flurries to make it close by with the snow showers to the west and widespread snow showers high of around 32. 6, angela back to you. >> reporter: on the roadway the water main break caused for a possible icy conditions can and we have another problem in the catonsville reg ofnlt county police on the scene of a collision at south roland road and metropolitan boulevard many let's check the traffic flow on 29. southbound a bit heavy making your way past route 108. 695 and liberty road. should be in decent shape make your way on the west side of the beltway. passing liberty road, just a bit heavy for you there and the drive times looking pretty goo.d southbound 95 from white marsh to 695, going to take you six minutes and harrisburg expressway about 6 minutes to the top side of the beltway. it's an early morning for the gop presidential hopefuls making last-minute pushes in iowa heading into tonight's caucus. all eyes are on three candidates, mitt romney, ron

paul and rick santorum. tj winick is standing by live in des moines with what's at stake leading into the caucus. t.j. >> reporter: the republican race so far out here is really within like a game of -- been like a game of musical chairs and tonight the music stops for good her. >> -- here in iowa. it looks like three menium. what's old is new in iowa with mitt romney on top of the polls. the former massachusetts governor continues to tout the chops as a private sector businessman as the cure to the economic ills. >> i want america to become the economic engine it has been in the past. >> reporter: but the comeback kid in the heartland may be former senator rick santorum who for months barely registered on polls but has seen a last-minute surge. message monday was clearly aimed at money. >> money doesn't buy iowa.

>> rick santorum is one of the few who can speak their language. >> reporter: in the final hours leading up to the state's caucus meetings, both face a serious challenge from ron paul. he draws huge passionate crowds here. >> are we sick and tired of the expansion of government and endless spending and deficit doing the things they -- things they weren't supposed to do and forgetting the things they should be doing. >> reporter: despite his popularity in iowa many believe paul has little chance at the nomination. a stunning admission the candidate made on abc's night line. >> so when you lay your head down on the pillow at night, you see yourself in the oval office? >> not really. >> reporter: along with santorum vying for the large block of christian conservatives, mashell bachmann rec perry and newt gingrich. >> we may pull off one of the great upsets in the history of iowa caucuses. >> reporter: so the caucus begins 579 central time

tonight and it's been off to -- then off to new sham tour where the remaining candidates will be joand by john huntsman who decided not to campaign here. reporting live, t.j. winick abc news, now back to you. >> president obama is heading home from hawaii tonight and will host a web chat with supporters in iowa as the caucuses are happening. tomorrow he will travel to cleveland for an event focused on the economy. well washington mount rainier national park is expected to remain closed today as authorities continue to investigate the death of a park ranger and the man suspected of killing her. yesterday s.w.a.t. teams found beng mince barnes body partiallysubmerged in a icy creek they believe he escaped to the woods after a earlier shooting. families in southern california are working up with less than an edge. police arrested a man in suspected in more than 50 fires. the 24-year-old german national

is being held without bail. they are not reeling out thepossibility that he had accomplices but believe he acted alone. >> i want to remind residents to continue to be alert as the crimes remain under investigation. >> the fires caused more than 3 million dollars in total damage. good samaritans rushed to the rescue of three children trapped in a car. the vehicle slid off the icyroad and plunged below. driver got out but the children remained trapped. a -- the windows were rolled up and none of the door handles would open so i shot out the window and tried to a pull through arms on legs or something like that. >> and more arrived. 8 men waded through the water and worked to get all three children out. all three kids survived and at last report they are doing fine. it's not the type of activity you expect to find

people doing in the wint are but in cedar rapid, iowa they are not caucuses but they are skiing but not on the snow but in the water. puking on a show for some curious onlookers. >> what are the people that show up to watch, what are they saying? >> everybody ask how cold the water is. and they think we are nuts. >> i would second that. they are nuts they said they wanted to get together for the beginning of the year. the temperature of the water in cedar rapids is in the 30 degree mark. getting ready to give the kids a bowl of cereal. they may be excited to run to the pantry with a new box o cheerios. how bad are you in debt after the holidays. tips we can give you to get you out of red and avoid high interest rates. a live look at rick perry caucuses in iowa. his home state.

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now "good morning maryland." it's #:39. welcome back. if you cereal lover, all the reason to get excite. cheerios flavors you may want to try. first is a carmel flavored cheerios. and there's a peanut flavored multigrain cheero. keep an eye out for those at your local market. >> as the holidays lien your wallet thin and credit card bill fat. average american card holder will carry outstanding credit card debt in 2012. what can you do to get back on track in experts say you want to think twice about paying your minimum balance. in fact think twice and pay twice the amount. but if you don't have that much cash a few extra bucks can

help. another thing is track your spending to see how the debt is being paid off and payment plans. >> don't forget to look at balancance transfer options. >> you can transfer your large credit card debt that you have on a high interest card and transfer it to a new card that's offering a zero% apr for a certain amount of time. the result of that could be lowinterest rate paymentsing by a down while you pay off the balance. a new change for truck drivers around the country. >> reporter: there's a's message. put down the cell phones or facebook fines more on the federal lieu that starts today coming up. rain fans are pumped and tickets go on sale in matter of hours but it's not just the tickets that got many excited today. linda. >> reporter: and it is one of the mornings you want to listen to what we have to say about the weather. what baltimore city is doing to

keep everyone safe. >> reporter: 6:40. we are check out a band of snow showers a quarter to a half inch near hagerstown and there could be be slick roads o-70 and this could be clipping mount airy. we have more to talk about before the afternoon. >> reporter: those -->> reporter: those chilly conditions having us to have wind warnings and we will check the major roads so you can navigate the tuesday morning drive up next. ã

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now "good morning maryland." #:44. time for your abc2 news to go. and as we go over to justin with a check of the forecast, we will let you know in baltimore city the elementary school is closed due to a water main break and we will check in coming up in few moments. now over to justice with a check of your forecast. >> checking out temperatures this morning. rain from 25 in churchville and 24 in toeson and 22 in man chesters. wind chills have been brought

down into the teens and now we are focusing on maryland's most powerful dop lar radar. hagerstown picked up a quarter to half an inch. around the fet rake area. looks like it's trial to-- trying to clip mount airy. there may be a brief drop of visibility. that's out west on 70 because we are watching closer to the bestway not much action. the snow showers are trying to clip through northern sections of carroll county and we will watch a few other upper level disturbances that you can see one more surge and this was not here 30 minutes ago but it's trying to build its way back in and we have another disturbance that will slide in the afternoon and that could enhance more widespread snow showers. we will call it flurries this morning but there may be a burst of snow on the west side. 25 to 30 on the thermometer but it feels colder on the maps heading into the afternoon with snow showers as the cold air is built back in and a taste of winter out there. something that the city is taking seriously so right now we will go to baltimore city

where linda so has more on the code blue. good morning. >> reporter: if you are going to go to work or getting the kids ready for school you want to make sure everyone bondels up. the cold blue award means emergency shelters will be opened 24 hours. city officials activated the cold blue monday and tuesday because of how cold it is outside. there are 10 emergency shelters in the city and some are opened 24 hours and others will be, tending hours. the main city shelter on falls way is open 24 hours accommodating both men and women. the american rescue workers onsouth hanover treat is open all day. baltimore rescue mission for both men and women will stay upand south lutheran place ashelter for women with children will be open 24 hours. find a link to that compete list of ten emergency shelt nearing's boughtmore city on

the website at abc2news.com. for now let's get a check of the traffic this morning and head back into angela. >> reporter: all right. on the roadways right now around the baltimore beltway look pretty good despite the increase in volume. our traffic rate is prety good. you funt find major delays. 95 on maryland 175 southbound a bit heavier than northbound looking gooding into the city and northbound 295. here's the top side 695 at harford road. outer loop a bit heavy but moving at post the speed. back to you. >> breaking news afeeinging a lot of you out there, a 36-year- old water main burst early this morning near the 2300 block of research avenue with baltimore city public works with more op that. good morning>> good morning. >> what can you tell us about the water main break it's a 36- in67 pipe and that's a lot of watter. >> that's a transmission main

and we have just learned that main is carrying water to anne arundel county. there are not a lot of individual services off a main of that size. we don't think we will much in the way of ute outages but customers could experience low pressure and we are working with anne arundel county to adjust way they are moving water into the system. so they pull more water from other source lines while we isolate the break and take care of it. people could experience low pressure in the area. >> talking about the low pressure for your customers. traffic, is this what we have been seeing from the conventional water main breakwater pouring into the streets or having breathing problems. >> no. this happened in the vicinity of the 2300 block of research avenue which is a more quiet street officers on farely road. water was rushing when the main

break occurred but the water is turned down so you are not seeing any major problems at this point. >> this is. >> the road completely closed at that 2300 block to prevent people from driving through right now. >> our meteorologist justin berk talked this morning as the temperatures drop expecting to be in the teens tomorrow nights. these instances become a little more prevalent. is this anything the city and the county around can do? no this is a reactionary incidents. >> three no way to predict andwhen there are temperature changes we are prone to make we always recommend all customers keep a sly of water on hand. we recommend three days that affect a large area you can go for more than a day without water. that tonight happen that often but it's best to be prepared

and have some drinking water on hand in case of emergencies. thanks so much for the time this morning. >> you are welcome. therchg you. >> they cline ached playoff and now time for serious relaxation, healing and getting ready for the game in two weeks. we are three hours away from playoff tickets going on sale for the ravens january 15th fame at m a t bank stadium. begin today the town will be painted purple and another group is going to federal hill from 10 to 11 painting the riches logos in the grass in two location. front office staff and the ravens cheerleaders will be on hand celebrating with teams most'sson push with fans in an effort to get ready for the first playoff game in five years. pace yourself because we have two weeks. >> can't wait to see with us a play-off game. finally get to go. and going with my dad and can't wait. >> they can take the texans,

they can take the steelers or anybody if they don't win and go to the superbowl. even mel carper says they have a 90% chance of. >> he is and he works for espn so you have to take his word forit. rickets go on sale this morning at ten on ticket master a phone call or any outlet get them online or give them a call. the game will be played at one sunday january 15th at m and t bank stadium. well as the team prepares for the big game january 15th they will receive a special number of hand ridden letters. kids handwriting letters and thending them at 50 dine location stores and every weans they will be be picked up and posted for the player to check out. for the location and more

details head to our website under top stories. >> 6:53 is the new rule for commercial truck drivers a federal ban goes into effect on truck drivers and cell phones. corinne redman is here to explain. >> reporter: the cell phone ban will go in effect nationwide. the ban will affect 4 million drivers leading experts they believe the new law will be be a win for drivers in their employees reducing the number of distracted driver discepts and -- accidents and lowering the cost for insurance costs for trucking and buses companies. they believe it will have little to no effect on tries tracted labor option and they could face tines over 2700 and they could suspend a science for multiple he conditions convictions in addition. drivers who allow -- companies who allow drivers to use the

hand-held cell phones will face a maximum penalty of $11,000. five things to know. american airlines is facing big problems. 's. -mail scam trying to get your personal information. the airlines is asking anyone who receives the e-mails to forward it to the web master aa.com. a pair of toy companies are releasing a figure for stev. jobs. they unveiled it as tribute to the tech visionary who gave the world the mac, iphone and i mack and i-pad. that's very, very detailed information. and men are claim more than 2/3 -- nearly 1.2 million men gained jobs over the 12 months ending in november compared to 600,000 women according to the bureau of labor statistics. after luge the lease at a low kale -- losing its lease at

a location in washington the museum opens at the old chocolate factory on water treat near the sinner harbor. there's a press conference to announce the 2011 class of he had block courage awards winners. it will be at the museum. the players elected morgan cox as 2011 weep sipient. justin. all right. we will start off to the north. er weather alert. and the weather made a mess of the road in parts of pennsylvania along with interstate 83. 20 vehicles involved including big rigs 17 people were taken to the hospital and some with serious yrs. and this is the down side always taken into cpt for those who try to encourage to make it back but that's something we don't like to report. we are watching snow showers work into northern carroll county it's off to the north and west side of westminster.

tracking this band out of fed ribbing clipping mount airy and work its way down parts of 72, 78 and 79 towards the dc area. we have ourselves a one push of snow showers in through york and adams county on the north side of baltimore county and a lot of stuff is flowing out of the great lakes and we will have one more check. overall we are watching the cold environment and peeking out on the cold and will be in and out to partly to mostly cloudy skies. in youries or snow back this afternoon. a -- it could bring flurries by thursday morning before we warm up a little bit into the weekend. a cold day. 20s this morning. feels like the teens. 32 the two degree guaranteed high we will feel like 20s. we expect another round of snow showers and giving way to abreak in the cloud and down to

17. less wind and we expect 43 after a flurry on thursday. 5 had saturday and sunday we could end with a rain or wintery mix event. slighting through. >> just include the ?eapt -- >> reporter: we have a street closure at research at hammond dairy and possible icy conditions in that region traveling through the lancedown area. i-95 at maryland 175 busy in the southbound direction and looking at the baltimore beltway delaney valley road that looks pretty good but won't run into a delay as you make the area. >> school closings due to the break and pressure sightelville elementary landdown high and arbutus closed because of the low water pressure. now to new york for "good morning america" a live look at

the big aim. sky-high do you street side. see you in 45 minutes -- 25 minutes.