and the temperature is dropping. we have team coverage first at 4 including doug kammerer tracking what's next. >> but we begin this afternoon with news4's derrick ward. derrick has been surveying the daniel in montgomery county. what are you finding there? >> reporter: we're finding a lot of horizontal trees like the ones you see behind me. this is a roofing shingle. this is on the ground today and they're all over the place. a lot of damage around here. take a look at what we've been seeing around montgomery county. now, all over the place there are video -- there are scenes like this. we see a lot of damage, a lot of splinters, a lot of roofing crews around too, and we're talking to people who were here for this storm. the wind is picking up now but it's nowhere near what it was yesterday. we are hearing how fast it all came and went. >> and then, whoosh, and it's so

air was still -- the sky opened up. it's like what happened? >> reporter: now, no one was hurt by anything here. we did have some property damage and we'll let you take a look at that in an upcoming parts of news4 today later on, but, again, the cleanup is under way. lots of crews out repairing the power lines. most of the people who had lost power have now got it back and it's just a matter of repairing roofs and getting those trees out of the way. we'll have more on this coming up on news4. right now we are live in germantown. pat, back to you. >> thank you, derrick. right now the baltimore washington parkway is drying out after floodwaters left part of it impassable earlier today. chopper4 through over the scene. you can see water was covering north and southbound lanes leaving some cars stuck. the area between 695 and 95 was closed. we're getting another look at the tornado thatch

in the town of waverly, virginia, and all the damage it caused. the tornado killed three people there, including a 2-year-old boy. witnesses told our sister station in norfolk that his family took cover in the mobile home and the winds ripped it apart. virginia governor terry mcauliffe just got a look at the damage. >> it shows how powerful these storms are. when the tornado watches come you have to realize the devastation. >> another tornado hurt two people in virginia's northern neck. nbc's chris pollone is taking a closer look at the wild weather from new york to louisiana coming up in about ten minutes. those storms have given way to some interesting changes today as you step outside. we know you probably noticed it feels a lot different. >> it's breezy and definitely a lot colder. let's get to storm team4 4 chief meteorologist doug kammerer . >> we have to remember it's still winter out there and we're still dealing with the same storm that came through yesterday although n w

take a look at what that means for the radar. look at the snow. you notice that in through pennsylvania, up around the lakes. a lot of lake-effect snow going into the mountains of west virginia and western portions of maryland. they will pick up a couple inches. for us we're seeing light snow showers across the area so some snow showers up towards hagerstown, frederick, even fairfax county, vienna reporting snow showers earlier. some sprinkles down to the south. not going to amount to much for us. what it shows you is the kolt a cold air moving in. 28-mile-an-hour wind gust in d.c. 37 in camp springs. 25 leesburg and over 30 towards annapolis. the wind is here. it's bringing in colder numbers. windchills tomorrow morning will be in the teens to around 20 degrees. wire looking at a much colder start to soour day on friday. i have the entire forecast coming up in just a minute. thanks. even if you don't watch doug and v.j. live, the nbc washington app was warning you about every watch and warning as they were coming in during that

download it to your smartphone now for breaking news and weather alerts anytime. first on 4, there are big changes coming to metro to improve your safety. the transit system is stepping up police patrols in the wake of several high-profile incidents including one case caught on surveillance video where a man was assault on the red line. adam tuss is live at the gallery place station. tell us more about the changes. >> reporter: pat, we've had a couple incidents like this on the transit system recently. just couple days ago that person shot actually on a green line train, and now transit police say they are, in fact, going to be stepping up their efforts. here is what they're going to be doing. they're actually paying over $1 million to hire a private third-party contractor firm. that third party will look over metro's revenue collection operations. what that will do is free up the transit police officers who were previously looking over that revenue collection

and they can then go out on the system. so riders should start seeing more officers on trains, buses, and on platforms. we talked about it earlier at a metro board meeting with transit police chief ron pavlik. >> we got to take every step to reassure our riders and employees that it is a safe place. it's that four-legged tool i talk about. the technology place, the police officers, the front line employees and the ridership. how do we reassure riders we are safe? >> reporter: so i think the important thing to take away from all of this is metro understands there's a perception right now that people aren't as safe as they would like to be on trains, buses, and in stations, and they are making an adjustment to that, guys. >> adam, to that point, you mentioned the transit police officers. what are their staffing levels overall right now? >> reporter: so right now they have about a 10% shortage in the number of police officers that

i asked the general manager, do you have enough police officers, and he said i don't think we'd ever have enough. so any police force is going to tell you certainly they would welcome more officers, but metro has about 30 to 40 positions right now it would like to see filled. they do say they have another class that's about to graduate and income transit police officers. >> all right. adam tuss, thank you, adam. developing story now in frederick where police found a man dead in a shallow creek. this is part of willowdale park. it's just off willowdale drive. the man's body was in the water just a few feet from a playground. chopper4 flew over the scene shortly after investigators arrived today. right now they're trying to determine how the man died and how his body ended up in that creek. his name hasn't been released. tonight donald trump's republican rivals will get another chance to challenge the front-runner. the candidates are in houston right now preparing for the last debate before super tuesday. a republican operative

movements and says there's still time to stop him, but, quote, not much. so far senators marco rubio and ted cruz have shown little willing tons confront trump in these high-profile settings, and while senator bernie sanders focuses on super tuesday, hillary clinton is trying to solidify her lead in south carolina. the democratic front-runner held a town hall meeting today and told voters she hopes president obama nominate a true progressive to replace antonin scalia. sanders is focusing on key battleground states in the midwest. a large crowd turned out for a rally at a university in ohio. some folks on social media said it looked like old faithful. the problem was it happened right in the middle of a busy intersection in the heart of downtown d.c. talk about an unlikely pair. we'll tell you the common cause that has vice president biden introducing lady gaga.

it's been a windy one today. reports of some wet snowflakes and sprinkles across the area. so if you're going to be out this evening, you certainly want to bundle up. temperatures will range from 39 to 43 degrees. again, a sprinkle, a little wet snowflake coming through the area. you can see it there on storm team4 radar moving from west to east. all that light blue you see. that's where there's generally some showers, but the air aloft very cold. so we're getting even more reports of wet fl

winchester, and a better chance of seeing snow accumulate in western maryland. i will show where you there are winter weather advisories posted. look at the wind gusts. 25 to 30 miles per hour, that will make it feel colder, not just this evening as you're going out. dry on area roads tomorrow morning, 33. windchills down into the teens. we'll take it hour by hour it just a few minutes. traffic is moving again through a busy intersection in downtown d.c., but earlier today 14th and k streets looked a lot like old faithful. a viewer sent us this photo. a d.c. water crew was able to fix the valve quickly and turn off the water. vice president joe biden will be attending the academy awards this weekend, and he will introduce lady gaga. she's performing her song "till it happens to you" from a documentary about sex assault on

gaga has an oscar nomination for best original song. the vice president says he will use the opportunity to urge americans to speak out about sexual assault. domestic violence prevention is one of the vice president's biggest priorities. it's a complicated legal battle. first at 4, the move apple just made to try to stop the government from carrying out a

earlier this

asked to have a controversial order from the fbi vi kat acate. last week a california judge ordered ap toll help the fbi hack into a locked iphone used by one of the san bernardino gunmen. fbi director james comey says the dispute with apple is raising some of the hardest questions he's seen in government. comey says apple has been very cooperative in the investigation. six states are now suing the obama administration over the affordable care act. texas, wisconsin, kansas, louisiana, indiana, and nebraska filed lawsuits over the health insurance provider's fee. the states claim the affordable care act does not make it clear that states have to pay that fee, which could add up to $15 billion over the next ten years. a final chance tonight for you to weigh in on the name of a new elementary school in prince william county. the school is located in woodbridge. it's set to open in september.

name, kyle wilson after the county firefighter who died in the line of duty in 2007 and dr. george hampton, an african-american leader and scholar. the naming committee will hear suggestions at a meeting tonight at 7:00 at saunders middle school on spriggs road. a final decision will be made next week. we'll hear from proponents of some of the suggestions coming up on news4 at 5:00. well, the storm system that hit us so hard affected nearly half the country. damaging hundreds of building and leaving at least eight people dead. >> three of those deaths frr a tornado in virginia. a 2-year-old is one of the victim there is. nbc's chris pollone picks up our team coverage on the destruction from north carolina. >> reporter: the powerful storm system which brought tornadoes to the deep south tuesday barrelled into the northeast overnight. in lancaster county, pennsylvania, 50 homes damaged. high winds brought down branches, toppled tree, and le

>> our trampoline is wrapped around the telephone pole and then our swing set is in their yard. >> reporter: those gusts are blamed for knocking over a tractor-trailer and snarling traffic on the george washington bridge, the world's busiest. central north carolina had more than 20 tornado warnings in one day, more than last year alone, and it's only february. virginia took a deadly punch. two men and a toddler tied wednesday in waverly, virginia, when they were tossed 30 yards from a trailer. >> i saw the roofs flying everywhere and what can you do? you know, you're caught up in it. >> reporter: and a man in south carolina killed by a falling tree. >> the guy, he was laying down and the tree was on top of him, and he was hurt. he was hurt. the tree was on top of him. >> reporter: the storm dumped snow on the nation's midsection and then in new york and new england. thousands of flights delayed or canceled. a rare and powerful

fueled by the strongest el nino on record. chris pollone, nbc news, raleigh, north carolina. >> i remember at one point last night when doug sort of widened out and showed us just how much of the country that storm was affecting. >> yeah. and, doug, it made a mess all over the region, even in areas where, you know, of course we didn't get tornadoes, but everybody's neighborhood looks a little bit messy today. >> the major thing about this is you see from chris pollone's package there was a tornado in lancaster, pennsylvania. we had numerous tornadoes just to our south but nothing in our immediate area as far as tornadoes. we had some strong winds, we had some trees down, but we did not have tornadoes reported from lancaster, pennsylvania, all the way down -- the closest one to us south was in virginia. that occurred when the storms were moving up. that was one of three tornado warnings that affected portions of st. mary's county. tap hahnic just south of the

tornado. an ef-3 that brought winds of 140 miles per hour. our sister station in richmond was there a little earlier. kelly has more on that one. >> reporter: take a look at this home. you can see the tree snapped and blew into the couple's sun room. the house shook and it sounded like a train went through. over here this way you can see more downed trees and power lines. a very dangerous situation. rescue crews had to rescue several people from inside their homes after the storm hit, and, again, that damage just intense in so many areas here. we'll keep you updated. back to you. >> the storms made their way through the northern neck in towards southern maryland. we saw some damage but nearly as much as they saw down to the south. for us today, much calmer weather. 46 degrees. winds out of the west at 20 miles per hour. gusting up to 35 miles per hour. so take a look at the current temperatures. 40 in hagerstown, 45 in

manassas. 39 in la ray. the windchills down to 34. the windchill is going to be a factor as we move through the next 24 hours. something else that we're seeing, some shower activity, just some light sprinkles for the most part, but some of this is falling as snow across our region. so don't be surprised this evening to see some snowflakes coming in. let's take a look at the wider picture here and you notice we have some of that area right now. widen out just a little bit more to show how big the system is. again, this is the statement storm that came through. there's the front with the severe weather:00. look at the thunderstorm activity just continuing out to sea. for us now we're on the back side. that's why we're getting this wind. that's where we're seeing the snow showers. tomorrow morning, quite chilly. 33 to start off the day. windchill around 20 degrees when you step out the front door for the kids at the bus stop. 3:00 in the afternoon, a high of 42. windchills only around freezing all day. now, we do warm. it's not going to be until sunday but notice the difference. 45 on saturday. we get to 60

breeze, but that's a warm breeze. still mild as we head into early next week. we'll have much more on early next week's pattern because we go from cool weather here to a very nice quiet streak for a couple days before the possibility of our next storm moves in in about a week. we'll talk much more about that in a bit. veronica has the latest for you. >> thanks. the zika virus, it is spreading throughout the world, and now some doctors say the effects on newborn babies could be worse than first thought. this is a list you don't want to be on. the worst of the worst.

you can't deal with something, by ignoring it. but that's how some presidential candidates seem to be dealing with social security. americans work hard, and pay into it. so our next president needs a real plan to keep it strong. (elephant noise) (donkey noise) hey candidates, answer the call already.

you're watching news4 at 4:00. 4,500 passengers and there are some rough waters on a royal caribbean cruise and now one of them have filed a lawsuit. it claims royal caribbean should have heeded some warnings for hurricane-force winds in the atlantic. earlier this month the ship was rocked by 30-foot waves off the coast of north carolina. the cruiseline had to cancel the seven-day cruise. we all have our favorite stores, but is there a store you hate? according to a new survey, a lot of people hate a

fitch. in fact, most of those surveyed said the casual wear clothier was the worst specialty retailer around. among the stores people like west, costco, nordstrom, amazon, and wegman's. it was conducted by the american satisfaction index which measures customer satisfaction in a variety of business approximates. >> does amazon count as a store? maybe i guess. >> a retailer, a place where you shop, get something for your money. jetblue conducted a social experiment. it offered all 150 passengers a free round-trip ticket for a future flight anywhere in the world. but they all had to agree on one destination. in the end they narrowed it down to two. >> raise your hands for turks and caicos. all right. raise them up for costa rica. remember, we all go or no one goes. raise your hand if you have chosen turks

no hands in the air. must be only one thing. 150 random strangers have chosen unanimously to go to costa rica! congratulations, everybody. we're all going to costa rica! you guys have earned it. well done. >> wow. >> wow. >> that's amazing. >> yeah. jetblue says with all the divisiveness in politics today, it wanted to see if strangers would work together and come to some sort of consensus. >> so apparently they could. those passengers proved it is possible for people from all various places and backgrounds to agree on one thing. so if you had your choice, which would be your pick? >> i have been to costa rica and loved it. i'm more of an adventure kind of guy and i have never been to turks and caicos. so i would have chose that. >> you go to turks and caicos and i'

because i've never been there. >> but if it has to be unanimous, pat, i will go with you. i'm going with you, chris. >> i'm all right with that. >> we'll agree on that. developments coming in this afternoon from around the area as people across the region dust off after that round of strong storms. how folks whose homes were damaged are dealing with the cleanup today. take a like live outside on this thursday afternoon. we can bet the weather outside right now is not the same as it was when you stepped outside this morning.

a mess on a major highway. now at 4:30, the baltimore washington parkway is drying out after flod waters left part of it impassable earlier today in anne arundel county. the road is open again this afternoon. virginia governor terry mcauliffe just got a look at the damage left behind in waverly, virginia. it killed three people including a 2-year-old boy. and storm team4 is tracking more changes in the weather. you can see how hard the wind is blowing out there right now. it's about to get a lot colder as well. veronica will update us in just a moment. the effects of last night's severe weather are still evident in many neighborhoods. >> yeah. megan mcgrath went to areas of northern virginia where everything looks very, very different, including a lot of new miles of mulch. >> the rains came, start coming down horizontally. >> reporter:

then came the wind. it was a close call for david. a falling tree just missed his car. >> as soon as i started driving down by driveway, a tree fell down, missed me by about 30 feet or so, and then we had a power outage also. >> reporter: high wind brought trees and limbs crashing down last night. in many cases on top of power lines. there were a number of road closures, including this one on old dominion drive in mclean and another mess on georgetown pike in great falls. work crews spent the morning clearing trees as power crews worked to repair downed lines. we met lisa as she cleaned up her yard. no major damage at her house, but -- >> we have quite a few trees down in the neighborhood and back to georgetown pike, and there t

on georgetown pike that brought down power lines. >> reporter: by late morning many roads had reopened but georgetown pike and springdale road in great falls, there's a lot of damage here, and crit cod be a lingering problem. megan mcgrath, news4. and we have some gusty winds out there right now. our winds gusting 25 to over 30 miles per hour and for prince george's county along the western portion of the patuxet river, still could see some river rises through the rest of today, early part of the day tomorrow. take a look at radar. it's busy with some light sprinkles, showers all moving through, and wet snowflakes, but where we will see that snow accumulate will be out here. this is 5:00 this afternoon. you can see the white, that's still snow at 7:00, and we're going to continue with the snow all the way as we go into the overnight period first thing tomorrow morning. 9:00 snowing, and there could be

inches of snow throughout west virginia, western maryland, and that means good skiing for this upcoming weekend. look at that. frostburg, elkins, down towards beaver. winter weather advisory until 7:00 a.m. tomorrow. in just a couple minutes we'll take a look at your ski forecast, and doug has more on what our weekend is going to look like. thanks, v.j. there have been some new developments in the search for a new supreme court justice. it comes down to thanks, but no thanks. that's what the governor of nevada is saying this afternoon to speculation he might be nominated. republican brian sandoval has notified the white house he doesn't want to be considered for the high court. governor sandoval says it's humbling and he's grateful to have even been mentioned. someone appears to be trying to make money off the murders of two maryland deputies. the horford county sheriff's office says the person is making calls to get donations for the families. the sheriff's office never calls et

the deputies died two weeks ago. a gunman killed them at a panera bread in horford county. there are legitimate ways to help the families. they include a go fund me site and the horford county deputy sheriff's union. new concerns about the possible health side effects of the zika virus. now, doctors in brazil say the virus was found in a stillborn baby. it had very little brain tissue as well as other life threatening complications. zika has been linked to babies born with unusually small heads. if you get the flu shot, you're a lot less likely to get the virus compared to your co-workers who didn't. in fact, cdc now puts the chances at 59% less likely. last year the vaccine was only 23% effective. flu cases are still on the rise, and they expect that trend to continue for several weeks. the cdc says only half of americans get the flu shot in any given year. there's a

maryland. some state lawmakers are backing legislation to merge the university of maryland college park with the university of maryland baltimore. that's what "the baltimore sun" is reporting. supporters say it would lead to a closer partnership, perhaps some more innovation but there's also a lot of opposition as well. a similar effort five years ago to combine those schools failed. capitol hill today hosted a group of d.c. area girls who are dedicated to becoming the engineers of tomorrow. lawmakers invited the students to the program designed to empower and engige girls in the engineering field. they participated in workshops and lab tours. the event helped reinforce something the girls already knew, and that is that they can do anything a boy can do. >> well, girls are very powerful, so they need to get involved with it and they're just as equal as the men in the same jobs, so they should just do it.

here because it's just really nice that i could come to a nice place and then i could see all of these great mentors. >> the goal of the program is to match girls with mentors who can help them achieve their goals. well, we've all had bills to pay, but problems with one company's website is causing confusion and headaches for some of the customers. what our consumer reporter susan hogan noufound is really happen. and some popular snacks have just made a new recall list.

and storm team4 radar, we're back in blue mode across the area. that's some good news. no more red mode p.m. i. i'm in purple mode apparently. showers falling across the area falling as light sprinkles or light snow. that light snow to the north, up towards frederick, hagerstown. heads up. we don't expect any areas of slick conditions, but just an area of concern closer to the pennsylvania border. now this, weekend great weekend to go skiing. saturday is going to be a little colder, sunday is going to be very nice but liberty making snow again tonight and tomorrow. base of two feet, 2 and a half feet. bryce resort down to 36 to 54 inch base. wisp looking good. snowshoe nearly 100 inches of natural snow this year. 100 inches and

maybe 3 to 5 inches. 56 trails open there. what am i doing this weekend? >> thanks, doug. a recall this afternoon of raw macadamia nuts. seven brands are being recalled because they may contain salmonella. the brands are target's market pantry, western family, shurfine, hyvee, pear's gourmet and nutpro. so far no i will ancllnesses ha reported. a historic school in ashburn could soon see new life. it operated from the late 1800s to the 1950s. teachers taught students from 6 years old to 17 years old in a one-room schoolhouse. now that school sits on land where the loudoun school for the gifted is building a

who are working to try to restore it. >> we just think it's a really important part of our local history. a lot of people just drive by it and don't know what it is, and as you can see it's really deteriorating and someone needs to take care of it so we thought why not us? >> the students are trying to raise $20,000 to secure the foundation. they set up a go fund me page which you can link to in the nbc washington app. just search loudoun school. they may start a kickstarter campaign to raise $100,000 as they try to restore the interior and exterior. do you pay your bills automatically? one news4 viewer thought he was only to be told by his gas company that he was months behind. how a tip to our consumer team is bringing some change. the storm may be passed, but it's still one of those afternoons where strong winds could cause some problems. storm team4 is tracking the return of cold air and your weekend first at 4.

winter's back. subfreezing temperatures with wind early tomorrow morning. i'll take you hour by hour and show you how cold it will feel friday. the stakes are high as the gop presidential candidates get ready to share the stage again. >> yeah. tonight's showdown could help decide the republican

the university of houston with a closer look at tonight's debate. what are you seeing, jay? >> reporter: hey there, chris, pat. a lot of confusion and perhaps even some desperation is what we're seeing here. look, this is the last time all of the republican candidates will be on stage together before the pivotal super tuesday vote, and many believe the last stand for those candidates trying to catch front-runner donald trump. front-runner donald trump travels to texas with growing momentum. >> we might not even need the two months, folks, to be honest. >> reporter: and the rest of the republican field desperately trying to slow him down. >> his three chief opponents all have to run in their home states and trump could beat them all. >> reporter: which means the stakes and tension will be high. >> the vast and overwhelming number of republicans do not want trump to be our nominee. >> reporter: and ted cruz taking shots at the front-runner. >> we can't be fooled by p.t. barnum. the time for the clowns and the

has passed. >> reporter: but many analysts warn the time for other gop candidates to block a trump domination is running out. >> the waup with a stunning editorial this morning about stopping trump. they feel there is some urgency now to stop trump and that would create some sort of historic rush towards them in the final days and weeks. >> reporter: history that either way will begin to play out when the republicans walk onto the stage at the university of houston in just a few hours. you know, former president george w. bush and his wife barbara who live in the houston area are expected to attend tonight's debate, the first since their son jeb dropped out of the race. jay gray, news4. >> thanks, jay. you will be able to watch the democrats tonight on msnbc. hillary clinton is going to be talking with "meet the press" moderator chuck todd this evening, and senator bernie sanders will join chris matthews for t

coming up at 8:00. and now your storm team4 forecast. >> it's just a little wet today. certainly cold but i will take it any day over what we had yesterday. we have some sprinkles, very light showers coming through the area, that will continue as we make our way through the late afternoon and evening hours and to the west that white you see is actual snow that's going to accumulate in west virginia and western maryland. certainly cold enough. 35 now in petersburg. we're in the 30s around here too. the windchill temperatures right there in d.c., camp springs feeling like 36 and close to 40 degrees in manassas. the windchill temperature, the winds going to stay out. we have a breezy day for tomorrow. twibt sh i want to show you how cold it gets into the early part of the day tomorrow. the windchill temperature at 11:00 p.m. will drop another ten degrees from what it feels like right now.

morning at 6:00 a.m., the:00 a.m. we're into the red zone. around 20 degrees. by 9:00 a.m., still very cold with windy conditions. 21 the windchill temperature. and at best i think tomorrow afternoon it will feel like we're around freezing, 30 degrees. maybe 32 tomorrow afternoon with still a few clouds coming in but a brighter day overall for tomorrow. the actual air temperature getting into the upper 30s to low 40s across the area. again, still some wind for tomorrow, but with more sunshine coming our way. so first thing out the door, the kids, what they need to know. make sure they're all bundled up. go for the coat, the gloves, the hat. make sure they come home, of course, with the gloves, too, and the hat. we know how that goes. weather will have a low to moderate impact on our day tomorrow with some sunshine. it will feel every bit like winter tomorrow. as we get into the weekend, do you want a littlsp

that's the next change for us. around 50 degrees at lunchtime. we'll keep the sunshine around throughout the day. it is just going to be a gorgeous, gorgeous day on sunday. the change as we get into the afternoon hours, we'll start warming up. really going to feel that difference even during the early afternoon. 60 degrees, maybe low s60s is where we ctop out sunday afternoon. wash the car, get the grit off, because we're going to be dry for a while until the midpart of next week and then we'll continue as we move into the first part of march with those temperatures around the 60-degree mark but we will get some rain in here. we'll talk more about that in news4 at 5:00 and how the temperatures will start falling off and if we could get, guys, maybe a little snow mixing in. >> say it ain't so. >> did you hear this? >> yeah, yeah, we heard you, vrge. >> thanks, verronicveronica. washington gas admits an update to its website has not

>> some of you wrote to us about paying your bills online. >> the website was supposed to expand online self-service options for thousands of washington gas customers, including their online payment method, but technical glitches caused a lot of headaches for customers, including one man who actually got a shut off notice. years ago richard mckinney signed up for washington gas automatic bill pay. >> the advantage of that is that i would never miss a payment. >> reporter: so he was shocked when he received this shut off notice in the mail. >> just three days ago i got a notice from washington gas saying that my service was going to be discontinued within a week if i did not pay because i had not paid my bill in three months. >> reporter: that's when richard called news4 to get to the bottom of it. >> i thought if i'm having this problem -- so i said, well, who else would know but nbc 4. >> washington

and recently posted this disclaimer. >> i'll show you on my account -- >> reporter: but it didn't real i see the extent of the problems until we passed along richard's case. that got washington gas to respond immediately. the company told news4 in part it concluded the test program for the recently launched site enhancements did not adequately cover the full spectrum of point-of-failure scenarios and if addressed differently it could have improved the log in and performance issues experienced by our customers. after contacting news4, richard was assured by washington gas that he would not be charged any late fees nor would his service be discontinued. he did ask to be taken off the auto bill payment system just to be safe. >> right now i just can't say i have enough confidence in their service to continue with their eservice. >> reporter: washington gas tells us it is close to fixing all of their online problems and they do say if you have an issue with a bill, if

there's something not right, to certainly call them and they will fix it for you immediately. susan hogan, news4. we're working several develops stories in the newsroom, including this one on capitol hill. picture this, you're outside during the worst of the storm last night when someone comes up and robs you. well, the robbers took an unusual item from a teenager and it made for a miserable walk in the rain. coming up on news4, why congress now wants to know if the fbi and police are lying to the public. i'm scott macfarlane outside the d.c. jail. the heavy rains tonight are going to be an especially big problem here. we have learned of a growing problem on the roof above the jail. water hitting the roof isn't staying on the roof. rain is infiltrating some of the inmates' cells in the building and a unit control room which

they've had to relocate more than 120 inmates to other parts of this facility, and a long-term fix for the roof is still months away. tonight on news4 at 5:00, we take you inside to show you what's happening inside the jail and get a better sense of when those fixes will actually come. for now in southeast d.c., sot macfarlane, news4. the legal battle between the government and apple is getting even more complicated. this afternoon what the head of the fbi says about the case. this is news4 at 4:00.

another crackdown on the confederate flag. the maryland house today passed a measure that says drivers cannot renew license tags that depict the confederate flag and you can't transfer those tags to other vehicles either. lawmakers voted 131-8 in favor of the bill. it now goes to the senate. the legal battle between apple and the government rages. today apple asked the federal judge to throw out the order to unlock a terrorist's iphone. >> the tech giant doesn't want to give that government that kind of, quote, dangerous power but the fbi director says his agency won't back down. steve handelsman is live on capitol hill breaking it all down for us. steve? >> reporter: thanks. this is cook versus comey. here in washington fbi investigators are reported frustrated by apple, but here on the hill you couldn't

from their boss. with the apple battle being fought in public, the fbi director made his case. james comey telling congress he loves privacy and encryption. >> part of me thinks, that's great, i don't want anybody looking at my stuff. but then i step back and think law enforcement, which i'm part of, really does save people's lives. >> reporter: that's why after san bernardino looking for others who would kill for isis, knowing terrorists rely on text, e-mail, twitter, facebook, and other apps, the fbi got a court to order apple to unlock the iphone of san bernardino killer syed farouq. >> what apple is objecting to here is the government wants them to write brand new software that doesn't exist right now that would give them the access to the phone. >> reporter: apple's ceo tim cook told abc the new code could get stolen and spread. sort of the equivalent of cancer, he said. we would never write it. think about what else they could ask us to write. our job is to protect our customers. comey said law enforcement's job is

>> with lawful court orders, read the communications of terrorists, gangbangers, pedophiles, all different kinds of bad people. >> reporter: but in its filing today, apple charges the fbi could ask apple to turn on iphone microphones or cameras for surveillance and apple is fighting 12 other court orders to unlock i-phones. with some in congress backing a new law that would require all smartphones to have backdoors. apple is now reportedly working on a new operating system that could never be unlocked by apple or law enforcement. i'm steve handelsman, news4. right now on news4 at 5:00, it's the day after and you may feel the change outside right now. by the morning, folks, temperatures could dip down into the teens. >> but first, a lot of people still dealing with the storm damage from yesterday, and we just learned a total of nine confirmed tornadoes touched down across the state of virginia

that little 2-year-old boy. and we saw problems all over our region. the bw parkway is back open this evening after this mess earlier today. chopper4 over the parkway this morning where water covered the north and southbound lanes. it was closed between the baltimore parkway and i-95 during the height of the morning commute. a silver spring man in his 80s who got trapped by rubble when a basement wall collapsed on him is now out of the hospital. that collapse happened along briggs road just off layhill road in montgomery county during the height of last night's storm. a heard a tremendous crash, and my landlord, the wall fell. i was in cinder blocks. >> what room is he in right now? >> he's in the basement and there's flooding and everything. >> that home has been deemed unsafe. we are told the man is out and now staying with some family members.

a church damaged by the storm in germantown, maryland, last night. those powerful winds and the rains hit right before bible study here. the reverend talked to us today about the scary moments when the storm bore down on them. news4's derrick ward is live now with his story and a look at all the damage. derrick? >> reporter: well, indeed. we're here on the grounds of the baptist church in germantown. this is a side of trees you don't get to see very often except at times like this. doug kammerer tells us that winds were clocked at 70 miles an hour through here and that is, indeed, believable. it amounted to some hairy moments for the folks inside the church here as it cut a swath all through this area. here at the upper seneca baptist church in germantown they were getting ready for wednesday evening bible study and choir practice, but they weren't ready for what the winds had in store. from the sanctuary they could