Transcripts For WMAR News 20110317 : vimarsana.com

tell you, the weather should be pretty nice for that, right? very nice. all day through, and through tonight, today, we are going to be expecting more sunshine and yes, the irish eyes will be smiling as we have ourselves a look at a warmer day today and warmer still for tomorrow. that holds what we have been talking about all week. a little change for the weekend and not the change that s in our buckets behind there. we are looking at possible showers on saturday. that will lead to cooler temperatures over the weekend. we are dry right now. no weather to impede your travel. let s see what s happening on the roads traffic wise with kim brown. reporter: thanks. if you are catching the mta, all services are on schedule for the local bus, metro subway, light rail marc train and communitier commuter bus andmobility. look live at the 695 at wilkins, traffic is moving very well on both loops. no problems across the top side either traveling 95 heading towards the capital beltway. all lanes are open on 95 and the bw parkway as well. a downtown road chosure for the st. patrick s day celebration. o donnell street closed starting at seven this morning between linwood and potomac until early saturday morning. now back to you it s 5:32. this morning in japan, it s a race against time to avoid a major disaster. japanese military helicopters are dumping loads of sea water on a reactor trying to prevent a nuclear meltdown. the fuel rods that become overheated following earthquake and following the earthquake and tsunami may be on the verge of releasing more radiation into the atmosphere. a woman is trying to get back home to maryland. we met her friday. she is a student at towson university spending the evenior year in senior year in tokyo. i am scared, but just really stressed and hopefully nothing happens and i can get to the airport okay. danielle host family cannot spare the gas to get her to tokyo s airport. so instead, here s what she has to do. she has to walk to the train station with her luggage and take a train to the university and from there, she is supposed to catch a bus to an airport on a good day it takes three hours. 5:33. new video this morning to show you out of hawaii showing tsunami waves crash you crashing through a store s entrance. it knocked down racks and clothes and merchandise washed- up into the parking lot. it just opened last september and the owner is vowing to rebuild. on the website, we have a special section on the disaster in japan there. are eyewitness accounts and details on how to help and you can find it under the spotlight on the right side of the home page. it s abc2news.com. 5:33. ever heard last one out turn off lights? for the st. patrick s day holiday, it might be amore appropriate to say first one in turn on the lights. several bars are getting an early start. the pint and the irish spirit. sherrie johnson is live in fells point where the beer or guinness will soon be flowing. reporter: that s exactly right. we are here at the irish pub and you are right. soon it will be flowing. the bar opens up at 6 a.m. for those that want to get started very early. we have folks that are around setting up and getting ready for the festivities. and let me tell you, today is not just about having fun. we have a serious cause that they are work towards. for every pint of guinness beer they pour, they will donate a dollar to the american red cross to help the earthquake victims in japan. right now, i have dave gallagher joining me live. good morning. and tell me a little bit about what kind of a what kind of a turnout do you expect? normally, a little crowd before mass and the crowd comes in at midday. so we are five deep by 2 p.m. until close so it should be good. reporter: what kind of what neighed you decide you wanted made you decide to have donations for the earthquake victims. patrick, the owner, gives back to the local charities every year. this time e. decided that this this time, he decided thisthis was a great charity, the american red cross and decided this was the one this year. there you go. reporter: okay. so, and you are famous for your guinness. guinness shepard s pie and fish and chips is all going to be flowing, and corned beef all flowing. reporter: thank you so much. can t wait. now if you one of those that enjoy the green beer and guinness, make sure to be responsible and don t drink and drive. reporting live, sherrie johnson, abc2 news. to her point, tipsy taxi will be made available to make sure you don t get behind the wheel if you have been drinking. the free cab rides are part of a partnership with the maryland department of transportation aaa and yellow cab from 4 this afternoon until 4 tomorrow morning. get a free ride home up to the cost of a 50 dollar cab ride. they are only available if you ve been drinking in baltimore city bar or a baltimore city restaurant. we encourage residents to celebrate responsibly. designate a sober driver. take mass transit or a cab. if you are at a baltimore city establishment, call testimoniesy taxi for a tipsy taxi for a free cab ride home. write the number down in case you node it. 877-963-taxi. 877-963-8294. 5:36 right now. wild spring weather continues to pop up in certain parts of the country. amazing video out of florida. funnel clouds on the ground. and march madness hours from tipping off and president obama goes all chalk making with his pick. we will find out who he picks to win it all. that s coming up when good morning maryland returns. delicious news for dessert lovers. introducing activia dessert. rich yogurt with desserty flavors like strawberry cheesecake and peach cobbler. mmm. you ve got to try this. activia activia dessert. mmm. you ve got to try this. yummy, yummy, yummy, i and i feel like. [ female announcer ] kellogg s® wants to make kids happy one tummy at a time. because 9 out of 10 kids don t get the fiber they need, that s why froot loops®, apple jacks® and corn pops have 3 grams of fiber in every yummy bowl. they re the cereals your kids love and the fiber their tummies love. which makes for a whole lotta happy. froot loops®, apple jacks and corn pops®, an oh-so-good source of fiber. kellogg s® makes fiber fun™. all right. look at this. amazing video of funnel cloud over palm beach county florida. the video was shot about a photo journalist from his riviera beach. no reports of damage, but spring weather is bringing the tornadoes. wow. now, maryland s most powerful doppler radar and the forecast certified most accurate by weatherate. march, april and may, some of the billingest biggest tornado months. this year and much of the last decade, we have seen a decrease in tornado activity despite the fact we had one record year and all the publicity from all the video shots we have had. so far we are running well behind normal for tornadoes so far this year. and nothing like that around the parts. we have basically a clear sky across the region. just a little trickery in the overnight satellite. we are looking at temperatures at 41 in baltimore and let s check out the st. patrick s day forecast. we are looking for temperatures rising to about 60 by lunchtime and we will aim for the two degree guaranteed high of 65. we will check out the even warmer forecast for tomorrow in a moment. here kim with traffic. reporter: right now in traffic, of a to a very good start. moving smoothly around 695 looking live at the southwest corner. 695 at wilkins avenue. no major problems or even any major volume that s going to cause you delays right now. 95 95 also all clear from mountain road towards the beltway and further clear from baltimore county and howard county proceeding the mta this morning, everything is on schedule in terms of the local bus, metro subway, light rail, marc train and mobility. and we don t have accidents just the street closure on o donnell street between lynwood and potomac. now back to you. lynwood and poe tome linwood and potomac. take a look the commander in chief made his picks. we have the same national championship team. there you go. ohio state versus kansas. and i am thinking kansas. president obama has picked the four number one seeds to make the final four. that s called going all chalk. picking favorites across the board and the kansas jay hawks winning for the second year in a row. two years ago he got it right when he picked north carolina but this year he says rock, chalk, jail. it s tournament time and we want to find out if you can hang with us. the abc2 news at 11 team is filling out bracket and want you to play along to see to have you can take them to see if you can take them down. go to abc2news.com and click on the bracket challenge and find out who you will challenge there, which group, and get registered yourself. fill out a bracket and you are a read you are ready to go. act fast, the deadline is noon today you need to act fast. the deadline is noon today before the games tip-off. repairs have to be made. damage from a huge fire. what investigators think may have caused the blaze. reporter: a big part of the canton landscape is about to change. i am linda so. the usns comfort is about to set sail. coming up, more on its mission and where it will be heading in a live interview ahead. my, i got love in my tummy and i feel like. [ female announcer ] kellogg s® wants to make kids happy one tummy at a time. because 9 out of 10 kids don t get the fiber they need, that s why froot loops®, apple jacks® and corn pops have 3 grams of fiber in every yummy bowl. they re the cereals your kids love and the fiber their tummies love. which makes for a whole lotta happy. froot loops®, apple jacks and corn pops®, an oh-so-good source of fiber. kellogg s® makes fiber fun™. now good morning maryland. 5:46. this morning, the floating hospital that sits in canton will set sail to help people a world away. in about an hour and a half, the usns comfort will help others in need. linda so is live with all the details about their new mission. linda. reporter: hey, they are putting on the finishing touches. this is the comfort behind me. i mean massive. they have about an hour like you said, an hour and a half. seven is when they will leave the pier here. but the mission is that is a five-month human teary mission. they are going to hatey. joining us live is captain todd. thanks so much for joining us. you were in haiti last year. yes. reporter: and what was that like? tell us what you did there being down there after the earthquakestruck. the experience down in haiti was quite surreal because the amount of devastation was emense. the devastation to the buildings and people that were out there. my role was an orthopedic surgeon. i did an opportunity to do a lot of work from infants to the elderly a take care of their acute needs from the devastation of the earthquake. reporter: it must be exciting for you a year and a half later to go back and see, you know the progress and see what he going on down there? the world put a lot of effort into haiti to help the people out of the problems they were having after the earthquake and col a and it will be a phenomenal experience to see firsthand what s happening cholera, and it will be a phenomenal experience to see firsthand what s happening since then. reporter: thanks so much for joining thus morning. a great thing you are doing. again, 7 is when they will leave the pier this morning. they are getting ready, putting up the last-minute touches. and we will be here as they set sail. linda so, abc2 news. 5:47. thanks a lot. are you looking for work? the baltimore city police department are hire women inparticular. at the want more women and the department is holding an information session tomorrow at noon at the baltimore city police headquarters. right now, the department is 16% women already above the national average. 5:48 right now. a graduating medical school students at university of maryland and johns hopkins may feel butterflies because it s 34567 day. they will find out where they will begin the rest conditionsy. we will keep residency. we will keep you posted. and you will have a new place to shop. a new marshall s opens in mondawmin mall. the opening ceremony schedule for 8 this morning. now, maryland s most powerful doppler radar and the forecast certified most accurateb weatherate. all right. we promised a high of 60 yesterday. we were just one degree shy but won the two degree guarantee. there s more warm air to come. let s check out the almanac on this st. patrick s day. normally 34 in the morning. we will continue the pace of being above normal for the next few days. back in 1900 at 15 degrees. if you want heat, it was part of a two-day heat wave in 1945. both days the 16th and 17th, bringing high of 85 degrees. and even 7:15 sunrise and sunset we should see a lot of that during the day. clear skies, maybe a few passing clouds during afternoon. but we are in a dry weather pattern as we watch this storm across the great lakes slide its way on in through eastern canada. that actually helps to stir up the wind ahead of it out of the west and southwest. that s a warmer flow. we get the benefit of more sunshine and dry air coming down from the mountains and in addition to a warmup because of the source of that air. now the cold front is stretching from the storm that will dive to the south and east and that will try to pass our region tomorrow. with that in mind, this may be a chance of increasing clouds and a stray shower with the system coming in late morning and late afternoon. lagging behind energy and a piece of cloudiness and wet weather will try to stroll our way on saturday. overall, the forecast hold tight with one exception. saturday, just to make the irish feel like they are back in the homeland, making it wet. but anything that is wet will have things turn green and we are expecting it to be a one- day event and not the entire day will be a washout. today, 65. that s our two degreen guarantee with much more sunshine and nice warmup. clear to partly cloudy tonight. slipping back to 44. so not too cool. running still about 10 above normal. and we will continue that warming trend through the day tomorrow, friday turns out to be a partly cloudy day. and it will turn breezy but the breeze helps to push us to 76 degrees. small chance of an evening shower. let s check out extended forecast. watch it drop back cooler than we hoped into the 50s. that s with more clouds on saturday and the chance of showers during the day but we should dry it out with more sun and match the numbers mid-50s on sunday. next storm arrives next week with showers and steadier rain. we are back in the low 50s wednesday. reporter: well, this morning, it s a very easy ride early on on the area roadways. no major problems or incidents right now as we look at the 95 corridor in baltimore county. it s running very smoothly heading southbound into howard county further down towards the capital beltway. all lanes are open. northbound no problems to 695 and then on into baltimore city. p 9 395 and the tubal checking in without tunnels checking in without issue. fire activity in sparks. phoenix road at starlight farm job lanes could be block because of fire equipment. starting at seven, o donnell street will be closed near potomac because of the st. pat rake day festivities st. patrick s day fests tifts test tifts and it stays festivities. workers at a gas station in tennessee are shaking their heads this morning. coming up, the drama caught on tape when gunmen opened fire at this gas station. and she got tired of waiting for officials to do something and took action of her own. why a woman parked her car in the middle of the road for a protest. hershey s bliss. one square inch of indulgence. joy. pleasure. one square inch of extra smooth, rich chocolate. hershey s bliss. how s itng iere, hon? car alarblaring ] [ mannouncer ] rel. pam helps you pull it off. five minutes away from six. make news this morning, surveillance cameras captured a shootout at a national gas station. nashville gas station out might be surprised to learn that no one got g s station. you might be surprised to learn no one got killed gas station. you might be surprised to learn that no one got hurt. they go to them and i dropped my gun i got my gun and keep shooting. and they went away. as the two men ran out, you can see bullets and smoke trailing behind them. both the suspects got away. a huge fire at outback in fort myers, florida. when crews arrived, flames and smoke could be seen billowing through the roof. investigators say an electrical malfunction is probably to blame. damage is estimated at around half a million dollars. one woman in cleveland okay higho had enough and believes that city officials have been ignoring a pothole on the road. so she raised awareness about the problem on her 57th birthday. you see roz parked her toyota colla in the middle of the street in protest. i am protecting corol will a in the middle of the street in protest. i am protecting our neighborhood. welcome roz mcallister pooh police arrived and took her place until a temporary repair could be made. don t like it, do it yourself. the search continues this morning for a missing college student. coming up, where is george delanny and where crews are focusing their search this morning. and our life expectancy has gone up. how long will your baby live if she was born in 2009? in calling our women. your chance to try out for the long calling all women. your chance to try out for lingerie football. this morning, the situation in japan is getting worse. the new effort this morning to get americans back home. the comfort shipping out. what s their mission and how long will they be gone? plus, kiss me, i am irish. party goers are venturing