home uneventfully. the flood watch covers most of the metro area prince george's county north, the district north and fairfax north. it does not include southern maryland. you will see heavy rain, just less flooding threat. 25 mile-per-hour wind gusts in manassas and the same downtown. by the time we get to midnight, 1:00, 2:00 in the morning winds will gust over 50 miles per hour. a wind advisory covers the entire metro area until 6 a.m. we'll come back and talk more about the timing of the thunderstorms and what that means for the morning rush and also a return to winter. we're tracking snow. >> see you soon. the senate judiciary committee today heard from both sides of the gun control debate during a lengthy hearing on gun violence. among those testifying was former congressional member gabrielle giffords. she is still recovering from the severe injury she suffered two years ago in a shooting rampage in tucson. >> the time is now. you must act. >> also testifying wayne lapierre of the national rifle association. he said universal background checks for gun purchases will not stop convicted criminals from getting their hands on guns. over the coming weeks the senate is expected to debate several gun control measures including a bill to ban assault weapons and high capacity magazines. a volunteer firefighter nearly lost his arm when a driver of a tractor trailer rammed into his fire truck from behind sending seven people to the hospital. this all happened on the inner loop of the beltway south of route 50 just before 3:00 this morning. emergency crews are still trying to clear debris. surae chinn joins us live with the latest on the progress. >> reporter: well, derek, we're told 29-year-old ryan emmons has undergone surgery to reattach his arm that was amputated in the crash. now emmons and three other volunteer firefighters had been responding to an accident themselves. they were on their way back to west lanham hills firehouse 28 when a tractor trailer hit them from behind. police say the firefighters were slowing down make a u-turn at an emergency turnaround on 495. the fire truck slid down the concrete barrier and slipped. the tractor trailer jumped the jersey wall and landed on the outer loop of the beltway. >> saw the accident this morning on the beltway and i was going to work and i saw how the truck was really beat up and the tractor trailer was turned over and i knew these were my guys. these guys protect us, so i felt as a citizen of the lanham hills to come by and talk to them and give them handshake, tell them we got them in our prayers. >> a horrific injury. in my time i can't remember having to deal with something like this from a fire truck accident. >> reporter: prince george's county police say preliminarily it appears the tractor trailer may have had the right-of-way, but it's all still under investigation. there are no charges. the same team of doctors, by the way, who performed on ryan is the same skilled team that performed that amazing surgery on that double amputee war veteran just this week at union memorial hospital up in baltimore. so obviously their family, the emmons family up in baltimore and obviously thanking those skilled surgeons up there. back to you, derek. >> surae chinn live, thank you. local charities are pressing d.c. mayor gray to spend part of a $417 million surplus on the city's pressing social needs. one of those nonprofits is called martha's table. it's a well known food bank. bruce johnson reports in a stunning move the woman who once ran bill gates' $39 billion foundation has been hired to run martha's table and she says the needs in the district are many. >> reporter: since 1980 martha's table has been feeding, clothing and counseling working and poor families in the district. 1,100 people a day. >> there is a very large and visible population of people who are having trouble making ends meet. >> reporter: both stonecipher, former ceo of the bill and melinda gates foundation in, a move that has stunned and electrified the world of nonprofits, stonecipher has taken the job as ceo of martha's table. >> for me the firstening is i'm joining a team, not just -- first thing is i'm joining a team, not just the folks at martha's day, but the 10,000 volunteers. >> reporter: she took no salary from the gates foundation and takes no salary at martha's tape. she goes from running a 38 bill -- table. she goes from running a $38 billion operation to a $6 billion operation here. she takes er martha's table after d.c. mayor vincent gray disappointed the community by announcing he'll sheriff's deputy the city's surplus to the city's saving account. >> i don't think that's the responsible thing to do. i think there's a lot of need in the district. >> reporter: marion barry told wusa9 today that he'll introduce a bill that would allow the mayor to spend 100 million of that surplus on social services. >> i'm going to push for at least 25 or $30 million for jobs, another 30 or $40 million for housing protection, trust fund for housing and i'm going to do something about social services. >> reporter: the mayor seems to have the votes on council for saving the money, but he hasn't heard from patty stonecipher, at least not yet. >> what can we collectively do to reduce that 110,000 families living in poverty? >> reporter: her first official day at martha's table is april 1st, but she's already on the job. bruce johnson, wusa9. >> stonecipher is very wealthy. the washington post reports she piled up tens of millns of dollars in microsoft stock years ago. education was one of the big topics during maryland's state of the state address. governor martin o'malley proposed a $336 million bill to help improve the public school system. the money would be used to build new schools, create new jobs and hold down the cost of local colleges. o'malley says the school system is one of the best in america and showed his excitement lebron james style. >> and this is where you can clap for not one, not two, not three, not four but five years in a row the no. 1 best public schools in america! >> jobs were also the focus of the governor's speech. he proposed a number of bills including one to help develop offshore wind energy to create more maryland jobs. when maryland health officials learned of a potential link between a spinal steroid injection in cases of fungal meningitis late last year, they waited nearly a week before telling the public. state epidemiologist david blythe says officials delayed notifying the entire state to gather as much information before going public and he said the delay posed no harm since the state imdiately alerted clinics that were administering the shots to stop using them. clasping -- clamping down on counterfeit merchandise coming up at 7:00. we'll have the expanded blitz and glitz coverage live from new orleans. see you then. >> coming up we'll talk with jc hayward who talks with the women of the talk down in new orleans. that's not her and that's not that video, but we'll bring her to you coming up after the break. dr. bias knows the pain and of suffering of drug abuse. she lost her son len to it in a cocaine overdose. len was a basketball in maryland and died in 1996 two days after he was chosen as a top pick in the nba draft. now lanice shares her story to help kids stay away from drugs. today she spoke with some kids as part of the national event sponsored on drug abuse. >> len would get ready to play ball and was in college and we were just going along and it looked like he would be drafted for the nba. that was the good life. and then one morning we received the phone call and then the nightmare began. and in your life you will have a good life. you will have a nightmare, but also know in the nightmare that there is life after death. >> so powerful. she says it's critical parents stay engaged with their children on the subject of drugs. a new study says 7th graders exposed to alcohol ads on tv and might like the ads might experience more severe problems related to alcohol. the study appears in the medical journal pediatrics. researchers say the more 7th graders were exposed to alcohol ads and like them, the more their alcohol use grew from 7th to 10th grades. still ahead we're headed down to the big easy to get the latest from our blitz and glitz team. we gotta sell the car. where would we even start? get the car. hi howard. get in. hi, good to see you. start with an actual written offer when selling your car, no strings attached. carmax. start here. the super bowl is just four days away and the excitement in new orleans is growing. today ray lewis spoke in front of the media regarding rumors that he took a banned substance to rehab his arm. i says he did nothing wrong and -- he says he did nothing wrong and the parents of the two harbaugh brothers who coached the super bowl teams talked today. jack and jackie harbaugh said their only concern about the game is that one of their sons will be pretty hurt after the game is over. our blitz and glitz team is down in the big easy covering the stories that you care about and our jc hayward is live at snug harbor jazz bistro. jc, we hear you were hanging out with some of our network friends earlier today. >> reporter: lesli, did you notice my new orleans hair? honey, it rained today to beat the band, excuse the pun, but let me tell you about my day. it was fabulous. i went to jackson square where the live, the talk show, was being taped. let me show you what happened. behind the scene of cbs' the talk a crew of more than 70 moved the talk show from the big apple to the big easy, but when it was time to get the audience fired up, guess who got selected to come on stage. i will wear my t-shirt with fond memories. after the show i was invited to meet the hosts. i'm here on the set of the talk with julie, iesha, sarah. sharon and sheryl and i'm just saying i have one question. you know, everyone is talking about the commercial, the volkswagen commercial where they have the white man being happy with the jamaican voice. what do you think about that? there's been some controversy. >> are you teasing us? is this a wind-up? >> reporter: no. >> i haven't seen it. is this for real? >> people in the trailer have been talking about it, the hair and makeup. i haven't seen it, so i won't judge. i will say sometimes things can be a monage rather than a judgment or statement. i think it was intended to be a celebration of jamaican culture, not a denigration and sometimes we maybe need to not be so sensitive all the time. >> reporter: what is it about you that the public does not know? come and tell me something that i can share about one or the other. >> she always has a point of view or something to say like if any of us are at a loss like when you asked about the commercial, even though she hasn't seen it, she's the one who has heard about it and she's got an opinion ready. >> my husband would say you always have an opinion. all right. all these ladies are comfortable going to southeast d.c. and any d.c. club, so they can get their go go on and have a little taste, all of them. >> get their go go on. >> uh-huh. you know, they've had some changes in personnel. they have found the foursome there. >> they are perfect. >> have you noticed we've been color coordinated? >> i know. >> yesterday we had orange. what are you wearing tomorrow? >> not sure. ping maybe. >> okay. i'll call you. >> -- pink maybe. >> okay. i'll cale you. >> love this, the -- call you. >> love this, the blitz and glitz team coordinating. >> you've got to have the outfit to go with the new orleans hair. >> love it. >> they're big time. 72 today at dulles, a record high, 72 downtown, not a record. let's start with live look outside, our michael and son weather cam. nice shot of the kennedy center and nothing crazy is going on inside the beltway, a little light rain, nothing heavy, temperatures 61, high 72 downtown and also at dulles. winds picking up out of the south 17, pressure falling. it will keep falling the next few hours. a little cool air to the north, not crazy cold, but in the 50s. 58 in bethesda, 57 in rockville, still 68 in arlington, 66 in fairfax and it is still 60 in college park, temperatures will above average, more like april. we're expecting winds 50 miles per hour or higher tonight. bring in the small chairs, turn the tables upside down. stay away from the windows. we think the highest winds will be between 9 p.m. and 3 a.m. with gusts over 50. this line here is a severe thunderstorm watch. inside that around charlottesville down toward nelson county and albemarle there are warnings out. we'll track that through the evening as it works its way up toward the metro area. right now we have pretty heavy activity towards leesburg. the red is rainfall rates over 1 inch per hour and up to 15 up towards frederick toward the ferry. so very heavy rain in the western suburbs, could be flash flooding. do not cross a street that's flooded by foot or by car. flash flood tonight, winds gust over 50, heaviest rain and highest winds in the same period between 9 p.m. and 3 a.m. and then windy and cold on thursday. we're going back to january. so we'll put this into motion. this is our futurecast. by 11:00 tonight still a solid line from frederick down to just west of fredericksburg. roll through the metro area around midnight along 95 and crosses 95 into southern maryland by 1:00 or 2:00. this is when the highest winds roll through. after that rolls through just light activity until you get east of i-95. you could see more moderate rain between 3:00 and 6 a.m. and everything goes to snow back in the mountains. so in the 40s tonight, windy with rain, thunderstorms, some heavy, colder late, winds westerly at 20 to 40 with higher gusts to 50. temperatures hold steady tomorrow. we're looking at light snow possible friday. we'll watch this because the timing is awful. 33 for a high, still cold saturday, watching more light snow possibly on saturday night. next seven days sunday just kind of cold, but nothing arctic really, temperatures back up into about 40 and briefly colder monday in the 30s and pretty nice next tuesday and wednesday, mid-40s tuesday and 50 on wednesday. so we'll be here all night to track those storms. even if you don't get hit by a storm, watch the flooding and the winds, up to 50. >> i like what you said, young, inexperienced drivers let's go home. we got a little craziness here. we know they got some crazy weather where they're blitzing and glitzing in new orleans. kristen, what you got going on? oh, more hair. >> reporter: you see it? yes. the wind can't make up its mind which direction it wants to go. the big news out of new orleans today at ravens camp, ray lewis, rumors of him using a banned substance. the linebacker talked about it today. we'll hear from him, plus now here's kristen berset at the wusa9 cadillac sports desk. >> reporter: welcome back. we're live in new orleans outside the mercedes-benz superdome. a lot of the talk today over 24 hours, really the focus of the super bowl has shifted to ray lewis. rumors or claims posted published in an article on si.com that said ray lewis used a product that contained a banned substance to help him heal faster from his torn tricep. now, of course, that was what we all wanted to know this morning. in the article mitch ross, co- owner of sports alternatives to steroids claims lewis used deer abstract which contains a substance called ibf1, but it can only be detected through blood tests. in 17 years ray lewis has never failed a drug test and this morning at the press conference lewis didn't hide his frustration and disappointment. >> i never ever took what he says or whatever i was supposed to do. just to entertain it, i can't, i won't and i just truly believe he doesn't have the privilege to -- for me to speak about it ever again. you're not angry. you can use a different word. you can use the word agitated because i'm here to win a super bowl. i'm not here to entertain somebody that does not affect that one way or another. >> reporter: ray lewis says this won't be a distraction and when we asked his teammates, they shared the same sentiment. they trust ray and just want to move on. >> you think of something like that this week to be expected. i'll be honest, you know, because with all the good that's going on somebody wants to find that blemish to try to distract you, but we've been dealing with that all year. >> it's better than a win, man. it's petty gossip. until you show us some actual evidence we don't really care, man. we're at the super bowl. we know what you all are trying to do. we're just not giving into it. wire shrugging it -- we're shrugging it off. >> reporter: super bowl week is more about the experience, of course, the nfl experience opening today where you've got punt pass kick competition, lot of fun games and where you can buy all your super bowl memorabilia. we'll hit that up later, but first we'll be back at 7:00 with much more of our blitz and glitz coverage. kristen berset, back to you in the studio. >> fun time. that's it for us. the cbs evening news is next. derek is back at 7:00. >> good night, everybody. stay safe.