breaking right now, we're less than an hour away from metro doing something it has never done before. shutting down the entire rail system

i'm wendy rieger, we have live team coverage on how this is going to affect you whether you take metro subway or not. breaking news and politics. marco rubio's out, while the two front-runners separate themselves from the rest of the pack. that unprecedented move by met electro. the first ever nonweather closing of the entire rail system. from midnight tonight until 5:00 a.m. on thursday, our subway system handles 725,000 trips every weekday, all this is to inspect 600 cables that could pose a risk similar to what we saw in that deadly fire last year. wendy rieger is anchoring our team coverage tonight. it's the calm before the chaotic commute. >> people coming out of

as usual right now. but at the strike of midnight and all day tomorrow and into tomorrow night, until 5:00 a.m. thursday morning, it's going to be what's above ground that you have to worry about, for the first time metro is shutting down its entire subway system. what is this going to do to the entire region? it's going to have an impact. federal workers can telework. we don't have all those tens of thousands of people coming in. this thing came out of nowhere, it caught the federal officials and d.c. officials by surprise. >> everybody that has to deal with this learned about this about an hour before it happened. metro's general manager did not

managers before notifying them. anybody tomorrow, this news for anybody tomorrow, if you have to commute around the region, it's going to be a tough day, particularly if you have to come into the district. >> it was shocking, i'll tell you that. i didn't get a call. >> reporter: like all other officials, d.c.'s mayor didn't get a call until today. the mayor quickly mobilized her emergency management team. >> we treat this event because it's so significant for the district as a homeland security event. just like we prepare for a blizzard. >> unlike a blizzard, schools, businesses and the government will still be open. meaning hundreds of thousands of people will still need to get around, but won't be able to use metro rail. >> i recognize the hardship this causes to the region and the

community. >> the reason for the closure is safety. yesterday's fire at mcpherson square was likely caused by a faulty jumper cable on the tracks. it was a faulty jumper cable that caused the fire at lafont plaza last year. >> the risk to the public is low, i cannot rule out a potential life safety issue here, this is why we must take this action immediately. >> beginning at midnight and lasting until 5:00 a.m. thursday morning, metro rail will be shut down completely. there will be about 22 crews inspecting metro rail throughout the underground system. >> crawling around on their hands and knees.

>> our team coverage continues over in virginia, with shamari stone. not only people who rely heavily on metro subway, also commuters, our roads are nasty on a good day when everybody is running and the sun is shining. you can imagine how tough it could possibly become tomorrow. >> you're absolutely correct. i talked to many drivers, they are concerned about their commute tomorrow morning. they say there's already a lot of traffic. combine that with the people i interviewed who take metro. a lot of drivers are expecting a traffic mess, they say they want to know what's going to happen tomorrow morning during their commute. >> it's a little upsetting, you put a lot of people in a difficult position. how is he going to get from pentagon city to rockville. >> it's going to be a

>> metro rail is shut down for emergency inspections. >> safety is a big concern but to just announce it at 4:00 in the afternoon and blindside everybody seems a little excessive. >> a lot of people tell me they take the metro rail from the pentagon city metro station as far away as the franconia springfield station. this news is a big inconvenience. >> what are you going to do? >> i don't know if i'll have to drive to work. i'll have to drive or take the bus. >> that means more cars will be on the road. >> i hope they get it taken care of as quickly and efficiently as possible. >> they're just going to have to monitor this thing, and they're going to be looking at the nbc washington app. one woman showed it to me and said she's looking at it for updates.

this is going to leave a huge void for a lot of people, there are some alternatives to try to patch something together. here are some of the options you have, if you have to come into work. because you're not with the federal government. mark will be running normal schedules tomorrow, mark plans to add extra trains for the added capacity. metro bus will be running with extra service to get the kids into schools. other bus systems are adding some additional service. the ride sharing uber and lift, those services, they are offering discounts to first time users and they're encouraging use of their car pool services. although uber says that surge pricing is likely, be aware of that. capital bike share is offering free 24 hour memberships. and you can find a full list of the

you may want to bring your meditation cd's. >> good idea. thank you, wendy. we have more of those transportation options scrolling on the bottom of your screen. we're just getting started tonight, much more to come, including metro's answer. if it's such an emergency, why not shut down earlier. melissa will be keeping a close eye on the roads. we'll send breaking news alerts on our nbc washington app. the race for the white house, on the republican side tonight, new life for john kasi kasich, and the end of the road for marco rubio. hillary clinton may have taken the biggest step toward the democratic nomination. governor kasich took his home state of ohio tonight. with a big win over trump. trump beat rubio easily in

rubio's home state of florida. shortly after that, the news came in rubio suspended his campaign. the one state all polls said would be a problem for hillary clinton was ohio, but she beat bernie sanders there, and florida and north carolina. missouri and north carolina still too close to call at this hour. donald trump is in a battle right now for missouri here's how the winners have reacted so far tonight. >> if you've been waiting for the right moment. now is the time to come join us. >> i want to remind you again tonight that i will not take the low road to the highest office in the land. >> this is my second home, florida, to win by that kind of a number as -- is incredible. >> and that trump win in florida is one of the big stories of

cutting the gop field down to just three now. chris lawrence is at our live disk with more on the end of the line for rubio tonight. >> he didn't just lose his home state, he got buried by donald trump. rubio is proud of his optimistic message and wouldn't campaign any differently. >> after tonight, it is clear while we are on the right side, this year, we will not be on the winning side. >> rubio lost big in florida among white voters and men. he suspends his campaign, rubio's delegates could come into play at the republican convention. the senator congratulated trump in his win in florida, but condemned the kind of comments and actions that make americans hate each other. >> america needs a vibrant conservative movement. but one that's built on principles and ideas, not on fear,

>> rubio didn't endorse anyone but his policy adviser is already backing ted cruz, literally about 20 minutes ago, cruz came out and praised rubio and openly urged all of his supporters to unite behind him. manger new developments in the murder of the prince georges county officer. police have charged forward with second degree murder. he's charged with attempted murder and assault of other officers outside the district three station. ford shot at the police station, several cars and an ambulance before getting into a shootout with police on sunday. ford's two brothers are nacing attempted murder charges for recording that

>> we saw a beautiful day across the area. a beautiful afternoon, temperatures started to skyrocket as the sun came out. 63, dooley 64 in d.c. 75 in roanoke. near 80 just back to our south and west. that's the kind of air we have coming in tomorrow. we'll talk about that, and the chance for showers coming up, and there's some snow in the forecast. a little bit, don't worry. i have the forecast coming up. metro says it will reopen thursday morning, but not every metro rider is counting on that, why some folks are making backup plans for the rest of the week.

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if it happened once, okay, what happened, right? it's happened twice in a year. i can't wait for the third time. >> metro gm saying he can't let it happen again. the same issue that caused a woman to die in a smoke filled metro station caused major delays yesterday at mcpherson square. no one was injured, but he says metro cannot risk that again. wendy, somebody posted on my facebook page this evening. they expect the morning rush hour to go all the way into the afternoon rush hour. we don't know what to look for tomorrow afternoon. >> by th

you have to go home. >> they're going to spend 29 hours, i guess inspecting this, what if they do find a problem. can they fix it right away or is that going to take even long summer. >> that's going to take even longer. if they discover that one of the jumper cables doesn't meet with their inspection standards, they will have to come back later that day and clean that up, fix that or replace that part. that could mean more closures or temporary closures or delays on those lines, depending on where they find them and how many they find. >> how much is this costing metro? >> the revenue they lose is about $2 million on a workday, we know that, as far as how much it's going to cost to do the inspections, no price tag on that yet. >> why didn't he shut it down this afternoon. >> he made this as a life or death situation. >> go ahead and ride it home tonight. yeah. >> he thought this was the most responsible

he brought in 100,000 people to work in the morning. he wanted to give the people the information and make their own choices. >> all right, mark. let's go back to virginia and pentagon city metro stop. commuters out there are worried that maybe at 5:00 a.m. saturday this thing doesn't fire up again, they may have two days in this mess. >> i talked to some people who catch the metro, we don't know what to believe, they're saying, way, 5:00 a.m. on thursday, 8 metro be able to fix the entire system? a lot of folks are doubtful? what are they doing? they're calling their supervisors saying we may need to telework another day. some folks are using sick leave, others are having unscheduled leave in order to take the time just to stay at home. you knee what,

the traffic. some are concerned about the roads and the potential danger. a lot of people are watching this, we'll have to see what happens over the 29 hours. >> 35 minutes from now, the subway shuts down, unprecedented, without a snow crisis in its history for 29 hours. >> the last trains leave about 11:40 from most stations. >> thank you. it's going to be an interesting day tomorrow, we'll keep you ahead of this commute all morning long. be sure to watch news 4 today at 26 a.m. melissa will be watching the roads for you. we'll send you traffic alerts all day on the nbc washington app, if you have to bike or walk tomorrow. this guy is your silver lining. it's going to be a pretty darn good day for that. >> especially early in the day. the only aspect

a quick shower during the evening rush. a lot more people out and about. that's the only time i see any real scenarios. you may want to take the umbrella, i'm not expecting much in the way of wind at all. one thing we may see tonight could be some fog. we haven't seen much yet. we're still on the mild side, and we're going to stay mild overnight tonight into the day tomorrow. there's the fog i'm talking about. 7:00 to to 8:00 a.m. 50 degrees at that time, tomorrow afternoon, nice and warm, 73 tomorrow, a slight chance of a shower, most of us, however, remain on the dry side. there's the radar right now, we have mostly clear skies. our next storm is back toward chicago. bringing possible tornados toward portions of northern illinois. the good news about this, the main energy moves way

shower, the passing front as it moves on through, here we are around 11:00 a.m. maybe some areas of fog lingering. sun in the afternoon, here come the showers, look around 6:00, a few isolated showers, this is not going to be much in the way of rain, if you're stuck outside it could be a quick downpoor, and then by overnight tomorrow night, it is out of here. 73 in manassas, 76 toward fredricks berg, a warm day, that's it as far as the real were days go. thursday a nice one. 65 degrees, that's pretty nice. 57 on friday, look at the trend here, down to 50 on saturday. that cooling trend continues, high of 46 on sunday. this is the first day of spring on sunday. look at what we have here. mostly rain, maybe mixing with snow on sunday. it's a developing coastal system. we'll see what it means fo

>> doug, thank you. the captain coming through as the caps become the first team

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>> the wins keep coming. this one in overtime tonight. >> very good win for the capitals. the capitals clinched a birth in the playoffs, more importantly, they finally got off to a great start at the verizon center. it's been nearly two weeks since barry's team hasn't had to come back to win a game. he was sick and tired of talking about the slow starts. the capitals on their home ice. they haven't scored in the first period. the hurricanes turn it over. ovechkin with a great opportunity there. backstrom on the rebound, he can't put it home. ove's chance to stop the capitals. caps get on the board. justin williams puts that home. williams scores his 21st goal of the season,

russian heritage night, ovechkin works for the winner there. ovechkin wins the game, scoring his 42nd goal of the season. the caps take this one 2-1 in overtime. the capitals will host nashville this friday at verizon center. the last time the men's program played in spokane washington, they fell short to michigan state in the big dance. they will try to change their luck out west. fortunately, spokane is 2400 miles away from college park. at least there won't be many distractions on this terps team. i think it's a blessing for me, we're going to be out there. not a lot of people are going to be out there we know. >> don't have to worry about too many people, i guess. we can focus on winning two

>> it's all right. i wouldn't mind playing -- not in spokane, but here's a great city. i can't wait to get out there. >> good news for the redskins, according to multiple reports, they have resigned junior galette to a one-year deal worth up to $4 million. he was released by the new orleans saints, he tore his achilles in training camp. he missed the entire 2015 season. 22 sacks in the last two seasons for junior galett

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well, as we've mentioned, we're now less than a half hour away from the metro rail system completely closing for at least 29 hours. the first time it's happened in metro's history for a nonweather related event. wendy, somebody's got to have a sense of humor about this, right? >> one of my favorite tweets today was from the d.c. street car. it tweeted out, we're going to be open, if you need to get from union station up h street northeast, i think it's 10 blocks, there you go, they got you covered. i thought that was very sweet. >> d.c. police also had a little fun with the shutdown, with a little throw back to married with children. straight out of service, and another person tweeted a picture of john candy letting people know they'll have to find

sorry, folks, metro is closed. wendy, we want to thank you, and thanks to mark and shamari. thanks for having us in. join us again at 4:26 tomorrow

[ cheers and applause ] ♪ >> steve: from studio 6b in rockefeller center in the heart of new york city, it's "the tonight show starring jimmy fallon." tonight, join jimmy and his guests -- jesse eisenberg, zoe kravitz,