>> we will be here until this city, this state and this region rebuild better than before. horace: a scary scene playing out at a chemical plant in crosby, texas. the plant has been without power since sunday. and today rising temperatures leading to explosions. evacuations are now underway. surrounding that plant. michelle: meanwhile, a sight playing out across the state of texas. long lines as the people wait sometimes for hours to get gas. nancy: refineries shut down. that with the usual labor day price increase will have us all feeling the impact on the wallet. brad: the prices at this gas station went up 15 cents overnight.

and you will see the numbers spin faster. >> they never seem to prepare. >> clearly there is no way to prepare for a once in a thousand year hurricane harvey and the four plus feet of rain. the flood now cutting off much of the nation fuel supply at the source. refineries are closed and now the colonial pipeline which runs gasoline from houston to new york has been turned off, too. they had to raise prices at the station he owns in seat pleasant. 17 cents overnight. >> yeah. a lot of customers complain about it. it is something we have to live with. >> according to the energy and the papeline company it's too early to know how much damage has been done to the equipment.

floodwaters recede gasoline will flow. but there is more short-term pain to come. >> it will probably go up 15 to 20 cents in the immediate future. after labor day, the pipeline is up and running again, the prices will begin to drop. >> well, they say the prices will drop. but they also say when the prices spike like this, that go up like a rocket come down like a feather. we will deal with the higher prices it seems for quite a while. in beltsville, brad bell, abc7 news. horace: the price increase come just as many people get ready to hit the road on labor day weekend. find the latest gas prices on website wjla.com. michelle: tomorrow join abc7 as we team up with the salvation army to stand strong

station all day to take your calls and collect your online donations. for more information head to wjla.com. >> we have new information as police search for this man in video caught on camera fairing a gun down a metro escalator. today they say they believe the man is cesar morales. but they are still looking for him tonight. they say he should be considered armed and dangerous. >> this is the type of thing that is very disturbing to a community to see somebody who goes in to a public area in the middle of the day and fires a weapon to one of the metro facilities. or what i would say to the public is really we need your help right now. >> so frightening. if you know anything about morales or the shooting last friday give police a call. you can choose to remain anonymous. michelle: the woman accused in a bizarre crime on board a metro bus made the first court

opal brown is charged with assault. she is accused of cup of urine on the bus driver. the case is raising new questions about the shield tas are supposed to protect drivers. you saw just happen quickly there. transportation reporter brianne carter covering metro with what the union leaders have to say. what are their thoughts on this? >> they are calling for more pronext tonight. this is after the last few hours that opal brown the woman accused of throwing urine on as but driver walked out of court. take a look. this afternoon she had no comment after she appeared before a judge on d.c. superior court. she is facing misdemeanor assault charge and was released this afternoon. in the court hearing the judge ordered she stay away from the bus driver involved in the incident and the bus line where it happened. tonight we learn that the metro transit police asked for a stayaway order from the

it was not handed down in court. metro and the largest union say this away from one bus line doesn't go far enough. metro largest union had a large presence in the courtroom today says protections fors but drivers don't go far enough either. they want to see charges for assaulting a bus operator the same if someone assaults a police officer or postal worker. >> today the union is calling for reform. laws in three jurisdictions on assaulting operators. we are demanding the removal of the assistant manager and the bus leadership team and the chief of the transit police. >> now in the video you may have noticed there is a bus shield on the bus. they are on a third of the fleet of the metro buses. some bus operators say they are not enough of a protection. meanwhile, metro tells us that metro's union did have a say in the type of bus shield put

of the fleet. they have to meet the federal standards. as for metro largest union saying there needs to be more police out there on buses, metro tonight is telling us they have an entire division in plain clothes devoted to the metro bus. reporting live, brianne carter, abc7 news. horace: the united states taking part in a show of force following a missile launch by north korea. u.s. warplanes took part in exercises of the japanese and the south korean allies. the u.s. military says the fighter jet and bombers collected life fire exercises over a training range in south korea today. on monday, north korea launched medium range missile over the japanese island. michelle: the state department getting even. after russia cut u.s. diplomatic staff in moscow. u.s. officials now closing three russian offices on american soil. annex in d.c. will close with facilities in new york and san francisco. this comes after 750 american staffers were

russia in retaliation for u.s. sanctions handed down earlier this year. any mother will tell you a baby will come on their own time. horace: whenever it's ready. this mother found out the hard way. >> they were trying to get her to the hospital. in a car. the baby didn't want to wait. horace: heroes stepped in to help woman deliver not one but two babies in a parking lot. michelle: plus, why the plan to put harriet tubman on the $20 bill could be in jeopardy. >> for storm watchers, a new storm to watch. now a category three hurricane irma way out in the atlantic. i will show you the tracking and the strength and the weekend forecast, too, coming up next. stay with us. horace: "7 on your side" with experts standing by to field your concerns about utility service.

water bill. the you have a question, give the phone bank a call. you can do it now. telephone 131stpreakness numbere telephone number is 703-236

michelle: a painting of a federal monument removed from a mural in norfolk. you can see what it looked like before. the memorial in the middle of the letter f. you can see below. tonight it's been painted over. to show a street scene instead. the city council approved a plan to move the statue from the center of the city to a local cemetery once state law allows it. nancy: tonight fairfax leaders decided not to hold the chantilly civil war reenactment this weekend. i was scheduled for september 23-24 rather. in a letter to reenactors set to attend this year's event the officials cite recent events as a reason for the cancellation. it comes after similar cancellations in manassas. michelle: it was supposed to be a historic change but tonight plans to put harriet tubman on the $20 bill

in jeopardy. obama administration proposed replacing but now it's not something that they are focused on in the moment. tubman would be the first african-american woman to appear on a paper bill. nancy: new at 6:00 -- horace: lawsuit over the popular eclipse glasses against amazon. the suit claims that the company should have known they were defective before listing them on the site. the two people claim they are two of thousands that suffered injuries including vision loss after using the glasses. michelle: still to come, talk about a special delivery. first responders remember the moment they stepped in to help a woman deliver twins in the middle of the parking lot. >> backpacks left over from a community drive in prince george's county now on the way to texas to help out the flooding victims. coming up, you will hear from the c.e.o. dr. kevin maxwell on his conversation with the superintendent in houston.

yeah, i just saved a whole lot of money by swhuh.ing to geico. we should take a closer look at geico... you know, geico insures way more than cars.

geico insures rvs? what's an rv? uh, the thing we've been stuck on for five years! wait, i'm not a real moose?? we've been over this, jeff... we're stickers! i'm not a real moose? give him some space. deep breaths, jeff. what's a sticker?!? take a closer look at geico. great savings. and a whole lot more. michelle: a new mother in d.c. is giving thanks to first responders after they helped her deliver her twins two months early. the woman was trying

the hospital but the babies wouldn't wait. so someone waved down a passing ambulance and she gave birth in the parking lot of the stan on the glen apartments in southeast. >> trying to let her two children and take care of the mother at the same time. kind of difficult. >> yeah. >> you don't have enough hands to do all that. >> the team of doctors and nurses swooped in and took great care of the babies. i'm happy to say they are doing well now. michelle: doctors say the twins ryan and riley, his sister, will remain at g.w. for a couple of months. horace: turn back to the impact of hurricane harvey. tonight the houston school system announcing it's pushing back the first day of school to september 11 because of the storm. and when the kids head back to class, one local school district is making sure that they are prepared. cheryl conner shows us, prince george's county is slipping off the backpacks and the other supplies and sending out the call for other districts to step up, too. >>e

>> they are dry and ready to build classrooms. backpacks collected in prince george's county are headed for houston. >> they need everything. they have homes they can't go back to today. >> what is left over from a back-to-school fair will be shipped south. prince george's county public schools c.e.o. dr. kevin maxwell says he has had conversation with the superintendent of schools in houston. >> his remarks were moving when he talked about the thousands of children who lost everything. >> children and families now using schools for shelter. >> the goal was to collect 10,000 backpacks. corporate sponsors and the newspaper helped the school system get an extra 2,000 so now they go to students who lost it all. >> it gives the

>> they want to collect $1 per student to send to houston. michelle: right now a chance to help the victims of hurricane harvey by eating dinner. a number of area restaurants are raising money for relief efforts including ben's chili bowl, busboys and poets and the jose andreas restaurant. learn more by going to wjla.com. they are going to need help for so long. months and months if not years.

be done. horace: september 20 before it really starts to dry out in some of the areas. doug: assuming there are no additional rainstorms. it's tough. michelle: we do have irma to talk about. we don't know where it is going. doug: no clue. no clue. i will show you the guidance available. you will see it's getting far. we will take care of that here. first at the moment the clouds around. nice in the lower 80's around the city. we see the woodrow wilson bridge in the background. delightful night. kind of cloudy. i don't think we will have showers here when the cold front arrives. the best chance is farther north to the maryland-pennsylvania line. 82 in washington. 84 in frederick. 83 in charlottesville. 83 in annapolis and 82 again in washington. there is cloudiness. showers with the cold front. they are pretty much going to wash out. a couple getting close to baltimore area. north baltimore, towson park area and that area. they will be across the bay before you know it. it will turn cooler as the winds turn

overnight. tomorrow cloudy and cool. some of the rain moves in later tomorrow night. then saturday moisture are the remaining circulation of the former hurricane harvey. i should point out tornado watch in some of the bands east. all of that will come together and bring us period of rain saturday. don't think anything severe. just a rainy nasty day on saturday. recommend nant north and east. -- remnant north and east and it will slide out of the picture and clear out quickly sunday and monday. the latest on irma. the latest satellite images. healthy storm. category three. already a major hurricane. this will be northeast of the islands here. after that it's too early to tell.

the intensity is forecast is certain here. get up to major hurricanes to sustained winds up to 140 miles per hour by thursday. all we can do is track it. it will be holding in the 60's and then labor day weekend the rain will end. may have lingering showers sunday morning and clearing sunday afternoon. monday is great. beaches are a rainy saturday. maybe sunday is raining in the morning but the rest of sunday and monday look fine as well. so the next ten days incorporate this with the cool and the warm for three days. cooling off with more showers next week. that is it. horace: you have 15 more minutes to call for help with the utility complaints. your utility complaints. we have experts standing by ready to help you. give us a call. telephone number is

703-236-9220. michelle: all right. thank you so much. great resource there. all right. talk football, erin? erin: preseason is almost over. this is a big deal. the players want to make a good impression. which

erin: the redskins will play the final preseason game tonight in tampa which means it's time to look at the top storylines including who will make the final roster. third string quarterback nate sudfeld is expected to play the entire game tonight. do the skins need three quarterbacks? especially when they have terrell pryor on the team who used to be an nfl quarterback. it seems the spot might be better used for another position. another question mark is the injured josh doctson. who will they keep as the fifth wide receiver? quick, harris or davis? >> we get a look at the guys that didn't play a lot in the third preseason game. this is a great opportunity to show us what they can do and the league what they can do. we are still filling out the 53-man roster and practice club spot. big game for a lot of guys. erin: big game for guys on the ravens as well. preseason finale

orleans. coverage starts at 7:30. here on abc7. we have an update on the texans star j.j. watt hour relief effort. the initial goal $1.5 million. the nfl star has now raised more than $12 million and counting. very impressive what wmata has done to -- what j.j. watt has done to help those affected by hurricane harvey. max scherzer and his wife have been doing their part by covering adoption fees to help clear space for the pets who have been displaced by harvey. horace: don't forget about the pets. michelle: great to see them use the platform for something like that. erin: especially watt. michelle: a lot of people making everything plans. >> tonight is cloudy and cool. comfortable. cooler late. cloudy tomorrow with the rain likely tomorrow night and saturday. sunday clearing out. steve has that labor day outlook and the beach outlook and the latest on hurricane irma. >> "world news tonight" with david muir coming up next. horace: join us at 11:00. have a great nig,

tonight, breaking news. hurricane harvey's brutal aftermath. a massive area still underwater. dramatic rescues from the sky. our matt gutman right there. first responders breaking through rooftops, hospitals evacuated, firefighters battling a blaze in the flood zone. the door to door search for survivors here in houston, as tens of thousands return home to find properties in ruin. also, the new explosions threat at a chemical plant. the fires erupting. fears of toxic fumes. homes nearby evacuated. more than a dozen officers treated. surveying the damage. the vice president in texas, comforting victims and helping pick up the pieces.