forecast. kim is keeping an eye on things out there. that nice low humidity, that s getting a cab out of town. instead, we ll see the humidity levels rise and we ll look at some showers and horms that will be more abundant later this afternoon. you re waking up to a pretty comfortable feel especially in frederick, it s 61. 66 in gaithersburg and 74 inside the beltway. but i m watching a few isolad showers beginning to be detected by radar down there just south and west of fredericksburg. we ll see more of those later this afternoon. so what you need to know, by 9:00, we re clouding up, 74. 84 by noon, and a good bet for thunderstorms by 3:00. 88. more to come or whether or not it will be a washout. new from overnight, a woman hit and killed in prince george s county. police say she was trying to walk across route 210 at kirby hill road in fort washington about 12:15 morning when she was hit by a car. we re told the driver did remain on the scene and is cooperating with investigators. authority its say alcohol was not a factor. also new, park police on the scene of a deadly accident. it happened on the bw parkway at 197, a truck hit a tree there. joining us by phone is a sergeant from the park police. we appreciate you calling in this morning. can you bring us up to speed on where things stand now? right now the southbound baltimore park sway closed while we re doing the crash reconstruction. we had a motor vehicle leave the roadway, go into the tree line and we have two confirmed fatalities at the scene and we have several other occupants of the vehicle that have been transported to local hospitals, some with serious and life threatening injuries. you can tell us anything about the people in the vehicle? there had been reports there were children involved. we have multiple people in the vehicle and all those people were transported to local hospitals and we do have the two confirmed fatalities. are the fatalities are adults or otherwise? i won t go into the specifics, but i do believe they are adults. any idea at this point what may have led to the crash? well, right now our detectives are investigating the crash scene, so the causative factors won t be determined for quite some time. so folks who may be needing to use the bw parkway south bound, what do they need to know in terms of using the roadway? i think the suggested work around would be to use route 1 or interstate 95. everyone coming south on the bw parkway will be pushed off at route 197 going in towards laurel. any indication of how long that road may be closed? my anticipation is that it will be several more hours at least. all right. sergeant, we appreciate you bringing us up to speed this morning. we ll be in touch with you throughout the morning. thank you. and now to a developing story out of gaithers purchasing in the case of a missing woman in aruba. last night federal authorities raided the home of gary giordano, the last man seen with robyn gardner. gardner disappeared while snorkeling and he remains on the island as a suspect. jackie bensen has more on the search of his maryland home. reporter: just before 9:00 p.m., a caravan of fbi and police vehicles worked either way down pueblo road toward the home of gary giordano. he is jailed in aruba, a suspect in the disappearance of robyn gardn gardner, the maryland woman with who he traveled to the island. we re here this evening to execute a federal search warrant on the residence. the search is be conducted purchase support to a criminal investigation. because this is an active investigation, we cannot comment further on the progress of the investigation or our findings here. reporter: more than two dozen agents approached the house. sources tell news 4 they are expected to seize computer, video disks and search for hidden cameras. some agents carried large containers presumably for evidence, others carried protective shields. officials would not answer questions about why that precaution was needed. for our safety and yours, we re asking every here to stay off the property until search operations are complete. reporter: as monday s court hearing approaches, the investigation into what happened to 35-year-old robyn gardner intensifies. aruba s solicitor general says he believes she is dead, be he needed evidence of a crime to continue to hold the 50-year-old giordano. and monday s hearing will be to kerm whether prosecutors can continue to hold gary giordano in aruba. jackie bensen, news 4 today. a man is dead after being shot and killed by an off duty federal police officer. prince george s county police say the shooting happened aro1: yesterday afternoon in clinton, maryland. police say the off duty officer was trying to break up a violent assault when one of the men pulled out a gun. the officer fired shots when the man turned toward him and refused to put down the weapon. police have not identified the man killed. all lanes of the outer loop of the belt way in tyson s corner closed for construction of the hot lanes project there. crews are working to install steel beams across the roadway. take a look at this, this is what the backup looks like around midnight near the old dominion drive overpass. all lanes of southbound 495 will remain closed until about 8:00 this morning and now a live look at that area, lanes will close again between 9:30 tonight and 8:00 tomorrow morning. traffic is being detoured on to the dulles toll road and detour signs are up on on help you get back to the outer loop. it will be hard to avoid delays if you plan to take metro. the transit agency doing work on four of its five train lines. maintenance is on the met row red line, blue, orange and yellow, as well. trains are sharing tracks between various sayings. crews are also making platform and station repairs. there is no scheduled work on the green line. should all be finished by tomorrow evening. president obama s health care reform law suffered a major blow as an appeals court ruled a piece of the legislation is unconstitution unconstitutional. they said forcing every american to carry health insurance is illegal. the states say that portions of the health care law violate individual rights. government attorneys are expected on to ask the full 121th circuit court to review the ruling and there s a schns this debate will reach the supreme court before it s all said and done. it wasn t the prettiest of games, but the redskins started the preseason off in the right way defeating the pittsburgh steelers. a win is a win. the skins defense held the steeleders offense to just 186 total yards. and washington racked up more than 3450 total yards on offense. the mvp, kicker gram gi know. they went on to win 16-7. sure the stars didn t play the entire game and it was only the preseason, but redskins fans will take a win anyway we can get it. dars city spencer was at fed text field with the fans pumped up to see the burgundy and gold. reporter: it s the first preseason game and the redskins are battling the steelers on home turf. so far fans like what they see. the skins were the first to score a touchdown. excellent the defense. offense has a ways to go, but they moved the ball up and down the field and the defense played really great. reporter: redskins fans are hoping for improvements over last year s 6-10 record. the skins dumped quarterback donovan mcnabb, a disappointment for some. and it s unclear who will replace him. lots of energy. the red skips got a touchdown, i was happy and thrilled to see grossman accomplish that. they did pretty well because they scored first. reporter: this is the first game the skins are playing following an nfl lockout that threatened the season. some fans believe that a few games might be canceled, but no one we spoke to feared that the lockout would continue. we knew the players would rally and the owners would rally. we knew that would happen. reporter: were you concerned that the season wasn t going to happen? no, her going to play. too much money out will. reporter: while the youngest fans had to head home earl will to make bedtime, others wouldn t miss a minute, even if it is a preseason game. darcy spencer, news 4 today. and we ll have plenty more later in this half hour including reaction from the players on on that win. for now, it is 6:09 and we re just hours away from the first real test of the republican race for president. coming up, how candidates are trying to sway potential voters before this political ppularity. plus how bert ander any are now the subject of a national debate. oh, won t you be good to yourself? and don t you feel like coming home? it ll be like coming home [ male announcer ] some rooms feel like a fish bowl. but in our roomy suites, you can spread out and live a little. with breakfast, dinner, and drinks included, you ll feel right at home. la la-la-la-la la la la the first official vote will take place. the iowa straw poll starts at 10:00 this morning and nine republican candidates are on the ballot. it isn t the deciding factor for next november s election, but it can help or break campaigns. steve handelsman followed the candidates as they made their last minute pitches. reporter: conservatives gathered before the straw poll. michele bachmann implied she ll win. tomorrow is the day that we make the down payment on taking the country back. reporter: iowa state university s been getting ready for the all day vote. candidates have to get their supporters here to ames. very important test of every organization is at this stage. reporter: but sarah palin, who showed up in iowa, will pass on the straw poll. she says if she runs, it would be sexist on imply her opponent would be bachmann. i m going to duke it out with the guys. reporter: a new guy is getting in the race saturday. rick perry will declare in south carolina, stealing some of the straw poll s thunder. we do some things in texas that are working. there s some things that folks in washington could look to texas and get some good lessons from. reporter: perry s christian conservatism has appeal in iowa. can he get the energy going among social conservatives maybe a little better than tim pawlenty or certainly mitt romney. we ve had three years or sore of president obama s direction reporter: tim pawlenty immediate as top place. he has to do very well in order to stay alive. reporter: h mitt romney was in new hampshire. he s skipping the straw poll. like rick perry, in an unconventional move it try to win the republican nomination, even to try to win the iowa caucuses early next year, without winning the straw poll. from ames, iowa, i m steve handelsman, nbc news. meanwhile president obama is heading to the midwest on a three day bus tour to rally support for 20 wefl. the president will host town hall meetings in minnesota, iowa and illinois. he plans to discuss ways to help grow the economy and also to hear from americans who are frustrated with the recent dealings in washington. after his trip, he and the first family will travel to martha s vineyard for vacation. the florida pastor who sparked outrage for burning the koran is planning on holding a rally in new york for the anniversary of the september 11th attacks. terry jones says he and another pastor will and you can about radical islam and what he calls the dangers of the koran at a rally on september 10th. he hasn t said where in new york city that rally had been held, however. a series ares of v s of violen protests were sparked when jones church burned the koran. new york s former police commissioner is joining the fight against rioters in london. he s agreed to act as an unpaid adviser to the british government. bratton will offer his experience. he earned the reputation for his ability to quell gang influence. five have died in the week long rioting and more than 1700 have been arrested. a big day in cuba as fidel castro celebrated his 85th birthday. children painted murals of castro and more than 20 different musical acts performed to honor the long time leader. he took power in 1959 and ruled for almost 50 years before turning over the reins to his brother. kim martucci is keeping an eye on the weather. tell us what s coming up. we have rain showers on the weather menu this weekend. the question is which day will be the worst. we hav heavy rain coming in, sob your coffee and join us on the other side of the break. [ male announcer ] want to achieve more with your money? pnc virtual wallet gathers your spending and saving in one place. credit and debit purchases, checks, bills, and other financial information. it lets you see the details as well as the big financial picture. so you can do more with your money. see what a complete view of your money can do for you at pncvirtualwallet.com. pnc bank. for the achiever in you. 20 after the hour right now. 73 degrees outside. and now is the feel good part of the day. this little window. actually, it won t be that bad today, but it will be noticeably more humid than the last few days. we also have to make room for some rain. that is headed our way this afternoon. and especially tomorrow, don t be surprised if we get some flash flood warnings throughout your sunday. we ll take a look around on our beautiful saturday morning. sun s getting up. we have some clouds moving in, buts dry. the temperature is 74 degrees. the humidity has come up. yesterday, the humidity was down in the 30% range. this morning, we re at 73% and the winds are southeast at 5 miles an hour. all right. temperatures from around the area, it is 66 off to our west in winchester, 74 inside the beltway. nice and cool down around 61 up towards frederick. and over on the eastern shore, easton is coming in with 66 degrees. what are we looking at? the satellite shows the clouds beginning to thicken up. we have a couple of stray showers trying to move in across the eastern shore south of cambridge and we had one thunderstorm just north of the mason dixon line early this morning, but i think most of the activity is going to be held to a little later this afternoon. highs today will be in the middle 80s, around 88 downtown. 85 for culpepper, 87 off to the eastern shore and annapolis. thunderstorms probably popping by this afternoon. let s get into the details. we have a system that s coming out of ohio. this thing is starting to look more and more like the way winter storms do in that it s going to take a lot of energy and trances fer to the coast. and as that happens,le bring in a lot of atlantic moisture. watch this rain, here s time line sunday at 8:00 a.m. watch this rain sit right on top of us throughout the day. we could get one on on two inches of rain from the storm as it tries to send its energy to the coast and really strengthen. even on monday, we could have a leftover shower, although i think most of the day should be seeing more of a drying weather pattern. let s put this forecast in writing for you. today not bad. we re clouding over a few thunderstorms popping. 84 to 88. pretty warm this afternoon. and coming up this evening, the showers and thunderstorms become more widespread. we ll be easing back into the 70s. all right. going to the weekend details, sunday looking to be more and more like a washout than monday, things winding down. throughout the rest of week, we ll have a nice break tuesday and wednesday with chances for more showers and storms thursday and friday. and, hey, and i had like it stay connected with you online, so please join me on my facebook wall or tweet me. i m known as weatherkim. so @weatherkim is how you can find me and i look forward to chatting with you. so they are two best friends who have been entertaining fans to years an despite and online petition for them to get married, bert and ernie will remain just friends. fans around the world are calling for the two muppets to tie the knot, but the show s producers say that the wedding will not happen. that the two are not even gay. they released a statement saying, quote, they were created to teach xhirp thchildren that can be good friends with those who are very different from themselves. so they are just friends. the statement went on to say that they don t have sexual orientations. so there you go. mystery solved. last night s final score says it all. the redskins pulled out a 16-7 win over the steelers. so how did they pull it off some here s hakem dermish with your sports minute. between morning, everyone. at times the redskins looked sharp, and other times they looked sloppy, about that you s expected in the first preseason game especially considering the limited time they had to prepare. quarterback rex grossman, who matt ambitious statement that the redskins would win the division this year, was actually pretty solid. throwing about for more than 200 yards and one touchdown against the steelers. second quarter, no score, third and one, moore gets the ball, but check out barry cofield, ryan kerry began make the stop. take another look. kerrigan helping to make the play. pittsburgh has to punt. so ensuing redskins possession, grossman gets a low snap, but throws off his back foot to santana moss for the it touchdown. moss finished with seven catches for 64 yards. grossman 19-26 for 207 yards and that touch down. the rd skins only had three penalties, no turnovers. they defeat the steelers 16-7. here s rex grossman. sxw . i expected to play well, but football is such a team sport, he everybody played we would. our offensive line really set the tone with tim hightower, all those guys did a great job of playing physical and creating holes and obviously pass protect as well as they did. next week the redskins play the colts and you can see the game here on nbc 4 at 7:00. that s all about for now. i m hakem dermish. have a great day. the d.c. court system has a special plea for people who know they ve committed a crime and need to clear hair conscience. plus, after topsy-turvy week on wall street, we ll show you the impact the numbers may have had on some of your investments. and the fuel mixup that has dozens of drivers headed to the mechanic. welcome back to news 4 today. it s saturday, august 13th, 2011. first a look at our forecast with kim martucci who is in for chuck this weekend. and i like the haircut. oh, thank you. thank positive noticing. the facebook folks, we all like it. i ve gotten some speed back on that. hey, i have a suggestion for you and anybody that s wondering when to wash your car. this morning. darn. going to miss that. or, you willy, don t even bother. mother nature whether do it. put some soap on top. if you need to know the lawn, it would be this morning, too. your chances will go downhill this afternoon and sunday. but morning its not bad out will. here s a look at the numbers coming in. a few little showers are developing south and west of fredericks during near charlottesville, but i think a good part of our morning should be uneventful and just partly cloudy. we re at 74 now. 66 in winchester. 65 in martinsburg. la plato, 67. gaithersburg, 66. thegomery county fair is going on. this afternoon, scattered showers and storms. sunday, a good bet for rain, 82. we ll put together your beach forecast in a little bit. in our headlines, a bizarre and wild week on wall street ended on a good note. the dow ended up friday 125 points, closing the week at 11,269. the nasdaq was also up gaining 15 points. and the s&p 500 was up 6 points. stocks were pushed higher by positive july retail sales figures. the good note ended a week that was one that saw four separate 400 point swings in both directions. the unpredictable stock market has reeked havoc with virginia s public employee pension fund. the value has dropped by 6.4% since july 1st, losing about $3.5 billion. state officials are quick to point out that while there are big drops in the fund since july, it s it actually gone up about 20% in the past fiscal year. also taking a hit in this volatile stock market, 5 29d college plans. parents use 529s to help finance their children s secondary education. but states have seen major drops since july with some accounts down as much as 5%. financial analysts say while the plan s value have dropped, contributions have actually gone up as parents see an opportunity to buy low to help their kids future educations. starting today, people who have arrest warrants in their names in the district will have an opportunity to you were hems in. the program is called safe s surrender and will be open the next three saturdays in that allows anyone who is wanted for a monavie lents felony or misdemeanor to turn themselves in and have their warrant resolved. during the last event, 98% of the people who came in were able to return home that same day. you can go do the courthouse on indiana avenue between 9:30 and 4:30 any of the nekxt three saturdays. a new task portion is trying to track down the man accused of stabbing women s back sides. this man is accused of stabbing at least nine women since february. it s happened at shopping malls and other retail areas. the man may be using a box cut per p members of the task force met with police officials yesterday to share information and discuss leads as well as to collaborate on how to catch the suspect. a woman lucky to be alive after her hummer caught fire yesterday morning, she said she was distracted by her cell phone, didn t even realize that massive blaze. luckily firefighters and an ambulance nearby saw the situation and rescued the woman. julie carey has the story. reporter: inside this inter-know isnferno is a hummer. and there was also a female driver at the wheel. she escaped unhurt thanks to the actions of this firefighter. he was driving this ambulance already transporting a patient to the hospital when he pulled on to the beltway and noticed a cloud of smoke up ahead coming from the tail pipe of a white hummer. it was a fire leaking from underneath the middle of the vehicle, a fire trail. reporter: worse yet, the driver was clearly oblivious to the danger, talking on her cell phone. he realized he d have to act quickly on get her attention. as i was accelerating, i started laying into the air horn. she looked up and looked at me and kind of like a surprised look and i was motioning, you need to stop, you need to get over, your car s on fire. and i couldn t of jostled her over a little bit and then she stopped. reporter: at the same time, he was calling dispatch to get the fire crews rolling. i have to get the person out of the car. reporter: he hurried it to the driver s side window, the woman still unaware her car could go up in flames any second. got the door open and kind of grabbed her and said you need to go now. she said, oh, my god, it is on fire. reporter: he directed the woman to safety and tried the ambulance fire extinguisher, but it was no match and the hummer was engulfed, blazing away. fire trucks had to use foam to put out the fire. mark was tending to the patient in the ambulance who was not serious hurt, so the trip to the hospital could wait for a bit. they sayed with the hummer driver watching the flames. i didn t know michael was going to act the way he did. i was not expecting him to go all heroic. reporter: but it s not the first time he s done that. in 2001, he was named firefighter of the year for rescuing a police officer. but going before and beyond the call of duty comes naturally. that s what we re trained to do. i love what i do. reporter: in morning side, maryland, ju julie carey, news . nearly two dozen people need major car repairs after they filled up with diesel instead of regular gas. it happened on west patrick street. a tanker dispensed diesel into the station s unleaded tanks. the station returned about the problem after people started to call. the tanks have since been cleaned out. giant eagle says they are working with individual customers to pay them back it for repairs. despite high prices at the pump, americans are not changing the types of cars they want to drive. a recent survey shows that only 16% of people will pick a smaller car as their next vehicle. and about 25% still want an suv or crossover. about 14% want a truck. while students at that time summer off, renovation crews have been very busy at three d.c. high schools. we ll give you a sneak peek at the billion dollar changes at one of those schools coming up. if you didn t get your back to school shopping done last weekend, you have a second chance in maryland. starting tomorrow through next saturday, you can buy school supplies, shoes and clothes, minus the 6% sales tax. each item has to be less than $100 to qualify. state official its say tax free week is not only good for consumers, it also gives retailers a boost in these tough economic times. next week is going to be a busy week for d.c. school. three of the city s biggest high schools saw major renovations, all part of a $3.5 billion project to make d.c. schools and all wards more learning friendly. barbara harrison got an exclusive sneak peek at woodrow wilson high school. reporter: this was the original entrance here in washington, d.c. that was 75 years ago when it first open its doors and, boy, have things changed. take a look at the new way students will arrive at wilson high school againing opening day august 22nd. we got an exclusive tour from the project manager. will is the new main distance. the flow will come right from the metro. reporter: a grand scale atrium and an outdoor gathering spot. shall call it the prison yard. the courtyard was concrete, it had a couple baskets and outdated picnic tables. when it rained, it became a swimming pool because it flooded. so, yeah, this is absolutely spectacular. reporter: the modernization includes state-of-the-art additions. this is the eco lab, the new age of green houses. reporter: hallways have been made brighter with more windows. old spaces have been moved to make the school flow better. it appears we re having trouble with that tape. there will be ribbon cutting ceremonies next week to show off the big renovations. they ll be ready in time for the first day of school on august 22nd. the today show is next. let s see what they re working on this morning. amy robach joins us live from new york city. coming up this morning on today, the ames straw poll gets under way today and nine republicans are on the ballot. in a contest were exceeding expectations sometimes is better than actually winning. plus on the road to recovery, char lean ash was the victim of a brutal chimp attack, but surgery has made her into it a new woman. we ll hear from her caught and the doctor on this stunning recovery. and then casey anthony s return. a judge has nixed her efforts to maintain a low profile after winning acquittal of the murder of her daughter. he s ordered her to return to florida where tensions are running high to serve a probation sentence. and then a relial life jona and a whale all caught on tape. we ll meet the curious photographer. back to you. thanks, amy. 6:42 is our time how. and kim is here. we do need some rain, right? ask me how many inches we need to get up to normal 1234. how much i thinches do we ne? 5.22. but we might get as much as one to two inches tomorrow. i ll get the timing down for you and theest are of your draft details. what makes the sleep number store different? you walk into a conventional mattress store, it s really not about you. they say, well, if you want a firm bed you can lay on one of those, if you want a soft bed you can lay on one of those. we provide the exact individualization that your body needs. this is your body there. you can see a little more pressure in the shoulders and in the hips. then they start telling us, well yeah, i feel sore right there in the morning. my lower back. that s right where i ve been experiencing pain. now you can feel what happens as we raise your sleep number setting and allow the bed to contour to your individual shape. oh yeah. it s really shaping to my body. when you find somebody s perfect level of comfort, that may be the first time they ve ever felt a bed that feels exactly like they re hoping it would. you can adjust it however you want so you don t have to worry about buying the wrong mattress. once they get our bed, they re like, why didn t i do this sooner? and now the revolutionary sleep number bed is redefining sleep again. find your sleep number and join over 7 million people who love their bed. only at the sleep number store, where queen mattresses start at just $699. that s smoke, folks. nearly 5600 and he canners of the great dismal swamp refuge have been destroyed from a giant wildfire. crews are working to bring water to cover the blaze. this is the largest fire in the refuge s history. it started mine day ago when lightning struck the area there in southeastern virginia. the fire has gotten so big, that smoke is visible in satellite pictures taken from space, not the first time they ve had a fire this this is the largest one, but they ve had other fires that have been significant. scary stuff. it is. with a little bit of luck, they ll get rain today and better chances tomorrow. all right. this morning, it s not that bad outside. it s starting to turn a little more sticky, though. if you got used to the nice weather we had the last few days, it s going away. but we need the rain as we mentioned before the break, we re down over five inches for d.c. let s take a look around. here s what you re facing as you head out there. maybe you re going to get that lawn knowed now. i suggest you do it now because a little later today, storms will be brewing and tomorrow looks to be a washout, everybody. a quick hello to denise carter michael on on facebook. and america styles from waldorf. thanks for chatting with me this morning. hope you re off to a good start. let s talk about some mums coming in. it s 74. humidity 73%. winds are south/southeast at 5 miles an hour. the weather forecast today, we ll be in the middle 70s this morning and then jump up to around 84 by lunch. right around the time the thunderstorms will be developing. and hen later this afternoon, 3:00 our high of 88 with a good chance for some thunderstorms in and around the region. the best chances will be tomorrow. here s how the satellite radar loop is checking out this morning. not ooch going on other than clouds thickening up. you have to go it to the eastern shore and cambridge before you run into an isolated thunderstorm this morning. the newspapers reflect 60s in montgomery county. 70 in fret ricksburg. 65 in martinsburg, west virginia. all right. this is our future weather. i m going to pause it for you at different times of the day so you can get a better grip of when is the rain expected it to fall. this is a computer model for you. notice you pause it at 3:30 this afternoon. thunderstorms up towards frederick county. and a few trying to get close to d.c., pretty much northern virginia. notice southern maryland not much going on, so i think you ll stay dry. a significant part of the day. and then as we head closer into your evening, scattered showers all around the area, even southern maryland. we ll watch what happen as we go into the overnight hours, the skylights up with heavy thunderstorms by the morning and this is just the beginning. we ll have soaking rain for your sunday, again as much as one to two inches. and because the ground is relatively dry, a lot of this water will quickly run off. we could have some flash flood warnings tomorrow. we re clouding over this afternoon and we re going to see some thunderstorms brew. 84 to 88 for your high temperature. this evening, scattered storms likely. and we re going to be taken down between 76 and 81 occurring tdu evening hours. not a bad beach day. i think rain holds off for you today, 83, but tomorrow not a good one for the beach. temperatures around 28 with thunderstorms likely. we ve got the four day forecast up first tu, it look like sundas your washout, monday left ov overshowers. tuesday looking great, wednesday, as well, and then the end of next week, we ll introduce the chance of storms again on thursday and better odds on friday with highs back up into the middle and upper 80s which is right about where we should be according to the average high and low. i ll take it a lot of rain instead of 100 degrees. no kidding. i m right there with you. thank you, kim. still ahead, football fans are lining up to share a home with chad ochocinco. hear some of the living standards he might consider in oh, won t you be good to yourself? and don t you feel like coming home? it ll be like coming home [ male announcer ] some rooms feel like a fish bowl. but in our roomy suites, you can spread out and live a little. with breakfast, dinner, and drinks included, you ll feel right at home. la la-la-la-la la la la a revamped redskins kicked off the 2011 season on a high note, plus a sellout crowd to see one of the most talked about pitchers in baseball. shear hakem dermish with your morning sports. when mike shanahan and his coaching staff review the game tape this morning, there will be more positives than negatives for sure. starting running back tim hightower was quick on on his feet last night bursting through the steelers defense receive live and rex gross man was actually pretty good throwing for more than 200 yards and one touchdown. grossman leading the redskins down the field on their very first possession. handoff goes to tim hightower. gets great protection from the offensive line. around the end. 16 yard gainer for hightower. he finished with 44 yards on ten carries. unfortunately, the drive stalls in the red zone. from 29 yards out. wide left. graham also missed a 49 yard field goal, as well. second quarter, moore gets the ball. cofield and kerrigan make the stop. redskins first round pick ryan kerrigan help to go make the play. pittsburgh has to punt. redskins third and flower, throws off his back foot to moss for the up down. moss finished with seven catches, 64 yards. jim has let s defense gets tesed. ball to isaac redman and he races 22 yards for the score. steelers tie it up at seven. but kicker graham gano outscored the steelers all by himself. he was 3-3 on field goals, including his last one, hitting a 45 yarder. the redskins only had three penalties, no turnovers. they defeat the steelers 16-7 in hair first preseason game of the year. it definitely was fast. i don t know if faster than i anticipated, i don t know about that, but it certainly is a different speed than college and different speed than practice. but it was good to get this under my belt and i m just going to use this for build for next week. we did a great job up front on our offensive line creating holes for tim high you tower and that guy s fun to watch run. so it set up some play action passes and we were able to get into a pretty good rhythm in the first half. i think right now the preseason and you want to come out and look good, so we it that part of it, but still have a lot of room to improve. next week the redskins play the colts and you can see the game here on nbc 4 at 7:00. talk baseball now. the hottest ticket for a sporting event last night was in wood bridge, a sellout crowd of more than 9,000 packed the stadium for steven strasburg s second rehab start. he s recovering from tomorrow johns surgery and was impressive. a picture perfect moment.tomorr johns surgery and was impressive. a picture perfect moment. facing myrtle beach. first batter of the game. and, oh, yeah, strasburg gets a strikeout hitting 98 miles per hour on the radar. he hit 99 at one point. 26 of his 33 pitches were strikes. then strasburg here throws a curveball for strike three. he went three innings, gave up hit, no runs, no waurlk, they w 1-0. in philadelphia, it was the hernandez hitting clinic. facing cole hamels with two on, sind sends one to the left side. ramos scores. and then in the sixth, hernandez up again, base knock to center. desmond rounding third. here comes the though from victorino and desmond is in there. hernandez went 2-3 with two rbis and gets the win. the nats beat the phillies 4-2. that s your morning sports. i m hakem dermish. have a great day. soo he s one of the most loved and hated players in the mfl. but now that chad ochocinco is looking for a good home in new england, patriots fans are making their pitch to be his new roommate. he announced he wants to live with a fan for the first two to three weeks of the season to get acclimated to boston and before new england s first preseason game, the fans answered the call. he can t have ac, but i ve got a box fan. and we don t have any xbox respect but we have two cats just getting over the fleas we ll get the cable back. i d tlouf have him at my house. my mom can cook a good meal. and i have a big enough bed, we could share. we live in maine, but it s about an hour and a half ride, but he can do it. i might go with the second group there. mom with cook. i don t know. his only virmt is that the person have an internet connection and an x box. no air conditioning, that s fine apparently. and the account cats. tiger woods need as bit of a laugh and all he needs to do is watch what one fan did as his game fell apart. beautiful looking shot here. yeah that just happened. tiger was hitting a shot out of the gallery on the second hole when bone of the fans decided to get face time. if tiger saw it he probably was not amused. woods missed the cut and finished his short weekend at 10 over par. but that guy s pretty funny. so i think that was actually on television like that. i know it made like the yahoo! news alerts. good for him. you have to have a little fun at these things. that is it for news 4 today. we re back in about 25 minutes during the today show with a local new and weather update. of course we invite you to join us again at 9:00 for a full 90 minutes of news. have a great day.
out break. a visit from president obama securing additional relief for the region. the city is beginning its coordination with fema, who will take over the operations in terms of helping those who have found themselves homeless by this disaster. reporter: the volunteers, nonprofits, relief agencies and various other response teams are pouring in, providing more than just supplies to the thousands in need. it s not just the food and water, but we re here to reach out, give a hug, pray with people. reporter: the full scope of instructs growing more apparent with each passing day. more than 300 killed across seven states. in al-alone, the death toll reaching 249. the number of missing on the rise as well. our count of the missing has climbed to 570. reporter: the search and rescue efforts are still in effect today. the tragedies these teams are facing apparent in images like these. they re tasked with finding the dead and missing in a massive debris field. cadaver dogs have been sweeping these neighborhoods over the last several days, and we re seeing signs reminiscent of hurricane katrina. you can see where first responders are spray painting x s on the property. the top signifies when cruise came through here. this is the agency, and down at the bottom, the number of dead. this one says zero. unfortunately the same cannot be said for hundreds of other spots throughout this region. in concord, alabama, casey seigel, fox news. more heartbreaking images of tornado damage in alabama. check out these homes that were reduced to rubble in rainsville. it is day two of cleanup there. some resident say it s a miracle they survived. just started curling the house up around me. i could see the walls and stuff crashing over me. just consistent asked the lord to please save me, stay with me and help me get me back to my babies and my wife, and he did. this is the second deadliest day of tornados. back in 1925, several hundred people were killed in storms that ravaged missouri, illinois and indiana. fox s katelyn pratt spoke with victims who managed to escape, but just barely. i did not think i was going to survive, i really didn t. reporter: geri looks at what s left of her mobile home, her furniture, clothes, belongings now scattered. she says the tornado whisked the tornado off its foundation. when it stopped flipping, she was no longer inside, but on the grass, pinned under a stone. i was tumbling forward and forward. that long gray thing is actually my roof, and that s where it landed, and that s where it dumped me out. reporter: next door, on patterson road, kelly wilson was waiting for the sound of what she described as a speeding 18-wheeler to stop. all of the sudden, windows exploded, and it hit, and the house rattled. and then it moved on. it was very quick. reporter: she said she had just made it to the bathtub when the first limb came through a house window. build a bunker down low because you never know if you re going to get hit again. not something i want to do. and it said a tornado warning for the county. that s when i told them we need to come over here and get in the room. one mile away, michael, his wife and two daughters took cover behind this heavy steel door. they waited within the four-by four room for the danger to pass, emerging to find their house was untouched. it gives you people. you say one is never going to hit you, but you don t know for sure. i mean, our neighbors didn t think one was going to hit them, and it did. if you would like to volunteer or donate to the red cross, you can call 1-800-red cross or log on to redcross.org. you can also make a donation by texting red cross to 90999. you can find all of the information on our web site, as always, myfoxdc.com. new tonight, investigators are working an intensive murder- suicide in montgomery county. police say late this morning, they arrived in an apartment building on north summit avenue in gaithersburg and found a woman shot in the stairwell. she was conscious and was able to tell police what happened. found out that the suspect inside one of the apartments had shot her and then turned the weapon on himself and killed himself. the man who shot her was found in the apartment. the woman is badly hurt, but expected to survive. investigators in prince george s county are trying to find whoever killed a man there yesterday. darren martin found shot to death. he had been shot several times. so far investigators haven t been able to determine a motive for the murder. just a short distance down the road, paramedics had to try to save three young men hit when their fellow car crash employee hit them. it happened here on branch avenue as well. the employee said he accidentally slipped and hit the gas pedal. he rear ended the car in front of him. they were all hit. one victim may not survive, we re told. two others were seriously hurt. it was a terrible fire that took a little girl s life, but her death has not been in vain. she was killed in a southeast house fire back in the summer of 2007. investigators say there were no smoking working smoke detectors in the home; but since that time, the d.c. fire department along with mayor gray have been focused on getting a smoke alarm in every house. today the smoke detector program, named after the little girl, missed by so many. matt applicanterman has a closer look. this is three yes sutton not long before she dieted in a house fire. she was the pride and joy of her grandmother. she was friendly, sweet. she loved people. reporter: after the fire in 2007, then chairman vincent gray made a promise that athea s death would save others in the future. he would make sure more homes had working smoke detectors. what do you say to a family who has lost a child a loved one like this? i vowed to do something to make sure something like this never happened again. reporter: saturday he renewed his vow as firefighters fanned out across this d.c. neighborhood, checking in with folks, making sure residents have smoke detectors, and if they do, making sure they work properly. firefighters are being careful. they re going to every single house, and they are bringing a list and checking folks off. some say, no, they would rather not have the firefighters come inside. but others are saying please do come inside. in fact, at this house here, firefighters went in and found no working smoke detectors. fire chief kenneth ellerby said thousands of free smoke detectors and bat residents have been installed and change in d.c., 250 saturday alone. we want to make sure we cover the entire city. so when you go back and review our files, we can see where we ve been and where we need to go. reporter: this effort to make sure every home has a working smoked detector in d.c. is called the athea sutton program. mayor gray says he maintenance to continue to fulfill that promise made four years ago. . she loved people. if she was here today, she would be a wonderful person. reporter: matt acklynn, fox 5 news. we continue to monitor metro. some rail riders can expect a slow trip this weekend because of repair work. red line trains will be sharing one track between the shady grove and turin brook metro stations and between the tacoma and forest glenn stations. on the yellow lines trains will share one track. riders can expect delays of up to 20 minutes. as the shuttle endeavour gears up for its final flight monday there is some sad news coming out of florida. police say a spectator was struck and killed by a car while waiting for the shuttle to launch friday. the 70-year-old man was hit while crossing the street as he was trying to get closer to catch a glimpse of the launch. charges are pending against the driver. the launch, as you know, was scrubbed. local businesses are hoping out of towners will stick around for two more days to see the shuttle go up. fox s darrell naro has more. reporter: brian little drove 10 hours from north carolina to see the historic last launch of space shuttle endeavour. we came all this way to see the shuttle. now it s been delayed possibly three days. reporter: what s bad for nasa is good for local business. little and his friends among the hundreds of thousands of shuttle watchers who have decided to stick around central florida in hopes of catching the next launch attempt, possibly on monday. in fact, ever since the scrub was announced around noon today, space coast hotels have been inundated with calls from desperate customers. everybody who has come in says the same, they are scrounging around looking for hotels. anywhere they can find something they re looking. reporter: the grounded shuttle is also a gold mine for restaurants. at the shuttle s dugout in merritt island, general manager bill grill, jr., says on average a launch date adds more business, but a scrub launch adds another 300% on top of that. a thousand in three days. so i mean, a scrub helps. should local businesses get together and ask nasa to keep scrubbing the launch indefinitely? yeah, i would love to do that. it would be great. reporter: area businesses say they could really use the extra cash, because come june, the shuttle launches end and shuttle worker layoffs begin. in cocoa beach, darrell nail, fox 35 news. when become back, troops facing a new threat. plus thousands flock to the vatican to witness a ceremony to put pope john paul the ii closer to sainthood. the taliban announced a new military offensive in afghanistan. this comes one day after the pentagon claimed the morale was low due to heavy losses in battle. the taliban says, starting tomorrow, it will launch attacks on allied military bases and convoys as well as an afghan official area. the announcement says the war won t end unless invading forces leave the in syria, crackdown on protesters includes deadly force. phone and internet service are all but impossible to find in parts of syria, and now more tanks have rolled in. the protesters one human rights group said 62 people died yesterday in the city of dera. yesterday the white house approved sanctions against the syrian president and his military. hundreds of thousands of people around the world are flocking to rome for pope john paul the ii s beatfication. tomorrow s ceremony will bring the pope one step closer to possible sainthood. greg burke has the latest from rome. reporter: hundreds of thousands of people are flocking to rome this weekend as the catholic church will officially declare pope john paul ii blessed on sunday. technically known as beatfication, it marks the last step before someone is made a saint. those who watched john paul suffer physical decline in his final years will now see him glorified. every saint in his or her life has, in a special way, embraced the suffering of the lord on the cross, what we call sacrificial love. that s charity. reporter: in the course of his papacy, pope john paul ii touched a countless number of lives as he chris crossed the globe preaching the gospel. his fans are here to show their thanks. you meet great people. oftentimes you come away with the idea that the meeting was about them; but with pope john paul the ii the meeting was about you. reporter: while critics say the beatfication came too quickly, john paul s popular support has been overwhelming. a key part of the process of cannization or beatfication is whether or not there s public devotion to the person in question, whether people think of that person as a saint. reporter: the process involves a miracle. in pope john paul s case the vatican says it s the inexplicable cure of a nun with parkinson s disease. pope john paul believed in miracles himself. he said the virgin mary saved his life. in rome, greg burke, fox news. did you watch the big weding? i didn t watch it, but i saw the replay, and i loved it. i was not a fan in the beginning. i thought much ado about nothing. i loved it. you were not alone. a lot of people were interested in the wedding. millions, in fact, around the globe watched william and kate say i do. but the royal newlyweds won t be whisked away from their ho i think moon just yet. what was the holdup? coming up we ll try to explain this one. stay tuned. no information on where he s going to be sent. no one knows where the newlyweds will go for their ho i think moon, also for security reasons. love them. that s great. i loved watching him. everyone looks so beautiful. looks like the weather for them held out. previous days it was raining, too. that s the point, a chance for rain in the forecast for them i was keeping my fingers crossed. you know they have royal umbrellas on standby. definitely. it was a beautiful, beautiful saturday. plenty of sunshine out there. hopefully you got out to enjoy it. absolutely wonderful. you know, we really scored big on the weekend, this weekend so far. considering the last few days over the course of the weekend is where so much active weather going on, but it is spring. that s just the thing. spring storms so unpredictable. the weekend will end comfortable for you, i m happy to see. our temperatures will go up and down over the course of the upcoming week. a few unsettled days we ll have to deal with. once again, typical spring weather. so just be prepared. we also have sunshine in the forecast also into the week. it s not all bad. a mixture of everything you could possibly imagine as we take a look ahead. as far as our temperatures are concerned today, we hit 70 degrees at national airport, 66 at dulles, 68 degrees at baltimore. temperatures in the range anywhere about 5 to 6 degrees pretty much where we should be, and right now pretty comfortable, 67 at national, 66 degrees at baltimore. we ve got 63 at gaithersburg, 65 at winchester, to the south at fredericksburg, and 64 degrees at dulles. 66 in new york. here s where the warmer air is to the south. 76 degrees in rally, the one thing we re going to watch as well, the southerly flow moving in across our area. just the influence it will have as we move through the next few days. wins calm, nothing to really worry about right there at all. we have no wind gusts at all in our forecast. as far as our sky conditions are concerned, we have a ridge of high pressure in control. that has set us up for a fair amount of sunshine. take a look at the clouds from the west. we re going to see some of those lingering through from tonight into the overnight hours. that s all in association with a warm front that s going to be lifting to the north of us. but what we re keeping our eye on is an approaching cold front. take a look at the national temperatures. it will be easy to see where the cold front boundary is right here. take a look at the difference in the temperatures. in the 40s and 50s to the west. taking a look at areas toward the east, a whole different ball game. look at texas to the south, dell rio, 101 degrees this hour, 80s and 70s, some 80s to the south of florida. we ll get some of the warmer flow headed our way through the beginning of the week, and then pretty much a warm moist air mass. now, an approaching warm front will move its way to the north of us. over the course of tomorrow, we ve got the chance to see wet weather move its way toward us. we re going to keep our eyes on that over the course of the afternoon hours. fairly sunny on sunday. an approaching cold front. going to see increasing clouds in the afternoon and a chance of a passing shower. this frontal system is not going to impact us until monday. as it pushes it way across on monday, it will set us up for the chance of some showers and possibly a rumble of thunder. your planner for tonight, by 11:00 around 62 degrees with partly cloudy skies. your overnight low will be around 50 degrees tonight with a light easterly wind. tomorrow our high about 70 degrees. start out sunny. the clouds increase over the course of the day. by the afternoon we could possibly see showers kick in. nothing heavy. just a light passing shower here and there. here s a look at your five-day forecast for you. 70 degrees for tomorrow. each of the days into the week, we get a little unsettled and end up seeing the chance of some showers and a storm here or there. tuesday could be an active day as well. tuesday cloudy with showers, thursday back, sunshine; but behind the cold front, you can where our temperatures dip back into the 60s again. yeah. the roller coaster effect affect. coming up next in sports we ll tell you which gnats star will miss more time than expected and how long he ll be out. plus the capitals looking for answers after last night s loss to the lightning. hear from the players on how they can turn it around hopefully in game two. stay with us. the redskins have been a busy bunch this draft week. they locked up ryan kerry began from perdue. day two saw leonard hankerson a wide receiver from miami. today round four through seven, and the skins were loving nebraska, drafting three huskers in a row. fourth round it was roy haloy running back. the fifth dionne combs and wide receiver nice paul. then evan reyeser a running back from penn state and also a local trotter from west penn high school. . then ulrich robertson. in the 7th round they take brandon thompson from boise state, marcus hurt from florida and marcus white from fxu. they have one pick remaining in the 7th round. lightning struck the verizon center last night. it was the capitals suffering their first loss at home this postseason. the main story-line, the caps couldn t capitalize on the power play, going 0-5 last night and 3-23 this postseason. last night after period one, the lightning caps were not at 1. early in the 2nd things looked good for the home team. the caps were put up 2-1. in the final 5 minutes of the 2nd period, tampa would tie it up on a steve downey goal that goes off of scott hannen. the lightning would take the lead on the goal with 30 seconds on the clock. the caps never recovered in the 3rd. they lose game 1 4-2. today they reflected on not getting too comfortable with the lead. we ve learned how important it is in the playoffs to play that way, and not get too ahead of ourselves, and, you know, for whatever reason, we need to reel ourselves in, and make sure we stay focused, because when we play our game plan and our mind-set as a unit, we re pretty effective. we have to play like we did in the last 10 minutes of the 1st and first 10 minutes of the second. to work hard. that s how we re going to win games, and we have to do that and not fall into something else to lead. there s a fine line there, but we have to play the whole 60 minutes the way we re supposed to. just last week, george mason lost head coach jim larinega to the akc and hurricanes. today they hired a new coach who hailed from the acc. his name paul hewitt. he ll be introduced to mason on monday. he is the men s basketball coach mason history. hewitt coach at georgia tech for the last 11 years compiling a 190-165 record. he won 69 for some of his games in the akc and was fired last month. he was the akc coach of the year 2001 and led the yellow jackets to the national championship game in 2004 where they fell to connecticut. ryan zimmerman needs surgery for a torn abdominal muscle. he is expected to miss six weeks. this injury occurred at spring training. he then re-aggravated it after playing 8 games this season. someone having fun with screech. he was enjoying the day hoping the gnats could win their second in a row. scoreless in the 2nd with the bases. rick anki oh, s flare off the glove of mike fontano. the nats lead 1-0. now tied 1. the bases are loaded, and john lannen walks aubrey huff. miguel tejada. right now the gnats still trail by a run in the 8th. lot of good stuff. bad news for ryan zimmerman. sad to see him go down. thanks, lindsay. that s going to do it for us at six. back tonight. better have some coughfy guys. yeah. and remember fox 5 news always on. my foxdte.com. see you later tonight.