we're getting new information from the hospital treating some of the 23 people injured in austin when a suspected drunk driver plowed into a group standing outside a nightclub. plus, a wind advisory expires at this hour, but not before the high winds took down trees and power lines. coming up, who's still dealing with power outages right now. and the wind is just part of

the weather story this morning. the other, the big dip in temperatures. storm team4 lets us know if the cold will continue through the weekend. good morning, everyone. it's thursday, march 13th, 2014, welcome to "news4 midday." right now, thousands of people across the dmv are without power. crews are out trying to restore electricity after last night's strong winds brought down trees and power lines. here are the latest totals. in virginia, dominion has about 5,000 customers in the dark. pepco is working to get the lights back on for about 350 customers in d.c. and maryland. bge has about 1,700 customers with no power. most of those outages are in montgomery county. let's go live to megan mcgrath. she's in ashton with more now. megan, any problems out there now? >> reporter: barbara, plenty of problems. as you can see, i'm still wearing my hat, because it's still very, very windy out here. and so, we're seeing power outages.

we're also seeing road closures like the one behind me here. lots of problems this morning. the trouble began before the sun came up, in laurel a utility pole brought down by the wind sent power lines onto busy route 198. it was closed in both directions for the morning rush. downed trees and snapped branches caused big problems this morning. in silver spring, a large tree fell on top of a house. and in ashton, maryland -- >> another day, another storm. >> it was scary. it was, like, really the trees -- the tall trees were just bending over. >> reporter: some of those trees fell. utility poles snapped, and transformers blew. >> just sparks, just, like, when you hit your battery cable. >> it was, like, really great. >> there was green arcs, a power surge, pretty green sparks.

>> a big humming. >> reporter: like many in the area, the martinez family is without electricity. power outages also complicated rush hour. forcing police to direct traffic through busy intersections. those dark signals led to many a traffic jam. and progress is being made. you can see the traffic light behind me just a few minutes ago, it was dark, but they have just got it back on. so they are making some progress. but still many areas without electricity at this point. barbara, back to you. >> all right, thanks so much, megan. well, the wind advisory expired at the top of this hour, but it remains breezy, really breezy, and cold out there this morning. storm team4 meteorologist amelia segal is in for tom kierein. amelia, i don't know if it's the wind or what, but it seems colder than all winter today. >> i think it's the shock,

barbara, going from near 70 degrees yesterday to temperatures right now only feeling like they're in the teens and single digits. this is temperature. we're in the 20s across the area, washington coming in at 27. but it is still windy and breezy outside. winds will die down somewhat throughout the day, but we are in for a breezy thursday. right now, winds gusting anywhere from about 30 miles an hour in leesburg up to almost 40 miles an hour in gaithersburg. so when you factor in those strong winds, this is how it feels. only about 9 degrees in ft. belvoir, feeling about 12 degrees in washington. 14 in college park. the good news, at least there is beautiful sunshine today. look at this look from our reston camera. not a cloud in the sky. wall-to-wall sunshine. and it will remain sunny for the rest of the day. but temperatures will only warm into the mid-30s. a high temperature in washington of 35 degrees. some good news, barbara. tomorrow, we'll be about 20 degrees warmer for our friday. i'll be outlining your friday forecast coming up in just over

10 minutes. >> can't wait for the weekend. all right, thank you. and right now, a prince george's county firefighter is still in the hospital after a close call on the job. he took a hard fall while responding to a fire at a police storage unit in mitchellville. news4's richard jordan joins us live from enterprise road with more on the story. good morning, richard. >> reporter: hi, barbara. good morning. this is a large piece of property here off of enterer price road and route 50. there is a golf course on site, horses on the ground, and then there is this whole house here that is now being used as a storage facility. early this morning it went up in flames. prince george's firefighters rolling up the hoses after battling a stubborn blaze. this one-time single-family home is now a maryland park police locker room. the mounted units use it for storage. today, the building and almost everything inside is destroyed. a nearby hydrant was a big help, but additional manpower was called in after the first firefighter to enter the burning building went through the floor.

>> he fell down there. for protocol, he sounded a mayday, meaning he was in distress. he also said he was okay and he had plenty of air and gave his exact location. firefighters went into an immediate rescue mode. they obtained a ladder from one of the engines, put it down the very same hole he fell through where he was able to climb up that ladder. >> reporter: the firefighter is in good condition, but while he was getting the treatment he needed, his colleagues were left to fight the flames that would not let up, partly because of the blustery weather. >> certainly was a contributing factor to the rapid spread of that fire. again, it's a very tightly built structure, but as soon as we opened up the sides of it, the wind certainly did fan it, and probably extended the amount of time it took us to extinguish the fire. >> reporter: prince george's county firefighters say wind has been an issue since last night. they've had three big fires since then, and in all the cases, they say the wind has

accelerated the fire, spreading the flames quicker. as for the firefighter, he'll be just fine. he is complaining of some body ache and soreness, but other than that, he's doing okay. reporting live in mitchellville, richard jordan, news4. >> thanks a lot, richard. new this morning, firefighters are trying to figure out what sparked a fire in bowie, a house fire there. prince george's county firefighters say this fire on guinevere road started before 11:00 last night, not far from annapolis road. the fire caused the second floor of the home to collapse. crews had to knock down walls to reach hot spots in the house. everyone inside the house made it out safely. news4's eun yang is following a developing story. >> we just heard from doctors in austin who are treating the most seriously injured victims in a crash at the south by southwest festival. that crash killed two people. doctors say two people in their 20s remain in critical condition with severe head injuries. the driver was treated and

released but was in police custody the whole time. police say that driver plowed into a crowd at the festival, killing two people. they say officers tried to stop him for suspected dwi before the crash. he now faces two counts of capital murder for the deaths of a man and a woman on a moped. he may potentially be charged with 23 counts of aggravated assault for the 23 people injured in that crash, as well. we are waiting for police to give us more information during a news conference at 11:30. we'll bring you an update here on "news4 midday." at the live desk, i'm eun yang. barbara? >> thanks a lot, eun. we're following another developing story, this one in new york city. a seventh victim was killed by the explosion that flattened two apartment buildings in east harlem. the latest victim was found in the rubble around 7:15 this morning. gas leak triggered yesterday's explosion. the blast injured more than 60 people, including at least three children. an elderly temple hills man

shoots his wife and then turns the gun on himself. right now, police in prince george's county are trying to figure out what led to this murder/suicide. police went to do a welfare check on a home on winston street yesterday. when they arrived, they found the couple dead. detectives are working to establish a motive. a dreaded proposal could become reality for those of you who use metro. today, the transit agency will vote on a plan to raise fares. it's part of its overall budget plan. metro unveiled that last fall. under the proposal, most train trips would go up about 3%. if you take the bus, it could cost you an extra $1.75. if you pay with a smart trip card. and $2 more if you pay with cash. parking would go up to 25 cent -- or up by 25 cents at all metro lots. if approved, prices will go up this july. well, the pool at the wilson aquatic center is still closed this morning. however, classes at wilson high

school are back in session. yesterday, a worker cut a line at the pool attached to the school. 30 gallons of acid used to treat the pool water contaminated the water and the air. classes were cancelled the rest of the day. pool is expected to reopen later today. in the past hour, attorney general eric holder announced a plan to reduce prison terms for some drug offenders. coming up, what the plan would accomplish and what criminals would spend -- which criminals will spend less time behind bars. plus, speaking out from her hospital bed, the woman shot by this man in a store in spotsylvania county is talking about what she wants to happen to that shooter. a call for change in iphones, the chemical in the phone, some are calling very dangerous. stay with us for that.

right now, eight u.s. senators are on their way to ukraine to meet with local government officials there. this comes a day after president obama welcomed ukraine's acting prime minister to the white house. the president warned that the west will apply a cost if russia continues its aggression in ukraine. ukraine's leader told the president his country is ready for talks with russia but vowed there would never be a surrender. president obama also called on crimean secession referendum scheduled for sunday illegitimate. to a developing story out of east asia, the mission to find the malaysia airlines flight 370 back to square one now. malaysian officials say planes have checked the site where chinese satellite images showed possible debris from the missing jetliner, but they found nothing when they checked. the plane disappeared saturday while flying from malaysia to beijing. meanwhile, malaysian officials are denying a new report from the "wall street journal." that report says that the u.s.

investigators believe flight 370 flew on for four hours after it lost contact with air traffic controllers. and new this morning, u.s. attorney general eric holder just revealed a proposal to reduce prison terms for nonviolent drug offenders. he testified before the u.s. sentencing commission just a few hours ago. holder suggesting that prison terms for nonviolent drug crimes be reduced by about a year. holder says the changes could reduce the prison population by about 6,500 inmates within five years. >> certain types of cases result in too many americans going to prison for too long and at times for no truly good law enforcement reason. although the united states comprises just 5% of the world's population, we incarcerate almost a quarter of the world's prisoners. >> the sentencing commission is expected to vote in the coming months. in just a few hour, we'll hear president obama's plan to change the country's over