an extension cord in thier home sparked, causing their home to go up in flames... abc9's'slisa raffa got thth opportunity to speak th the family. and shares thier story tongiht. pkg "on monday morning while many of us were worrying about how to get around in the snow, the family that lives here was worrying about much more than that" elisa raffa abc9 "one of my nephews came up and screamed that we had a fire, so we just jumped out of bed, grabbed all the kids and ran outside" says marguerite cortez. an o orheated electric chord caused a fire in this home just after 4 am monday in sioux city... inside, the cortez family, two adults and nine children. luckily, everyone evacuated the home safely. marguerite says, they ran out with the clothes on their back, only to watch sioux city fire rescue put out the flames. "probably about a 50 foot extension chord d at was plugged into an

in a large pile of clothing" says mark aesoph, sioux city fire marshal. "extension chords are just for temporary use only. they shouldn't be left on all the time, as soon as you're done with them... unplug them" says joe rodriguez, deputy fire marhsal. marguerite says the fire destroyed most, if not all of their clothes. her nephews and 4 month old baby lost everything. her and her husband only have a few shirts. the family says the community outpour has been incredible. marguerite says she's given back to her community, but didn't realize her impact until she had hundreds of voicemailslstexts, and faceceok posts of concerned friends and even strangers.s. all wanting totoonate. "i can't'tay enough 'thank you's' to everybody. it's overerelming and i ththk that's what kes me cry more, because i'm just grateful that everybody thinks of us, and is willling to help us, no questions asked" says marguerite cortez. tim: there arfour locations to drop off donations for the family. the cortez family has found a new home and hopes to move

week. tim: if you want to see sioux city continue to maintain 5 public swimming pools, you're running out of time. tonight marks the final public concerning the fate of those pools. at 7 o'clock tonight in city hall council chambers.... the public can voice thier opinion and offer recommendations following the release of a report from a special city pools committee. that committee is recommending that leeds and cook pools be replaced with a splash pad after 2016, and eventually leif erikson and lewis pools also could clososat some point.t. abc9 will be at tongihts meeting .. watch for an update tongiht at 10 tim: iowa senator joni ernst is digging into the department of veterans affairs. this time asking for the department to look into its failure to follow up on whistleblower claims. ernst sent a letter to the va secretary, saying in part that veterans who bravely served our nation deserve a

claim of wrongdoing. ernst's request comes after recent data released on the low number of whistleblower complaints actually reviewed by the va. the senator also made some news of her own today. . senator ernst is now now officially retired from the iowa national guard. ernst has served in the iowa national guard for 23 years and she also was deployed during operatatn iraqi freedodoas company commander. ernst announced her intentions to retire last summer. tim: the state of iowa is officially one month away from a historic change. the medicaid program is expected to change over to a privately managed care program. four out-of-state companies are set to take over the program. reporter amanda krenz takes a look at one agency trying to deal with the tight deadline. "nats of kids playing. thousandndof kids with special health care needs come here to childserve in johnston. in one year alone, this place will help 3-thousand families. about 75 percent of those families use medicaid to help pay for the services

20:54:56 everyobody wants to konw what's happening, some of those questions, we don't know what the answers are going to be yet. lloyd vanderkwaak is the president and ceo of childserve. he says families have successfully used medicaid to help with services for 25 years. he says the change from medicaid to private companies is made even more complicated by a quickly approaching january first deadline. 20:53:31 somehow these families will have to be assigned to companies, gure out how to work with us and us with them. as families receive enrollment packets in the mail, telling them to pick one of the four companies, many are worried the care they're able to recieve at child serve might change or that they won't have a way to pay for it. child serve is helping them answer questions as best they can with the information they have. 20:55:09 some of the transition is involoving that really hasn't been

johnston, amanda krenz, " tim: world leaderer are useing a gathering to combat climate change as a platform to discuss another issue plaguing the world, terrorism at the u-n confrence on climate change held in paris france, philanthropists, businesses, and governments pledged $20 billion to invest in clean energy. president obama wants the global climate agreement being worked on in paris to be legally binding. with the fus to get all countries on board to cut carbon emissions that scientist say are warming the earth. tim: here at home, most republicans oppose the steps president obama wants to take on climate saying they will hurt the economy and eliminate jobs in the coal and energy industries. even those on the campaign trail. jeb bush made

waterloo and dubuque iowa, even though his status hasn't changed much in the polls, jeb bush is turning out substantial crowds in iowa . bush made stops in waterloo and dubuque earlier today, and talked about his views on climate change and the recent summit president obama attended. " i do worry that any initiative that hollows out our ininstrial core or retards economic growth is gonna be a problem. i wanna i think our biggest challenge is rising that to me is e greatest economic challenge of our time because we're moving towards, because of the automation and the challenges of our economy where the first rung on the ladder is going to be hard to achieve " bush also stopped in newton for a town hall meeting republican presidential candidate governor mike huckabee was also in iowa today the former arkansas governor continued his "the huck stops here" campaign tour in mount ayr where he reminded folks there, there is

the iowa caucuses. huckabee stressed the importance of voters not relying on national polls when thehehead to caucuses come february tim: yesterday docked the biggest day for cyber monday sales ever. data collected by adobe says just over three billion dollars in online orders were made monday. smashing a record set this past black friday. i-b-m says customers spent an average of 124 dollars on cyber monday purchases. toys and elececonics were said to be big cyber mondaysellers. tim: and if you did order somethinthis past cyber monday, you'll probably soon be expecting a package on your doorstep. each year a spike in mail theft occurs around the holidays, but here are some tips for you to protect your parcels the u-s postal inspectors suggest to avoid sending cash by mail, use a check or money order for a safe alternative. also don't leave mail unattended, especicily overnight. it's never a bad idea to use

packages and always report any suspicious activity/ coming up the recent snowfall made seratoma park the place to be after school today, we'll catch up with kiddo's who broke out their sleds today after the break... (fred) the snow will end, but the wind will not. there is sunshine ahead, though! your forecast is next!

tim: wahhhhhhhwoooooo oweee!!!! children both young and old got the opportunity to get out their sleds and hit the hills, these were some of the sledders down at seratoma and grandview parks today. youngsters say they couldn't wait

afternoon. "it's really fun." "how fast are going you down you think?" "i don't know, it's hard to comprehend how fast... i don't we're going pretty fast but yeah i love it. it's pretty fun so yeah it's worth doing it again." says 13 year old solomon gordon. tim: and it's been snowing slightly here in sioux city today, fred's at the desk to tell us more about the forecast. tim (tim) fred, how much more snow is coming? (fred) up to a half inch for some of us. fred hexom fhexom@kcautv.c c om (fred) a winter weather advisory remains in effect only in the west until 12 am. other warnings and advisories have been canceled. the hd radar shows light snow continuing

conditions are much improved today. it was a november to remember! we had record november total precipitation of 4.55" and it was the 3rd snowiest november on record at 12.5"! wow! the port neal welding company skycam hd shows a snowy scene from the ho chunk centre in sioux city. 23 was the low and 32 the high today. here is the king's pointe skycam hd in storm lake. highs overestern iowa today were in the upper 20s and lower 30s. eastern nebraska and southeastern south dakota saw highs in the 30s. we have 33 and light snow in sioux city. local temperatures are in the 20s and 30s. wind chills are in the teens and 20s. winds are building in from the northwest at 15 miles per hour.

around. visibility is less t tn 5 miles for ny of us, and only 0.50 miles in spencer. the radar shows snow still rotating around the low pressure system. the stormcast hd shows that snow continuing into early tomorrow, then a blustery day. your forecast for tonight is for up to 1" of snow and breezy winds. tomorrow, look for blustery conditions and a high of 33. the 7-day shows no more snow after tonight. highs will be in the 30s! tonight's ask fred prize is 4 tickets to q102's birthday bash featuring echosmith and andy grammer! to enter, email a weather question to fhexom@kcautv.c om or enter on our abc9 news facebook page.

thanks, fred! (fred) you bet!

an inspirational story of one woman, who found the courage to keep going even after undergoing a leg amputation. stay tuned.

hard time getting motivated to get going, think of wendy blum. a mother, and grandmother, whose life was turned upside down after taking a fall that , claimed her leg. ,but she isnt letting it stop her here's abc9's jessica rae, with her story.... "nat sound: "i was sick, i remember telling mymyusband you knowowhat i wowod rather be dead." rae: those are the words wendy blum spoke, after her doctor told her...they would need to amputate her leg... wendy blum: "i fell at home and knew i could not walk on my leg and the next morning we called the ambulance and i came to the hospital and they told me i had fractured my left leg." rae: doctors at mercy medical center decided to cast wendy's leg and let it heal on it's own... that's when things took a turn for the worst. michael garrett: "eventually it wasn't able to heal from m

some peripheral vascular disease, the outcome was not favorable she ended up losing one of her legs to amputation and then later found out through infeion more of the leg needed to be amputated." rae: the healing process was slow and long... wendy spent over a year in and out of the hospital. and due to her unique case she had to under go treatments in a hyper-baric chamber... michael: "it puts you under pressure and mimics that you are under sea water 33- 66 feet, we are able to drivevexygen into the circulating plasma not just the red blood cells and therefore we are able to oxygenize all the blood going through her body and to allow these really difficult wounds to heal." rae: wendy had more than 80 treatments in the hyper barics chamber... wendy: "i had some hard days, but i guess i would always think, you know what it could be worse and if i can get healed and get a prosthesis and get my life back, i've just always had a positive attitude." rae: and that's exactly what wendy did... april 14th of 20-16 will be e o years since wendy's fall... she uses a aane if she's gogog to be walking long distances, bur any other time, she's up and moving as if nothing ever changed. nats: ring the bell cheering " rae: let's get going, i'm jessica rae, for abc9 new." jessica rae: you saw wendy ring

mercy medical in the wound center, once a patient is healed and back on the mend, they're encouraged to ring the bell before dis charging from the hospital. coming up in sports...iowa and michigan state play for the big ten title and michigan state play for the big ten title and something more on saturday. we'll hear from the hawkeyes up ahead. plus...morningside is back in the f-c-s semifinals for the fourth straight season. find out what the mustangs have to do to book a trip to daytona beach.

morningside will play for a spot in the russell athletic naia national championship game. but getting to daytona beach will b banything but easy. the top-ranked mustangs welcome number seven southern oregon to olsen stadium this weekend. thraiders are the defending national champions, winning the 2014 title 55-31 over marian. morningside and s-o-u have only met once before...back in 2012 the mustangs won a 47-44 quarterfinal contest in overtime on their way to the nanaonal championship game. but after two straigig losses in the semifinals, morningside has one thing on their mind. ryan kasdorf--"i think our team motto this year, that we've instilled all year, 'finish it.' i think last year we kind of got up early on marian and i don't know, we kind of just let some things go and the game got away from us. so this week we're just going to prepare extra hard. we know they're gonna be a good team and we've just gotta stay the course and stay true to who we are all game." steve ryan--"i think they're hungry, you know? we've talked all year about finishing it, finishing

have a good week. i i think they'll bebe ready to go next week." tylele kavan--"honestst, just to finish it. that's our team motto, is finish it and that's what we want to do we want to get back to daytona. we gotta just keep playing. keep doing the little things right and not overlook. in year's past i felt as if we tended to look forward to getting down there. but this year we've got our eyes set." and kickoff is set for noon this saturday at olsen stadium. the winner will advance to daytona beach on december 19th and will face the winner of the marian/st. francis quarterfinal for the national championship. chris: later on saturday night, iowa plays in its biggest game in recent memory. the hawkeyes battle michigan state for the big ten championship, and in all likelihood, a spot in the college football playoff. the hawkeyes and spartans are ranked fourth and fifth

rankings, meaning the winner is all- but assured a spot in the final four. saturday will be just the fifth conference championship in big ten history and the first for iowa...but michigan state has become regulars in indy...the spartans are back for the third time in that span. so how are the hawkeyes approaching this matchup? kirk ferentz--"it's s little bit like a bowl game in a lot of ways, you can't be in awe of the circumstances, and then certainly once something happens in the game -- this is a very good football team we're playing." c.j. beathard--"it's going to be a tough battle, it's going to be a tough game. you know we've got respect for them and in order for us to win we're going to have to go out and execute and play our best football. that's what it comes down to." jordan canzeri--"we know again that it's going to be another very physical game. they're very tough and very fundamental and quick to the ball. so we know it's going to be a fight and that's exactly what we expect so that's what been our motivation in practices during the ek, knowing that we're expecting the best out of them." kirk ferentztz"this is a good a team, the best team we've played all season long, so it's going to be a big challenge for us." kickoff between the spartans and

kickoff between the spartans and hawkeyes is at 7 pm saturday night at lucas oil stadium in indianapolis. the game can be seen on fox but will be in indy and have reports om the big ten championship later this week. coming up later tonight, we'll have action from the naia volleyball tournament. briar cliff had a late lead on number one lindsey wilson but the blue raiders scored the final six points to win the first 25-22. then in the night cap dordt takes on georgetown out of kentucky.

features riley and jason winquist... shwoing off a 9 foot snowman built yesterday. if you're like to submit a facebook fan photo, just post it on our

jenna/tim/chris/fred: (fred) radar shows light snow moving through siouxland. your forecast for tonight is for up to 1" of snow and breezy winds. tomorrow, look for blustery conditions and a high of 3333the 7-day shows no more snow after tonight. highs will be in the 30s! tonight's ask fred prize is 4 tickets to q102's birthday bash featuring echosmith and andy grammer! to enter, email a weather question to fhexom@kcautv.c om or enter on our abc9 news facebook page.