tv Action News 500 AM ABC May 13, 2015 5:00am-5:31am EDT
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>> ♪♪ >> "action news." delaware valley's leading news program. with matt o'donnell, tamala edwards, karen rogers and meteorologist, david murphy. >> ♪♪ >> cars overturned. deputies responding to frankford. we see -- we're going classify this as a mass casualty incident. >> you see the nightmare and the wreckage there. it is 5:00 a.m. on this wednesday morning and breaking this morning catastrophe strikes when an amtrak train goes off the rails in philadelphia. >> seven cars and the train's engine either turned over or upside down. five people are dead dozens more injured. we have live team coverage right here on "action news." >> but first up we'll head over to dave murphy. good morning. >> good morning. cooler and windy conditions out there for the cleanup
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effort. i'll have your afternoon call coming up. karen. >> we have huge impacts for your morning commute both on the roads and rails. full detail that of coming up. >> and first up safety teams will be on the scene in port richmond this morning investigating the cause of the deadly amtrak train derailment in philadelphia. >> the amtrak northeast regional train was headed from washington, d.c. to new york city. several cars flew off the tracks at 9:30 last night. that's where it happened. the area is where the derailment occurred is known as frankford junction and has a big curve there just over to the left. 238 passengers and five crew members were on board. most of the passengers were able to escape safely but again, five people are confirmed dead. >> now let's get to our team coverage. we'll start with chad pradelli live as close to the scene as is possible. good morning, chad. >> reporter: good morning, tam. just moments ago a crane was brought in to help with this recovery operation. we're about 200 yards from the wreckage. you can see some of the flashing lights behind me.
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i'm told by police that two of the deceased have been taken away from that mangled metal. that crane is now here on scene. it will try to lift some of those -- some of those cars to get to others inside the wreckage. now, this was obviously a devastating derailment that happened late last night. mayor michael nutter says seven cars including the engine derailed. some of those cars completely turned over. the startled look of passengers with blood dripping from their gaping wounds said it all. this was a mass casualty event. just moments earlier passenger train 188 bound from washington, d.c. to new york derailed in port richmond. passengers say the typical calm of the tracks was interrupted by the derailment. for a second, there was silence, then chaos. one passenger said it sounded like shopping carts crashing into one another. was there any warning at all before this happened? >> no, no it happened in
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seconds. so, i don't know what happened. i have no idea but i'm okay and i'm praying that everyone else is. i don't have a scrape at all. >> reporter: emergency responders flooded the scene. 65 of the 243 aboard the train were transported to area hospitals. triage centers were set up for the influx of passengers. >> 65 transports. still six considered critical and unfortunately a confirmed five individuals deceased. >> the incident has been placed under control so we're starting the family reunification process. we're working with all of our human services agencies. >> reporter: so far the cause of the derailment is still under investigation. the department of homeland security is on scene and the national transportation safety board will lead the investigation. governor tom wolf arrived from harrisburg and said the state is ready to assist. >> anything the state can do to help, we stand ready to do
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that. the state police are here to help. >> reporter: and at last check mayor michael nutter said not everyone has been accounted for. now this is a very fluid situation. that was during the the mayor's last briefing. any one looking for loved ones mayor michael nutter said most of the people likely on the train were either from washington, d.c. or new york. we don't know how many were from the philadelphia area but anyone looking for loved ones is urged to call amtrak. live in port richmond, chad pradelli, channel6 "action news." >> thank you, chad. "action news" reporter katherine scott is live at hahnemann university hospital where doctors are treating several of the injured passengers. katherine. >> reporter: matt, a hahnemann spokesperson told me that 30 people were taken here to hahnemann university hospital. four of them were admitted but the majority of people who came here to hahnemann had more minor injuries. they had a variety of injuries from fractures to burns. in all though six people critically injured. at least five people confirmed
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dead after last night's train derailment in port richmond. >> basically the trains tilted over and rolled. >> reporter: 243 people were on board the amtrak northeast regional train. 188 heading to new york when it derailed around 9:30 last night in port richmond. >> there were so many people worse off than me rider now. >> reporter: this was declared a level three mass casualty incident. the fire department says 18 medic units were brought on scene. last night six people were taken to the hospital in critical condition. those with less serious injuries could be seen climbing out of police wagons or exiting septa buses. some were still carrying their luggage. nearby residents rushed to the tracks to see what they could do to help. >> as soon as we walked on to the tracks there were already ambulance crews on the scene. >> reporter: the train originated in washington, d.c. and then left 30th street station minutes prior to the crash. several people were carried from the train on stretchers. others were able to walk on their own but were limping or
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appeared unsteady. now, a lot of people, those with more minor injuries have been able to go home. again, around four people admitted here to hahnemann university hospital. around 30 of them taken here to hahnemann. across all of the hospitals at least 140 people went in to be treated or evaluated. we're live in center city, katherine scott, channel6 "action news." >> thank you for that katherine. amtrak has a hotline for people who are questions about their friends and family who were aboard train 188. the number to call is one-800-523-9101. >> even deadier and more disastrous train disaster happened in the same spot that those amtrak cars derailed. erin o'hearn has that story from the big board. erin. >> reporter: good morning, matt. the area of the crash is known as frankford junction. in 1943 it was the site as you said of one of the nation's deadliest train actions when the congressional limited crashed killing 79 people. now this is the front page of the new york times describing
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exactly what happened. we want to take you to chopper six live over the scene to compare those two scenes. rescue crews have been on the scene all night. last night amtrak trucked in portable lights to illuminate the scene overnight as workers examined the wreckage. obviously there is a lot going on here. workers have to secure that situation and investigators have to examine the scene and scour the area for evidence. we still don't know why the train derailed leaving five people dead and dozens injured. we do know it was approaching a curve. the passengers inside the train at the time said there was no warning, that the train just all of a sudden jolted and then there was chaos and of course disaster. again this is a live shot of crews and investigators working at the scene something you'll likely see throughout the week as officials try to clean up and determine exactly what happened here. certainly a lot of passengers and families of the deceased looking for answers.
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coming up in the next half hour we'll hear a 911 call from the scene. karen. >> we want to talk right now about what's happening through the area. as far as the rails and the roads through the region. so what's running and what's not? amtrak between philadelphia and new york city there's no service at this point. all service canceled and amtrak not saying when they're going to restore service in area but some service is running. it's on a modified schedule but between d.c. and philadelphia and between new york city and boston amtrak running on a modified service. new jersey transit is honoring amtrak tickets and that's between trenton and new york city, so between trenton and new york city, if you can get to trenton you can take new jersey transit with your amtrak ticket. this is new, also, coming into to us, atlantic city rail line right now between 30th street station and pennsauken will not run. so, now this is also impacting the atlantic city rail line. impacting septa as well. the trenton line uses the same tracks. the from end ton line --
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trenton line will not run through the day. septa says it's possible it may not run through the rest of the week. it's yet to come how long the impacts are lasting at this point. chestnut hill east line is running on the and time, chestnut hill west line not running. also affecting local closures through port richmond. more on that coming up. >> karen thanks so much. we'll have continuing coverage of this accident throughout the day on "action news" on 6abc.com and our 6abc news apps. stay with our many platforms to get any breaking developments plus pictures and video from the scene. >> now it's time to turn to dave murphy who will give us a sense of the weather for people out there working. >> only one weather issue for us today it's going to be rather blustery and windy. i don't know that that necessarily affects rescue and recovery efforts. otherwise we're drive storm tracker six live double scan shows you that. as we take a look outside skies center city every now and then the camera bounce dag because we have some blustery winds that are already
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building a little bit. at times we've seen temperatures in the teens this morning. 62 degrees is your current temperature, dewpoint nice and low so the humidity is gone. winds west northwest at 10 miles per hour currently at the airport but again some of you experiencing winds in the teens and gusting a little higher than that. a little bit of early cloud cover fairly thin and we think it will erode quickly today and we'll wind up with mostly sunny skies. it's going to be cooler than yesterday, though. 58 by 8 o'clock, 64 by 11 o'clock and then we spend the afternoon mainly in the upper 60's with a high of 69 degrees at 3 o'clock. some spots like center city might get up to 70, 71 but that's about where we're going to stop and of course you have that blustery wind as well. high temperature in the lehigh valley only in the mid 60's today. 67 in reading, 68 in trenton 69 in wilmington, a couple 70's down south and right down by the shore upper 60's for your high. windy and cooler than it was yesterday. of course yesterday's high in philadelphia 88. so, a big change today. your exclusive accuweather 7-day forecasting windy and
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cooler today 69 degrees is the high, mainly sunny and decent weather for the phillies tonight although you'll probably want to bring along the jacket because we're going to be dipping into the up are 50's by the end of the game. overnight we're all the way down to 51. thursday sunny and nice, a high of 74 degrees. 54 overnight low. another cool start on friday. friday afternoon the mid 70's and it's going to be a nice friday and decent friday night as well. on saturday if you have outdoor activities scheduled i wouldn't cancel them but in the afternoon in particular there's the chance of a scattered pop-up showers or perhaps a couple thunderstorms here and there. it will be warm with a high of 82. sunday clouds and sun, 80 is your high and a couple of more showers or a thunderstorm possible but mainly dry on sunday. and then it looks like it's absolutely dry on monday and tuesday and still rather warm. >> all right. thank you for that, david. and coming up we're going to keep going back to the train tragedy. right now it is 5:11. of course it's going on right here in philadelphia. we know that five people have
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>> welcome back. we want to go over what's running and not running related to the train derailment. there's no amtrak service at this point obviously between philadelphia and new york city. it's all been canceled at this point and unclear for how long. we have some trains running on a modified schedule between d.c. and philadelphia and also between new york city and boston. if you can get to trenton you can use the new jersey transit
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line between trenton and new york city. they are honoring the amtrak tickets there. so if you have an amtrak ticket and you good tote trenton you can go between trenton and new york city. this is also affecting atlantic city rail line between 30th street and pennsauken. it's not running at this point. local closures through the area and there are a number of them that port richmond with crews on the scene still at this point frankford avenue officially closed and emergency workers asking you just stay away from this area between torresdale and castor avenue. you can use aramingo richmond as your alternate. a number of streets intersecting franklin. pike wheatsheaf buckius sedgley butler corral and sepviva all seeing block catches with crews on the scene. look for alternates around the port richmond area. on the big picture no other major issues affecting you if you're getting out there this morning to commute but on the roads, on the rails matt and tam that train derailment having a big impact.
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>> we can't our coverage of the amtrak train derailment with annie mccormick where all amtrak rides to new york city are canceled. annie. >> reporter: many of the red cross volunteers, about 50 of them have been here overnight. now, those shelters that we have been talking about that were at local schools they have now moved here and there is a hospitality center that is inside 30th street station. also, a number of those people who were in the hospital too did not have major injuries are also being transported here. this is all so that they can be checked in with the red cross. then they can be countered for and then they can be helped by amtrak to get to where they need to be. we talked to one woman as she just entered back from the hospital. she tells us about her experience. she tells us in spanish. take a listen and then i'll translator for you. [speaking foreign language]
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and she's technology us that at that moment she wanted to find her daughter and her son because they were separated. her daughter broke her leg. , see miriam was actually walking with a limp. now also early this morning passengers stranded at 30th street station because their trains headed to new york had to wait several hours because of the train accident before them. they finally loaded buses around 3:30 a.m. bound for new york. now, i know karen has been keeping us updated with mass transit at this point. back out here live i want to give you modified schedule again for amtrak. they are providing service between washington and philly. harrisburg and philly and new york and boston but there is no service between new york and philadelphia. and again i want to put out that phone number out there that's something they are urging us here at the red cross to let people know.
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they don't want loved ones coming here to 30th street. they want them to contact 185-23-1909. reporting live at 30th street station, annie mccormick. >> let's get a sense of what this means for septa which is also involved with these tracks. we've got jerry williams a spokesperson for septa on the phone. we want to say good morning. can you give us an update about what you're hearing from this scene and what it means for your service in particular. >> first of all i want to say that septa's hearts and prayers go out to all the families involved in this incident. as of right now, our trenton line remains suspended and will be suspended throughout the day and possibly a few more days this week. our chestnut hill west line is operating. they're going to be some delays. >> now, jerry, does septa share the tracks with amtrak or are they sort of side by
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side? and you gave us that timetable of at least two days. could that be extended even further because i'm here these tracks were severely damaged. >> yes, that could be. i mean now that there's some light for people to evaluate the tracks, we may be learning some details about the -- how extensive these suspensions will be. yes, we do lease that track area along the northeast corridor from amtrak for septa service on the trenton line. >> so, it sounds as though it will be up to amtrak to take the for then in trying to get those tracks fixed. >> absolutely. we will be in touch with amtrak finding out exactly what's going on, learning more information from amtrak as the investigation and the work continues. >> all right jerry williams, live for us on the phone from septa. thank you jerry. more coverage when we come
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>> we just heard from a septa spokesperson i want to go over the latest for mass transit. the 10-ton line as you can see here, the trenton line, we can expect will not be running today and likely as she said not even the rest of the week. so we're going to continue to watch that. the west trenton line, what they're doing is adding extra cars as a possible alternate for you. so the west trenton line running with added cars. that chestnut hill west line and this is new will run so we have been told it will not run. looks like it will be running. expect some delays. the chestnut hill east line has always been running. along amtrak's northeast philadelphia between philadelphia and new york city though trains running. all service right now suspended between philadelphia and new york city, dave. >> the cleanup and rescue effort in port richmond today not hindered by any weather related issues other than the fact it's going to be rather blustery out there. we have a fire enhanced brush fire concern though especially in
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south jersey, although i would also be careful of southeastern pennsylvania and delaware but it's a red flag warning from noon until 6:00 in south jersey because of the dry fuels, low humidity and winds today. temperatures are in the 50's across most of the northern and western suburbs. 59 in center city. more of the same in south jersey. a couple can of low to mid 60's as we get closer to the shore and around 60 in delaware. if you're dressing the kids obviously sweatshirts this morning maybe a jacket this afternoon, matt. the high is going to go to 69. a bit on the cool side. >> okay, thank you david. former bucks county congressman patrick murphy was on the train from washington when it crashed last night. he tweeted out these pictures. murphy was planning to get off at the trenton stop and head home to bucks county. he says he was on the middle of the train when he heard a bang. then the train started wobbling and tipped over. "action news" spoke to murphy on the phone last night. >> obviously a lot of mayhem. people were pretty banged up and a lot of blood a lot of pleading. i pulled myself up.
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the guy i kind of landed on, he was okay. the guy next to him was completely passed out knocked unconscious, so i talked to him a little bit. i said buddy buddy buddy and he came to. >> murphy says senator tom carper of delaware was also on the same train but had gotten off safely in wilmington before the crash. cam, protein from yogurt? yup, this greek nonfat yogurt packs 15 grams of protein punch. but what else? unlike some other protein snacks, it has 0 added sugar 0 artificial sweeteners and 0 fat. mmm... will it up my game? no man! new dannon oikos triple zero official yogurt of the nfl. mmm dannon. ♪ to you, they're more than just
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>> crews battled a massive three alarm blaze at a strip mall in chester county. it broke out on wallace avenue in downingtown yesterday evening. flames were shooting from a flower shop and spread to pizza shop. 100 firefighters and four volunteer departments responded to their scene. no reports of injuries and no information on what caused the fire. >> four philadelphia police officers are now out of the hospital all were hit by a fleeing suspect who may have a medical condition. police say driver 46-year-old rudolph keitt struck officers yesterday in olney and then took off. he then hit a police cruiser and more officers in west oak lane. officers shot keitt in the chest. he managed to take off again but collapsed at his home in the west oak lane section of the city. keitt is now in critical condition and his girlfriend says she thinks medical condition, perhaps a heart attack may have caused the violent encounter. >> 5:27. our coverage of the amtrak train crash in philadelphia continues. cars flew off the rails
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leaving at least five people ged and dozens more injured. we will have live reports from the scene and more next. tina! sorry! i was day dreaming. about becoming a pastry chef? uh... yeah. specializing in custom cakes? right! and opening your own bakery? how'd you know? you've got the new instant game from the pennsylvania lottery. yeah! king of cash with top prizes of $100,000. [male announcer] want to see your dreams come to life? you could scratch your way to instant winning. the pennsylvania lottery. bring your dreams to life. i'm lynne abraham. when i became philadelphia's da, child victims had
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>> ♪♪ >> absolute disastrous mess. never seen anything like this in my life. >> a chilling description by mayor michael nutter in the wake of last night's deadly amtrak disaster. >> this is a view of the aftermath from chopper 6hd. rail cars are flipped over, others torn apart. right now we know at least five people are dead, dozens more are injured. the ntsb will arrive at the scene today to begin its investigation into this deadly amtrak train derailment. we have live team coverage coming up. >> good morning, it's 5:30 now on this wednesday may 13th. first off let's check in with meteorologist dave murphy and with karen rogers. good morning. >> over the last hour or so a new weather issue popped up much as expected the national weather service has posted a red flag warning this afternoon up until 6 o'clock in the s
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