Bad as we expected. Maximum winds now 85. You get the idea with that pressure falling, it is continuing to do its thing. There is your radar. That is a local look. Want to mention that our rain, which has been light in places has become steadier here in the last couple of hours and will become heavy during the Early Morning hours. Notice the yellow starting to get across the bay. That is pushing off to the north and west. We have very heavy rain down towards cambridge, parts of Southern Maryland now getting in on the heavy rain. All of that is headed to the north and west. So the first part of this storm will be the rain. It will be picking up in intensity here and be extremely heavy during times for our monday. The wind which have been gusting to about 30 here in washington are going to steadily pick up as well. Lets look at the Bigger Picture and take another look at the storm. There you go. All systems go here unfortunately for landfall across southern new jersey, perhaps the bay of delaware. Well be feeling the effects all day today and all day tomorrow. It will be slow to weaken because it is a hybrid. It is not just deriving its energy from the ocean waters. It is deriving its energy from the contrast between cold and warm air. It will keep itself going even when it moves inland later this evening. Here are some facts for us, some headlines and remember before of a high wind warping which goes into effect at 8 00 this morning through 8 00 tomorrow night. I mentioned the wind gusting to 65 or 70. The gusts up to about 70 later this evening and check on the your rain totals. Five to 10 inches. Havent had a whole lot of time to mention the mount taupe snow but parts of West Virginia, maybe western maryland, up to two feet. Still some question mark about that. It looks like it is all systems go for a big snow event out to the west. 54 for your daytime high. The wind gusting to 70. The wind will get going later today and tonight. Well be prepared. Thank you. Time now to check in with julie wright. Good morning. We are preparing ourselves for what is going be for a nasty drive around town. There is already a portion of wayne avenue well, i should say between wayne avenue and piney branch. There is a portion of little fall parkway shut down. Southbound 270 hooking through the raindrops, want the to looking through the raindrops, wanted to give you an idea of what it looks like. Watch your speeds if you have to be out and about this morning. Be sure that both headlights are working properly, windshield wipers are working and having a full tank of gas. We have cancellations in effect. Service is suspended along metrorail, all lines. Track, the northeast corridor, not in Service Today because of sandy. And then metrobus, metro access and Montgomery County rideon bus services all suspended today because of the weather. You will find out on the roads, lanes are open. No problems to report for those traveling out on 50 between annapolis and the bay bridge. We do have wind restricts that have been posted. So wind restricts for those out on 50. Because of flooding, there is a portion of 50 already shut down between gulf coast road and philadelphia road but as of now. 90 remains open. We continue to track Hurricane Sandy this morning as wild weather begins to pound the coast. Lauren demarco is live in ocean city this morning with the latest. Good morning to you. Reporter good morning. Definitely feeling those bands that tucker was talking about so the rains starting to pick up more. As i was waiting for the live shot, it was a lot lighter. Now getting heavier. The wind picking up. We have seen a little bit of of that sea foam coming across the seawall and i did see a wave crash over it here near 16th street. Police still patrolling the boardwalk. They are will continue to do that until the sustained winds reach 50 Miles Per Hour if they do get that high. We are seeing wind gusts up to 47 Miles Per Hour. Earlier, we headed over to the pier and pier still standing. There were some rumors that it had collapsed. There are definitely waves crashing against it and at time over it. Also, a lot of flooding. Effect shut down south of 17th street. It is closed and also mandatory evacuations under way in that area although we were told that about 200 people did stay so they are hunkered down in their homes. The ocean city mayor did say that the issue here along the coast of the Atlantic Ocean is not the only concern. Ly concer our biggest concern, again, i think is the surge, water surge from the bayside and the intensity of the storm and the duration of the storm. As the storm turns into more of a noreaster type of event and stays offshore for a long period of time, during numerous hi tide cycles, that will cause us high tide cycles, that will cause us some problems. Reporter we did see a lot of flooding out on the roadways, a lot of high standing water. Everything south of 17 is shut down. As is route 50, you cannot head into ocean city on route 50. 90 remains open at this point but the conditions picking up here and expected to be a long haul. High tide is set for 8 19 in the morning. So well watch for that again with the full moon expected to be extra high. And right now, we do still have power so some good news there. That is the latest from ocean city, maryland. Back to you. Thank you. And as we track Hurricane Sandy, remember to download the fox 5 weather app for instant access to the forecast. It is very helpful in these kinds of situations. It features updated videos and weather alerts and more. And m also, send us your weather photos. We want to see them. Well be right back. Ack. Now this is a party. Mmm. I dont know, i think i might bail. Yeah, its pretty dead. [ male announcer ] one is never enough. New kfc dipems. Freshly prepared tenders dipped in irresistible sauces. Try a 3 piece combo for just 5. Look, the reason im in this race is there are people that are really hurting today in this country. And we face this deficit could crush the future generations. And republicans and democrats both love america but we need to have leadership leadership in washington that will actually bring people together and get the job done and could not care less if its a republican or a democrat. Ive done it before, ill do it again. Im mitt romney, and i approve this message. We were told to build a 30foot stage. Gathered the guys and we built that 30foot stage, not knowing what it was for. Just days later, all three shifts were told to assemble in the warehouse. A group of people walked out on that stage and told us that the plant is now closed and all of you are fired. I looked both ways, i looked at the crowd, and. We all just lost our jobs. We dont have an income. Mitt romney made over 100 Million Dollars by shutting down our plant and devastated our lives. Turns out that when we built that stage, it was like building my own coffin, and it just made me sick. [ male announcer ] priorities usa action is responsible for the content of this advertising. Welcome back to fox 5 morning news. You are taking you are looking live right now at the vipir radar. It is a picture of Hurricane Sandy as it barrels down on the east coast. Weve got updates throughout the morning about the impact this will have. As tucker has been saying all morning long, it will get worse throughout the day. This is a live look at Seaside Heights in new jersey. It looks like this is the boardwalk and it is raining there and it looks like some rain and water hitting the boardwalk. East coast getting pretty hard hit by this storm already. Before a crew live in ocean city right now. You can see the waves really rolling in there. Lauren demarco is talking to us. Just the amount of force of the wind they are feeling there. Things will continue to deteriorate throughout the hours. Now, were taking a little bit more of a local look here right now. This is in fairfax county, virginia. Our own Melanie Alnwick is out there. This is her location. Weve seen the rain just pouring down there. Fairfax county urban search and rescue team has been activated. They are based out of chantilly, virginia. They will be ready to go on a moments notice whenever needed. Switching gears to politics now, president obama and governor romney are canceling some of their Campaign Events because of the hurricane. The president is in florida this morning but canceled stops in three other states. Romney is heading away from the east coast today to campaign in ohio, iowa and wisconsin. Hurricane sandy is also causing some trouble with early voting. The lines stretched around some polling places saturday as people tried to beat the storm and go vote. And we continue to track Hurricane Sandy. Coming up next, well get the latest from Tucker Barnes who is tracking it for us. Well be right back. Anncr every president inherits challenges. Few have faced so many. Four years later. Our enemies have been brought to justice. Our heroes are coming home. Assembly lines are humming again. There are still challenges to meet. Children to educate. A middle class to rebuild. But the last thing we should do is turn back nonow. President obama im barack obama and. I approve this message. A West Virginia casino launching the biggest ad barrage ever. Dont be misled. The Washington Post says question seven is just. Common sense. Itll create 4,000 permanent jobs. And stop maryland from losing millions to other states. Every year. Thats why business, labor, and teachers all support. Question seven. And so does the Washington Post. Vote for question seven. Its just common sense. Welcome back. Taking a live look in annapolis, maryland. Seem like a little bit of rain. Nothing too bad. It will change as we get later in the day today. This is a live look at the waterfront in historic annapolis. Well check in with our crew. Holly morris is live out there this morning. Well get an update from her in a little bit. Another look right now at the latest headlines from Hurricane Sandy. Metro has canceled all services for today. Amtrak also has canceled almost all service on the eastern seaboard northeast. Federal offices in the d. C. Area are closed to the public and nearly all schools are closed for today. A reminder, if you find yourself on the road with power outages, any traffic lights that arent working should be treats at four way stops. Several shelters are open. You can also bring your pet but make sure you bring some pet food as well. Welcome back. As we continue to track Hurricane Sandy for you this morning. Turn is standing by and he has the latest information on where it stands right now. What is the late . Eft. So we just got an update. Maximum winds have increased to 85 Miles Per Hour. What is the latest . Want to show you the banding features. Weve been getting rain overnight. We are starting to see the yellows and reds. You can see the outer band, outer hurricane band starting to cross the bay. This is what well be having to deal with during the course of the day is these banding features as the storm continues to crest toward our area. Im afraid well get heavy rain shortly. You can see that now crossing the bay. If you are not getting a lot of rain at the moment. It wont be long before all of us get in on the heavy rain. The wind will arrive. So far, weve only had winds gusting to about 30 Miles Per Hour. But later this afternoon, the winds will pick up in intense at this and by late today, the wind will likely gust to 65, perhaps 70 Miles Per Hour across parts of the viewing area. Lets do the latest. Let me show you the storm. Looking very impressive on our satellite picture. This is just amazing. Look at the eye right here. It continues to stay intact here. It is trying to close us eye wall. The storm not losing any of its intensity. All that energy getting thrown off to the north and west. Tropical stormforce winds extend down from maine to the carolinas. Heavy rain earlier across the lower eastern shore. The worst is yet to come down there as well. The wind will steadily pick up during the day. Im afraid you will be dealing with Hurricane Force winds by about the noon hour, maybe lower afternoon across the lower eastern shore. Still likely to make landfall in southern new jersey and perhaps the bay of delaware. The movement now out of the north at 15. It has been tracking off to the north and to the east. But now we are starting to see that change in its direction that the computer models have been playing all along here. Now, it is pushing off to the north and eventually to the north and west and taking that left hook right back towards us. Pressure, 946 millibars. Looks like it makes landfall tonight. This is a new track and i really want to emphasize the concern here. They bring this right across washington later tonight. So that is going to cause some real serious issues around here and get just to the north of us by early tomorrow. Again, just looking at the track for the first time myself. It looks like that will go right over ocean city and right over the Washington Area later tonight and if this verifies, well have some serious issues around here im afraid by tomorrow afternoon. Eventually, the storm will get out of here but it will take a couple of days time. Notice the wind field. Well pull all of this a little further to the south and to the west. If this pulls through ocean city, well be dealing with the hurricaneforce winds here in washington. Im try to update this map for you. Again, very concerned that well have hurricaneforce winds and again, if that track were to track a little further to the south and west, well have major issues here. We had a wind gust closer to 30 in washington. 22 in leonardtown. This is just the preliminary event. This is around 1 00. These winds are going to pick up laterred it and as mentioned, they will be close to Hurricane Force later. By 11 00, notice much of the area in on the heavy rain. Ocean city will be dealing with up to a foot of rain when things wrap up. Later this afternoon of course the rain just incredibly intense as we are expecting rain totals of 4 to 8 inches. Even overnight, the storm will stall and as it does so, well be dealing with rain again tomorrow. Take this storm very seriously. It will be a dangerous one, no doubt about it. Gusts to 70. Rain heavy at time. Becoming very windy. Step out this morning. Not terribly windy. The wind will pick up and be dangerous later this afternoon and tonight. There is your accuweather sevenday forecast. Later tonight, if you lose power, make sure you find your blankets, that kind of thing, if you lose power in your house, it will be chilly overnight. Overnight lows in the upper 30s to about 40. That is another concern. That is weather. I promise ill be back in four minutes. Lets get to the julie with the latest on your traffic. Lets map out the issues. Because of sandy, all service has been suspended on metrorail that amtrak, the northeast corridor which includes d. C. To boston, Service Suspended because of this storm and of course, metrobus, metro access and Montgomery County rideon buses all Service Suspended until further notice. Again, out and about on the roads, you will find the Wind Restrictions are in effect for those traveling out at the bay bridge which means half trailers, empty box trailers are prohibited out on the bay bridge. Still a portion of 50 that is already closed off because of standing water between golf course road and philadelphia road. Route 90 remains open at this time. Southbound 270 look through the raindrops, here we go, southbound 270 coming in out of the german up two. We encourage to you make sure you have a full tank of gas. The headlights too. Slow it down. The interstate doesnt look too bad but we do have georgetown pike, route 7, canal road, even, where we have a lot of leaves fallen on the roads. That make identify very slippery commute. Here we are at the beltway checking for what was an accident. 66, no incidents reported at this time coming in from manassas towards centreville. Thats a check of your fox 5 ontimetraffic. Imetraffic. Most flights at Reagan National and Dulles International have been canceled for today. Passengers are being urged to check their flight status before hand. Those airports plan to stay open during the storm and things will go back to normal operations as quickly as possible after it gets through here. We continue to track Hurricane Sandy. This is a live look at ocean city. Well get the latest on the situation down there. We have agot some road closures in ocean city. We have our Lauren Demarco. She is live down there with a live report. We also have theyve declared a state of emergency down there as well. Well get the latest on what is happening with Hurricane Sandy when we come back. Stay with us. Is there are people that are really hurting today in this country. And we face this deficit could crush the future generations. And republicans and democrats both love america but we need to have leadership leadership in washington that will actually bring people together and get the job done and could not care less if its a republican or a democrat. Ive done it before, ill do it again. Im mitt romney, and i approve this message. All right. Welcome back. The Chesapeake Bay area is particularly at risk of a storm surge. Lets find out what is going on in annapolis now with Hurricane Sandy getting closer and closer to our area. Holly morris is watching things there for us this morning. Good morning. Reporter good morning to both of you. It is kind of quiet out here. Kind of eerily quiet. I know it is not even 5 30 in the morning