making news in america this morning, the search for two escaped killers expanding overnight. investigators now looking in another state blocking off a road telling people to stay indoors. new details just coming in. spring storms. a tornado tearing down trees, hail the size of softballs denting cars and concern is growing this morning as a river's level rises to the highest it's been in seven decades. ripped from a hammock and mauled by a bear. the teenager this morning talking about the terrifying attack. and major meltdown. a baseball player strikes out, gets tossed from the game and then you see it there, takes off his jersey.

and good thursday morning to you all. thank you so much for being here. i'm t.j. holmes. >> and i'm brandi hitt in for reena ninan. police in upstate new york have been working through the night in an intense effort to find the two escaped killers. >> officers blocked off a road not far from the prison and warned residents they needed to stay indoors after police got a tip. the search has also expanded to neighboring have and bazi kanani is following details overnight. >> reporter: the manhunt for the two escaped murders expanding. overnight robo calls warning residents in upstate new york to stay indoors. and now in neighboring vermont, a search from tent to tent. >> we have information that suggests that they thought that new york was going to be hot, vermont would be cooler in terms of law enforcement. >> reporter: vermont's governor says david sweat and richard matt have talked about going to a campsite. law enforcement is now searching state parks and warning campers. >> we've had plenty of people

approach us that we don't know borrowing an egg or whatever, and it's just what you do in a campground. >> reporter: investigators believe the escapees had help getting the power tools they used to drill through a wall, cut through pipes and saw open a manhole. they say this woman, joyce mitchell, who oversaw the prison's tailor shop befriended the men and may have been involved. the mother of fugitive david sweat has a message for her son. >> i love you and get back where you belong before you get hurt. >> reporter: and a former accomplice of richard matt is also speaking out, though too afraid to reveal his face telling local reporters matt is cunning and dangerous. >> he's very evil. there's no telling what his mind-set is and what he can do or what he will do next. >> reporter: bazi kanani, abc news, washington. turning now to the extreme weather hitting much of the country. >> yeah, take a look at this. this was happening

in the suburbs of chicago, huge hail, some of it as large as softballs, not that stuff there but there were reports of it. people say the stuff came down for about an hour. reports of cars being dented, as well. >> severe weather also sweeping across florida. a tornado is being blamed for this damage near st. augustine. 80-mile-per-hour winds damaged trees and knocked over buildings and in tampa six inches of rain fell in a couple of hours flooding streets and trapping drivers. the concern right now is in the central plains, radar showing the large system moving east slowly. there are chances of tornadoes and hail from these storms in iowa and nebraska. and a serious situation unfolding this morning along the red river in louisiana. the river now at its highest level in some 70 years. weeks of rainfall pushed water seven feet above floodstage. large homes are now surrounded by water and residents trying to salvage what they can. experts predict the river will stay above flood stage through the end of june, possibly longer. 450 more u.s. troops are

heading to iraq to help fight isis. the first order of business for many of those deployed is to help iraqi fighters take back the key city of ramadi from isis. some of those troops are trainers and advisers, but the majority will be security personnel underscoring just how dangerous iraq continues to be. new details in that d.c. mansion murder investigation. a bloody baseball bat was discovered inside the home that was set on fire killing a couple, their son and housekeeper. authorities also revealing a water bottle with fingerprints was found. police have arrest eded charging him with murder but believe he had help. the ex-girlfriend of the man responsible for the colorado shooting massacre returned to the stand yesterday and revealed details about their relationship and their first date at a horror film festival. his first romantic relationship, she said, but she ended it. the d.a. argues it was a catalyst for the shooting five months later.

the former texas police officer seen by millions in that pool party cell phone video has now apologized. an attorney for eric casebolt says emotions got the best of him that day. here now abc's steve osunsami. >> reporter: the attorney representing the now former texas police officer at the center of this racially charged recording says that corporal eric casebolt is sorry. >> he allowed his emotions to get the better of him. eric regrets that his conduct portrayed him and his department in a negative light. >> reporter: his brothers in the force are speaking too saying that he and they are facing death threat. >> those are coming in daily on a daily basis. >> is it e-mails, phone calls? >> i believe it's been phone call, phone calls in to the police department regarding him. >> reporter: in the hours before he's seen kneeling on this teenage girl, they explain he was highly emotional. he had just come from two suicide emergencies including one where he consoled a black mother whose husband killed

himself in front of his family at a pool. they also say he detained a young white female but you didn't see it in the video. steve osunsami, abc news, mckinney, texas. federal investigators have released new details about last month's deadly amtrak crash in philadelphia. they now say the engineer was not talking, texting or downloading data on his cell phone in the moments before that train sped off the track. but they still cannot explain what caused the crash that killed eight people and seriously injured more than 200 others. vice president joe biden returned to the white house for the first time since the death of his son beau. the photo posted to the vice president's twitter account showing him in a meeting with the ukrainian prime minister. also met behind closed doors with president obama for their weekly lunch. at the end of the day he returned to his home in delaware. still ahead, concerns are growing over a possible outbreak. one country closing 2,000 schools because of a dangerous virus. also a bizarre bust. police breaking up a major theft ring involving legos. how suspected thieves got away

with nearly $100,000 worth of the toys. also, a meltdown on the diamond. what caused a player to lose his cool?

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about recent travel and to look for signs of the infection. the virus has killed nine people and infected more than 100 others in south korea. on the business retailer retailer j. crew is eliminating 175 jobs in an effort to shore up slumping sales. the once popular preppy chain replaced the head of women's design. reports last week showed same-store sales down 10%. analysts though say consumers no longer want to pay for those high priced j. crew merchandise. a groundbreaking family leave policy is now being offered from richard branson's virgin group. some new moms and dads including adoptive parents will be getting paid parental leave for an entire leave. both parents share the leave or can take turns, simultaneously possibly. only employees in europe are eligible for this, and you must have worked for them for at least four years to receive 100% pay for an entire year. thought a bad deal. >> that is fantastic for a lot of families. when we come back, snatched from a hammock and nearly killed a teenager recovering after a bear attack.

this morning the victim talking from his hospital bed. also, hazard of the job. look at this reporter. she gets bugged big time right in front of the camera. before fibromyalgia, i was the go-to person. i was energetic. then the chronic, widespread pain drained my energy. my doctor and i agreed moving more helps ease fibromyalgia pain. she also prescribed lyrica. for some patients, lyrica significantly relieves fibromyalgia pain and improves physical function. with less pain, i feel better. lyrica may cause serious allergic reactions or suicidal thoughts or actions. tell your doctor right away if you have these, new or worsening depression or unusual changes in mood or behavior. or swelling, trouble breathing rash, hives, blisters, muscle pain with fever tired feeling or blurry vision. common side effects are dizziness, sleepiness, weight gain and swelling of hands, legs and feet. don't drink alcohol

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radioed they were taking on water, got on their life raft but once the helicopter arrived rescuers hoisted them to safety and they watched their ship go down. here's a look at this morning's road condition, watch out for wet roads around the gulf coast from montana, also south to new mexico. also plan on possible flooding from nebraska to the western great lakes. if you're flying airport delays possible in minneapolis, chicago and denver. we hear oftentimes about items being sole on the black market and think of cigarettes gun, drugs. >> you add legos to that list. in san diego, these surveillance cameras caught members of an organized ring of lego thieves. they walked out of the toys "r" us store william thousands of dollars of stolen legos. police arrested five people before they say that could happen. we're hearing for the first time from an ohio tanker who survived a bear attack.

gabriel alexander is his name there with his dad on their third night of backpacking when the attack happened. he describes the terrifying moments from the hospital bed now. >> sleeping bag and then just wake up to this pain in my scalp as i get drug out of my hammock. i immediately started screaming and i i didn't know what it was. i thought it was a wild dog or something. >> gabriel's dog rushed over and started kicking the bear. father and son were able to finally get away. they had to hike to safety. park rangers euthanized the bear they believe was responsible for the attack. a walk on a bike trail ultimately turned tragic for a california family. 4-year-old vinny stepped on a baby rattlesnake. within minutes his foot started turning purple. his began to swell.

his mother removed his shoes then found the two puncture marks and sprang into action and started sucking the venom out of his foot. >> my first reaction after seeing something on tv apparently back in the day is to suck the venom out. >> she's pregnant mind you but wildlife officials say that is the worst thing to do. little vinny is mending after going home and spending a couple of days in the hospital. veterinarians warn the drought is to blame for a spike in rattlesnake sighting. aaron van riper responded to an emergency call for a head-on collision. when he got to the scene that's when he realized his wife and 7-year-old son had been in this badly mangled car. >> that's my family and my wife was laying there on the ground and the look of the car, i don't know how either one of them lived. i mean there was nothing left of that car. >> his wife still in icu after

undergoing nine hours of surgery. his son recovering from several broken bones. family has no insurance. a gofundme page has been established. i believe you told me it was up to 75,000 now. >> so happy to see them survive. switching gear to sports. game four of the nba finals tonight right here on abc. >> yes and we do have stanley cup finals to talk about, as well. for that let's turn to our boys at espn. good morning, welcome to our "sportscenter" set in los angeles. i'm stan verrett he's neil everett. >> button up. stanley cup, let's go to chicago, game four read about the guy who wants the hockey players to shave their beards. it's called tradition. not enough of it in this country. jonathan toews, patrick sharp, the captain toews, jonathan

toews. don't toews me, bro. face-off. score time. bishop wasn't in. tampa bay, against corey crawford. no air on that. chance to tie it late and instead chicago ties the series. two games each. dodgers and ducks. tomas and the diamondbacks trying to finally get a win at dodgers stadium. lost eight straight there. john peterson. diamondbacks 4-1. go top nine diamondbacks now 6-5. aj pollock off janssen. his eighth. game tied at 6. bottom nine tied at 6. howie kendrick drove in all three runs in tuesday's win yasiel puig scored. dodgers win it 7-6. that's all we got. back to you.

>> thanks. that was plenty. good job. neil likes his hockey. he was excited tonight. appreciate that. epic meltdown to tell you about for one outfielder. torii hunter you know him, know him well but here he is. he starts arguing with the umpire after a third strike. you can't argue balls and strikes. a major no-no. he gets thrown out of the game hey, man, i'm not quietly going into that good night. >> he yanked off his elbow pads shin guards oh no. takes off his shirt and marches off. >> if you need to take the other shirt off you're supposed to be bare chested. >> oh is that the real sign of fury? >> that's how you do it. bare chested when you do it. he had a t-shirt underneath. what is that? up next in "the pulse," who you gonna call? the surprising role chris hemsworth is taking on. a reporter doing her best while under a bug attack. >> okay, no.

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♪ all right, time to check "the pulse" beginning with somebody new joining the all female cast of the new ghostbusters movie. >> there he is staying true to the gender bending theme he will play the receptionist in the ghostbusters reboot played by annie potts in the original version. no word from the australian actor and whether he'll play it shirtless in the end as he will be in the upcoming remake of

"vacation." >> i love that casting. >> makes me want to watch. a patriotic post from hillary clinton. >> yeah, she got red, white and blue on us. the presidential candidate joined instagram and check out her first post. pant suits along with the red, white and blue options and put a quote, hard choices" which is the name of her most recent book. the image received over 15,000 likes and racked up more than 72,000 followers in a day of joining instagram. between the gadgets and social media a lot of things to distract you at work. >> for sure. career builder is out with a brand-new study they have this morning showing the most common productivity killers. can you guess? number three is gossip. just getting chatty with the co-workers no gossip in the news business at all. >> no we're busy. number two, the internet. i guess that's kind of an obvious one. >> that makes sense and number one reason for lost productivity productivity. your cell phone.

text messages and responding on the commercial breaks. >> i've been doing it all morning. >> we're still productive. we didn't lose productivity. all this news business one of those moments we always like to forget. this was one of those moments for khattiya like. a swarm of cicadas attacked her. take a look. >> aaagh! okay no, nope doing it. hmm! okay. nope. yes. please. okay. >> yeah, we have outtakes for years around here. she had a good sense of human about it inviting everybody to have a laugh at her expense. she wasn't hurt but this certainly worked out but there was a lot of stuff that happens behind the scenes that we respect often able to share. >> now, she gets that the attention. she might even get a better job. >> go up the market scale. i shouldn't say better. for some of you your local news

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live from the kgo-tv broadcast center this is abc7 news. >> good thursday morning at 4:28. thank you for waking up early and joining us. i am kristen sze. >> i am eric thomas. watching traffic this thursday morning but, first, the forecast. >> no record-setting rain today. there is last over moisture in the form of fog. watch out this morning. especially around the bay into the south bay and the north bay and along the coast. it hasn't made it into the napa valley or inland east bay neighborhood. here is a lock from the roof camera where it is not clogging it is cloudy in many areas in the 12-hour day planner temperatures are in the mid-50s to low 60s. not quite as warm as it was year. still muggy. by noon, we will become sunny but for the coast and check out the temperatures, a rebound from yesterday: low-to-mid 60s at the coast and upper 70s to

mid-80s an the bay and inland with the moisture in the group, it may still feel humid this afternoon. this is just the beginning of the warming trend much i will show you warming temperatures coming up. >> leyla, how is it looking? >> so far, so good the bay bridge toll plaza shows traffic smooth sailing. we do have things we are going to look ahead though in the upcoming reports toward the weekend. including bart. as we look right now it look like we have cashpayers searching for the change. walnut creek south 680 is clear. not too many vehicles so far. >> leyla thank you. hayward police are investigating the city's largest ever illegal marijuana growing operation. our reporter joins from the newsroom with the latest. >> hayward police confiscated 13,000 marijuana plants with a street value of $15 million. this is just a conservative

number. [ inaudible ] >> it is said to be a huge warehouse where there was an area for harvesting packaging and a place where people lived. this was part of an ongoing marijuana distribution investigation. they made the bust on friday in hayward. three men have been arrested as a result. they are 28-year-old man from hayward a21-year-old tam of oakland and tony alameda. the illegal operation cost $1,000 to build and had an advanced security system. it is 4:30. >> the warriors have their backs against the wall in cleveland. they had a light work out year