maryland now. Drivers in Montgomery County can expect treacherous driving conditions on the roads that have not been plowed. You may even have trouble getting out of your garage. This morning, a lot of people need to clear the snow from their driveway before you head out the door. The neighborhood streets could also be a problem. The concern on the road is a mixture of snow and ice thats turning in to slush. Overnight, drivers took it slow to make it home. Really very bad. Even the main roads, 355, 270 looked wet when we drove over it. All the other roads are really bad. Montgomery county police say some roads are slick. So drive slowly to get to your destination safely. So far, no major accident have been reported. Expect another round of cancelations and delays at airports across the country today. This is a live lookow at Reagan National airport. Right now about 1,400 flight have already been canceled today. About 100 are out of reagan, dulles, and bwi marshall. All three of our airports are open and operating on normal schedules. Crews have been working all night to clear the snow from the runways. If youre flying out of town, you should still leave early. Plows are still out salting and clearing the roads across the dmv. And this morning, several Homeless People are waking up on metro buses. Union station, one of five locations in the district, where metro buses are parked and being used as warming shelters. D. C. Mayor vincent gray declared a cold weather emergency. The warming buses will be available until about 7 00 this morning. After that, people without homes can go to a shelter to get out of the cold. If you are using a space heater to stay warm during these frigid temperatures, make sure to follow some guidelines to keep you and your family safe. Only put heaters on hard, nonflammable surfaces. Keep them away from cloth that can easily ignite like curtains, tablecloths, or furniture. Keep children and pets away from space heaters. Always turn the heaters off before you go to sleep. A live view of the roads in Montgomery County. A mix of snow and slush here. We have crews spread across the region this morning. Another check on conditions in your area next. Plus, the warning from emergency officials to children tempted to play near lakes, in ponds in our area. Current temperatures, Single Digits to around 12 downtown. Welcome back. A live look at the capitol. May be a bit quieter on capitol hill. Federal worker will be coming to work a little later than usual. Theyre on a twohour delay today. Again, check with your managers if you have a different situation. For most part, federal workers on a twohour delay. Gives crews time just in case to salt roads. We know some of the side streets are still sloppy. Nay get the unscheduled leave or telework. We need to get the telework deal i know. We can do remotes from our bedroom what do you call it skyping. There you go. All right. 4 40 the time. Another look outside for you this morning where hopefully after the sun comes up well start to see some melting. But right now, were Holding Steady here in tinley town at 14 degrees. Chuck bell has a look at what you can expect. Chuck . Telework, really . You work in television. Thats teleworker in case you were wonder telework in case you were wondering. We have so much incredible technology, chuck. Well just skype you in. The last of the snowflakes now departing off the lower parts of the eastern shore. Good riddance to the snowflakes at least for a little while. Current temperatures, Single Digits and low teens. You need to wear longjohns, long socks, language pants and coat and ear long pants and coat and ear muffs because its cold. Windchills zero to minus 15 first thing this morning. Your outthedoor weather, bitter cold, subzero windchills, and cold sunshine lasting through the morning hours. Temperatures later today only into the mid to upper teens and low 20s. Maybe another chance of snow tomorrow. More about that in ten minutes. Danella . Im with aaron. Just hologram may in. I can wear my slipper and do traffic. I dont got to wear boots. All right. Heres what im tracking in the area. Local roads, 395 northbound at duke. You see in both directions, pretty clear, the side lanes like the right lane, left lane, still slushy. So stick to the center lanes if you have to head out of the house any time soon. Folks crossing over the 14th street bridge, pretty clear here, as well. Im back in ten minutes. Back to you beth. All right. Back to you both. All right. Thank you. Quite a view in the district. Roads covered with snow in a lot of places. Were talking to people making the treacherous walk to work in this. Schools closed today, but now early word of when students will have to make up these day [ mom ] hi, were the pearsons, and we love chex cereal. So we made our own commercial to tell you why. First, chex makes lots of gluten free flavors. Which is a huge thing for us. And theres seven to choose from. Like cinnamon, honey nut, and chocolate. I tell them you guys are gonna turn into chocolate chex i like cinnamon, greg is a honey nut nut. When you find something this good, you want to spread the word. [ all ] were the pearsons, and we love chex to get your home ready forord. The big game. Get close to all the action and save 1500 dollars on samsungs ultra High Definition 4k led tv. Plus, samsung 60inch led tvs start at only 999. And samsung 55inch led tvs start at just 799. Get to h. H. Gregg now, your samsung headquarters for the big game. See it all at h. H. Gregg. Com. Current windchill temperatures at storm team 4 at 4 44. Temperatures may be in the teens, but it feels well below zero in far too many places. And on the roads, snow, ice, slush. You will see it all this morning if youre heading out. Give yourself a lot of extra time. This winter storm created pretty treacherous driving conditions across the region. The concern this morning is ice on a lot of roads. News4s derek ward live in downtown d. C. With a look at conditions here. Derek . Reporter well, good morning. As you see, traffic is moving now. This is outbound new york avenue heading east out toward the d. C. Line. You can see that the roads have been treated. Take a look a little on to the side. And you see the sidewalks are not there is a path, you just have to walk carefully, certainly drive carefully. We talked to a woman who was beginning her journey. Shes actually headed for nairobi, kenya. The hardest part is just getting out of town. She tried to book some trains flights, train rides up to new york, but all of the trains, only one was open. The challenge was to actually get to Union Station from where she started at. And actually had to hail a cab for her. Luckily she did get off. Lets hear some of her story now. Whats your dilemma now, this morning . I need a cab. My cab has been coming for 2. 5 hours. Im going to Union Station, its like five minutes away. I cant get a black car, i cant get a thing. I have bags this is just bad. This is so bad. Reporter now shes from florida originally. Shes staying here, going to georgetown university. And shes trying to get to kenya where its nice and warm. She told me the temperature there is almost 70 degrees. And of course, coming from florida, shes not that used to this. Her tale is also one typical of what you might encounter. Shes been trying to get a cab. Shes had trouble. Three or four passed her by and didnt stop. A lot of them are on call. With the federal government starting two hours late and schools closed, youre not going to see a lot of traffic. You will see snowplows and emergency vehicles, as well. So be mindful of them youve got the windows up, heat blowing. You cant always hear whats going on outside of the vehicle. Limited peripheral vision, too, because of people with hoods and things. Its a matter of being cautious and leaving early. Were live in northeast. Derek ward, news4. Im wondering, you have a great hat on. Of that woman was she crying, or is it just that cold . Reporter i think it was a little of both actually. She was afraid she was going miss the train. And the tears just froze. They were there, you know. Im crying. I noticed a little looked like tears on your face earlier. Reporter i wish i was going to kenya. Get back in the truck. Thanks. Hope she makes it to her destination. From d. C. To Montgomery County. News4s Darcy Spencer is on the road live with the conditions there. Darcy, where are you headed . Reporter good morning. We just turned on to frederick road in gaithersburg. We were up in germantown a little bit earlier. You can see here on frederick road there is cant tell exactly what it is, whether its ice or snow here on the roads. A little bit of slush. A little bit of everything here. So they have been coming through and treating the roads. But it looks like theres some of that really hard stuff. And its formed on some of the roads. Thats going to be tough to get off of there. Maybe it will get better as the morning progresses and more traffic get out here and starts to smash it down a little bit, getting things mixed up, getting the heat from the cars. As you see, cars passing in front of us on Montgomery Village avenue. You see the snow and the slush sort of flying around. So again, theyve been at it, the crews have been at, it clearing the streets all night long. But theres still stuff out here on the roads. Not enough to plow. You got to have a couple of inches of snow to put a plow down. Hopefully at some point, the chemicals will kick in, mixing it up with the traffic, it will get a little better. Again, fortunately, traffic is very light. You can see one car, pickup truck. Theres supposed to be three lanes here. One lane, theres about half. When youre heading out, just be careful. Youll hit some snowy patches and icy patch. Back to you. Darcy spencer live on frederick road. Thank you. And despite the treacherous Road Conditions, are you half as likely to die in a crash now than during normal conditions. Researchers at nobliss crunched the numbers from the National Transportation safety board and found driving in the rain or wet pavement caused higher deadly crashes than during wintry weather. Another study found people driving in Severe Weather drove at slower speeds, and that led to less severe crashes. Researchers looked at the period between 1995 and 2008. The bill for prepping the roads for all this snow is starting to rack up in frederick county. Highway crews there say theyve spent more than 700,000 so far this winter on salt and other materials to treat the roads. That amounts to about 11 tons of salt, more than the past two winters combined. Crews have already reordered salt supplies three times this season, and they say they will put in another order as soon as they get this round cleaned up in frederick, maryland. Temperatures will be well below freezing today. Firefighters say you should not even think about venturing out on to a frozen lake or pond. We spoke to prince georges countys fire chief about it. Weeks and week of well below freezing weather for ice to become stable. This was a tragic reminder of just the dangers of doing that. A 10yearold boy in rockville died last week when he fell through ice on a frozen pond. Two of his friends made it to shore safely. 11 minutes before the top of the hour. And heres something that might make your children think twice before cheering on this snow day. Theyre probably going to have to make up this day. D. C. Public schools extending the school year with two more schooldays in june. In fairfax county, students will go to school on president s day next month and will have classes on april 7th. That was supposed to be a teacher washingtonday. Prince georges county might tax on three teacher work day. Prince georges county might tax on three days. That might not happen if a waiver is granted for the lost days. Theyll think about june later. For now, this is what youre seeing. Kids doing this maybe not helping shovel that much, but playing outside in the snow. Some taking advantage of the snow make a few bucks, as well. Around like 10 a house. Not bad. Start work early. Making 10 a house. Montgomery county saw between four and eight inches of snow yesterday. I know friends putting their kids to work. Heres a shovel they got good, strong backs. Get them out there. Maybe older than that. Youve got three kids. They should have the driveway cleared like that. We did go sledding. I say we, meaning robert and the children. Why not you . Im afraid of the cold. No, i enjoyed it. It was pretty it was too much. Im not sledding. Fair enough. The cold is here to stay about as far as our forecast models go. The minute we try and recover over the weekend, another shot of arctic air is due to arrive early next week. Dont think this will be a quick shot of cold and done with it. This will stick around for a bit. Dangerous windchills today. The windchill advisory officially goes until noontime. Dont think that at 12 01 its going to be comfortable outside. Its going to stay dangerously cold. We just wont be above the advisory cry tear yampt minus seven in washington. Minus 14 in hagerstown. Minus 12 in st. Marys county. Subzero windchills on the eastern shore. The windchill forecast, starting below zero. Staying below zero by 9 00 a. M. By 3 00 this afternoon, look how much warmer it will feel. Single digits above zero. Thats the reason the advisorys being allowed to expire. Windchills will be back above zero. Hovering in the Single Digits for windchills overnight, and start off time tomorrow, windchills again hovering near zero, into the low Single Digits. The wind will lay down after the sun goes down tonight. Right now, its still 12 degrees with blowing snow around town. A north wind averaging 23 miles per hour. Thats the reason the windchills are so low. Four in hagerstown. 14 in culpeper. Ten at solomons island. 12 in the eastern shore. And the 24hour temperature change, weve dropped about 30 degrees in the last 24 hours. Full force winter is here. Everybodys been liking the good news bad news scenario. Well go over it again for you here this morning. The good news is, the sunshine is back. The snow is over. And well have great sledding weather. The bad news, the cold is going to stick around. The ughly truth of the matter is that the cold is going nowhere. More single digit mornings ahead tomorrow morning and the next morning. And again, theres a whole lot of cold air in the future, as well. Later on this afternoon, plenty of sunshine. Temperature today generally speaking hovering in the upper teens to low 20s. Your sevenday forecast is a cold one. 18 today. Ten tomorrow morning. Again, this is downtown. That means all the suburbs back down into the three to sevendegree range. Tomorrow, 24, there will be a chance for light snow tomorrow. But not a whole lot of accumulation. Its a fastmoving system. Really passing flurries. Thats about it. Anything that does come down will stick because we have snow on the ground. Another nine on friday morning. That means, again, two or three in the suburbs. Highs only near 23. Saturdays going to be the warmest day of the bunch. 38 degrees with a chance of a little light snow. And then more cold air coming back the early part of next week. Just exactly what danella wanted to hear. All right. In the first 4 traffic center, im checking live cameras now for folks traveling i95. This time in maryland at cherry hill road. The center lane, the right lane, the left lane also still snow covered. Im also checking live cameras on 295. This is bw parkway at 175. You see here as the drivers drive southbound, theyre sticking to the middle lane. Again, the side lane are sketchy. Now as i was walking out, i just received a report of an accident. This one the inner loop of the beltway at i270. Im going to go track that, search for cameras, and hopeful have a live look in ten minutes. Back to you. Thank you. What not to do in the middle of a snowstorm. The danger this taxicab driver put people in when the snow tested his patience. And not good news with all the snow and ice in the region now. Why salt may not be effect 95 some cases when it comes to clearing the roads. Check out our thermometer in northwest washington. Below ten degree it looks like. Once you factor in the windchills, it could feel a lot colder today. [ female announcer ] wherever morning brings you, bring the energy you need. Nature valley softbaked oatmeal squares. Softly baked, made with hearty oatmeal and a drizzle of cinnamon. Theyre nature valleys take on a morning classic. Because when you keep going, the morning can bring you to brandnew places. Nature valley. Nature at its most delicious. Im molette green at the live desk. Were following a developing story on metro this morning. Just heard from Montgomery County fire about an arcing insulator at the metro station that means theres a hanging wire. The station is located in the 12500 block of Georgia Avenue in silver spring. Metro set to open in a few minutes. Weve got a call in to metro to find out if there will be any delays expected from the arcing insulator at the Glenmont Metro station. As soon as we hear from them, well bring you the latest. Back to you. Thank you. 4 58 the time. If your alarm is just going off, check out this view. This is new york avenue at 1st street northeast in the district. This is what a lot of roads look like now. Some people traveling pretty fast in these conditions. The winter storm made for treacherous driving conditions in boston, as well. This is a live look at the roads there now. The storm prompted a blizzard warning in new england. Boston expected to get up to ten inches of snow. Cape cod could see up to a foot of snow. This morning, investigators are trying to figure out what caused a massive warehouse fire in illinois. Want to show you the flames here. This fire broke out last night at a vacant warehouse just outside chicago. Firefighters do not believe anybody was inside when the fire started. This also spread to another building. Look at the flames. Given the frigid temperatures there, firefighters had a tough time battling that threealarm fire. A new york taxicab driver taking thing to another level. Driving on to the sidewalk. A truck was blocking the street. Thats when the taxi and some other cars started driving on the sidewalk to get around. It the taxi and Limousine Commission called the drivers actions dangerous and unacceptable as were everyone elses actions, i imagine. A spokesperson saying the company trying to identify the driver so it can take appropriate actions. You know, a lot of people in new york city have this do whatever it takes attitude when it comes to driving. Ive been in that mess were all in it together. You dont want to create more problems when everyones trying to get home safely. Sometimes youve just got to find another way. Be patient. Stay with us, news4 today continues now at 5 00 a. M. The snow is gone now that were dealing with the second punch from the powerful winter storm. Bitter windchills as low as 14 below will greet you as you step out the door. The cold temperature will not help the Road Conditions as you leave for work. War seeing were seeing snowpacked roads and ice in maryland and virginia. Crews have been out overnight trying to prepare for the snow, but theres slow going out there. And streets in the district, especially side streets, can be trouche rouse as well as plows dangerous as well as plows scramble to get the streets cleared. Take your time getting to work if you work for the federal government. A twohour delayed arrival. You have the option for unscheduled leave or unscheduled telework. Your children will have another day off, too. Every major School System is closed because of the winter storm. And you can make sure your kids school is closed by looking for it on the bottom of the screen. We also have a complete list on nbcwashington. Com. Storm team 4 meteorologist chuck intel tracking the falling temperatures for you now