tv ABC2 News ABC June 27, 2012 4:30am-4:55am EDT
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we've got breaking news out of colorado this morning. those wildfires are getting worse. there are more evacuations to tell you about today. this is the first year that we decided to stay in florida through the summer. >> tropical depression debby keeps hammering florida overnight. where it's heading in the next few hours. >>reporter: heavy rain from debby causes problems for some marylanders vacationing in florida. i'm sharree live at bwi with a look at some of the delays. everyone likes clean beaches, so where do our beaches rank? there's new information on your favorite summer spots. we'll tell you what you need to know. debby has lost some momentum, no doubt about it, but it still has some potential to cause more flooding. look at this video. the storm has been downgraded to a tropical depression. it's expected to head out to sea later this afternoon and isolated tornadoes are possible
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across the florida peninsula. those stories straight ahead. thanks for joining us, i'm megan pripgle. >> i'm charley crowson. let's get to our weather locally with lynette charles. >> good morning, charley and megan. let's talk about tropical storm debby. winds sustained at 35 miles an hour. downgraded, it did make landfall last evening and the track now takes it back out into the open waters of the atlantic, so it could restrengthen, but the good news is as we go through time it will push away from land. the satellite and radar still picking up on lots of rainfall across this area, florida, and they've already received about 22 inches of rain and they're going to get more in a lot of spot. maybe three feet of rainfall before all is said and done. here at home, though, we are not dealing with any type of rain at all. we are dealing with mostly clear skies and that translates into lots of sunshine for today. mid-50s in elkton, a cool morning once again. make sure you have the jacket as you head out and about. it will be breezy into the
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afternoon hours like we saw yesterday. i'll talk more about tropical depression debby and also the heat wave that could be making a comeback. right now let's get a check of the abc 2 time saver traffic with lauren cook. good morning, how are the roads this morning? >>reporter: good morning, lynette. we are following breaking news out of west baltimore where there is a house fire that shut down west baltimore street at stockton street. if you are traveling in the area, you will want to use lexington street as your alternate route. as far as the main lines are concerned, do watch out for all that construction on ealgt 95 just south of the harvard tunnel toll plaza. as we check in and take a look at 95 and white marsh, here it is, route 43, no problems to report. it will be a nice easy ride as you make the ride down towards 695. if you are headed out to 83, you are looking at just an 11- minute ride on the jfx from the beltway all the way downtown to east fayette street. no concerns on the west side of the beltway, traveling the outer loop from 795 down towards 95, you're looking at an 11-minute ride and it will remain clear on the east side from 95 up towards 83. that stretch will take you 11 minutes as well.
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that's a look at your abc 2 time saver traffic. megan and charley. breaking news in west baltimore to tell you p this morning. fire crews are fighting a two- alarm fire in the 1200 block of west baltimore street. that fire has gone to two alarms meaning it has gotten bigger. no word on the cause. no one has been injured. we do have a crew headed to the scene. we will bring you a live report starting at 5:00 this morning. other breaking news, a national story, coming out of colorado. more than 2000 people living on the grounds of an air force academy near colorado springs are being evacuated. homes are on fire in a ranch southwest of that air force academy have burned to the ground. we'll get an update in 15 minute from colorado. while they're dealing with fires out in colorado, in the south, specifically florida, they are dealing with rain, the ruining vacationing plans. >> that means a lot of flight delays and cancellations from bwi to florida. sheree johnson is tracking
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those developments overnight. she's at bwi with the latest. sheree. >>reporter: yes, we're here at bwi thoroughgood marshall airport. i've been checking, so far no delays, everything seems to be on time. we're talking about flights to and from florida. right now in the 6:00 and 7:00 hour, everything appears to be on time. we'll continue checking on that throughout the morning. now, also in the meantime we were actually able to catch up with one family that just returned from florida. i mean, we're talking about the gravel family, this -- grevel family, they went on a disney cruise and that's when debby hit. they were looking for sunshine and beaches, but they were met with lots of rain. roads and bridges were shut down due to flooding. florida's governor declared a state of emergency. not exactly the vacation that the grevel family envisioned. >> wind was terrible, trees were shaking everywhere, leaves
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were flying off. >>reporter: [ no audio ] vacationers, many of these marylanders won't get their money back, that's why it's a good idea to have travel insurance. officials at bwi say it's important before you come to the airport, you should check your flight and make sure everything is on time. once again we checked, so far the flights look like they're on time so far. reporting live at bwi thoroughgood marshall international airport, sherree johnson, abc 2 news. 4:35. we'll continue following the path of tropical depression debby. you can check out our website, abc2news.com for a slide show on our home page of the flooding and damage caused by that storm. tonight aberdeen high school, the state highway administration is holding a meeting from 6:00 to 8:00 and the whole purpose of it is to talk about possible improvements to some intersections along maryland 22 in aberdeen. state leaders want your input on this issue. the intersection improvement projects are related to maryland's base realignment and closure improvements at aberdeen proving grounds. only on abc 2, the father
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of a fallen marine talks about his son and how he plans to honor him. lance corporal gene mills died friday in afghanistan. >> they said one more mission, pop, i'll be home, and then he always ends with i love you, pops. and, of course, i tell him i love him back, and that was it. then the world changed. >> those are the memories of the phone call gene mills, jr. remembers of his son just days before he was killed in action. lance corporal mills was 21 years old and on his second tour of duty when he was fatally shot in the chest. mr. mills said september 11th inspired his son to join the marines and lance corporal mills' younger brother still plans to enlist with the marines. a police procession will be planned for dover to the funeral home on friday. other details now are being arranged. news time 4:36. if you're headed to arybon city or dewey beach this weekend, here's another reason to enjoy
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these places. we found out that the natural resources resource council ranked dewey beach number three and ocean city beach number four. that report found that water quality at america's beaches remained largely stable last year with 8% of water samples violating public health standards the same as the previous year. the battle between michael phelps and ryan lochte is becoming more intense after lochte won the 200-meter freestyle. ful both swimmers will now advance to the finals, the two will compete again coming up tonight. tropical depression debby is showing no signs of letting up. a lot of rain is falling and the storm is still a huge concern, even when it moves out to the atlantic ocean. we're going to tell you why. plus police say two anne arundel county employees wanted free gasoline. what officers say they did that has them now in legal trouble. well, megan, no delays to tell you about here on 695 at
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debby is running out and ruining a lot of vacation plans for visitors, even as it weakens to a tropical depression. several areas in northern florida have received more than 10 inches of rain and forecasters say southeastern georgia could expect the same. a local vfw helped out bringing in military transport trucks to get people in and out of that area. it's a huge story down there. and, lynette, a lot of people know, does that mean anything for us? >> no. and you would think that it might because it is going to reemerge back into the atlantic, but it is going to stay away from us. you can basically see that path that it's going to take, the cloud cover right there. but back here in florida, lots of rainfall still to happen as we go through the next several days here. so they are not out of the woods yet. like i said, as we go through the next several days, this
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will reemerge into the atlantic and still verge off toward the east right there. we do have the cold front that slid through the area about two days ago and that's basically helping the steering pattern with this. satellite and radar not picking up on a whole lot close to home today. that's what we like. we're getting lots of clear skies out there, but we're also on the chilly side with that temperature in manchester coming in at 59 degrees. let's get a check of abc 2 news time saver traffic with lauren. >>reporter: breaking news out of west baltimore where a house fire has shut down west baltimore street at stockton street. if you are traveling in the area, use lexington street as your alternate route and abc 2 news' linda stow is on the way to the scene now. we will bring you the very latest as it becomes available. if you are headed to 83, here's a live look in cocksville. you are looking at a 22-minute ride from the maryland/pennsylvania state ride down towards the beltway. it will remain nice and clear on the jfx. if you're headed out to the
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beltway, this is overly at bel aire road. just an 11-minute ride on the outer loop from 95 up towards 83. you will be in the clear on the west side, no delays from 795 down towards route 40 that. is a look at your abc 2 news time saver traffic. megan and charley, over to you. it is set to become the largest american city to ever declare bankruptcy. coming up what city lawyers are going to do in court today and the factors that have now put this city in quite a predicament. oh, my god, look at that. >> any one spark will start a fire. >> more on that breaking news out of colorado this morning, those wildfires, they've taken a new direction overnight. you're waking up to what's new in maryland. ñ'
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[ male announcer ] millions of dollars for new schools and teachers... thousands of new good paying jobs... all without raising taxes. that's what a world-class resort casino at national harbor would mean for maryland. but it won't be built unless lawmakers give us the right to vote on it this november. call 1-800-492-7122
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he's -- loughner. the board of trustees holding a special meeting today to discuss a budget new in the hazing death of robert champion. today is national hiv testing day, promoting testing as an important strategy to detect, treat and prevent the incurable disease. the national association of people with aids started this day in 1995. president obama is meeting with abu dhabi's crown prince today to discuss the two's continued cooperation on regional issues. later this evening the president and first lady are hosting a picnic for members of the congress that's happening at the white house. the u.s. product safety commission is holding a news conference today to highlight new safety requirements for kids' products. this comes after the cpsc voted on a new regulation to make play yard's safer as well as baby walkers and toddler beds. time now for a look at weather and traffic on this wednesday morning. >> traffic wise a lot of things going on right now in west baltimore >>reporter: yes, charley, there is breaking news, a house fire has actually shut down
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west baltimore street at stockton street. you will want to use lexington street as your alternate route. no delays, though, traveling through the tunnels and the beltway will be nice and clear all the way around and we will have more on the fire. linda stow is headed to the scene. we will bring you the very latest as it does become available. weather yesterday was spectacular. >> we're going to do it again today. >> nice. >> it's going to be nice and seasonable. a little bit warmer. i'm going with 87 degrees. we should be at 86, 85 degrees for this time of year, so we'll take that. as we look at maryland's most powerful radar, we will stay dry throughout the day. 64 degrees right now, 62 in churchville and colombia right around 60 degrees. charley. breaking news now, back to colorado, we've been telling you about this all morning. more evacuations have been ordered overnight. more than 2000 residents living on the grounds of the air force academy now being evacuated. we've learned now within the past hour and a half a total of 32,000 people have been displaced from these wildfires. abc's alex perez has more from colorado. >>reporter: this is the closest we've been allowed to the waldo canyon fire.
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as you can see here, authorities have been able to get things under control. but look just on the other side of the mountain there, the fire is still burning. complicating matters, the blistering dry temperatures, the high in denver today 105 degrees, it's like battling a blaze inside an oven. to give you an idea of how hot it is out here, firefighter david has been out here fighting this fire for several hours. look at his helmet. right now it's 117 degrees. this is a race against time. once that fire begins, it can spread at a rate of up to 14 miles per hour. just look at this video of the texas wildfire from last year and how quickly it consumes the dry brush on the ground and scorches tree tops. >> any one spark will start a fire. >>reporter: the fire fight across the state of colorado has already cost more than $30 million and the tourism industry by one estimate is losing $1 million a day as some state parks are forced to close. >> oh, my god, look at that. >>reporter: the fire is crushing the hearts of those who live here.
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>> on pins and needles, my car has been packed, i'm not going far from home. i'm afraid to leave my home, i don't want to leave my home. >>reporter: as you can see there are homes right near this fire and that is the main reason why it has become a priority. authorities are expected to continue battling this blaze in excruciating heat for the next few days. >> that was alex perez reporting. a similar situation now playing out this morning in utah. authorities have shut down part of a main central utah traffic artery as high gusting winds have now whipped up a wildfire there. that fire has burned more than 40,000 acres since saturday. officials have also confirmed more than two dozen homes, they've been destroyed. news time right now 4:48. today stockton, california is set to become the largest american city ever to declare bankruptcy. city lawmakers could file for chapter 9 protection in court as soon as today. the city council was expected to vote on a special bankruptcy budget to plug next year's anticipated $26 million deficit. monday marked the three-month
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deadline for negotiations. >> i don't know what's really going on with our city council, nor do i really understand what's happening with our council period. it seems that they're faltering. >> the city of nearly 300,000 people is set to see property taxes and other revenues decline as expenses and generous retirement investments have drained the city coffers. to anne arundel county now, a pair of county employees are in legal trouble after police say they helped themselves to the government's gas pumps. police say the maintenance workers behind the scheme are now charged with theft. officers say surveillance cameras caught preston perry and lathian taking 10 gallons over the past six months. according to charging documents, jodie harbor of glen burnie took the scheme one step further, transporting five or 10 gallons of gas to his brother's house once a week from january 2012 to this most recently in may. gr they were both served criminal summons today. one individual is charged with
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theft under $500, one had two theft charges. >> the county is refusing to discuss any disciplinary action for those workers, calling it now a a man in houston, texas is being credited with helping two children to escape a burning home. the ripped up pants are evidence of his brave actions. you see, as he was delivering mail yesterday, thompson noticed a small amount of smoke coming from an ac unit at this house. he ended up saving a 12 and 13- year-old from the fire. >> i just thought i was doing my job, you know, i wanted to make sure that everyone is safe out here. >> houston firefighters say they had a really tough time battling the flames because there were burglar bars on the home. no injuries were reported. the cause of the fire right now under investigation. and even though right now tropical depression debby has caused a ton of damage, some appear to be enjoying the flooding. >> check this out. two kay 8:00 -- kayakers made the most of the situation yesterday. the man who took this video compared this flooding to the 1990s in myrtle beach, south
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carolina. he says the difference between the two, the flooding in florida is more widespread. and it certainly looks fun, but i know lynette right now is shaking her head. >> we talkd about this yesterday, lynette. we had somebody who was doing a little bit of skiing behind a car. not recommended. >> not recommended. and also, there's critters in that water, so you don't want to do that. let's take a look at tropical depression debby right now. we can see the track of it. so the winds sustained now at about 30 miles an hour. it has pushed up a bit, meaning that the winds and the track is a little bit stronger now to the east at about nine miles an hour and it's taking it all the way out into the atlantic as we head towards the weekend. so that's definitely some good news, what we like to hear, moving away from land. now, the satellite and radar still picking up on some rainfall, so they've already gotten over a foot of rain in portions of florida. they're going to be seeing maybe up to three feet before this is all said and done. now, the satellite and radar close to home, not picking up on anything, crystal blue skies is what we're going to get today, just like we saw yesterday. maybe a few clouds trying to move in. but all in all plenty of sunshine on tap for today.
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get out there and enjoy it. 62 degrees right now, nice and comfortable this morning. 59 in easton, more of the same in york. 62 in hagerstown and 61 in winchester. and all this is because of high pressure building in across the area. when you have that high pressure, it sinks and the clouds sink and basically you don't get any type of clouds, you don't get any type of precipitation and that's what we're going to be dealing with for today. future trend basically picking up on more of the same. you really need to follow that timeline so you don't get lost because we will have several days of plenty of sunshine in the forecast for us. but what you don't see is that it's going to get hot. i'm going to show you that seven day in just a second. right now as we go through the day, the hour-by-hour forecast coming in right around 87 degrees. it is going to be another breezy day on tap, so be prepared for that. check it out, it will get humid as we go into thursday and hot on friday and saturday with a slight chance for maybe a popup thunderstorm in the forecast. let's get a check of the abc 2 time saver traffic with lynette
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cook. tell us what's going on. >>reporter: breaking news in baltimore city where a house fire has shut down west baltimore street near stockton street. if you are traveling in the area, use lexington street as the alternate route. linda stow is on the scene now. we will bring you the very latest as it does become available. if you are headed out to the west side of the beltway, here's exactly what it looks like at baltimore national pike. an 11-minute ride on that outer loop from 795 down towards 95. as we take a look at other drive times, no concerns on the jfx. it's going to take you 11 minutes to travel southbound from the beltway all the way downtown to east fayette street. all is clear through the fort mchenry tunnel, traveling northbound from the beltway all the way to the toll plaza, you are looking at an eight-minute drive. that is a look at your abc 2 news time saver traffic. over to you. syria may be a war-torn country, but right now the military regime having no trouble. >> we're going to explain why they're able to keep the troops happy. also this morning, what neighbors suspect may have caused a house explosion in northwest england, killing one child.
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