Transcripts For WRC 20100121 : vimarsana.com

flash flood warnings out in southern california. the last four days, four to six inches of rain. not only that, they ve had the lowest pressure they ve ever had in spots like los angeles and reno, nevada, and also into las vegas. for us on the other hand, you can see this is sort of a small affair compared to some of the other storms we ve had. there are the areas including you folks west to north under the winter weather advisory. the winter storm warning, which means more serious icing is really in the central shenandoah valley. so here it comes. getting closer to us now. already some rain beginning to break out in fredericksburg. a little bit of a mix of everything, spots like culpepper into rappahannock county. winchester, front royal, those are the areas that cold air really gets stuck there sort of like syrup on the surface. so tomorrow morning, those will be the spots that will be more likely to be seeing problems. you folks into upper montgomery county, too. keep an eye on things. oakland,maryland. western maryland. there i think will be some snow. probably even there, though, may mix with a little bit of sleet, but it will be a snow producer for you skiers in the mountains of west virginia and western maryland. here in washington a bit of everything but primarily rain. fredericksburg already reporting a little bit of light rain. overnight tonight, there s that area of low pressure which by tomorrow will begin reforming off the coast. but as that happens, it will keep us under cold air so it will be a chilly, damp kind of a really raw rain. then as it moves off, there s a brief period of snow. then as we get into saturday, sunrise and the next area of storminess, some of that left over from the big western storms will be a rain-producer. a rain-producer for us as we get into sunday. so for the timeline by midnight, some chilly rain mixed with sleet right here around washington. maybe even wet snowflakes, too. a bit of ice for tomorrow morning. northern par of maryland. fauquier coun, those areas. there s that snow in western maryland. as the storm begins to move off, it all moves off. perhaps as a period of light, wet snow. but no accumulation. rain developing then but mixing with and changing to some sleet, freezing rain especially in the western suburbs. manassas, leesburg, frederick, maryland. temperatures around freezing, but remaining above freezing east and south. folks over toward white plains, fredericksburg. a chilly rain there. sort of one of those damp, yucky days tomorrow. weekend, 50/50. rain coming in sunday. next week, quiwit teet with temperatures in the 40s. be careful tomorrow morning. some delays, but not a major storm. okay. thank you, bob. coming up tonight, the usns comfort is being surrounded by security this evening as haitians who are desperate for medical care try to get on the ship. we re learning more about a motive for a shooting spree that left eight people in virginia dead. a meteorite crashed through the roof of a doctor s office in fairfax county. and nbc finalizes a deal with conan o brien. we have new information this evening regarding the mission of that hospital ship in haiti. the floating hospital ship, the usns comfort, is treating earthquake victims. many haitians are desperate for treatment. they re boarding boats and ferries and trying to get on the ship. navy guard boats are keeping them away. inside, the ship is running 12 operating rooms. despite the heavy work load, the doctors are pleased with how things are going so far. if we maintain this type of, you know, pace, we re going to be fine. if it picks up, we ll be fine as well. but this is ateady, doable pace. the ship has backups for all of the equipment on board in case the heat of haiti takes its toll. the larose family from maryland is especially shaken by that tragedy in haiti. they were there for a funeral when the earthquake hit. three of them did not make it out alive. darcy spencer has our report. i m very sorry. i m very sorry. reporter: he tries to comfort his 3-year-old son, terry. the boy cries uncontrollably when his father leaves his side. it s like post-trau mmatic stress. they feel the house shaking with them and they re scared. reporter: the family was in haiti when the earthquake struck. larose s 11-year-old daughter and 9-year-old son died. they were visiting their mother who lived in haiti when the house collapsed. they perished along with her. i don t know how i m going to forget about it. i ll try hard. you know, to see if i can cope. but every second, it s in my mind. reporter: now larose has to be strong for his five other children, but he needs healing time, too. they were in haiti to bury his father. haiti has disappeared. reporter: larose was in his car when the quake struck. i was driving and i feel my car shaking. reporter: he says he went to the house looking for deborah and phillip. but the concrete structure was flattened. i started yelling, calling their mother s name, whoere s maybe? nobody answered me. reporter: although he s not recovered their bodies, he knows they re gone. all he has left are memories. phillip, he says, wanted to be an astronaut. after school, he s always with me discussing about like stars, about space. deborah, she she was a lovely, lovely baby. and never been in trouble. reporter: larose cannot rest until his children are given a proper burial. he s hired haitian workers to find their bodies buried deep in the concrete for now. that s all i ask. please, give me the bodies. that s all i want. reporter: darcy spencer, news4. the surviving brothers and sisters in that family will be getting counseling iporder to help them deal with their traumatic loss. news4 has been teaming up with the agencies that are on the ground in haiti helping survivors of the earthquake. pat lawson muse joins us now with more on that. pat? doreen, the group physicians for peace has been on the ground in haiti for years training physicians there. ron sconyers is with us this afternoon. your mission has certainly changed since the earthquake, hasn t it? absolutely. we started in 2005 at st. vincent s school for handicapped children. we re training people. now we re talking about real trauma. we re talking about a massive increase in numbers of people. the problem is the facilities there are no longer operaabble. we have to get people retrained and train new people. it s starting from scratch almost. we know what needs to be done. when you talk about amputations, an estimated 70 being done a day. a third of the population is projected will become amputees because of this. what kind of impact will that have on a country as poor as haiti? well, unfortunately disabled people in a country like haiti just can t be as productive as people that are don t have those afflictions. they become a drain. they can t take care of their families. maybe another person has to be a bread-winner for that particular family. so try giving them new life by giving them limbs that they can be more productive. it will change the family and the community. and you re sponsoring a drive to collect limbs and what they ll need? i am. i have late baking news that hangar, which made a big donation to us, is going to accept donations in their 650 centers throughout the united states. go to physiciansforpeace.org and find places to make donations. you have a lot of experience with amputees. who have been victims. we have. we started our walking free program in turkey many years ago. we have moved into the philippines, the dominican republic, jordan, guatemala. a lot of people really know how to do this. the experience is really coming in handy. thank you so much, ron sconyers with physicians for peace. you can help this group by going to physiciansforpeace.org. thank you. we invite you to stay with news4 at nbcwashington.com for continuing coverage of the relief efforts in haiti. there are new details tonight about man accused of shooting eight people in appomattox, virginia, this week. a lawyer for christopher speight says his client had a long history of mental problems. he had also reportedly complained to a friend that his sister might kick him out of his house. however, authorities for nare n offering a definitive motive. the sister never intended to kick speight out. she was among the dead along with three other adults, three teenagers, and a 4-year-old boy. speight gave himself up early wednesday morning after an 18-hour manhunt. he s been held without bond in lynchburg. all charges have been dropped against three people being held on charges that they stole priceless haai heirlooms. police said they found evidence the three were about to commit a burglary. officers believe whoever w responsible targeted south-asian families because they had gold jewelry. 23 homes have been hit over the last two years. tonight, the smithsonian is exampling a meteorite the seize of a fist. it crashed through the roof of a doctor s office this week. the smithsonian scientists say the meteorite is about 4.5 billion years old. she said it s a fairly ordinary meteorite but she said it is unusual for meteorites to hit buildings in our area. she explained how scientists know it s from outer space. we can tell that because it has this this brown coating on the outside, which is called fusion crust. that forms as it passes through the atmosphere. a little bit of it melts and forms this glassy coating. dr. frank ciampi was in his office when the meteorite hit monday evening. no one was in the rooms where it crashed. the scientists say the meteorite is not especially valuable, but it is quite a conversation piece. all of us here at nbc4 lost a long-time friend here today. harry davis was a long-time photographer and died this morning. he didn t appear in front of the camera often, but in this case the story was about harry s son, marc, who was learning how to drive race cars. harry supported marc s dream. his little boy is all grown up now and driving for the joe gibbs racing team. harry won all kinds of awards during his career here. he founded something called teen tv, a program that meanterntore inner city kids. his enthusiasm was contagious. a lot of those young people went on to jobs in broadcasting. harry s other project, the broadcast factory, also offered opportunities to kids in our community. harry was an award-winning news photographer. we relied on him every day but he was also a devoted dad and a wonderful friend. harry davis was just 62. we ll miss him. coming up tonight, bob ryan with a check on the weather that s causing some serious problems for people out west. conan o brien and nbc announced a deal today ending o bri o brien s run on the tonight show. john edwards admitting that he fathered a child with a campaign staffer. good evening. bob ryan, storm center4. iciness coming our way, but the big storms have been ouon the west coast. some places have had six, ten inches of rain. this is around san diego earlier. there are still flood warnings, flood watches out. incredible amounts of snow in the high sierra. here s that storm. you can see san diego. look at the moisture flooding into southern arizona. many places that don t get this much rain in an entire year are getting especially around las vegas with more very, very nasty weather. there are the areas tha are under flood watches and warnings and all sorts of high elevation problems. for snows and the snow pack. for us right now, that area is moving in with a bit of icyinous to our north and to the west. those are the principle areas. they ll be having more problems with iciness. look at the dew points. that s where the very dry, cold air is right now. winchester. we ll continue to see that overnight. mainly a rain event around washington. mixed with sleet and freezing rain. but could be up to a quarter of an inch of ice, especially the northern parts of the shenandoah valley as it moves off by the time we get into lat tomorrow. temperatures will rise above freezing in washington. for saturday, some sunshine back. so wherever there is iciness, it will melt. milder rains on sunday. a quieter week next week the way it looks right now. thank you, bob. former presidential candidate john edwards has admitted for the first time publicly that he fathered a child with a former campaign staffer. edwards released a statement to nbc news acknowledging paternity of frances quinn hunter who is 22 months old. he had already confessed he had an affair with the girl s mother, rielle hunter. she worked on edwards presidential campaign. edwards statement reads in part, it was wrong for me ever to deny she was my daughter and hopefully one day when she understands, she will forgive me. edwards says he has and will continue to provide his daughter with financial and emotional support. tomorrow night s tonight show will be the last one hosted by conan o brien. nbc and o brien have reached an agreement that will allow him to leave the network. o brien will talk awm wa o brien will talk awlk away wite than $30 million, but he cannot be on the air anywhere else until the fall. problems between the network and o brien began when nbc second him to move the tonight show back to 12:05 a.m. and allow jay leno to host a show a11:35. leno s show at 10:00 is being canceled. dan, what s ahead in sports? guys, we ll talk a little basketball. some good and some bad. well, not always good, but it can be good when you re talking georgetown. they look great as of late. this is good, too. the capitals have a monster game tonight taking on the pittsburgh penguins up in pittsburgh. it s a win they would love to man, if jose theodore can just keep this up, there could be a stanley cup here in washington. for the first time all season, the caps face the team that knocked him out of the stanley cup playoffs last season. it s the caps and penguins in pittsburgh tonight. every single member of the caps, very eager to get another crack at the pens. alex ovechkin says it s going to be a different game. last season is history, ovi says, and it will help if theodore can stay hot. he s been as good as any goalie in the nhl. he stopped 102 of 108 shots. it s a revival for jose who was awarded the nhl s mvp in the 2001/2002 season, but just a week ago he was playing behind a rookie. the key, putting away the past but remembering what works. i think right now, you know, i m i m feeling pretty good. earlier on i felt pretty good. then i i had a little letdown. but i ve worked hard. it s paying off right now. i just got to keep doing the same things and working hard with the goalie coach and, you know, making sure i can do it on a consistent basis. and the key is not what happens to you but how you bounce back, how you react to it. and i think jose has shown especially as of late that ability to just put behind him whatever doesn t work his way and just keep doing the stuff that makes you successful. the goaltending coach for the washington capitals speaking right there. the penguins and capital s game on sunday february 7th will be the game of the week. it s not a likely landing spot for the wizards this year, the postseason. not impossible, though. they re only five or six games out of the final playoff spot despite a 14-27 record. but every time they get on a miniroll, th implode. flip saunders probably wishing he could take a mulligan on this season already. we re not even to the all-star break. wizards down by one. mike miller. the jumper off the glass puts the wizards up by one. th was their first lead of the game. they just couldn t put the mavericks away. four-point game with 30 seconds left. butler drives and kicks to randy foye. over to miller for three. that s good. and it s a one-point game once again. 94-93. wizards have a chance with time winding down. butler guarded by marion. butler tries to take it in. then he pulls up and it s blocked. wizards lose a heart-breaker and the head coach, not a happy camper. that wasn t the play we were supposed to run. that s not what it was designed for. it was drawn up to get myself the ball up top or get somebody coming to the corner. and, you know, obviously wanted the ball. kind of had my mind made up what i was going to do with it already. just mistiming. we competed. we just had stupid plays. you know? dot execute down the stretch. you know, it s the same thing what we ve done at times. it s pretty easy. flip saunders. on the college front, georgetown starting to get their roll on. despite one of the toughest schedules in the country, the hoyas hovering just outside of the top ten in the rankings. if they continue to play like they did last night in pitturgh, they could be a fixture in final four discussions as the finals approach. that s a handkerchief he uses to wipe off his head. monica, i apologize. it s a handkerchief. that right there is chris wright spinning his way in the lane to 2 of 27 points. how about this block by greg monroe? uh-oh. jermaine dixon blocked. austin freeman on the finish. then the cherry on top. one second on the shot clock. this is drawn up to perfection. wright gets the lay-up and the hoyas goodthet s get the w. it was a very good win. to go up there and win, you know, they haven t lost too many games in that building. and so in any conference win on the road, a win is needed. we got a good win. we executed down the stretch and got some key stops. we made some buckets. you know, we came up with the win. we were fortunate enough to come up with that. chris wright there from st. john s college high school. mike shanahan s coaching staff is almost complete. jacob bernie will be the defensive line coach. and chris forester, the offensive line coach. he has a very tough job replacing joe bugle. it was a celebration of a man loved by far more people than could actually fit into the national cathedral today. that s where we remembered george michael. a ceremony chalk full of memories, tears and laughter. it was also littered with former redskins and athletes from all over the area. there s sonny right there. all had very personal connections. art monk was there. many, mepy more. john thompson jr. and john thompson the third. jim vance, great, great speech remembering george today. joe gibbs spoke about the man he called a friend. he could ask you the tough questions. he was great at what he did but he never felt like to me that he was trying to get me, you know? he would and he would say things to me like you don t believe that. i d get kind of halfway mad and i d say, yes i do. you know what i mean? he had a great he had a great way of, i think, being doing the tough things you ve got to do but also building relationships. if you look around, he has a lot of people that he probably had to have tough interviews with that really think a lot of him. and so i think that s that s a gift. george was a pretty tough guy. you know, he d have made a good football coach. he always had so much drive, you know? and it kind of reminded me of guys in my business, that being e football business. he had a lot of intensity and a lot of drive. you don t normally associate that with the broadcasters, but he had that. and you could see it. you felt it. george was always there for us. he wasn t just an interview. he wasn t just a journalist to many of us. he was a friend. we both came to this town together. i was his first interview. he was my first interview. george is very special to a lot of people. we ll surely miss him. the best part about today i think you would agree were the george stories. and you know what was really intere interesting, in the same interview, george could be talking to joe and you d get that giggle. nobody on earth can laugh like joe gibbs with that high-pitched giggle. and then in the same interview, george would say something like you don t really mean that and you take a tight shot at gibbs and gibbs would be looking at him. you fool. you, dude. that s what i said. and george was never intimidated by that look. i used to watch joe gibbs look at george like that and go, whoa! all the way from the other end of the studio. that is a withering look. coach gibbs talked today about how george would explode ten seconds before going on the air with him and it would rattle the coach. and until he got used to it that george is just going to do this every single time. that s how we re going to roll. george would say that he hated coming in here but george always made him laugh. you know? he got him in the mood. got him giggling. exactly right. we got an update on mew manitarian efforts in haiti. we told you about a prosthetics company that s making a big donation to physicians for peace. ran sconyers is still with us. this company is turning all of its stores into collection sites. tell us about the sites here in washington. they have numerous sites in tyson s corner, in resten. they have sites in bethesda. they have hundreds of sites throughout the country. people can take their used wheelchairs or crutches or prosthetics and then they ll ship them to us if they turn them in to one of their local site. great way inthem to get rid of all that stuff. absolutely. and we can make it useful for people that really need it. because companies don t usually take the items back after you use them. exactly. we just have the capability now to refurbish them and give them to those people down in haiti that have a great need. all right. ran sconyers, thank you so much. physicians for peace. go to physiciansforpeace.org. thanks, pat. stay with news4 and nbcwashington.com for continuing conchage of the relief efforts in haiti. we said good-bye today to our buddy george. ceremony held in the national cathedral that evokes awe and contemplag contemplation. george would have loved it. in part because it was all about him. and it was wonderful. nobody shouted. nobody cursed. that would have made him a little uncomfortable, but he ll probably forgive us for that. people spoke lovingly about george today. his daughter, michelle, was so very tend r in her reflections about george the father. joe gibbs said some really nice things. i told the truth. i think he s probably already forgiven me for that, too. the fact is, folks, george was as loving and generous, loyal and courageous as any man i ve ever known. for all of his impatience with sloth, his intolerance for mediocrity, he was a marshmellow in a hard shell. he would be the first to admit that he was also just a little bit off the hook. who else but a nut would think it s okay to introduce nascar and wrestling of all things to a market like washington, d.c.? 20 years ago, hie did that and e made us like it. all except me. i aed him once, what s next? roller derby? his response, i m working on it. george is gone, but for 28 years, we had him. and he had us. and we are so grateful for that. the service today made us all really appreciate the opportunity that we had to be a team that we may never see the likes of again. it has been quite a journey. it has been indeed. that s our broadcast for now. the nightly news is coming up next.