Transcripts For WRC News4 At 6 20150407 : vimarsana.com

Insulator to break. Thats something being assessed and hopefully in a short period of time will be able to determine what exactly caused that. Weve got Team Coverage on all this tonight. The university of maryland just got all of its power back on within the last hour. We begin with tom sherwood in dupont circle. Reporter all kinds of people today were affected by the power outage including a few people at the warner theater. Hi. How are you . Reporter on 13th street downtown people were buying the new maya angelou stamp. Its not just her. Its the stamp collection is recognizing africanamericans who have made a contribution. Reporter inside the warner theatre, Oprah Winfrey was celebrating the new stamp with first Lady Michelle obama. The power flickered and failed. But the program finished up. What did you think when the power went out . The power went out but we still rose. We kept going. And thats what you do and thats what maya angelou wanted us to do. Reporter the secret service quickly and calmly es corporated first Lady Michelle obama from the ceremony as the crowd poured out of the warner. It praised oprahs response. It was amazing. She took the stage and just went into ad lib and it was amazing. Reporter it was amazing but it all ended with very little drama at the warner theatre. Back to you. Our Team Coverage continues now with Tracee Wilkins in college park where the power is back on but its not business as usual at the university of maryland. Hi tracee. Reporter its not business as usual for everyone doreen but the Baseball Team went ahead with their game this evening so theyre happy to have power back. The university is still closed though. Classes not in session for the rest of the evening. But dr. Loh put it best when he put in his tweet, let there be light. These firefighters just rescued a student trapped inside a Student Union vail or the on the university of marylands campus. Weve had about a half a dozen of those calls. Everyone has been removed safely no injuries. Reporter when power went out before 1 00 p. M. At first i thought it was just, you know a little outage for a second and awl the alarms started going off so, you know all of us were evacuated right away. I was really hoping my class would get canceled because its a twohour lecture and its all on power point. So i was on my way to class and my friend texted me and said i just got to class and theres no light and its canceled. Reporter dark classrooms calffeterias and the dorms are obviously hot and humid. Reporter just before 4 00 p. M. Power was restored to north campus. About an hour later, there was full restoration throughout the university of maryland. Just in time for this students next meal. My microwave in my room doesnt work then i dont know order food. Order chinese food. Reporter students problem solving without electricity but it is all back. And theyre expecting to have hot water and steam back on the campus in the next few hours as well. Im Tracee Wilkins live. Back to you in the studio. Some metro riders found themselves walking up long escalators during the power outage and the bethesda station is still closed as escalators there are not yet working. Metro says ten stations were affected by this regional outage. They immediately went to backup power. The trains kept running and were not affected. The impact ofral buildings from the white house to the capitol led to questions at the pentagon today. There is no indication that anyone intentionally caused the outage. But the admiral was asked if it raises concerns about security in the nations capital. Reliance on Critical Infrastructure be it banking, power, rail the faa. I think all of those Critical Infrastructures are fragile. As we look forward, to see how well those backup systems did work did they perform as advertised do we need to strengthen them in some areas. Pepco has released a statement saying the widespread outage was a result of Electrical Systems doing their job properly. When a fault occurs on a transmission line this size it creates a Ripple Effect that can impact customers tie to the grid. Customers who have a backup system that senses low voltage which are purposely sensitive and designed to sense risk those systems did their job and switched over to backup. Turning to our weather now, rain and maybe eve an few storms moving into parts of our area right now. Meteorologist veronica johnsons watching it all from storm team 4. What can we expect v. J. . Some of us, some neighborhoods will see some moderate rains in just the next couple minutes. Ive been tracking the storm team 4 radar all afternoon. This is all part of a weather system to our north. Were seeing right along just down to the south of that front, some of this rain. Frederick, maryland, into faulkier county as we zoom in. You can see some of the more moderate rains around leesburg heading into western Montgomery County so you folks in gaithersburg youll be seeing that moderate rain before long and yes, there could be big puddles on area roads. Down south around northern faulkier county this is another area that im tracking. Its headed eastbound with rainfall rates around a half inch per hour to woolsley to haymarket to conklin within the next 20 to 25 minutes. It will bring down the temperatures. Were at 70 degrees right now. Many neighborhoods upper 60s. We drop to the 50s and dont budge much tomorrow. Ill show you what kind of day its going to be. Big difference from today and when we could see some thunderstorms roll through. Thanks veronica. Back to some breaking news we first told you about in the 5 00 broadcast. Shomari stone is at the scene of a crash that injured an offduty Police Officer on wisconsin avenue in chevy chase. Shomari . Reporter thats right, doreen. Right now im at southpark avenue and just to say right away that officer is going to be okay. I just spoke to a lieutenant on the scene and he says the officer has minor injuries. Let me move out of the way. Montgomery county police are comparing notes, discussing what happened. A little to the left and that officer was hit right where that black suv is. Were hearing he was doing security detail in this area and some Business Owners approached him and said theres a car parked here. It looks a little suspicious and we would like you to check it out. So the officer walked over started talking to the people inside the car. There were three people inside. For some reason words were exchanged and they took off and they hit the officer according to police and, again he has minor injuries. But that car is gone. There is a report according to Montgomery County police that a car was stopped in Prince Georges County with two people inside. Those people are being questioned. Well continue to bring you skup updates. Check on our app and facebook. Live in chevy chase, shomari stone, news4. We report now on what police call a tragedy of great magnitude. Following the discovery of the bodies of a single father and his seven children. Rodney todd is the mans name. He and his children were found dead inside a house in Princess Anne maryland. They were killed in their sleep by Carbon Monoxide. Our chris gordon has our report. Reporter there is profound sadness here. 36yearold rodney todd and his seven children died of accidental Carbon Monoxide poisoning from a generator he ran in the kitchen after his electricity was shut off. Just know weerg not going to be able to see him and that he died doing what he always did best and that is being an awesome father. Reporter a coworker was concerned because she hadnt seen todd since march 28th. All seven children attended local Public Schools and their absences were noted. They made phone calls and two home visits and of course there was nothing unusual about the exterior of the home and when they went there, they receive nod answer. But they tried on two occasions to make home visits. Reporter rodney todd began renting this home in november of last year. I called Delmarva Power to ask why they cut electricity here. They sent me an email express expressing deepest sympathy to family members but then going on the to explain this. Electricity service was disconnected in october of last year at the request of the customer of record at the time. There was no request to reconnect service. Through the use of Smart Meter Technology Delmarva Power discovered a stolen electric meter was being used at the home on march 25th 2015. Delmarva power disconnected the illegally connected meter for safety reasons and to comply with standard protocol. Delmarva power did not disconnect electric service at this address for nonpayment. And some people might not understand why he made a decision to put a generator on the inside but when you got kids nothing runs through your mind of whats supposed to be in order or you just think about your kids. Reporter reporting from Princess Anne maryland chris gordon news4. Only on news4 tonight, a local Fire Department taking major steps to deal with smoke incidents on metro and they dont eve havent a station yet. New developments in the fight over a csx rail tunnel in the district. A federal judge issued a ruling today. And confusion about parking coming back to nats park in the new season com breaking news now. Nbc news has confirmed u. S. Officials believe russia was behind the hacking attack on the white house last fall. Reportedly the president s schedule was hacked but white house officials continue to say that no classified information was breached. 580 days until we go to the polls to select our next president and now there are two official candidates. Kentucky senator rand paul entered the race today. Nbcs Edward Lawrence is on capitol hill with pauls next step. Reporter doreen right now rand paul is heading to New Hampshire to try and continue to win momentum he had for his announcement. He hopes to impress the voters there in the state that has the first primary election for president. To fix washington reporter with campaign ads designed to connect with young voters rand paul announced he wants to be president of the united states. Paul an ophthalmologist and senator from kentucky says he will run on a basic principle that government spend too much and has too much debt. The washington machine that gobbles up our freedoms and invades every nook and cranny of our lives must be stopped. Reporter political experts say his appeal crosses generation. Hes a talented guy politically and speaks a language to Younger Voters that older republicans wont even recognize. Reporter paul is trying to separate himself from washington. In the past hes embraced libertarian vi isolationist view on Foreign Policy. Now we must stay strong. Thats why ive cosponsored legislation that ensures that any deal between the u. S. And iran must be approved by congress. Reporter his detractors responded with this online ad. Rand paul supports obamas negotiations with iran. Reporter former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele says paul could be vulnerable on Foreign Policy and for his past statements about the civil rights act. Past statements in this civil rights space, for example, and certainly, you know, whether or not hes an isolationist on a policy side are going to be some early tests for his campaign. Reporter in the announcement speech, paul reached out to minority voters quoting Martin Luther king, calling for economic and social equality. Rand paul is the second republican senator to announce hes officially running for president. The other, senator ted cruz from texas. On capitol hill, Edward Lawrence. An skrup date now on a news4 iteam investigation. A federal judge today refused to grant an injunction that would stop work on the csx railroad tunnel in southeast d. C. Csx official sas the 100yearold tunnel is beginning to decay and they want to double its size. A city Watchdog Group is worried about noise, vibrations air pollution, and the risk of a rail accident. Csx says it is committed to doing the project the right way, safely, respecting our neighbors and working closely with residents and businesses to minimize the impacts and to ensure that they are november informed about construction plans. Now at 6 00 you may have to wait years before you can hop on the silver line and get to Loudoun County but news4 has learned that firefighters there have been quietly building their own model tracks. Our Scott Mcfarlane shows us why it could pay off for passengers. Reporter in recent weeks weve seen incidents of smoke near the rails of arcing insulator, firefighters responding to d. C. Metro stations. In leesburg the deputy fire chief has seen them too, and knows his force will soon be doing the same. Its becoming clear to more people its a near certainty youll have to eventually respond to the tracks. Absolutely. Not only, that but we also provide mutual aid into dulles airport, which is where the train goes right now so, no doubt if there is an emergency there theyll probably be calling on us also for assistance. Reporter metros silver line wont extend through loudoun for years so it caught our attention when news4 learned the county is already building this tiny model silver line track near its Fire Department headquarters. This summer theyll add a pair of older mothballed metro cars to determine how firefighters safely and effectively handle a fire or emergency inside. One of the key parts of the setup is the third rail simulator. If a firefighter gets too close to or touches the third rail you hear the alarm. Theyll bring 1,400 people in here to train, 600 career firefighters 800 volunteer, and they say they want to do it as soon as possible. Metro already has an Emergency Responder Training Center in Prince Georges County with courts for firefighters on how to respond to smoke and fire incidents. Montgomery county firefighters use the rail yards near shady grove and glenmont to train. And fairfax has its own Training Space too. Loudoun Fire Department realized it needs its own space before the silver line moves in especially after watching the emergency smoke incident earlier this year. The incident in january provides more of a realism that this can happen. Its not if but when. Reporter metros helping too. Loudoun county says its paying just 1 each for the metro railcars theyre buying to train on on top of these tracks. Scott mcfarlane news4. Veronica is back with more about our weather and the rain that seems to be here and there and exactly. Here it comes again. Got some coming up and throughout the day tomorrow then i think even on friday chance for a rain and thunder. But its all about the timing with this weather system that is just to our north right now. Wet weather for sure. And even the morning rush is looking wet. But with various intensities, so right now weve got a Little Pocket of moderate rains that im tracking on storm team 4 radar headed into areas like Loudoun County other areas south too. As ill show you in just a moment. This one again eastbound toward arias like Clarksburg Germantown a minute around redland and Washington Grove too. Eastbound eventually getting to Howard County even areas around the District Northern part of the beltway, well have some wet weather coming up in a couple minutes. Along areas of 66. Right along 52 this moderate rain where ive seen some rainfall rates around half to around threequarters of an inch. So brief, moderate rain coming through for haymarket, for gainesville by 6 35. After that more occasional showers will be coming on through the area. Then tomorrow its going to be a dreary day. Vastly different from today. Today weve had the filtered sunshine but this weather front to the north in areas of pennsylvania comes down and stalls arnold our area tomorrow. We will be much cooler on the northern side of that front by as much as 15 degrees. By the end of the week, some storminess is possible with yet another weather system. Every couple days this week well see a little something. Youll want to stay umbrella ready. Certainly this evening, a few more showers coming through from 70 to 65 degrees by 11 00 p. M. It will be a bit of a mild evening for us. Tomorrow morning already cooler by a couple degrees. Well be starting out in the upper 40s to around 50 degrees. 9 00 showers around the area, west more waves of this rain coming through. By midnight there you see it. Coverage from areas of frederick through gaithersburg and down towards fredericksburg right along i95 by the midnight hour. And 7 00 a. M. The morning rush yes, roads are looking wet, and with not much wind i think even with period of rain around there could be some pockets of fog too. Its not looking too dense or thick, but, you know, it could be slowing traffic down on area roads. 11 00 a. M. More showers coming through. Then on thursday weve got a chance too, i think primarily early in the day. So weve got our best chance for tomorrow