>> let's say good morning to tony perkins. it is like fall is saying good morning to effect starting back to school and work. >> it is. it is eerie in a way. here we go back to school being back to work and we've got cooler temperatures and rainfall across the area. so slow down out there and give the kids the rain slickers and the umbrellas. some folk are seeing mainly light to moderate rainfall here and there across the region including it looks like maybe in southeast washington out towards prince george's county. la plata, you are getting it as well. off to the west, there is a flash flood warning in effect for fauquier county, culpeper county, orange county, places like that. up to the north, a couple of spots of heavier rain up near frederick, maryland. so this pick is changing moment by moment. we'll con to update it for you through the morning hours. let's go to the graphics actually flash flood watch is in effect for the entire area through tomorrow afternoon. that is because the periods of rain that we expect to see today, tonight being tomorrow and frankly even beyond that will possibly produced intoing here and there. there have been some reports offed intoing on roadway and low-highing areas out to the west. so that flash flood watch in effect until tomorrow afternoon. right now, reagan national reporting 65-degree. relative humidity, 90%. winds remain out of the north and east at 13 miles per hour. here is your forecast for today. lots of clouds around. period of rain. sometime that rain will be heavy. dulles airport is already seeing about 2 inches of rain since 8:00 last night. highs today, only in the upper 60s to about 70 degrees and that is it for your high today. we'll have more on the forecast coming up in a little bit. >> thank you. let's check with julie wright and get a look at traffic. >> all three accidents on the top side of beltway have been cleared to the shoulder, the crash at connecticut avenue, the accident before 270 and the accident after 270, all clear. lays with you on the top side of the beltway from before new hampshire avenue to the exit for 270. authority are checking for the crash along 95 at the exit for i-195. no problems reported in northeast along new york and ken ill worth avenue. standing water along third street. inside of the tunnel at d street and you can get by there. the ramp from seventh street to go westbound on the freeway is still blocked off because of standing water. 395 coming across the 14th street bridge, leapts lanes are open. no incidents to report -- lanes are open. no incidents to report. today is being called terrible traffic tuesday. expected to be one of the worst days of the year on the roads. >> the with the weather is not helping matters either. fox 5's karen gray houstondown us with more. >> reporter: i do have advice for the people. give yourself plenty of time. labor day is over. summer vacation is gone. kids are going back to school. adults are back from vacation. they are going back to work. and worse yet, the weather, the heavy rains overnight and it is starting to come down again. making numbers a little bit worse, take a look down here. this is a ramp leading to 395 north. a police car was blocking this ramp a little while ago and it has left. there is still a little standing water down there. it has been receding over the past hour or so but it will make the commute complicated for a lot of folk this morning. there are five million people in the greater washington area commuting to three million jobs. 507,000 students heading to class, 5,642 school buses. mind boggling. ya say there is one good answer. -- aaa says there is one good answer. >> 74 prosecutor of people drive in cars and 64% of them drive alone. the biggest change in our comowt has not gone to mass transit or to rail but to tell he commuting and teleworking. that is the way out of this problem. that is the one solution we have. >> now, some folks are trying other modes of transportation, other alternatives. according to a recent survey over the past decade, about 24% of people in our region are trying things like carpooling, van pooling being, metrorail, metrobus, bicycling and even walking to work, sarah and steve. >> good luck in this rain. thank you. school bus and student will be out on the roads in northern virginia this morning. it is the first day back to class for many conies and school districts. here is a list of them, fair fact county, prince william county, arlington county and alexandria schools along with manassas, manassas park, stafford county and fredericksburg city schools. -- fairfax county. in aruba, a new plea for answers in t a maryland woman. police think the people in this white car may know something about what happened to robyn gardner. the surveillance photo was taken as the car was driving way from where she was last seen. she was visiting with gary giordano. he has not been charged. he is being held in aruba in connection with her disappearance. a fairfax county teacher is accused of soliciting a minor online. police arrested mike allege cook of centreville last week. he is a band teacher at robinson secondary school. police say the alleged victim was not a student at the school or anyone under cook's supervision. the lope star state still battling dozens of dangerous wildfires and governor perry left the campaign trail to deal with the large of the blaze burning about 25 miles east of austin. flames have burned through 25,000-acre so far destroying nearly 500 homes and forcing thousands to evacuate. governor perry said wildfires have burned three and a half million acres in texas since december. a path of destruction left behind by the remnants of tropical storm lee. in georgia, the system spawned tornadoes that damaged dozens of homes. the dixie speedway was also hit pretty hard too. another problem is the flooding. six families had to be evacuated from an apartment building due to high water and slick roads caused and 18-car pile-up. up to four more in. s of rain is expected in parts of georgia this morning. the future of the u.s. postal service at stake. >> details of the dire scenario it is expected to lay out in a hearing later today. a new round of flu shots rolling out and there is some good news for people who just can't stand needles. that is coming up. a senate committee will now hear all of the problem plaguing the u.s. postal service. the agency decided to default on a five and a half billion dollar payment due september 30th appear may have to shut down entirely this winter unless congress takes emergency ask to stabilize the finances. the postal service wants the okay from congress to reduce its work force by 220,000 employees in the next four years. also, the postal service wants to eliminate saturday mail delivery. there is a new tool in the battle against the flu. the first flu shot that works with a tiny needle and a less scary pinprick is hitting the market this fall. it is just for adults and is not widely available just yet. distribution will expand next year and there is plenty of the traditional vaccine we are told to go around this season. a tense standoff with a man in australia who claims to have a bomb. he is holed up with his tamed daughter in a family cure building near sydney. police are trying to nova scotia with him for several hours. so far, no word on exactly what he wants. but a clerk said the map and his daughter walked into the office reception area and told her to phone the attorney general's office -- the man and his daughter walked into the office reception area and tolder to -- told her to phone the attorney general's office. we'll find out how long the rain will stick around when fox 5 morning news continues. we take a look at a soggy washington, d.c. on this tuesday morning. tony perkins, any chance we'll get this rain out of here at some point today. >> not really. according to the national weather service, we have a 100% chance of rain today and indeed it is raining right now in parts of the area, not everywhere. but everyone will get in on the action at some point today. that is just the kind of of day it will be. >> i guess 100% means they're pretty certain. >> that's right. let me show you the satellite- radar composite and we'll show you where the rain is this morning. there is plenty of moisture to work with. we have a couple of different systems going on. we have a frontal boundary that has come through here and here is the good news. thattron, if you like cooler air has brought us cool are air. there is the front. you can see it right there. see that area of rainfall and that line there. that is the frontal system that has sagged to our south. it brought in cool are you're and there is rain associated with that. this is tapping into the remnants from tropical storm lee and that is a lot of moisture moving up across the ohio valley into the hudson valley, portions of the great lakes into the northeast. we're tapping into that as well. that is what will keep us wet today, tonight, tomorrow as well. some of this moisture could hang in there as we head towards the weekend too. we have to wait and see how that develops. we have the wet condition across the area this morning. flash flood watch is in effect for pretty much the entire region. all the areas you see here in green. that flash flood watch from now through wednesday afternoon because there will somebody periods of heavy rain here and there. that could lead to some flood and i should mention that this morning, there is a flash flood warning in effect for fauquier county, culpeper county, orange county, out to the west where they have already observed somed intoing there. it is cooler, 66 degrees here in wash. baltimore is at 64. dulles airport, 62. fredericksburg, 63. ocean city is at 72-degree. the colden from has yet to get through there we'll see them drop off as far as the temperatures go. this is hurricane katia which overnight was a category four hurricane. it has now been downgraded to a category three. maximum sustained winds blowing at 125 miles per hour. it is now located about 400 miles south of bermuda. it will impact the east coast of the united states with those strong riptides, rip currented and wave action but the current projections have it continuing to move to the north. it is moving northwest at 10 miles per hour right now. but it is expected to move out to sea, further out to sea and not really hit the mainland. we'll keep an eye on that, of course. forecast for today, told you about the flash flood watch. cloudy skies. periods of rain, some of that rain heavy y at time. highs today only in the upper 60s to about 70 degrees, believe it or not. for tonight, overnight lows, cool again in the 60s. 65 downtown. still, showers con and then your five-day forecast, tomorrow, we have more rain in the forecast for your wednesday. thursday, periods of rain, 79 degrees. a few shower on friday. a few showers on saturday. we may be able to upgrade that forecast depending on what happens with lee or the recommend nap of lee. now, less a get to julie wright and find out what is going on the area roadways. >> back to work and very busy for a tuesday drive. that is why they call it terrible tuesday. the crew in sky fox with us checking out the drive on the beltway and again, three separate accidents have cleared between connecticut avenue and 270 leaving behind a string of brake lights. we have those delays as you travel from 59 college park headed west. it remain bumper to bumper slow over to connecticut avenue. southbound 270, crash reported route 80 in you are ban a. southbound out of germantown. heavy, slow and steady trying to get past m very much a. you will find slow traffic coming across the american legion bridge. -- heavy, slow and teddy trying to get past mva. man lines slowing from the prince william parkway up to 395. karen gray houston has been reporting this all morning long, standing water closing the ramp on seventh street at 395. that ramp remains closed. that's a check of your fox 5 on-time traffic. with the president set to unveil his jobs bill in a speech to congress later this week, labor day took on an increased significance on the political front. president obama gave a crowd of union workers in detroit a glimpse of his jobs plan. >> on thursday, we're going to lay out a new way forward on jobs to grow the economy and put more americans back to work right now. >> the pre's trip to firefighter was bill as an official visit and not a campaign event. meanwhile, gop frontrunner texas governor rick perry spoke about unemployment in new hampshire and in a speech to a tea party in new hampshire, sarah palin sounded a lot like a candidate even though she has not announced her plans. >> one in six work eligible americans cannot find a job. mr.president, that is not a recovery. that is an economic disaster. >> now, you have seen the proof yourself in president obama. see, candidate obama didn't have a record while in office. but president obama certainly does and that is why we're here today. >> the entire republican field will debate wednesday at the ronald reagan library and museum in california. the business beat coming up next for you. we'll tell you why a visit from santa claus may be just what the economy needs right now. as we go to break, harbor the dog is making news for his record-setting ears. we are talking about the couldn't hound. he set the record for the longest ears on a dog. his heave ear 12 1/4 un. s long. we'll show it to you later on. -- 12 1/4 inches long. stn am society a visit from santa may help things look a little better for the economy. we'll have more on that in a minute. let's take a look at the market. lauren simonetti with fox business network live in new york with this morning's business beat. >> good morning. >> it was a rough ride in the markets in august and september traditionally is the worst month. so are we -- how are we looking so far? >> we're to have a terrible note for the start of september. the major averages each gave up at least 2% last week after the u.s. showed no job creation in the month of august and june and july were revised lower by 58,000 jobs. world stocks responded to that on monday when we were closed for labor day and we're back to work on tuesday and we're looking at a pretty awful decline at the open. >> let's look forward to christmas then which i cannot believe we're talking about already. >> i know. >> but the question is will the holidays be good to the economy this year? >> we certainly need it. >> the chief economist for the international council of shopping haven't contribute are saws that real estate till sales for november and december combined will rise by 3.5%. pept-up demand, people will spend pot holiday. last year, the best holiday since 2006. retail sales over that same time period up 4.4% so not doing too bad. expected for this area. >> merry early christmas. >> no more retailer toies, i promise. >> we'll check in with you tomorrow. thank you. get ready for what could be a rough commute. we'll tell you why today is dubbed terrible traffic tuesday appear speaking of the wet weather. you can thank what is left of tropical storm lee as well. a look at what it left behind down south when we return. there are over 200 varieties of gourmet coffee that have earned the keurig brewed seal of approval. the keurig brewed seal is our commitment that the coffee inside will deliver a delicious cup of coffee every time. keurig brewed. look for the only mark of genuine keurig quality. a new air freshener so smart, that it detects and overcomes unpleasant odors, to keep your world at its brightest. new odor detect. something in the air wick. still talking about hurricane irene. le behind a big price tag. the white house estimating the storm will cost the federal government about 1.5 billion in disaster relief on top of over $5 billion needed for other reeseen dit after thers including the tornadoes that leveled much of joplin, missouri. remnants of tropical storm lee continue tooling ore -- continue to linger on this morning. the dickey speedway was hit pretty hard. in mississippi, a man drowned while trying to cross a swollen creek. just one of several cases of people being swept away. tony is with us now with a look at today's forecast which look like we're getting a few of the remnants that they had down there over the weekend. >> some of that is moving across pouring of our viewing area particularly off to the west. we'll be dealing with that through the course of the next couple of days. i think others will get pore rain from it than we will but still, it will influence our weather pattern too. let's start with vipir, show you what is going on out there as we do won to monitor the rain showers moving across the area. we've seen some area of heavy rain and this takes you back to last night and through these early-morning hours as we had heavy rain really beginning around 7:00, 8:00 depending on where you were last night and during the overnight hour as well. as you can see, there is quite a bit of precipitation all across virginia into southern maryland and pushing up into pennsylvania and the like. many of the -- much of the rain that you see off to the north and west, that is associated with the remnants of lee coming through portions of the mid- atlantic and pushing into new england as well and we're getting some of that too. here are the current temperatures at the area airports. reagan national up to 66 degrees. dulles, 62. forecast for today, cloudy, flash flood watch in effect for the region. rain including areas of heavy rain during the day and high temperatures in the 60s and 70s. 60s and 70s. have not said that identify long time. 68 for your high in gaithersburg. 07 in washington. 72 in fredericksburg. coming up in about 15 minutes, today's edition of ask the weather guys. great question from a 6-year- old girl wanting to know a few things about lightning. spskally, she has heard like all of us have if you wear rubber soled shoes, you are protected from lightning. is that true? we'll answer that question for you appear more facts about lightning coming up. >> that is just about 15 minutes from now. let's check in with julie with a look at traffic. is it term terrible out there? >> yes, it is. and more pornly from a nonsix- year-old girl, who is the one that tested out the theories of the rubber soles? >> please submit that in the form of a question to ask the weather guy. >> that tucker barnes, i tell you. good morning to the crew in sky fox on this terrible tuesday. bumper-to-bumper traffic as you wrap your way around the capital beltway. not y right now out of college park. big delays leaving before route one headed over towards 59 and around towards georgia avenue. then the pace improves. we had a crash and that is in the process of being cleared. 59 will slow as you travel out of beltsville down to the beltway. in germantown, southbound along 270, heavy, slow and teddy coming in out of germantown making your way south of 124. more slow traffic headed down towards the beltway. no incidents to report at the legion bridge. traveling northbound i-95, the crash that was in lorton in the hov lanes was tying up the left lanes. that's a check of your fox 5 on-time traffic. >> thank you. the advice for commuters today, head out the door early. you heard what julie was talking about. >> summer vacation is over now. karen gray houston is out in the weather in southwest with more. >> reporter: good morning. the stark reality is summer vacation is over. the kids going back to school. there are about 300,000 residents of the district who actually commute to work and this is going to probably be a problem for them. this is the ramp to 395 north from seventh street in southwest