make distinction between spending we don't need and spending we do. i have some rather grim memories of it. the moti notion was that even as we were bringing down the deficit we will come up with a -- you've been watching an nbc news special report. what turned into a very emotional news conference in which the education secretary arne duncan announced that he's going to step down by the end of the year. >> the president also is commenting about the tragedy at the community college in oregon yesterday. we will continue to monitor the news conference and bring you more of what the president says. news 4 at 4:00 starts now. news 4 begins now with storm team 4. >> and live at 4:00, a nor'easter bringing bands of rain, gusts of wind and bursts of cooler air and the worst of the storm may be still to come. >> no doubt ocean city is the

hardest-hit spot in maryland. we're getting new video just in from the storm team 4 x 4, it shows high surf eating away at that beach. closer to the district, a flash flood watch is in effect and the heaviest rain will be hitting us over the next few hours. good afternoon. i'm pat lawson muse. >> i'm chris lawrence. news 4 will be with you for the next three hours and we'll pushing out alerts on the nbc washington app all weekend long. >> we'll have team coverage from ocean city to northern virginia. we start in the storm center with chief meteorologist doug kammerer and meteorologist amelia segal. >> hey, guys. we're watching the rain continuing to come through the area. today is just a nasty, nasty day, but right now we're pretty much just dealing with the run of the milnor easter and we're not dealing with winds that are too high and we're not seeing the extremely heavy rain that we saw come out of the storm earlier in the week and things started to come down even though we still had the flash flood watch out. >> right. we're not as concerned about

flash flooding and talking about everything else and the rain and the temperatures about 20 degrees below where they should be and then you factor in breezy to windy conditions, too. >> we'll continue to see the windy conditions right on through the rest of the evening, too. notice the rain around the region, but also notice here and the other night when we had frederick county and loudoun county. we saw orange and red on the radar. notice, not a single area of very heavy rain and we had moderate rain out toward portions of loudoun county and we had the moderate rain coming on through and no extremely heavy rain will zoom on in and i'll show you where that's going to be as we move through back to the west. we are still watching more rain moving up from the south, but the last couple of frames here, notice some drying beginning to take place and the reason for this is twofold. one, we have this trough out here towards the ocean and that's stopping some of the inland flow and down to the south extremely heavy rain taking place and the shift is starting to happen where they're going to get crushed down towards parts of south carolina. the wind gusts have been a big

factor and upwards of 30 miles per hour and ocean city, they've been upward of 40 to 50 miles an hour and that's where veronica johnson has been and v.y., you're seeing problems with the next high tide and the next one could be worse. >> that's right. we had high tide around noon today. we're expecting the next high tide at 12:16 in the morning and there's been moderate to major flooding taking place today and the winds are just now starting to ramp up. they're around 50 miles per hour and i think they'll hold around 50 right through the evening hours going into tomorrow morning and again, flooding the big issue and take a look, we were out with the storm team 4 x 4 earlier today and you can see how high the water is about 12 inches on top of the roads and yes, they have closed some of the roads around the area today from about division street all of the way down toward ocean city inlet. they were letting some of the cars through, but now from division street on down, they have closed the road. so they're asking residents to

stay on alert for changing weather conditions. it's right through sunday that they do expect to see a bit more rain, but also more flooding again. tides have been running at about six feet and right through sunday they're expected as winds start to shift that the next problem area, doug and amelia could be right down over by the bay. amelia? >> thanks, v.j., we're awaiting to hear additional reports from you tonight. here's the latest on storm team 4 radar. steady rain across the area and we'll continue to keep an eye on hurricane joaquin, right now a category 4 storm, very powerful winds moving at about 130 miles an hour and maximum sustained winds and here's the latest track and keep it well offshore and forecast to move into a category 2 hurricane. and it continues out to the sea which is great news. we had so much rain in the area tuesday night and in total we're looking at one to three inches

of rain throughout the day today on into tomorrow and we'll have more on the rain tomorrow throughout the day coming up, right, doug? >> yeah. that weekend, a lot of impacts coming up for the weekend and if you have plans for your saturday and sunday, a lot of them have been canceled, but if they haven't been we'll hear the weekend forecast and we'll have that in a couple of minutes. this weekend's downpour in virginia, and they join us live from loudoun county. what are you seeing out there. >> this is gap road and gap road now lives up to its name. you can see why this is the big gap, the hole in the road. this came from that heavy rainfall on tuesday night. this road remains closed and about a dozen others are more in northern virginia closed, too, because of either damage or trees down. now these are the places that they're going to be watching closely over the next couple of days because if the water starts to rise again there could be more damage. already you see where big chunks

of asphalt have been washed away and it could get even worse if the streams rise again and that is one reason that loudoun county fire and rescue has beefed up its staffing heading into the weekend. at the leesburg station they always have the swiftwater rescue boat on hand and the same at luckets and they've added a boat this weekend and they have specially trained rescue crews on hand just in case the waters rise and they have to go after somebody who makes that mistake of driving into deep water. >> coming up all new at 5:00 and the sandbags i showed you getting filled up and i'll show you what happened and did they sit on the trucks or do folks come to snap them up? >> julie carey, thanks, julie. the weekend started early in norfolk, virginia with a number of schools and businesses closing ahead of schedule with flash flooding. many people woke up to the mess of the streets washed out with

heavy rains. a high-profile attempted murder cases and in a dramatic hearing, jesse matthew was sentenced to three life terms in prison. news 4's david culver is live at the courtroom in fairfax. david, what happened when they announced this sentence? >> reporter: chris, dramatic. that is certainly the word to use here. as the sentencing was being read out by the judge, jesse matthews' mom started screaming hysterically and started screaming "no," she refused to leave the courtroom until the sentencing was finished and she was clearly upset. the prosecutor wanted to make a case during the sentencing proceeding and he wanted to show the judge that jesse matthew according to him has shown no remorse. >> as in every instance in this case, he only acts in his own best interest. he's only interested in himself and he tried to squirm out of this by doing 11th-hour plea and having some of his girlfriends

write some letter, and i'm glad it didn't work. >> reporter: matthew was sentenced on three separate counts and getting a total of three life sentences in prison. the brutal incident happened here in fairfax in 2005. the victim flew in from india to testify telling the court, she was grabbed, beaten and sexually assaulted. matthew ended up taking an alfred plea acknowledging there's enough evidence of a conviction without admitting that he committed the crime. matthew, you'll recall, is also accused in the death of hannah graham as well as morgan harrington. parents of those young victims also in this courtroom here in fairfax today. you will hear their reaction to today's sentencing when i join you again on news 4 at 5:00, pat? >> david culver, thank you. joaquin batters the bahamas and several small islands reporting major flooding right now. we'll have an early look at the damage. the weather is impacting

tonight and into the weekend and

>> and most of the area is under a flash flood watch. this is going to run through tomorrow morning at 8:00 a.m. all of the counties in solid green and this includes the d.c. area and we're not as concerned about flash flooding as we are of isolated flooding and creeks and streams and that sort of thing. in total we're talking about two to three, maybe four inches of rain falling across the area. water-soaked roads tonight. tomorrow morning still dealing with rain and windy conditions. not the best road conditions, but as we work our way throughout the day roads will improve tomorrow. later in the day, scattered showers on sunday and only a chance of showers. doug will be up in teb minutes showing you future weather

walking you through the weekend hour by hour with exactly what you can expect. this raw and rainy weekend we're about to have is taking a toll on events planned throughout our area. the reston festival celebrating latino culture canceled for tomorrow. the race for every child if d.c. also canceled for tomorrow and organizers are exploring other options for that event. the taste of bethesda food festival canceled for tomorrow and the virginia state fair ended early. if you already bought tickets for the fair this weekend you can find out what to do with those tickets on the nbc washington homepage or the nbc washington app and the list of all of the canceled earn vents and those that are rescheduled or still taking place is on the app, as well. >> remember, down to the south hurricane being. >> inhas been pounding the bahamas, but as of now there are no deaths being reported from the storm. that could change as rescue workers search for a missing cargo ship off of the coast.

32 people are missing on the ship including two crew members. some of the waves are 30 feet high and the storm has cut off power to a lot of people there. we continue to work a story out of oregon. new details emerging about who the gunman is at that community college and what he left behind at the scene of the massacre. preparing for the rain in a

here's a live look at the radar right now at 4:15. rivers and waterways swelling as driving rain falls across the dmv. news 4 has comprehensive team coverage and chief meteorologist doug kammerer and mark segraves will join us live in two minutes. we're also getting new details in that community college in oregon. police now say they have recovered 13 weapons, six at the college, seven in the suspect's apartment. officials say the gunman left pages and pages of notes at the scene in roseburg, and nbc's wendy rofo woolfolk. we are learning more about the gunman and the arsenal of weapons and authorities and residents are wanting to keep the focus on the victims. >> we heard this pop, pop, popping sound, and at first we

thought it was an engine backfiring. >> if they were christian, they were shot in the head, but if they stated other or didn't answer they were shot in the leg. all my brother could focus on was please, don't kill me, i have a family. >> reporter: now the local sheriff is refusing to even say the gunman's name and many locals as well as even the deejays in this area are not calling him by name as not to glorify what he did here yesterday. atf agents have recovered as you reported, 13 weapons and six here at the school and seven at the home of christopher harper mercer. all were purchased legally. investigators found a lengthy note at the shooting scene spouting when they call his philosophy of hate. right now we don't know the identities of the nine other people who lost their lives in addition to the gunman. three are, we do know, still in the hospital and one in critical condition and two have just been upgraded to stable condition.

we do also know that the community college is planning to open its doors on monday, and that's one huge step back to a new normal here. live in roseburg, oregon, i'm wendy woolfolk, back to you. a lot will be praying as those victims recover. please watch "nightly news," lester holt will anchor from roseburg with the latest on the investigation and the political debate over gun control. take a look, a very gloomy day across our region as our nor'easter continues and winds gusting upward of 20 to 30 miles an hour and if you're among the trees and if you live in bethesda and over parts of fairfax or herndon and the trees are helping out, but if you're downtown and over toward portions like alexandria and national harbor, right along the bay and that is kicking up.

weather headlines and some will be heavy at times and we're not talking about torrential, tropical downpours and we will not see that. localized and coastal flooding. we're not too worried about the big-time flood threat and we think there will be localized flooding and no impact from joaquin and we've been talking about that for the last two days and no impacts at all from joaquin. 52 degrees and look at that wind and north at 18 miles per hour and a lot of people with their coats and sweaters on today and not the kind of october weather we're used to and this is more like november with the rain continuing, and as i mentioned earlier, what we're not seeing here is the oranges and the reds on the radar. there are no areas of heavy rain. yes, we have moderate rain coming through and moderate rain coming right on through the district and right along the beltway and here's alexandria and some heavy rain right over alexandria and the

clinton-maryland region and moving toward downtown. we will see rain and it will be on the moderate side and maybe a little bit on the heavy side and not torrential. we're not going to see those one, two inches per hour like we saw the other day and notice down to the south we're starting to lose the rain altogether and that could mean very good news and maybe less rain tonight and a couple of reasons why. we have this boundary off the coast and this actually comes all of the way from joaquin making its way up a tropical moisture feed, but it will start to pivot back toward the west and as it does it will bring the carolina, a ton of rain and for us, it will lessen our effects and something we are going to see. all along the atlantic including places like ocean city and toward rehoboth and st. mary's county and all under a coastal flood warning overnight tonight for areas of high tied and flooding and low-lying areas and water, two feet above normal high tide and if you live in an area that does flood along the chesapeake or potomac, you will see flooding and you probably

know who you are. overnight tonight 6:15, we are seeing moderate rain around 6:a 15 and it starts to die off at 9:00 tonight and more rain, and take the umbrella with you. we're looking at 8:00 a.m. and yeah, we will see shower activity out there, but notice we have some clearing as far as the rain is concerned. it's going to stay cloudy and it's going to stay windy, and it's going to stay cold, but your saturday is looking a lot better than today was. how about as the eagles come to town and take on the skins? not bad. it will be cold and windy, but we'll get the game in no problem. 64 degrees at 2:00 and that's about the end of the first quarter. so what will we see the next couple of days? 66 on saturday and 66 on sunday and as the storm moves out we'll see much nicer conditions on monday, 72 degrees as we move into tuesday and amelia takes a better look at the weekend. >> thanks, doug.

even with the rain lighter than it could have been some areas of d.c. are still taking steps to protect against flooding, at least people in those areas are. mark segraves is in the hard-hit bloomingdale neighborhood. this is the bloomingdale neighborhood in the northwest that for years has had problems with homes and basements and that's why this multimillion dollar project is under waysívm d.c. water alleviating that problem, but on rainy days like today they take no chances and so they've been down here all day handing out sandbags that had nearly a thousand of them to give to residents and hundreds have been picked up so far. it's important to note, though, that these are only for neighbors who live in bloomingdale, and in the 900 block of pea street northwest and those are the three neighborhoods most affected by the flooding and so you will actually have to show the d.c.i.d. proving you live in the neighborhoods to get sandbag.

we captured a heartwarming moment in the sandbag giveaway and we'll bring that to you. mark segraves, news 4. the controversial clerk of co

>> now it's 4:25, heavy rain sweeping in as a nor'easter

bears down. flash flood watches are in effect for much of the region. our storm team coverage continues at the bottom of the hour. we know pope francis spoke with kim davis, but her attorney is disputing the vatican's description and interpretation of the meeting. the vatican is playing down the pope's meeting with the kentucky clerk which happened right here in washington. the vatican says she was one of dozens of people the pope greeted outside the vatican embassy and that the encounter shouldn't be considered a form of support of her position against same-sex marriage, but today davis' attorney says vatican officials invited her to meet the pope and even picked her up at her washington hotel. the attorney also claims that vatican officials told her to change her hairstyle to not be recognized since they wanted to keep the encounter secret. this weekend pope france sis hosting a meeting with bishops to focus family issues. some people hope they will allow

divorced catholics to take communion, but others don't see that happening. >> if you allow them to receive holy xhun onand other groups will start saying, including those in same-sex relationships saying why can't we receive holy communion? it can open the floodgates to a great abuse of the sacrament. some catholics argue it should stay just the way it is. others say they should be allowed to receive communion after a period of reconciliation. developing right now, parts of the bahamas are riding out hurricane joaquin. >> winds of at least 130 miles an hour are blasting parts of the islands. we have a new damage assessment from nbc's kerry sanders at the bottom of the hour. >> i'm tracee wilkins in prince george's county. george's county. they have up their new flood

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this is a storm team 4 weather alert. right now at 4:30, rain and wind whipping the coast. some of the heaviest bands could move in on us over the next few hours. >> floodwaters are washing over roads in ocean city and the situation could grow worse as high tide moves back in. >> news 4 has continuing live coverage on the air and on the nbc washington app. it continues with doug and

amelia in the storm center. what's it looking like right now, guys? >> well, guys, we still have that flash flood watch in effect until early tomorrow morning and we're starting to see things going a little bit better and we're not quite as concerned in flooding. >> the radar isn't picking up heavy band across the area and as we look further to the south we're not seeing the heavy rain move into the area. >> exactly right. let's show you the radar right now and we'll show you what's going on and everybody is seeing the rain and this rain has been going on all day and some locations picking up half-inch to an inch of rain. notice there are no oranges or reds here. we saw that the other day with very heavy rainfall and torrential downpours around leesburg and that is want the case today. you can see that with the latest radar here. it's on the light to moderate side for the most part. it's steady, but only on the moderate side. once again, it's looking better as far as that's concerned and here's what's happening here and we have the trough out to the east and we have the

northeasterly flow and it's been on the windy side and here's the latest thinking and watch and look over the next few hours and you see the direct flow right out of the south coming right toward washington and that's what's bringing us all of this rain and notice it's started to move this way away from the region and it's taken the moisture in. some places in the carolinas could pick up 15 inches of rain as this continues to shift around, but for us, we're thinking another inch and isolated another two inches and once again, amelia looks like the flood threat may be diminishing. >> exactly, doug. we definitely need the rain and the steady, soaking rain is beneficial for our area and since august 1st, our rainfall deficit is over 4 inches and here are our estimated rainfall totals and the district about a quarter of an inch of rain and gaithersburg about a half of an inch and the severe weather risk is not that high. the time period to be most weather ready is right now from very early tomorrow morning and low to moderate risk of heavy

rain that could lead to isolated flooding and some wind damage out there, but we are going to track breeze toe windy conditions this entire weekend, a very damp weekend and chilly weekend in store. high temperatures today running about 20 degrees below where they should be this weekend. high temperatures running below ten degrees where they should be so feeling chilly out there. the travel concerns will be tomorrow morning. outdoor exercise, you'll need the rain gear and it's a good idea to grab the rain boots and umbrella. >> and the coat because it is on the chilly side. oui all over the place covering this, prince george's bureau chief tracee wilkins is in prince george's county. tracee? >> reporter: i'm outside the county administration in prince george's and upper marlboro and this is an area that's prone for flooding and here they have their wall up, just in case, brand new wall built because this building has flooded before and they want to be prepared just in case.

they have localized flooding and in the upper marlboro, home depot, we saw shoppers grab last-minute things to help keep their homes dry and people who were worried about the possibility of rainmaking its way into their houses on flower street in upper marlboro, the river is rising, but not overfleeing its banks and it's one of many waterways the county is paying attention to. they're watching it closely in case they have to close some of them. they're monitoring the entire area. now this is a quick look at what driving is looking like on the beltway. we are seeing a lot of wet and very nasty roads. coming up on news 4 at 5:00, your neighbors have some interesting ideas on how to keep their homes dry. reporting live in upper marlboro, i'm tracee wilkins. back to you in the studio, chris. just to the east of tracee, a big tree came crashing down and brought drivers to a screeching halt. this morning anne arundel county police tweeted this picture on

route 2. no one was hurt, but they did have to divert traffic around the accident. we are still watching joaquin as the hurricane makes its slow, destructive turn into the atlantic and while its path will likely miss our part of the east coast it certainly hasn't spared the bahamas. nbc's kerry sanders reports from nassau. >> reporter: right now it is a waiting game to get the assessment of damage from those islands that have already been hit. the small islands like inagua, a population of about 60 people, san salvador, crooked island and all areas that have before the hurricane hit already experienced problems because of the coastal flooding that preceded the arrival of joaquin. now because of the power outages and the lack of communications, the authorities here in the bahamas do not have any specific, hard information on how the damage is. they expect because this hurricane is moving so slowly, it could take a day or so before they actually get a full report

on how bad it is. now remember, hurricane joaquin's moving about 3 miles an hour, so it will take some time before it passes the bahamian island chain, an island chain of 700 islands and a thousand keys that covers 11,000 square miles and because it's such a big area, not all islands will be hit including where i am in nassau and there will be bad weather, but nothing like the hurricane that the people have had to go through in the small island. in nassau, kerry sanders, nbc news. as the storm moves in we'll send critical weather alerts right to your phone. open the nbc washington app and make sure your alerts are on. we've learned the montgomery county school bus driver is okay after his bus went up in flames in silver spring. smoke was pouring out of the bus. montgomery county firefighters told us when they got there nearly the entire bus was engulfed in fire and the driver got out safely. right now we are following

developments on a plane crash that has killed 11 people including six american service members in eastern afghanistan. details about what caused the crash are scarce. a u.s. fair force spokesperson is dismissing the taliban's claim that it shot down the plane. the plane crashed shortly after midnight at the base in jalalabad. the others onboard were civilian contractors working on a nato mission. there's been a shake-up in the cabinet and why the outgoing secretary of education says he's cried more today than he has in a while. floodwater washing over

this is a storm team 4 weather alert. >> we're still watching that rain come through the area right now. that rain has been on the moderate side and it's been steady all day and we've not seen really heavy rain. if this was us out here we'd be talking about inches of rain and so far we've received about half an inch to an inch and maybe another half inch to an inch overnight tonight and one things thing to notice, we've got drying and the rest of this evening, take the umbrella with you. you'll need that and you'll need that jacket, too, and we may not see a whole lot of rain for the n few hours and we'll continue to watch that as it progresses. 30 mile-an-hour wind gusts and camp springs around 30 miles per

hour and ocean city coming in at 43 miles per hour and a very windy and a very raw and rainy evening tonight and make sure you take the umbrella and the coat and tomorrow we'll call it better and we'll get into the low 60s in the east. 53 degrees toward the winchester area and not quite as bad tomorrow and it will be a nasty day on your saturday and much more on the rest of your weekend and the seven-day forecast with amelia in a minute. thanks, doug. >> less than an hour ago we heard from the president himself. the secretary of education is stepping down. arne duncan got emotional admitting he's cried quite a bit today as he confirmed he's leaving by the end of the year. he is one of two cabinet secretaries who has served in the obama administration since the beginning of the first term. john king, jr., will succeed duncan and he's been a big proponent of linking new teacher evaluations to student test cores and making sure they're in line with core standards. a federal judge delayed the

trial for dylann roof, the man charged with the shootings of a south carolina church. jury selection was scheduled to start next month and both defense attorneys and federal prosecutors requested more time to prepare for the case. roof faces 33 federal charges and he also faces a number of state charges and the state trial is set to start next july. we continue to follow a developing story. parts of the maryland coast flooding as the nor'easter blows ashore. ve

right now at 4:45, a nasty nor'easter is taking its toll, rain, wind, and possibly the threat of a flash flood and we've got continuous storm team coverage and news 4 is with you for the next two-plus hours and our coverage continues with amelia segal in the storm center. so walk us through this evening. >> well, pat, we'll continue to track pretty much a steady rain for the next couple of hours and after that we'll be tracking rain in spots and throughout the day tomorrow. the trend overall will be dry. however, we still can't rule out localized flooding especially around creeks and streams and in the urban areas and also talking about some coastal flooding. v.j. will join us in a moment with the latest on what's going on in ocean city. no impacts in our area from hurricane joaquin which is very good news. here is the latest on storm team

4 radar. a steady, widespread rain for just about everybody, but as we look around the south and west around fredericksburg, notice some drying making its way into the area. so we will have some dry spots overnight tonight and throughout the day tomorrow. today it was a soggy, damp, rainy day and temperatures in the low to mid-50s. washington now at 54 degrees and this evening, 7:00, the temperature around 52 and you definitely want to have the umbrella and rain boots on and a warmer jacket, as well. it's chilly with windy conditions factored in especially by 11:00. a cool 51 degrees and it could be dry in some spots at that point. a flash flood watch in effect for just about everybody and all of the counties here in solid green and this will run through tomorrow morning at 8:00 a.m. and we're not concerned so much with flash flooding and we are concerned about the potential

for isolated flooding and for tomorrow, 7:00 a.m. and rain is likely and breezy and windy and the temperature around 50 and we're warm tomorrow to 62 degrees in washington, and tomorrow only in the low 50s with plenty of clouds throughout the entire day and showers at times for the midday and afternoon hours. tomorrow for your saturday evening and only the chance of a shower. then as we talk about sunday, only the chance of showers on sunday. you can make it through sunday almost completely dry. so if you are heading to fedex field as the redskins take on the eagle and this is what you can expect. a shower around noon and the temperature around 62 degrees and it's windy and breezy and across the entire area and 64 degrees at 2:00. 4:00 p.m. and we're talking about a temperature of 66. maybe limited peaks of sunshine as we work our way toward sunday afternoon. on monday, it's breezy and a high temperature of 68. we're drying out on monday. beautiful weather follows tuesday, wednesday, thursday,

plenty of sunshine and high temperatures in the mid-70s and a little bit above normal for this time of year. our average high is now 72 degrees and friday we'll notice clouds increasing and the high temperature on friday of 72, but again, some steady rain continues to impact us for the next few hours and throughout the day. tomorrow, a steady rain during the morning will change over to scattered showers. there is a coastal flood warning in effect for st. mary's county and other counties along the coast. we'll send things out to veronica in ocean city. v.j., what are you noticing there? >> now the rain is starting to pick up in intensity here and some moderate rains coming down and the winds have picked up, as well. probably gusting to 50 miles an hour and they expect those continues to continue well through the evening and afternoon. the surf and seas all rough and they have extreme water levels here. just looking at the high tide times which is midnight and we have another one coming up and there's been moderate to major

flooding taking place especially in the ocean city inlet and we're expected to see moderate, and maybe monday morning especially on the base side as the winds start to shift in this area so motorists are being asked to stay on alert naturally and making sure they take the necessary precautions and video coming up on news 4 at 5:00 and we'll share some reactions at what the residents say and tourists that are in town. i'm veronica johnson reporting live from ocean city, maryland. i'm scott macfarlane at the live desk. we're getting new video of flooding down the road of veronica and we'll show you the portsmouth area, and similar of what veronica showed you in ocean city. about a foot of water covering some areas and some cars will need an insurance claim now. many businesses have stacked up sandbags in front of their doors in a last-ditch effort to keep

the water out as best they can. tidal flooding in the area likely to continue right through the weekend. at the live desk i'm scott macfarlane. >> back in the district, the more encouraging news about the hurricane's path is not stopping flood preparations. news 4's megan mcgrath shows us the parts of washington you'll want to avoid if you can over the weekend. >> reporter: d.c. may not be getting a direct hit from a hurricane, but we are expecting a lot of rain in the next 24 hours from that nor easter and that means issues with flooding for people who are in those low-lying areas and lots of folks are taking precautions. >> one, two, three, up! >> reporter: at thompson's boat center in georgetown, g.w.'s varsity rowing team moved it from the flowing dock and up to higher ground just in case. >> we're pulling the boats up and the river is supposed to rise a lot in the next two days so it's just a precaution.

>> reporter: hurricane joaquin may miss us, but d.c. is still expected to get a lot of rain from the nor'easter, raising concerns about flooding. washington harbor's flood wall is up and will remain in place until the threat has passed. haynes point is closed until further notice, so are park service athletic fields and at nps headquarters along the washington channel, they'll be taking precautions. >> and we'll be sandbagging the buildings with where they're lowest to the ground and in the next couple of hours the channel will come over the edge and start to encroach in the parking area here. >> reporter: some weekend, vents have been canceled, but others are still happening. it's best to check with the organizer to be sure. >> d.c. water is handing out free sandbags to people who live in three flood-prone neighborhoods and those neighborhoods are bloomingdale, and the 900 block of pea street in northwest. you can go to first and rhode

island in northwest to pick up your sandbag, but you will have to show proof of residency. in georgetown, megan mcgrath, news 4. an experimental composting program has been so successful falls church is extending it into next spring. last month we told you about the innovative idea which allows residents to buy a bin, fill it with the food waste and drop it off at no charge. if there's enough into the city plans to start recycling all of that waste curbside, but saving a trip would cost residents about $35 every few months. >> a day most fairfax county residents don't look forward to. vehicle property taxes are due on monday. to help the payment process go a little more smoothly, the government center is extending its hours for people who pay in person. the office is open tonight until 6 dlok, saturday 8:00 a.m. to noon and next monday from 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.

>> we're following developing stories in the newsroom. oregon school shootings to say they recovered a total of 13 gun, all of them were apparently purchased legally in the past three years. nine people have been killed in the attack and president obama just commented on the tragedy and we'll havemore on it coming up in ten minutes. >> dangerous downpours in the carolinas. neighborhoods under water. we have a live report from the outer banks. >> a mother shrieks in court as her son is sentenced to life in prison. news 4's david

i'm melissa ma lay with your photographic. on the red line here we know we'll have trains running every 20 minutes and that is because there is single tracking between friendship heights this weekend and vanes in. silver line running every 24 minutes and the blue line running every 24 minutes and the same thing on the yellow line and the green line running on a normal schedule and the orange line running every 24 minutes and that is because of single-tracking and the center. have a great weekend. >> thanks, melissa. it looks like hurricane joaquin is headed out to sea and away from the u.s. coast. >> but the massive storm will still cause major problems all along the eastern seaboard and

places like kitty hawk, north carolina and that's where they are live with conditions and what's to come. jay? >> reporter: hi there, chris and pat. yeah, we've seen strong surf and heavy rains throughout the day and not only here, but up and down the east coast and millions watching joaquin and likely not to make landfall. still, though, they are bracing for what forecasters say could be historic flooding across the region. from the carolinas through the new england coast as preparations continue, concerns are growing. >> everybody's scared because you just don't know. >> reporter: while the latest tracking does show hurricane joaquin turning away from the eastern seaboard, dozens of communities there will not escape the dangerous effect of the storm. heavy surf, violent rip currents and a soaking rain in areas already dealing with way too much water right now. >> i cannot stress enough while this storm isn't likely to make landfall in north carolina, the heavy rain will cause problems

around the state. >> reporter: in the carolinas cars and roads have been swallowed by floodwaters after what meteorologists call a rex block. high pressure hovering over low pressure locking it in place and dumping heavy rains and now rain from joaquin will be added to that mix, creating a dangerous mess. >> water kills people, and we have to be extremely careful from the mountains all of the way to the coast. >> reporter: crews along the shoreline are piling up sand building berms to stem the tide and stop beach erosion. part of a multi-state effort to deal with multiple storm systems that will continue to be a threat through early next week. news 4 at 5:00 starts now with jim and wendy. and now at 5:00, maryland's eastern shore and heavy flooding and it's not done yet and it's the windy and raw conditions that will be impacting your weekend. >> here is a live look now as

those heavy winds pound the shore in ocean city and things could get much worse before they get better. >> we are getting some rain in our parts now and we are monitoring a very active radar. >> it's lightened up, folks. we have live team coverage for you. our team of meteorologists as we watch the worsening conditions in ocean city. veronica johnson will have more from there live. >> we'll begin with doug and amelia. >> veronica will continue to get the worst of it. normally you get the short straw. for that it's the long straw and we would love to be down there because they're getting it down there. >> yes. >> we are not getting the biggest effects and our flood threat continues to diminish. >> right. we don't think we'll see any flash flooding and there could be isolated flooding around creeks, streams and that sort of thing. >> especially closer to the chess week. >> let's show you the rain and some very good news here and take a look at the radar and you'll notice rain is still around our entire region and no

yellows and no oranges, no reds and that's where you see the heavy rain on the radar and if i stop this for you and show you what we're looking at and some yellows down toward prince william's county and there is no heavy rain around the area and most of this is light, steady or moderate steady rainfall and again, that will continue for the next few hours and the latest trend and amelia and i have been following this closely. look at the radar and here's where the rain is coming from and it is drying out in this area so you can see what i'm talking about. the line earlier extended from the south right over toward our region, but now that line is moving up and back toward the west in association with the area of upper level disturbed weather and that means for us, less rain and will we see more? yes, we will, but we're not expecting to see a ton of rain and the flash flood threat is diminishing and the rain is upward of 20 miles per hour and ocean city, seeing the