need to get out of your neighborhood. so can crews get the job done? we start off tonight with a look at the first big commute since the blizzard of 2016. d.c. public schools and the federal government reopened today. >> and with some highways and streets and sidewalks still a little dicey, getting there was tricky. the ultimate test could come tomorrow when we could see a dangerous refreezing overnight tonight. >> our team coverage begins with tom sherwood at freedom plaza downtown. hey, tom. >> reporter: chris, this is 14th street, a major thoroughfare into virginia for commuters. it's a lot lighter today than normal at this time. tomorrow is the worry. pennsylvania avenue downtown, america's main street. part of an aggressive effort to get downtown streets open for tomorrow morning's rush. major commuter routes like massachusetts avenue northwest were still snarled more than usual today.

impatient drivers cut off by suddenly closed lanes filled with snow. >> it wasn't too bad. could have been worse. >> reporter: it didn't help today that rock creek parkway was shut down at 10:00 a.m. for several hours of snow clearing, but that should help the inbound rush tomorrow. and right now it's still a $250 ticket and $100 towing fee if you park on snow emergency routes. essentially most major roadways in the district. >> it's still a snow emergency until 6:30 tonight on wednesday, so folks will -- cannot park on snow emergency routes. >> reporter: now, the city has written more than $1 million worth of snow emergency tickets at $250 each, $100 for towing, and you've got to remember this, that emergency zone for parking is still in effect until 6:30 tonight. in downtown washington, tom sherwood, news4. back to you, pat. >> all right, tom. well, a lot of students in the area will get to spend another day at home tomorrow.

>> yeah. that's right. in fact, no school the rest of the week in fairfax, loudoun, and prince william counties. students in the district went back today and i put a link on my facebook page about what they encountered. >> we get the decisions about school closings and delays and we send you an alert with the nbc washington app. that's how we will let you know what time the federal government plans to open. one big concern tonight and tomorrow as doug has said will be falling temperatures. >> that's right. that's why we're calling this a weather alert day because some of that melting snow is going to freeze over. let's get to the storm center with chief meteorologist doug kammerer has been tracking that change in temperature. >> you said a big deal tomorrow. i think it's going to be a huge deal tomorrow, and everything is going to freeze overnight tonight. that's just how cold things are going to get and they're going to get cold fairly quickly as we look at the temperatures out there. current temperature 42 in d.c. 37 gaithersburg, 39 in martinsburg. we have seen a lot of melting, a

lot of sunshine today but once that sun goes down, that's when we start to see that refreeze. so, again, walking tomorrow is going to be really difficult across the area. driving, the ice covered roads, both in the red. parking still an issue. if you're driving into downtown, still going to be a big issue there. we've got you in the yellow. the big factor here is tonight. right through tomorrow morning. a quick refreeze. we'll see that refreeze begin maybe around 7:00 tonight in some areas. lots of ice. take your time. we saw a lot of problems earlier this morning. i think we will see a lot tomorrow morning, too. give yourself that extra time. i'll be back in a couple minutes to let you know when temperatures start to really get on up there. >> all right, doug. four days after the storm and finally some big signs of progress in prince george's county. places that hadn't seen any snowplows for days are starting to see signs of life. bureau chief tracee wilkins is live in temple hills with a look at some of the conditions that some folks are still dealing with out in the county. tracee? >> reporter: pat, we've been on

both ends of the county, and we came to temple hills because we were told it's still really bad over there, they've got these hilly roads and covered in ice and snow and we got here and this is what we found. dry pavement. that's because the crews made a run through this morning for the first time. let me show you what we have seen in other parts of the county. we were in beltsville following a crew when it made its way through some of the streets there and neighbors were so excited to finally have a truck come through for the very first time. we were in the same neighborhood yesterday. folks were covered in snow out there in their streets using shovels to dig out but now they've got the trucks that have made a pass through and have pretty much cleared the streets. they are able to see some pieces of pavement, and they are very excited about it. prince george's county government saying they are going to meet their goal here. >> actually the work is going pretty good. we're about 80% passable in our residential neighborhoods, and we're very confident that by 9:00 p.m. all of our residential

neighborhoods, the roads will be passable. >> reporter: that's what they're saying, 9:00 p.m. they have given themselves a 9:00 p.m. deadline for all residential streets to be plowed, at least passable in prince george's county. they're saying the primary roads are at 100%. coming up on news4 at 6:00, we'll show what you the primary roads are looking like and give you a closer look at what we found when we were following around these trucks on news4 at 5:00. in temple hills, i'm tracee wilkins, back to you in the studio. >> thanks, tracee. less than four hours to that deadline. crews say they're working as fast as they can to clear the streets or at the very least make them passable. chris gordon continues our coverage in montgomery county. >> reporter: officials characterize the performance of their pledge to clear every neighborhood by 7:00 a.m. a success, although they do acknowledge that they missed some neighborhoods. what does the county map

indicate? >> it indicates we are complete. >> reporter: completely -- >> completely plowed. >> reporter: and you would say you're completely -- >> stuck. >> we've been getting some e-mails, getting calls, and we are responding to those. sending a truck right away. >> reporter: ahead at 5:00, how will montgomery county's main commuter routes handle the heavy rush hour traffic expected tomorrow morning? that's coming up on news4 at 5:00. back to you. i'm david culver in fairfax county. one of the questions many of you are still asking, what is it going to take to get things back to normal following the blizzard of 2016? well, here we are looking at some of the newses that you can see have big mounds of snow in front of them. these are school buses. so this really only part of the obstacle when it comes to reopening schools. but this is an80! problem for students in fairfax county, especially those who have to walk to school, and there are 43,000-plus of them. it's blocked by snow in many

cases, and so the school system is shutting down for two more days through this week unl they can get all of this clear. now, coming up ahead on news4 at 5:00, we're going to talk to the chairman here in fair fak county and ask her what it will take to get all of this back to normal. that's the latest in fair fak. i'm david culver, news4. >> you saw david trudging through that mound out there. those snow totals aren't the only numbers going through the roof. why this bliferd could end up being the costliest in history. >> and it's where the long commute to work begins every day but you could be in for a huge problems a you start your day tomorrow.

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more puddles, more sunshine, more slush today, all working together. yeah, it's not bad out there right now. temperatures in the upper 30s to low 40s. beltway right down to the south manassas and fredericksburg but after the sun sets which today is 5:23, temperatures will start to tumble. we're just below freezing. by 6:00, 7:00, most neighborhoods, and this is a look at early tomorrow morning, midteens to early 20s. a hard freeze for tonight, that means icing patches. dangerous ice after 6:00 p.m. so be alert. watch your speed and keep a distance between you and the car in front of you. widespread ice likely. this is for early tomorrow morning. and then it gets better tomorrow once again as we make our way through the afternoon. 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. just slushy, but we'll talk about more ice as the week unfolds. we have that coming up. prince george's county

police say the weather-jum the death of an 84-year-old woman. orinda nelson of hyattsville was discovered in snow near her home yesterday. they had been reported missing yesterday. he was suffering from alzheimer's. >> the blizzard of 2016 is breaking records. >> for virginia this could become the costliest cleanup on record. governor terry mcauliffe on "ask the governor" today said the staggering cost has the commonwealth asking for federal government help. >> every road has had a pass on it, so for the roads that we are responsible for, we're very comfortable where we are today. our team has worked 12-hour shifts literally since wednesday, and it's going to cost us a lot of money. this could be north of $175 million, may even top $200 million which would be a historic storm for us. >> mcauliffe says he believes the state will be ready for what he says could be a normal

commute tomorrow. we'll see. well, if getting to work today was tough, getting there tomorrow as we said could be a bigger challenge. >> i'm going to call the governor on his normal prediction. why all that melting snow could cause a lot of problems. and why the weekend blizzard will give you an extra opportunity to di

first the snow, then the

melting, and now the refreeze. right now all that snow that's been slowly melting could cause some real big headaches tonight and tomorrow as temperatures take a nose dive. we just learned montgomery county schools will be closed. kids spent another day home tomorrow. doug will join us in just a moment. the entire metrorail system is back up and running. metro spent the last four days clearing ice and snow from the above ground tracks and had the hardest time getting it clean along the silver line in northern virginia. there was a train malfunction earlier and that's still causing delays on the orange, blue, and silver lines. metro brbus is on a modified schedule with 160 routes. federal workers didn't have to go to work until around noon but we could see our first full-blown rush hour tomorrow in a week. >> mark segraves is live in germantown before what could be a rough ride on the roads tomorrow. what's it like there now, mark?

>> reporter: well, it's sunny and beautiful, pat, but i got to tell you things tomorrow could be really dicey. this is the marc commuter lot and there are dozens of these lots throughout our region, for marc, for vre, for metro, and the problem is this. many of these lots are still covered in snow. they've been able to push the snow out of the way, but the problem was they pushed it right on top of other parking spaces. here at the marc lot, i'm estimating that about 30% of the parking spaces are still covered in snow. many of the handicap spots are also covered in snow, so that means tomorrow when you try to drive here to catch the train into washington or wherever your destination is going to be, you're going to be hard pressed to find an open parking spot. on a good day it's hard to find a spot. with so many spaces covered with snow, there will be fewer

options for commuters. i did speak to officials and they have crews, in fact, just one crew over the hill busy trying to remove the snow but that's what it is. it's about removal, not just pushing it out of the way. that's going to take some time. coming up at 5:00, you will hear from virginia governor terry mcauliffe about what he wants done with these lots. later on this evening we'll have tips to help you make it an easier commute. chris and pat, back to you guys in the studio. >> thanks, mark. the piling mark showed us is one thing, but those streets and sidewalks right now, they are soaking wet out there. >> and that soaking wetness is going to turn to iciness. doug, how cold is it going to get tonight? >> i think we'll get down into the teens in many locations, so it's going to happen fairly quickly. a big-time refreeze tonight. we did not see that last night. we saw a lot of melting, a lot of water on the roadway this is morning and that caused a lot of issues. tomorrow it will be the ice. current temperature, 42 degrees. winds out of the northwest at 12 miles an hour. a little breezy, a little bit of

a windchill. 36 in hagerstown. once again we saw a lot of melting. i'm only showing you the satellite picture because right now we have clear skies. few clouds trying to move in from the south tonight but they will not help all that much to keep that warmer air in. so we should be able to radiate fairly efficiently and that puts temperatures on the cooler side. here we go. these are future temperatures now. watch around 7:00. already close to the freezing mark in the city. 27 gaithersburg, now 29 in gaithersburg. i'm looking at a brand new model run coming in here. so d.c., 35. still above freezing but below freezing to the north and west. frederi frederick, gaithersburg, that's how fast we go below freezing. by 10:00, 21 degrees in frederick. 15 in martinsburg, 22 in the leesburg area and tomorrow morning, well, you know it's going to be cold. 16 in gaithersburg, 19 in

culpepper. leesburg at 18 degrees. a very cold start to the day tomorrow and that ice is going to be a major impact. let's take a look at the refreeze outlook for this week. this evening, freeze happens quickly. heads up for that. got you green now, but it's going to move to red very quick as we move through. tomorrow morning dangerously slick across the region and my friday morning, subfreds b free freezing, icy. we're in the yellow if not the red. once again we're talking about that refreeze early on friday morning. tomorrow more icy patches. a lot of ice and it really will be a lot of ice whether you're walking, driving, anything you're doing expect ice. 25. by the afternoon more melting, temperatures around 41 degrees, more melting adds to more ice as we move through the morning hours on friday. so ice is going to be the big issue the next few days. cold on friday. high of 39, but windchills in the mid 20s all day. a little bit of a wind on friday. 44 on saturday. 49 on sunday, and do we hear 60?

yes, we do. we hear 60 and the possibility of even some flooding. we'll talk about that. veronica has that coming up at 4:45. >> wow. >> unbelievable. >> talk about a roller coaster. hitting close to home this, afternoon there are big medical concerns. now that someone from the nation's capital has been the victim of a quickly spreading virus. also, unusual activity. one of the country's biggest restaurant chains could soon find itself in the midst of a data breach investigation. and we want to know, are you anywhere close to being back to your normal schedule yet? >> that's our nbc washington flash survey this afternoon. call or text the number on the bottom of your screen or head over to the nbc washington facebook and twitter pages to vote.

we are taking a live look at at storm center4 where doug is tracking the kocold night ahead. >> they're looking at how cold it's going to get and why ice could be such a big problem. a woman in virginia has been diagnosed with the zika virus after traveling to a country where the mosquito-borne virus is raging. health officials have reporting the zika virus in many latin american and caribbean countries. infection in pregnant women can cause birth defects in their

babies. in the next hour we have the four things you need to know about the zika virus. wendy's says it is investigating reports of unusual activity on payment cards used at some of its restaurants. wendy's wants xhacustomers to wh for unauthorized charges. they have cyber security experts helping them check this out. it's unclear how many cards or restaurant locations may have been affected. we're following a developing story in florida where officials say a tornado may have touched down north of ft. lauderdale. we're hearing that one person has been hurt on the highway. the storm flipped cars, damaged trees, and cut power to residents. winds were so strong they picked a vehicle up on the florida turnpike and dropped it onto the oncoming lanes. police had to shut down part of the turnpike. a handful of armed

anti-government protesters are stilled holed up in a wildlife refuge in oregon. federal agents arrested some of the group's leaders yesterday on their way to meeting with local residents. one was shot and killed. the ranchers took over the refuge earlier this month and demanded the federal government turn over the land to local officials. president obama is asking congress for $12 billion to feed school children from low income families over the summer. it will be a ten-year program. it's part of neck year's budget plan which the president will send to lawmakers next month. nearly 22 million low-income children get free and reduced price meals during the school year, but only a fraction of them get meals when school is out. the idea is to put money on a debit card that can only be used for food at grocery stores. some good news for local foodies. because of the blizzard, d.c. is extending its famous restaurant week. now it's going to run through next wednesday, february 3rd. more than 200 restaurants are supposed to take part, but a lot

of them are still digging out from the storm, so double-check to make sure they're open. the city of alexandria's restaurant week starts friday and we posted a link in our app to make reservations at the 200 vaunts th restaurants that are participating. just open it up and search restaurant week. this afternoon some of your streets still aren't passable. the frustration throughout the area this afternoon of the snowy roads still too slick. and tomorrow morning, many of you go back to work for the first time since the big snow. storm team4 is tracking what we've been talking about and we'll tell you more about what to expect in the morning.

i'm meagan fitzgerald at the live desk. we're following breaking news. a 2-year-old is being airlifted to a hospital after the toddler shot itself at a home in waldorf. it happened just within the past half hour. police say they got a call from the father saying he was sleeping when he heard a loud bang. he found his 2-year-old shot in the leg. the toddler is expected to be okay and chopper 4 is on the way to the scene right now. we'll send you updates on the nbc washington app as they become available. pat? >> thanks, mae begaeagan. d.c. public school children headed back to classes even as thousands of other students spent another day at home. some schools are keeping their

doors close as crews continue their work to try to clear the snow. you can check the complete list in the nbc washington app. crews are clearing the roads, and air travel is slowly getting back to normal. here is a live look at reagan national airport. more than 3,500 flights across the country were delayed and another 300 were canceled. storm team4 is tracking a new potential problem, not storm, but ice. >> veronica johnson is monitoring the developing situation in the storm center. we have to deal with the ice and then the warm-up. >> that's right. up and down, up and down all week long but the fact we have a hard freeze coming up tonight and just how far temperatures are going to tumble is why there is real concern for late tonight and early tomorrow morning. your sunset there, you can see it in the top bar, it's at 5:23. say around 6:00 to 9:00, that's when the ice will start setting up. we're telling folks to be alert.

folks at maryland highway administering say they go from salt to the liquid magnesium treating the roads for ice and it will be an icy situation fairly widespread for any areas that have seen the melting today, the big puddles, or even for the blacktops. the icy patches for sure. 25 your temperature early tomorrow morning. 41 for the afternoon with more melting taking place. so you're driving tips, make sure you increase the distance between you and the car in front of you. don't hit the gas or the brakes hard and, remember, be patient out there because there's likely to be some big delays coming our way tomorrow morning. we have another look at your extended forecast in a few minutes.

snow and unplowed streets and sidewalks, big problems, big challenges, so many are still trying to deal with. a lot of you are expressing frustration over road conditions. it's our "talk around town." troy johnson is here. it's been four days since the snow stopped. what are the biggest problems right now for your listeners? >> well, our listeners really are looking at this entire situation based on what happened last wednesday when the city was not prepared for a one-inch storm. that put people on notice, they began to be concerned about how we would face this big storm coming our way. when the storm ended, folks were looking at the game plan, watching the press conferences with officials, they were seeing that there was a lot of progress on the major highways. but then they realized they weren't hearing a lot about their own neighborhoods. they expected to stay snowed in on sunday and monday but by tuesday people knew they had to

head back to work. they were concerned about that. then they were finding these tough conditions in their own neighborhoods. some folks hadn't even seen plows coming through, so they were concerned about that and then what their kids were going to go when it was time to go back to school and navigate the sidewalks that had not been prepared properly and in some instances walking in the street. >> you have also heard mixed views about how we handled the blizzard and how the washington region in general prepares for snowstorms compared to other parts of the country. what are folks say being that? >> a lot of folks surprisingly were very happy about the situation. they thought, first of all, the crews did a good job, they worked very hard, and they thanked them for a lot of folks coming to our ea and getting prepared. colleen from upper marlborough gives the crews a thumbs up. >> a lot of people have been complaining but the most you can do is to be prepared to be in your house. i feel like they did a

phenomenal job with the people they had to plow the strideets. >> but some listeners had less than favorable reviews. angela in manassas said she thinks elected officials need to craft a new game plan in dealing with these storms. >> caller: one of the things i don't understand is why they don't have consultants. they got consultants for everything else from cities that deal with snow on a regular basis. i'm from st. louis, and this doesn't make sense. when they know a blizzard is coming, we're talking 24 to 48 hours before the blizzard they're treating the streets. here i see guys on the side of the road talking, whooping it up, and they don't do anything until the snow comes. so backwards. >> people raising some very interesting points and some logical ones, too. >> you know, the other thing is we've heard several local officials over the past several days using the term passable when referring to roads. some people are upset and

frankly a little confused about the meaning of the term. >> and it seemed like, at least from the folks i talked to, there was a lot of word speak that seemed to be we're on message trying to get this done but that goes back it them saying we don't really see the progress. passable roads means you can get through like what you see on the screen. doesn't mean that you're down to concrete. it just means that you can drive through the snow, the deep snow has been moved ou of the way. that's not really passable. that's still a hazardous situation that people, of course, are concerned about. so they feel like if you're going to be telling us the message, then really be on point. there's another important thing, when you talk about how elected officials react to these situations, this is an opportunity for them to get in front of voters, and that's what listeners were telling me. we all know elections have been lost when situations like this happen. next time around people remember

were their communities treated the same way. they're putting folks on notice basically. >> all right, troy. a lot to learn on the part of a lot of folks about what's happened here. because you may be frustrated over the condition of our street, news4's hash tag snow stuck is still up and running. keep sending us your pictures and videos of unplowed streets, unshoveled sidewalks, or buried bus stops. be sure to include the exact location. just a reminder, the district snow emergency remains in effect for two more hours and that means more parking tickets and fines. we've learned just how much money the district is collecting by enforcing that parking ban during the snow emergency. since the blizzard started to hit us last friday, d.c. has issued more than $1 million worth of parking tickets and 650 owe -- $65,000 in fines.

the emergency red cross needs blood and platelet donors. hundreds of blood drives had to be canceled. we're just coming out of the holiday season which is a slow time of year for donating blood. talk about going from bad to worse, the problem on a busy local highway that took longer to clear because of something that happened to a truck right along the side of the road. plus, like a dramatic movie scene played out in real life, how a group of strangers came together literally to save a man during the blizzard.

temperatures tonight are going to be a big factor as we head on through the next few hours. right now no issues. we've got the melting continue'ing to go on. 42 in d.c. 39 in leesburg but down to 37 in winchester and over the next few hours temperatures will drop fairly quickly. once that sun goes down, you will see the temperatures drop. sun goes down in just over 20 minutes. 42 right now, winds out of the northwest at 12 miles an hour. again, the big factor tonight is going to be the ice. icing major not just tonight but through early tomorrow morning. give yourself a lot of extra time when you head out the front door this evening, maybe you're coming back or, of course, during the morning rush tomorrow. guys? >> thanks, doug. all lanes are open on the beltway's outer loop near the dulles toll road. for hours this morning only a single lane was able to get by a disabled tractor-trailer. you see it there. the problem started around

midnight, but the truck split apart. it took hours to get the wreckage off the road. the traffic was so bad the backup stretched into maryland. complete strangers came together to form a human chain to help rescue a man whose big rig flew off the pennsylvania turnpike. >> just as the storm started getting stronger on friday the driver lost control of his semi. his truck was left dangling off the highway in pittsburgh. then several other people showed some incredible courage and jumped in to help. >> trying to help this guy, diesel fuel everywhere, the truck is smoking. it's a dangerous scene. to me it looked like this spontaneous instinctive thing that everyone just started hooking their arms together. >> still pretty brave. you know, this is just one of a lot of problems on the turnpike. some of those drivers were stuck for 30 hours. back at the live desk where we continue to follow that

breaking news. chopper 4 arrived in waldorf with a 2-year-old shot itself. we're told this happened in the adams neighborhood. the toddler is being air lifted to a hospital and is expected to survive. the 2-year-old's father called police about an hour ago saying he was sleeping when he heard a loud bang. he found the toddler shot in the leg. updates on the nbc washington app as we learn more. back to you. well, it may be chilly here in washington, but things are heating up in iowa. the latest on a standoff brewing over the final debate before voters cast the first ballot. and what one woman had to do when it came time to deliver her baby during the blizzard. she couldn't get to the hospital.

right now a storm team4 weather alert day. you know these slightly warmer last couple of days that have helped all the melting take place, well, the big melting is about to rephrase. >> that's right. those soaking wet streets and sidewalks are about to turn into a sheet of ice. that's going to cause a lot of problems tomorrow. >> veronica is in the storm center. tell us more about the time line and the temperatures.

>> so the sun sets at 5:23. by the time we get to 7:00, just a bit past sunset is when the ice will start setting up. by 9:00, 10:00 there will be big patches of ice forming, the slush as well. as we see our temperatures continue to tumble down into the teens in some locations to 20s, low 20s in others. that means we will see significant icing early tomorrow morning. it's why it's another weather alert day. icy morning, slushy afternoon. it's all about the morning up until about 10:00 a.m. then as we get above freezing, this is between 9:00 and 11:00 a.m. tomorrow morning, temperatures come above freezing rather rapidly, upper 30s to around 40 degrees by 1:00, that's the next change that you'll notice when we go back to slush across the area. that, of course, supposed to be sunshine there. for the evening, ice setting up around 5:00 or 6:00 p.m., widespread ice for early

thursday morning. we're in the red and you need to really leave yourself extra time heading into work, if you've got to get to work tomorrow morning. once again, it's going to be another rain boot kind of day or any kind of boots to keep the slop off because once again the puddles will be big. you will need your lightweight coat or a nice warm jacket heading out the door. we will be picking up a few clouds tomorrow afternoon. you will see them in the afternoon and hanging out during the evening hours. not a tremendous amount of clouds but i still think we'll have ample melting taking place. temperatures with those few clouds, upper 30s to low 40s. there's d.c., 39. 42 culpepper. 42 as well in packs river. a little cold on friday. 39 may not seem so but we've got friday with some wind coming into our area. these are the windchill temperatures throughout the day. 7:00 a.m., it will feel like we're at 20 to 25 degrees. then more like 25 to 30 from noon through the afternoon. again, it's looking like we're going to be mainly dry on

friday. can't rule out a few flurries that will come through our area with this next little fast-moving system at the end of the week. as we get into the weekend, could not be better. we're at 45 to around 50 degrees the upcoming weekend. still looking like we're going it see lots of melting and a great weekend for cleaning up and we're going to stress that for the upcoming weekend. make sure you move the snow away from the foundation of your house because as we get into wednesday of next week, temperatures in the 60s. all that snow on the ground, that's what you're looking at here and about a half inch of rain could mean that we could see a flood threat around parts of our area. something to monitor, something we want to give you advance notice of now. we'll talk more about the system coming up on news4 at 5:00. this is the guy. don't worry, i have better pictures of him. i call him the blizzard bandit. now, while we were battling the big snow over the weekend, he used that snow as a distraction

and cover to commit five armed robberies in prince george's county. now, get this. he would walk into the places and then walk out of the places, but how did he get from place to place in all that snow? i have surveillance video. i have interviews with people who know what happened. all of that coming up. news4 at 5:00. well, the national mall monument and memorial sites are open again for business. tours at the washington monument started at noon. the national park service says it had to remove 62 tons of snow from the mall, and that's enough to fill the washington monument 18 times. tonight a new jersey resident is launching a campaign to help governor and presidential candidate chris christie clean up his mess. it's a go fund me page to send him to the governor's mansion. he responded do you want me to go down there with a mop. flooding has been compared to

what they experienced during superstorm sandy. christie has since apologized for some of those remarks. the iowa caucuses are days away and donald trump has taken another gamble. >> sure did. he promised to boycott tomorrow's republican debate and as steve handelsman reports, trump's camp says he won't budge. >> are you afraid to debate? >> no, no, no. i said bye-bye, okay? >> we're seeing republicans pounce on him saying he is too scared to go toe to toe with fox news. >> obviously there's a lot more to talk about. having some technical difficulties there. we apologize we weren't able to complete that report. we are covering all of the angles at the iowa caucuses and

starting sunday steve handelsman and aaron gilchrist will handle our team coverage from des moines. we're following new story in the water crisis in flint. michigan officials said the city's water samples are improving but for now residents should continue drinking filtered or bottled water. more steps are being taken to deal with the lead contamination. today governor rick snyder announced a panel of experts have been assembled to find solutions. that panel includes a virginia tech professor. >> now is the time to act to do things to help the people of flint address the damage that's been done both in the short term, the intermediate term and the long term and i'm committed to getting that done. >> the new panel is meeting for the first time today. an epidemic here in our area and really off over the country is now attracting the attention of congress. a group of senators is lobbying their colleagues for help trying to fight addiction and overdoses of heroin and other opiates.

they want the senate judiciary committee to allocate money for prevention, treatment, and law enforcement. we are working several developing stories in our newsroom right now. an emotional reunion. he survived an ordeal that most of us have never and will never experience. see what happened when a washington journalist saw his colleagues for the first time in almost two years. hello from the other side. wait until you hear how one local school let students know there was no class today. it's going viral this afternoon. and a lot of students will get to stay home from school for the rest of the week. but that's not the case for everyone. the big concerns for people in some neighborhoods that have students walking to and from class despite all the snow still on the ground. >> this is news4 at 4:00.

well, this is a storm team4 weather alert day and right now that melting snow is about to freeze up again and tonight we're looking at a steep dip in the mercury that could affect streets and sidewalks tomorrow. doug kammerer and veronica johnson are looking how cold it will get. their forecast is straight ahead at 5:00. we showed you live pictures of this fire in an apartment complex in adelphi as it was happening a couple weeks ago. our chopper flying over as two people had to be rescued. tonight we know now the fire was an accident. fire investigators say an aerosol can came in contact with

an open flame on a kitchen stove. the apartment quickly became engulfed. all of the residents in the building were displaced and two people inside the apartment were seriously burned. the husband has been released from the hospital but his wife is still there recovering. a baby decided to come a month early and was born in the aftermath of the blizzard. so his mom had no choice but to deliver her son herself. she was headed to the hospital on a snowy highway north of philadelphia on sunday. she was just 15 minutes away but that was 15 minutes too long for little brantley. well, brantley watis born at 4 pounds, 8 ounces. both he and his mom are doing just fine now. while some students are spending all week at home, students at d.c. public schools woke up today to get to school on time.

news4's eric gonzalez was there when they arrived and found out not everyone was happy to be back at school. >> reporter: back to school. for dcps. slow going. but students in d.c. are getting back to work. were you surprised that they let them come back to school today? >> yes. >> reporter: sidewalks and streets are still blanketed with snow. >> i expected them to do more. >> reporter: causing concern for some parents choosing to walk their kids in. did you walk on the sidewalk or did you walk on the street. >> i walked on the street. >> reporter: but the mounds make the walk more of a hurdle. here at coolidge high school in northwest, the principal and assistant principals were here to greet their kids. >> good morning. how are you doing? all right. >> reporter: machines were brought out to clear a path so students could get to class safely. while dcps advised parents to

use discretion tweeting no absences or late arrivals would be counted, some parents are frustrated they're here at all. parents we talk to say it's not that they were happy that their kids were home from school or even that they wanted them to stay at home any longer. it's that they just didn't want to see their neighborhoods, their sidewalks still covered with snow and their kids hurtling over it to get to class. in northwest, i'm erika gonzalez. right now at 5:00, driven to frustration, traffic troubles in the first big commute since the blizzard. from potholes to accidents to traffic lanes blocked by piles of snow, even sidewalks are a challenge. >> not a single snowflake shoveled. >> and it may be just the start of the problem. >> slush on the ground, that becomes ice tonight. and another big tetion tomorrow, what's happening in commuter lots like this one could impact lots of people who are trying to get back to work.

right now at 5:00, we're keeping a close eye on the condition of those roads because that temperature is falling fast, which means ice is going to be a big problem in the next few hours. some streets are completely clear, others still moving very slowly and there have been a number of accidents across the region. >> also we have live team coverage tonight on the conditions of those roads across the region and the refreeze as the temperatures tumble into the teens. we begin with bureau reporter david culver. david has driven many of your streets. he joins us live from fairfax county with word on what it's going to take to get back to normal? >> reporter: students in fairfax county and loudoun county aren't going to be going back to school until february, that's next week, but here is a big reason why. this is one of the many paths that lead up to schools here. this is actually eagle view elementary school. you have about a foot if not more of snow. it stops right at the street which is clear, but then follow the pedestrian walk over and the

snow picks up again. it's just not melting quickly enough. in the fairfax county, many of the roads living up to vdot's promise of a passable lane by today but some have just that, one lane. meaning someone has to pull aside and let the other pass. we found wax pool road narrowing from four lanes to two. route 28, another lane disappears, and 66 inside the beltway, jam packed at times today. >> so for the roads we are responsible for, we're very comfortable where we are today. our team has worked 12-hour shifts literally since wednesday. >> reporter: the governor happy with the progress but noting it won't be cheap. >> it's going to cost us a lot of money. this could be north of $175 million, may even top $200 million which would be a historic storm for us, would be the most expensive one we've ever had, but cost is not the issue. >> i am hopeful