talk about a major party foul, a whiskey disstillery crumbled all because of sandy. we'll tell you about the situation in cockiesville this morning, plus a look at all that damage. it wasn't as bad as expected. try saying that to those still in tthis morning. we'll have a roundup of those

still without power and what bge is doing to get the lights back on. and it is a mess that is still causing quite a stink. the mess in howard county with that sewage treatment center and the damage caused to the little pautuxent river. thanks for joining us. it is wednesday morning. we do want to let you know before we go any further, i know if you have kids, you want to know what the situation is with their school. if you're not aware yet, you can always head to our website, abc2news.com. that's where we posted everything for you. we should let you know baltimore city is closed, about 17 baltimore county schools are closed. head to abc2news.com to get all the information. time now for a check of the forecast. let's head over to lynette. >> all right, guys, let's talk about what's going on with sandy, the remnants are churning but working their way off toward the north, still dropping rain in a lot of spots north of us and west of us and even some snow across that area. but here close to home, we're not dealing with anything like that. we're just dealing with lots of cloud cover this morning. we see some rain as far west as hagerstown, so if your travels

are taking you that way this morning, be prepared for that. i'm not going to rule out a chance for a shower to pop up as we go throughout the morning and afternoon. but all in all we will stay dry for today, so that's some good news. we do have some flood watches, flood warnings out there and even some snow advisories as well, talking about blizzards back off toward the west. but mainly these flash flood warning are in effect for the bay, the rivers, the creeks, and you can see this right now. a coastal flash flood warning for -- actually, through wednesday along the coast, so annapolis, you're definitely in that as well. and look at the rainfall totals, over a foot in easton. we'll talk more about that and break that down coming up. but right now let's get a check of the traffic with lauren cook. good morning. >>reporter: good morning, lynette. we are still dealing with some tree limbs and many roadways debris covers the highways as well. if you are traveling, do be aware that you could very well run into an intersection without a working traffic light. if that does happen, be sure to treat that as a four-way stop. if you are traveling on 95 this morning, no problems to report, heading into the city everything will remain up to speed through the fort mchenry

tunnel. and if you are using 83, as we check in and take a live look just north of the beltway, you'll notice everything just moving right along, no problems to report. the roads are going to be pretty wet, though, so definitely take it slow. there are no delays right now on 695, traveling the outer loop, you're looking at a normal 11 minutes right now to get from 95 all the way up to 83, and the west side going to be nice and clear, traveling the outer loop from 795 down to 95, that stretch will take you 11 minutes as well. that is a look at your traffic. megan and charley, over to you. sandy's torrential rains and strong winds caused serious damage up and down the east coast from flash flooding, it destroyed buildings. this storm had a massive impact, especially on a whiskey plant that was here locally that collapsed. >> abc 2 news' sherree johnson just came back from cockiesville and she had a look at some of the devastation. she's going to show it to you that sandy left behind. sheree, what does this mean for drivers? i have to imagine this is going to shut down some road. >>reporter: that's exactly right. this means that drivers may need to find an alternate route

this morning after the historic whiskey plant was hit by sandy. the storm tore a 60 by 50-foot hole in the plant's brick wall after a portion of the building collapsed just before 10:00 yesterday morning. now, for the first time in 60 years, we're getting to see inside of this historic whiskey plant. you can see the whiskey racks inside that plant and the plant shut down in 1958, and the owner wasn't able to sell it. now a portion of york road in cockiesville could be closed until rush hour. a spokesman from the maryland state highway administration says debris from the collapsed wall was clear from that road, but that one northbound lane will remain closed due to the threat of further collapse in that vacant warehouse. now, drivers are encouraged to take alternate routes for their morning commute with options including scwann road, warren road and interstate 83. sheree johnson, abc 2 news. it's 5:34 right now. there was a sewage situation, basically raw sue anl everywhere. we're talking about howard county, that's where high winds from the storm not only took down one of the electric lines powering the little pautuxent

reclaimation plant, but also a feeder line serving as backup, so sewage poured into the river over a 12-hour period. it took about five hours to make the repairs. the county is saying the spill shouldn't pose any threat to your health, it is okay to use your water. losing power has been a big concern following sandy. >> yeah, it's something that thousands of people are dealing with this morning and abc 2 news' linda stow is live this morning in towson with an update on the restoration and how the evers are going. how is it looking out there besides dark, linda? >>reporter: well, it's not raining which is good, it's not windy which is good which is good news for g -- bge crews, getting out there and doing their work. a lot of progress was made overnight. you're still going to see a lot of dark places. 86,000 bge customers still in the dark and then you have things like this, downed traffic lights that are not working. we're here at the intersection of hillan road and stevenson

lane, and i can tell you just in the last two minutes we've already counted five cars that have just blown through this intersection. please remember traffic lights are still out, so if you see one, if you come upon one, you need to stop, you need to treat it like a four-way intersection. if not, something bad will happen, and it's still dark outside, so you might not be able to see it too well, but you do need to treat these intersections like a four-way stop. when it comes to restoration efforts, bge tells us they made a lot of progress overnight. 30,000 customers in the viewing area were brought back, they got their power back. the hardest hit areas still, rockland county, howard county, baltimore county, that's where you'll see the bulk of the outages. bge says they will work today on bringing the most amount of customers back and hopefully the conditions will stay calm, no wind, no heavy rain to deal with. but, again, back out here live at the intersection of hillan road, stevenson lane, you just saw that car. it did not come to a complete stop. if you are heading off to work

this morning, taking your kids to school, if your kids are driving to school, please remind them, these intersections could be dangerous. they need to be treated as a four-way stop. we're live in towson, linda stow, abc 2 news. while you were worried about prounls and trees falling on -- power outages and trees falling on your house, your kids are worried about whether or not they'll have a chance to trick or treat this year. it looks like those little ghosts and princesses can go door to door tonight. the mayor in baltimore city will hold a meeting to discuss safety. that meeting will be a little later this morning. but last night they tell us it should be okay for the kids to go out. most counties agree and say it's safe for your kids to trick or treat, but they're urging parents to use good judgment. in baltimore county, it's being left up to the communities, so be sure to check your neighborhood association before heading out the door. and also you can head to our facebook page and let us know what your plans are with the little ones coming up for halloween. during the height of sandy, the power system failed in new york, and certain -- in certain places and one place was a hospital. some of the sickest patients had to be evacuated and they

had to get out quickly. they were transported, including this 13-day-old baby. baby martinez. she is a premie, weighing just two pounds and she needed to get to a hospital. >> it's frightening. when you're dealing with tiny little babies like this who are so fragile, it really can be an extraordinary circumstance. >> the parents of that little dpirl, they found out that the hospital and their daughter would be evacuated when they watched mayor bloomberg on television. so they were stuck in new jersey, they couldn't get to their baby until the next day, but we are happy to report to you that that baby is doing just fine. news time 5:38. and sandy gave us a firsthand lesson for the safety around downed power lines. how many times have we told you do not go near downed power lines? there is evidence for you. an electrified car, this once again in new jersey. no word yet on whether anyone was injured, but the car does

appear empty. you just watch this video over and over again. you need nothing more of a lasting impression. dpl that's pretty incredible video. we're getting a closer look this morning of the damage that sandy left behind in ocean city. >> yeah. stay with us this morning because we're going to show you some of the dramatic images of the wreckage left behind by the huge storm. it may be time for a horror movie, maybe a marathon for halloween, but what you may not know, this could be healthy. how far will people go to relieve their sore throat?

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ocean city got socked, but it didn't get as hard as originally expected. you can take a look at this before and after shot that we want to show you with the iconic pier. the top picture, of course, taken four weeks ago, the bottom one from yesterday. this was shared out on instagram, so pretty incredible images. linda, i know we're going to -- lynette, illinois he we'll see images like that for a while. >> yes, they do have cleanup to do. the good news is we can do that now because we are starting to dry out. a look at the rainfall totals, yesterday we were at five inches, four inches, a little bit above that, close to six. well, we had more rain come in here yesterday, so this is basically the totals from

superstorm sandy. so over a foot in easton. wow! that's a lot of rain. queenstown 9.89 inches, pasadena 8.6 inches, other ocean city 7.2 inches and salisbury 7.4 inches. so i just wanted to show you that. for today, though, it's cold. make sure you do have that big coat as you head out the door. late get a check now of the abc 2 time saver traffic with lauren cook. good morning. >>reporter: good morning, lynette. definitely going to need a warm halloween costume. unfortunately we are dealing with some storm damage in baltimore county. there was a partial building collapse, the historic whiskey plant on york road, two northbound lanes are now shut down at railroad avenue. you will want to use scwann road, warren road or 83 as your alternate routes. no delays right now on the jfx heading into the city. and if you are using 695 as we check in and daik a look at parkville road, everything is moving right along, no delays. but the roads still could be pretty wet and there could be some trees that remain down on

the secondary road that you will need to watch out for. that's a look at your traffic. megan and charley, over to you. the magical o's season, it's in the books and the team is hibernating for a long winter's nap. >> but the post-season hardware still coming in, the gold gloves being handed out and the distinction that the orioles snagged that no other team in baseball did. we'll tell you about all that. now that the storm has passed, you may be thinking about cleanup. we want to remind you, head to our website, abc2news.com for all the latest school closings and delays, there's a lot of them, and you might not be aware, so that's the place to go. we'll also show you some of the cleanup and how not to get scammed if you have some work to do. anncr: it's endorsed by business leaders...

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thanks for joining us this morning. we are joined by angie barnett who have some great tips because so many of you have cleanup to do. maybe a roof blew off a house or maybe a tree is down. but there are scammers out there who basically make their living off of the opportunity. >> oh, absolutely. we call those storm chasers. they are individuals who monitor where storms are occurring, and they will actually trek across the u.s., and luckily they are able to be followed by business name, but

our storm chasers will actually come into a neighborhood and think about it, lots of damage frequently in neighborhoods, people are frustrated and they want things fixed fast. so they come in, knock on your door and offer to do your service. this is the one thing i want to always remind people, the lowest bid, the lowest price is not necessarily the best. the storm chasers will give you low bids so you're very tempted to do business with them. they'll collect your money and -- >> you never see them again. >> never see them again and, remember, they're out of state. >> this is the one thing that concerns me because you mentioned you know about certain companies, so somebody can go to your website and look to see if someone doesn't have a great reputation. if someone has to come to your door you are weary of, i hear these cams and i would fall for them. what should you look out for bottom line? >> bottom line, you first of all want to make sure they are licensed in the state of maryland to do business and that's with the maryland home improvement commission, if they're doing internal or exterior work. so licensing is important.

you want to make sure they have insurance, and they gotta provide proof to you. if you question, i would take a photo of their truck, their tags on the back of truck, make truck and their business card and their shirt, all those things go together, that it's the same company. verify how long they've been around. that's important, and do they have brick and mortar business because that's critical. and check with bbb.org to see if we have any history on them, whether it's good or bad and maryland home improvement commission as well. >> angie barnett with the bbb. always good to see you, you always have great advice. >> thank you, megan. >> charley. time for five things you may want to know on this wednesday, the new york stock exchange reopening today. last time the big board closed for two consecutive days as a result of weather, 1888. exchange officials say there may be technical problems when those doors reopen. megan, this next story is all about you. >> yeah, the force is now with

disney. the company has announced plans to acquire lucas films under the $4 billion deal disney would preserve and expand the "star wars" franchise. "star wars" episode 7 already in the works and set to come out in 2015. >> we can only hope it's better. people heeded the warnings to stay inside until the storm passed. netflix says the viewership doubled along the east coast during sandy. it saw a spike in the number of children's movies being seen. planning to head out to the white house will have to find a new party to attend. the obamas have canceled the traditional halloween party, the president now traveling to the northeast to check on the cleanup and recovery efforts. >> victory parade today, they were given just two days to get everything together up to a million fans are expected to come out and watch the parade. the giants swept the detroit tigers in the world series.

you know when you're watching a scary movie and you're yelling at the character, don't go into the room, don't go into the room, the killer is in there hiding. all that adrenaline turns out will help you lose some weight. that is according to researchers in great britain. they claim that the surge of adrenaline, it produces short bursts of stress which can actually lower your appetite and help burn calories. some of the top calorie-burning films if you have an open night tonightcious there's always "jaws," "the shining" and "the exor sist." the orioles made the playoffs for the first time in 15 years. >> they are getting recognition. >> all received gold glove awards for fielding excellence. this is hardy's first gold glove. the orioles also was the team that had the most on any single team, more than in major league baseball and this is the first time since 1998 the o's had three gold glovers. >> good for them. let's get a check on the weather. good for you, lynette, because

you have been working hard lately. >> we all have been working hard. let's talk about what's going on right now, not much on the radar, you have to go off towards the west and to the south, so virginia, west maryland and west virginia, that's where all the action is right now. we can see the temperatures are cold this morning, in the 30s in a lot of spots. make sure you do bundle up as you head out and about. where you see the remnants of sandy pushing off toward the north, still spinning in some wet weather. this will continue through the day out west. a slight chance for a shower across our area, but i'm going to call it chilly and breezy as we go into the afternoon, also this morning. future trend not picking up on a whole lot as we go through the rest of today, just some cloud cover out there, maybe even a few peeks of some sunshine, but we will see more cloud than sun for today. we'll have to wait just a little bit longer to get in on lots of sunshine across the area. so this is what it looks like for your planner today. we'll be right around 49 degrees and breezy as we go until lunchtime, and 52 degrees is the high temperature i'm going with today. it is going to be cold for

halloween tonight. let's get a check now of the abc 2 time saver traffic with lauren cook. good morning. >>reporter: good morning, lynette. there is some storm damage right now in baltimore county. there was a partial collapse to a whiskey plant in cockiesville. two northbound lanes are now shut down at york road right near railroad avenue. you will want to use shawan road or warren road or 83 as your alternate route. as we check in and take a look at 83 here in hunt valley, everything will be moving right along, no delays. but the roads across the region still going to be pretty wet, so definitely take it slow, be extra careful. there could always be some debris along the roadway, the tree branches, a lot of leaves brought down from the trees from the storm. stay with us, there's much more to come. you are watching "good morning maryland." ♪

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three ducks decided to take a stroll through the streets of downtown annapolis last night. >> they were trying to grab a drink at the middleton tavern right across the street from market place. police, didn't think it was a very good idea, so the officers came in to shoo them away. >> the ducks came back and shooed away and got their own police escort out of town. kids will be trick or treating their hearts out. >> they sure will be, no matter

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