at penn station. can commuters park there today? we will have the latest. good morning, i am linda so in for megan and charley this morning. before we get to your weather, we begin with breaking news out of asia where an 8.9 magnitude earthquake struck japan. the earthquake struck hundreds of miles away in tokyo in the northeastern part of the country. the earthquake trying archdiocese 13 foot tsunami sweeping away buildings and cars --. this is cnn's newsroom shaking inic to heo. the death toll is at 29. a number of countries are under a tsunami warning this morning. hawaii is also under a tsunami warning and alaska is under a tsunami watch. we are standing by for all and any new information we are getting. we have all new sorts of video and information coming into the newsroom. read and watch it at abc2news.com. click on the top beige and --

page and look at slide show. we want to hear from you if you have friends and family who live in japan. e mail us at newsroom at wmar.com. the u.s. embassy is closed for the rest of the day in japan. if you are trying to get in touch with familiar lane friends in japan, call the state department at 202-647- 4000 or check www.state.gov. we have got a lot of rain here at home. we want to know what the weekend is looking like. justin, will it get drier for us. >> yes, it is. we have showers left over this morning. one more time, i will recap what happened with the earthquake. even worse than what we have been hearing. and i am sure we will get more information coming in. but the 8.9 quake, the 7th largest on record. the tsunami was 33 feet tall. 10 meters that's 33 feet tall. and when you see some of the images we have had, there's no doubting that with the devastation that had rolled through. not only major metropolitan

areas, two million people in population immediately affected, but also through the countryside. and warnings continue around the pacific as we watch the travel times. expecting to reach hawaii sometime locally this morning about 8:00 in the morning here, 3:00 in the morning there and a few hours later for the pacific northwest, washington, oregon coast watching for high waves. locally, maryland's most powerful doppler radar, slight rain showers pushing up 95 through harford county. here kim with traffic. >> reporter: justin, we have a multivehicle accident this morning on the southbound lanes of 95. right there near the baltimore county howard county line north of route 100. looking live at the cameras, all the crash activity is cleared out of the travel road out of the travel portion off to the shoulder. so you could see minor rubber neck delays past that scene. however, we are pretty much incident free around 95 and the beltway this morning. but we have lots of instances

of flooding closures including in linthicum closed at river road because of high water and baltimore city north point closed at cane street and in the bel air philidelphia road closed between 136 and 543 because of flooding. and glen arm long green pike closed between glen arm and long green road. use harford road as an alternate. and knotting ham campbell closed between route 7 and franklin square drive. white marsh gets you around that. and westminster route 27 remains closed in both directions because of an accident at bond street. linda, back to you. >> thanks, kim. all that rain we got meant lots of flooding. and baltimore cars had to be towed from the penn station garage where we find sherrie johnson. how do things look today? >> reporter: much different, linda. we are here at penn station. over my shoulder is the entrance down into the garage. and things look much better. the water has started to recede. but the lower deck has a lot of water there. the first and second levels look pretty good. the towing companies have actually stopped towing the

cars. they were able to get all of them out of there. but during the height of this storm, things didn't look so well. thousands of gallons of water mixed with sewage streamed into the bessy garage at penn station. many cars were moved from the original spaces to higher ground. the water seeped into old cracked sewage pipes underground forcing everything up to the surface through manhole covers and imagine the confusion for many commuters searching for their cars. >> she said where's our car? you know i think it's over here and i began to look around. we saw the floods and thought orbs, my gosh. >> reporter: okay, my gosh -- oh, my gosh. >> reporter: take a look inside the garage, there's lot of water on the lower deck. but the first and second levels look good. sherrie johnson, abc2 news. >> thanks. when we are not on the air, you can stay up to -- up-to- date at abc2news.com for complete coverage of the flooding. you can check out the pictures and videos we have collected from all over the region and keep an eye on the live

interactive radar. this morning, police in baltimore city are asking for your help locating a mother and child who have been missing for three days. take a good look. investigators say 21-year-old stephanie jones and her four- month-old son michael were last seen tuesday afternoon in the 3700 block of eastern avenue. if you have any information on their whereabouts, call 911 right away. the latest now on the firein pennsylvania that killed seven children. amish neighbors are helping the family with chores at the farm. flames broke out tuesday night while the children's mother was in the barn milking cows and the father was taking a nap in a milk delivery truck. >> they have. [audio not understandable] we know they are going to be in a better place, but it's hard for us. >> a 3-year-old girl escaped from the burning house to alert her mother who tried to get

back into the house to save the children. the seven children who died of smoke inhalation raged in age from 7 -- ranged in age from 7 month to 11 years old. since the devastating fire, family has been getting support not just from the local community but people all over the country. we have information on where to send donations. just go to abc2news.com. a massive earthquake rattled japan and triggered tsunami warnings all over the country. we will have live pictures of the coverage from a japanese public tv station where parts of the country are in chaos at this hour. and now a number of u.s. states are under tsunami warnings bracing for the worst in the coming hours. also, massive flooding has caused serious issues back here in maryland. and along much of the east coast. how it is affecting a sports team in harrisburg. what if you could combine

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on april 7th. now maryland's most powerful doppler radar and the to forecast certified most accurate by weatherate. we are looking at time- lapse imagery here and what we have been watching towson where we the heavy rain and it did heave problems with tidal surging at high tide. the strongest winds came in around eight. we were luckity line of storms that pushed through fell apart just before reaching annapolis and baltimore. they got hit very hard. temperatures mid-40s this morning. and we are looking at rain just in the form of light showers. more on the forecast leading into the weekend in a moment. here kim with traffic. >> reporter: if you are catching the mta, service is on schedule for the metro subway and light rail and mobility. but the marc train is experiencing delays along the camden and brunswick lines.

the city of laurel has closed the american legion parking lot near the camden line. looking live at the beltway, 695 at liberty road, volume is picking up on the outer loop lanes towards i-70 interchange. we are incident free around 695 this morning. lots of instances closures because of flooding in linthicum in anne arundel county. furnace road closed at riverroad and north point closed at cane fret street and campbell closed between route # and franklin square drive. white marsh boulevard gets you around that. bel air and philidelphia road dwoas closed between route 136 and 543. now back to you. >> thanks. we are following breaking news for you this morning. we have pictures of the devastation in japan where a major earthquake and tsunami has hit. we have reports of major damage and lives being lost. >> reporter: the cleanup isunderway at penn station after massing flooding here. commute hers problems finding

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the earthquake struck hundreds of miles away from tokyo in the northeastern part of the country. these are live pictures from japan from public broadcaster nhk. earthquake triggered a 13 foot tsunami sweeping away buildings and cars. you can see people on the streets just staying out of buildings as a lot of aftershocks are dealing with lots of aftershocks from the earthquake. the earthquake has triggered fires and mud slides in japan. and a number of southeast asian countries are under a tsunami warning. hawaii is under a tsunami warning as is alaska who is under a tsunami watch. we are standing by for the latest information. we have all sorts of new pieces of video coming in to the newsroom. you can read and watch more at abc2news.com and click on the top of the page in our slide show. we have pictures and we will bring you the latest coming up there. closer to home, we got lots of rain that caused problems with flooding. in in baltimore cars were -- in

baltimore, cars were towed from the penn station garage. that's where sherrie johnson is live. >> reporter: we have been seeing a number of commuters start to make their way in there this morning. the first and second levels are fine. it's the lower deck still a lot of water there. so, they have crews down there right now cleaning up trying to get that situation cleared for the commuters. but during the height of the storm, things were simply a mess over here. thousands of gallons of water mixed with sewage streamed into the bessy garage at penn station. many cars were moved from the original spaces to higher ground. the water seeped into old cracked sueage pipes underground forcing everything up to the surface through manhole covers. and i tell you, this made for a pretty busy day for greenwood towing weep talked to the department of public works and they said they are working on a long-term plan to make sure they clean out the sewers. so the next time there's a big storm, they won't have so much water gushing out of the manhole. so already work on a plan for

the next time -- working on a plan for next time. sherlr -- sherrieionson. >> not tom people were out when high tide came in. police blocked off the flooded areas and businesses near the water had sandbags in place. and in ham den the jones falls came out of -- hamden, the jones falls came out of its banks. the parking lot flooded. all the cars made it out except for one. and a big day in annapolis today. house of delegates is expected to make the final vote on the measure to give same sex couples the full marriage rights. the house will begin deliberations this morning. governor o'malley says he will sign the bill if it lands on his desk. and this morning, we still don't know if or when we will get a deal between the nfl and its players. the deadline is 11:59 tonight

and things are not looking very promising. the head of the players union sent a tweet promising something big at two this afternoon. two maryland law makers will visit a head start program today to highlight what proposed cuts would mean for maryland children and families. senators barbara mikulski and ben carden will visit the head start. budget calls for reducing funding for maryland's head start program by more than $12 million. if you are looking for something to do this weekend, baltimore st. patrick's day parade takes place sunday. it kicks off at 2 p.m. near charles and center streets in mount vernon. before the parade starts, folks will be lacing up the tennis shoes for a 5k shamrock run. so expect road closures if you are heading downtown. now, maryland's most powerful doppler radar and the forecast certified most being a prit by weatherate. -- most accurate by weatherate. >> it's a record rain phal.

2.76 inch a record for baltimore. we try to settle back on this friday. 32 in the morning, 52 in the afternoon. that's normal. we will try to get back to normal and settle back to normal rolling through the weekend. record on this date, 6 and 1966. 67 a high park of the 75 degrees. we are looking at this major storm. that blew through the area and gave us the record rainfall. parts of maryland just north of baltimore picking up over 4 inches of rainfall. and there's still the remnants of all the water that has to flow down the susquehanna and work through the conowingo dam. we are looking out for reports of the water that drained into the chesapeake. most of the rain pushing up to new york and new england. the area of low pressure is wrapping itself up as it winds through new york state with snow on the backside. there's cold air here, and that is produced major snow totals across the eastern michigan and northern ohio and western pa

pivoting towards garrett county. it appears they will get a nice reprieve from the snow eating that took place yesterday and getting fresh snow on the slopes. overall, we will watch the storm wind up. it will produce winds and we will be a little unsettled. a pocket of mild air tries to sneak in, but you can see the influence of clouds, and that's a sign of the cold air trying to take over. with this battle, we stir up the wind as the cold air bumps into the mountains and gets shoved to the north. we will get clipped. a brief shower this morning of the rain variety and a rain or snow shower during the course of the afternoon as the cold air swings through. but we are looking at snow back in towards the mountains. pittsburgh and back towards garrett county, and we are looking for the ski resorts of west virginia picking up a few fresh inches of white coating. and we will have clouds mixed in with the cold airheading towards the evening and tonight. tomorrow, we are looking at mix of sun and clouds. we will probably try to get more sun to the south. as we are on the edge of the unsettled air, we can't rule

out extra cloudiness especially north of baltimore towards the pa line. and the winds should settle on back as temperatures will try to work back to near normal as well. for today, we will call it a mostly cloudy sky. a few rain showers this morning and again in the afternoon gusty winds to 30 miles per hour. back into 32 overnight. and temperatures knee 60 on -- near 60 on saturday. >> reporter: an earlier accident in westminster at route 27 has been cleared. so traffic is reopened and moving very well. looking live at the beltway, 695, volume is picking up. you will find some minor volume delays coming down from 795. but no major problems or accidents right now to let you know about. we are dealing with the flooding closures around the area. baltimore city, north point road is closed at cane street. we have a crash on the west side north avenue at smallwood street. north and east of the beltway, we have a problem on your noting ham campbell boulevard

closed between route 7 and franklin square drive. those using white marsh as an alternate. now back to you. >> thanks. it's almost time to spring forward. daylight savings starts this weekend. you need to set your clocks ahead one hour so don't forget to do it before you go to bed saturday night. you will lose an hour of sleep. it's a good time to check the batteries in your smoke detectors. coming up, one woman is lucky to be alive this morning after being hit while crossing the street. up next, the dramatic hit-and- run video that hose shows the ordeal. -- it shows the or de. we will tell you how the man is doing who fell on the tracks. when you've been together as long as we have --

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making news around nation a. texas woman is recovering after being hit by a suv. the video was all caught by traffic cameras. 33-year-old selena christian is at top of the screen. she enters the crosswalk and to the right of the screen is the chevy tahoe. it slams into her and dragging her, the victim, at least 20 feet. christian says she had pain in her back, bruises on her legs and stitches on her elbows but

she has no broken bones and no internal injuries. >> i feel very blessed and there's a guardian angel watching out for me. i feel that maybe there's a reason that i walked away without anything major. >> now witnesses ran to help christian but she says it bothers her the driver didn't stop. he fled and police say they are still trying to locate him. in boston a. man plunges onto the subway tracks and it's caught on camera. watch as the man loses his balance and tumbles right off the platform. even though you can see the headlights of the oncoming train, we are told by officials, the driver had plenty of time to stop. good thing because the man couldn't get back up. that's when fellow passengers rushed to his aid. >> we sought train coming and he tried to get up. there was two pretty good sized guys coming to help him and dragged him out. >> transit employees say the man didn't appear seriously

hurt by the fall, but he was taken to the hospital as a precaution. they say he appeared to be intoxicated. we continue to follow breaking news out of japan overnight where an 8.9 earthquake hit the area early this morning. coming up, more for you on the aftershocks and the tsunami warnings that is being issued for the region including hawaii. plus, what could have prompted a teenager to jump off the golden gate bridge? how he is doing this morning. and he is trained to keep man's best friend alive. how the training got put to good use, coming up.

now "good morning maryland." breaking news overnight. a massive earthquake. tsunami warnings have been issued including along the east coast. the rain has stopped here, but concerns over flooding