to montgomery, i think route 103. this is also to help police. avoid the area so they clan control traffic. let me get you back in here. an investigation is still ongoing. we'll have more details coming up at 6:00. >> have they said how long it will take? >> reporter: they don't think this will take long. remember playing with tranes as a kid and they flip over. it as all double cranes. they're trying to bring the cars out but it's a very slow process. so it will take awhile, maybe another full day. >> roosevelt leftwich has been on the scene since early this morning. thank you, rosie. this is one of the cars that as

been uprighted. now they're going to use these machines from csx. they will tow it away. they've been dog it all afternoon. to the left of that we have some heavy equipment out there, put the coal back on the truck and hauling that away as well but it's a long tedious process. again, we have to talk about the victims. we lost two 19-year-old ladies and it's unbelievable that these families have to tell but their daughter, they were smooth ared in coal. want to bring in brian kuebler who had the task of knocking on the doors and it was tough. >> these families asked us to respect their privacy and obviously, we will do that. those are two 19-year-olds. they were up and coming juniors at their university. elizabeth nass on her way to

james madison university. rose mayr. both were killed by this csx train. according to each girl's twitter account, the teenagers were sitting on the train bridge over main street when the accident happened. we spoke to members of both families who were obviously too distraught to talk. they asked us to respect their privacy, and we di.d the two teens were friends for awhile. both were good students with great families. both girls participated in a dance program at the school and were well liked and well known. just an unfortunate tragedy as they get ready to start their school year in the coming week or so. now both girls were alum night at mt. heb been class -- hebron class 2010. they will have counselors on

hand. >> what do you think about this being a hang out. it's been a long tradition with kids running up and down the tracks, even with posted signs to stay off. >> reporter: it's a popular hangout spot, to hang out on top of the ellicott city sign. we hear it's a popular hangout. >> all right. we'll talk to ken ulman who is the howard county executive. kelly, back to you. >> a mess for businesses. set that scene with the street closings and cars. some vehicles were damaged by the comb and the trains falling over. >> reporter: that's exactly right. there's a big parking lot there. when the trains fell over, they went on top of the cars. who would think a train would fall on your car overnight and

coal. some of the businesses on main street, listen, they've gone through floods. they've gone through fires. this will not keep them closed. thel be open -- they will be open. in other top stories, five people have been arrested in connection to that scam we were telling you targeting the elderly. the five arrested were involved in planning the scams which at times turned violent. in one case they threatened people. it is believed the two women and three men were arrested. police recovered the car involved in yesterday's pursuit that led to the death of a prince george's county police officer. we'll have much more on these stories and more on abc2 news at 5:30. keep it right here.

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or, visit us online. all right. welcome back to abc2 news at 5:00. we have clear skies over the

baltimore area. we think things will stay clear as we go into the night and the day tomorrow. let's take a look if we can go full screen on these and tell you what we're looking at. the overall scenario a good one weather wise. 81 degrees. sunset 7:53. those days starting to get shorter. a fantastic one with partly cloudy skies over the severn river. ocean city got the mountain dew tour. i tell you, this has been a pretty decent beach weather. had some fog in hagerstown but things clear out nicely. 81 in baltimore. 80 at dulles. much of the state in the upper 70s. dew point is around 60. it's humid with an east breeze helping to stir the air a bit. here's the setup. you can see clouds across the east coast including much of

eastern maryland. to the west we got some clear. there are few showers in the ohio valley. as we go forward in time looking at our future trend model, you can see maybe a hit or miss shower that will sneak in overnight. your wednesday forecast kind of in a clear area of weather through the day tomorrow. as we work into thursday, sunny skies with a storm system that may send some surf into ocean city. the overall pattern is showing basically some improving weather except for the coastal system off the carolinas. that's the one area we're keeping an eye on. that system does look to track further off the coast and not make a big impact on our weather. dry high pressure will be the story for the middle part of the week. all right. here it is, tropical storm isaac, from tropical depression nine to a named tropical storm and isaac may end up being a potent system as we go into the

next five to eight days. you can see the tropic turning active. when it comes to isaac, let's look at the projection. it takes it south of hispaniola, south of cuba. it's tough to say right now. we are many days out. all eyes will turn to what could be hurricane isaac. tonight 63, partly cloudy, will be mild and calm. we're looking at 85. sun and clouds, bright and warmer. here's your seven-day forecast. temperatures will stay into the upper 80s thursday, friday into the weekend. we'll stay just below 90 degrees. there will be morning fog to deal with. that is it for your weather for the moment. we'll be back with more abc2 news at 5:00 in just a moment.

stay right here.

describe the scene when you first arrived? >> just piles of coal everywhere, mangled heavy cars that flipped over on to automobiles. it was a beg scene but i'm really proud of the men and women, our fire department who was here within minutes to search to find victims. again, my deepest condolences to the victims. >> reporter: everone in howard county knew one another. >> i was here and the families were down here. it was a terrible tragedy. i got two daughters at home and

it was unspeakable. our hearts go out. we have a lot of crews working to clean it up. we're working hard to get main street open. i would ask people this weekend get down here, spend money. they have -- they're out of business a day or two. we'll be stronger than ever. we have a great historic town with a dpraipt community. >> reporter: where does the investigation stand now as you know it? >> the ntsb, the national transportation safety board is taking over the scene, the cause of the accident, the derailment and what happened and working with our police investigators. we'll have information moving forward. our goal is to get the train cars out of here, look at the structural integrity of the bridge and get it open. i would ask people to be patient with us. it will take time. >> reporter: you are a great

twitter. >> at ken ulman. stay tuned for updates. >> reporter: county executive in howard county. main street is back open. as you can see, look at all that coal. all the mess that we had, we had all these -- the whole train. it was 3,000 feet of train strung out along this track. half of it is gone. it's to our left. more of the cars need to be removed. that's where we stand. jamie costello, live in ellicott city, abc2 news. sweetie, you have to scrub it first.

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all eyes on ellicott city. let's get you a quick update. this is not historic downtown but this is our closest abc2 weather bug camera. just some passing cloud cover. we'll see fair weather. so that is good news for us. take a look at the visible satellite. we did have some morning fog. that burned off. we could see some fog again the next several night, especially as we go into wednesday and thursday and friday morning. we'll watch for more fog. the radar remains clear. tropical storm isaac now a named system and all eyes will be on isaac over the next week. we think by sunday night this could be taking a turn into

florida as a potential hurricane. we are still many days out but isaac looking at one of our ominous storms. the rest of the evening 70s, warm with a few clouds. we'll stay fairly humid but relatively quiet. temperatures rising into the low 80s by midday. we could end up in the mid-80s tomorrow afternoon but pretty quiet other than an isolated shower out there this evening. the outlook will be one that features more quiet weather with the chance for morning fog. again, that's good news for all the efforts in ellicott city. on that note we want to head out to jamie costello now live -- >> reporter: the train derailment. it caused two 19-year-old girls to die. they were facing the east side when the train came up behind them and smothered them with

coal. we literally are shaking loose the coal out and uprighting the cars to take them away. we come in and sweep the coal up. this train was about 3,000 feet long. it was 9,000 tons, and a lot of that fell on cars below the bridge, smashing the cars that were parked there for the night. want to bring in roosevelt leftwich, who has more on the investigation and the lives of two women who were lost. ellicott city. >> it was pretty much a one in a million shot. that's what they're trying to determine. 21 cars all bound from grafton, west virginia, to baltimore. the train was going through the middle of ellicott city. it was an 80-car train. 21 turned over. 19-year-old rose mayr and

19-year-old elizabeth nass, both from ellicott city were sitting on the track, sitting on the side facing the river. as the train was going by according to the ntsb lead investigator, something triggered the brake. they're trying to figure that out. as the train was going across that bridge one of the cars derailed, dumped tons of coal off the track. the girls, according to the investigators, were covered in that coal. then as jamie mentioned, too, it completely within the down the embankment. a lot of the cars were crushed by tons and tons of coal. they have been taking the trane cars full of coal. here comes one of the bulldozers. they're piling up that coal so they can remove it later, but it's a very, very slow process as they have to upright 21 cars.

some of those cars flipped over on the bridge. there's the problem of trying to right the cars and get them out of the way, too the csx crews have been out here since the accident happened. once again, according to the lead investigator in this case, jim southward with the national transportation safety board, it will be a long process. they're not sure whether he will be able to open the track. they will look at the cars, the wheels, and they will look at the possibility offed load shifting, the bridge. there are a lot of things to investigate. to quote him, he said the accident can happen in seconds but the investigation can take weeks or longer. that's how thorough they will be here to answer the questions as they go through this bit by bit

to determine how the two girls died. imagine people have probably been up on that bridge 1,000 times but to have the train derailed, it's an amazing coincidence. >> they were probably spending the last summer night together. they both start school this weekend or were supposed to move in this weekend. unbelievable. this is something we've never seen in ellicott city. steve set up an easel. he's been there a couple hours. you have to come see something you've never seen beforehand put it on can -- before and put it on canvas. what do you want us to see when we look at this? >> i'm just trying to capture the moment. this is almost the story i couldn't imagine in my head and i had to come out and capture

the moment. >> reporter: steve will be here most of the night. it's unbelievable in ellicott city. jamie costello, abc2 news.