we've been watching all angles of hurricane irma for you. let get a look at the live satellite images coming in of this category 5 storm. it's pummeled small islands in the caribbean. >> 12 people have been killed by the storm. that number is likely to rise. the images we're seeing of the damage just breathtaking. look at that. from barbuda to st. martin. homes reduced to rubble and cars floating down the street. thousands don't have running water right now. in puerto rico, more than a million people are in the dark for a second morning in a row. this is all a terrifying preview of what would be in store for florida. >> right now, people in florida are paying attention to the warnings and the evacuation orders. thousands trying to get out of irma's path by land or air. you take a look at the lines for gasoline. we've heard reports of people waiting in line for two hours here. some gas stations have police officers patrolling. once folks fill up, they're stuck in

traffic trying to get out. >> long wait lines at miami international grew even longer after an officer-involved shooting. a police officer shot a man authorities say was armed and trying to get back into the airport through the ceiling. that shut down an entire terminal, which was already packed with passengers desperate to catch a flight. meanwhile, thousands of flights to and from florida have been canceled. coming up at 5:00, news 4's justin finch will be live at reagan national airport with more on the impact this will have on our airport. many of us have family and friends we're worried about in the path of this storm. i know i do. one d.c. woman can breathe a sigh of relief now. her 93-year-old father is out of irma's way. cheryl marquez's father lives in south florida. his care-givers evacuated leaving him all alone. marquez scrambled to have her sister fly into ft. myers, board a flight to dallas. el

>> the area of florida could be a target. he's been there many years. he'll be safe with my brother's family in dallas. >> once the storm passes, marquez and their siblings will have to make other arrange ams to get their father back to florida. >> in effect, it's shutting down ahead of the hurricane's arrival. david culver has been showing us how people are preparing their homes for this massive storm. you can watch all of his reports on the nbc washington app and stick with news 4 as david continues to bring us live reports ahead of the impact of the storm this weekend. it's 4:32 now. here's a look at our other top stories. there will be no -- >> no charges for a d.c. officer in a deadly christmas day shooting. that officer was responding to a domestic incident on walnut street. gerald hall was killed when he came to the door with a knife in his hand.

girlfriend in the arm. when he wouldn't drop the knife, he was shot and killed. one of the officers involved was wearing a body camera. update on the georgetown branch trail controversy. earlier this week, a group filed a temporary restraining order to lift the trail closure due to purple line construction. state officials are now responding. the group that wants the restraining order is asking for a delay in tree cutting along the trail. according to our news partners at wtop, the state says it can only delay the tree cutting operation by a day or twochlt a longer delay could risk the entire project. suspending the tree cutting operations will give the plaintiffs a chance to have their motion heard. the army corps of engineers is trying to figure out what made construction workers so sick they had to be put in the hospital temporarily. the workers were trying to clean up a world war i chemical site when they experienced serious symptoms. the site is near american university on glenbrook road in

the workers were exposed to mustard gas. but that didn't end up being the case. the national park service has a fix for getting rid of grime i film on jefferson memorial. lasers, according to our news port ners at wtop, a chicago-based company will begin working on a portion of the monument. they will use laser ablation treatment to remove the biofilm on the iconic landmark. it will take about four weeks. >> we should see results pretty immediately once it's started. >> if that works, use for a lot of other cleanups around the mall. it's 4:34. we want to get another check of weather and traffic. >> sheena and somara are updating our local forecast and track irma. >> good morning. irma is still a category 5 hurricane. this is a very powerful storm headed towards florida. the main threat will be storm surge. >> absolutely. that usually poses the most

>> we expect it to be a major hurricane as it impacts the state. it's extremely powerful. over the turks and caicos heading between the bahamas and cuba. the most dangerous side in the direction of motion of the storm is going to be the northeast side of the eye. that's where we have tornadoes that typically develop from the rain bands. that's where some of the stong he's wind and heaviest rain. that's going to be the southeastern side of florida will see the worst. here's a look at the track if you missed it from last night. another update shortly. potentially a category 4 going into saturday evening heading into south florida and moving up the state through sunday. this is going to cause huge impacts a krots entire state of florida. let's look at the storm surge we were talking about. head over to somara for that. >> good morning. yes. when you think about a hurricane, you think about the winds as well as the flooding rain. but the storm surge actually poses the greatest threat to life and property. take a look at this diagram.

explanation what exactly storm surge is. when we have the hurricane riding towards the coast, actually the winds start to drive in -- got to click over here. start to drive in that water. what we see happen is the sea level rise. when you hear 7 to 10 feet of storm surge, we're talking 7 to 10 feet above sea level. that's due to the fact that it's so powerful, the winds are driving in those waves and water into the coast and that poses a threat to property and lives. jack, over to you. >> wow. good morning. thank you very much for that. by the way, speaking of water, the woodrow wilson bridge, the bridge will be open for the tall ships exiting arlington and leaving toward baltimore. the bridge will be up for 10 or 15 minutes. plan ahead for this. it's scheduled between 4:40 and 4:45 to be up for

minutes. we have our crews working on the rock creek parkway at the kennedy center. traffic gets by in one direction until 6:00 this morning. i-70 westbound, route 27, the paving project. -- not causing a slowdown. back to you. >> jack, thank you. parents outraged after dozens of high school students were forced to give blood. what school officials were testing them for. a

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welcome back at 4:40. a discovery at a high school football game has some parents pretty upset. >> after a beer can was found in the bleachers, new jersey school officials ordered blood and urine samples from the students. in a letter, the superintendent said the beer cans came from the bleachers with about 75 students. each student was given a form, a rule-out test requiring blood and urine samples to be taken within two hours. any student who didn't undergo screening was deemed positive and faced suspension for five days. >> it wasn't handled correctly, but i think the intentions were good at the time. it was really to protect everybody. >> several additional opened containers of alcohol were later found. at least five s

positive for alcohol. those parents will have to pay for the tests. if you don't have outdoor plans this weekend, you might want to make some. >> absolutely. now, i know in morning we're off to a cool start. temperatures this the upper 50s. we're going to be warming up to comfortable conditions in the 70s. i'll have a look at the weekend outlook. a startling find not once but twice this week. what was found on the georgetown campus and now the investigation under way.

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♪ ♪ with the company trusted for more than 75 years, you have the compassion and strength of a name, giving you the courage to enjoy the ride. carefirst blue cross blue shield. live fearless. breaking news in the ever changing forecast for hurricane irma. at last check the storm was a category 5.

update from the national hurricane center and will bring us the latest at the top at 5:00. > . >> let's go to somara theodore as we continue to track this storm. >> we're going to continue to track irma right now as it continues to push towards the florida coast. here at home, things are really, really quieting down. we saw rain earlier this week but we're setting up for a beautiful weekend. if you thought yesterday was great, wait until you see this weekend. lots of sunshine. we're expecting highs in the low 70s on saturday. as we head into sunday, 72 degrees for the high. one thing to noerks waking up on saturday and especially sunday morning, it will be pretty cool with temperatures in the mid to upper 50s. overall, we're tracking an amazing weekend. sheena will have more on irma. for now, over

all right. we'll pick it up here at the live desk, somara. we're getting new video of the earthquake that hit mexico overnight. take a look at this. look at that shaking. it caused massive damage. this is video from incompetent side a bowling alley. we saw what it looks like, a giant crack in the floor at the airport in mexico city. a lot of people have been forced into their homes. at this point they don't have power. at least five people have died. but we expect that number to easily rise. what we're hearing right now is that basically some of the aftershocks are still being felt in that area. the real danger at this point is the tsunami warning. because that's now in effect for countries ranging from costa rica, el salvador, down to ecuador in south america. aaron, back to you. >> chris, we'll check back in with you in a bit. it's 4:45 now. a tough decision ahead for house

their instincts and tie a bill with hurricane harvey relief or shoot it down to defy the president. tracie this is an interesting situation. >> it is very interesting. we saw it pass overwhelmingly in the senate by 80 to 17 votes. it could be tougher today in the house because you've got more conservatives who do not want to raise the debt ceiling. they don't want america borrowing more money. if they vote against it, then they vote against $15 billion in aid, almost half of it for hurricane harvey. the other half for future natural disasters like hurricane irma about to barrel ashore over the next 24 hours. if they vote against the debt ceiling, they vote against aid for these people who will soon and already so desperately need t this is all the result of a deal that the president made with democrats, which still has some republicans here

and perhaps making a deal on that. nancy pelosi told the president that immigrants who were brought here illegally as children need reassurance and almost immediately he tweeted there would be no enforcement action against them in the next six months while congress tries to work that out. >> tracie potts on the hill this morning. thank you. 4:47. all five former presidents launched an effort to raise money for hurricane harvey. >> the one america appeal to repair areas of the coast left devastated. >> hurricane harvey brought terrible destruction and brought out the best in humanity. >> as former presidents, we want to help our fem owe americans recov recover. >> former presidents obama, carter, clinton and both bushes. i'm proud to stand with presidents on the one america appeal. the governor of texas

billion will be needed to recover from the damage left. there could be closure for one of the most cold cases in the area. lloyd lee welch is expected to plead guilty in two girls from 1975. they believe he lured them away and then killed them. the remains have never been found. welch is expected to appear in court in bedford county in southwestern virginia. a man who admitted to killing his sister and two young cousins has been ruled competent to stand trial. yesterday's hearing for antonio williams was calm and productive. that was a different story for the first hearing where family members fought and williams had a series of outbursts. the family says he's suffering from a mental illness. prosecutors say there is no evidence of that. williams is charged with stabbing the three girls inside a home in clinton last month. he's being held without bond. more

graffiti at georgetown, university. swastikas were spray painted inside an elevator. graffiti was found on campus outside another building. there was an e-mail sent out condemning the acts. police are still investigating the incidents. a police officer in kentucky is suspended for mocking the death of heather heyer on facebook. you'll remember she was killed during that counter protest at a white supremacist rally. the officer shared a photo of the dodge challenger vehicle that struck heyer and its mangled front end. with the caption reading, when you were born a challenger but identify as a ram. the officer has been with the department for two years. he will be suspended for the next week. he has been on paid administrative leave since an internal investigation from last month. in the wake of so many confederate statues, there is a new plan that could do away with some of the more high-profile ones in

democratic lawmakers introduced a measure yesterday to remove confederate statues from the u.s. capitol. there are statues of general robert e. lee, jefferson davis and about ten other confederate figures in the national statuary collection. if approved, the states can reclaim the statues or be given to the smithsonian. lawmakers proposed the measure after the violence last month. the most powerful storm to form in the atlantic ocean continuing a path of destruction through the caribbean. irma is dumping rain and unleashing on the turks and caicos. sheena parveen will show us the track toward florida. new data coming in on that storm as we speak. with the threat of irma and harvey's destruction, the washington nationals will collect items to benefit hurricane victims. you can bring nonperishable food, toiletries, cleaning supplies and ot

park between 8:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. they'll be collecting stuff until september 17th. take a look at the screen. sheena parveen is here. i know you've been closely watching the track of irma. there's updates coming in the next hour. >> we just got the new 5:00 a.m. advisory. sometimes we get lucky and it comes in early. we just got the 5:00 a.m. update. it is down to a category 4. it's not a cat 5 anymore. it doesn't matter, though. this is really powerful. wind at 155 miles an hour. it's moving over shallower water, approaching shallower water, i should say. but still a very strong storm. it's north of cuba. still bad news for florida. that would mean the center stays over warm water in the mid to upper 80s. that's the water temperature. early sunday or late saturday it should take that north turn. early sunday it moves into south florida potentially

category 4 hurricane. this is going to be bad for the florida keys and miami as well. some of the florida keys with the storm surge could be covered by the water. then it would move inland the spine of florida, the interior section could still remain a major hurricane because this is ever glade territory. very warm swamp water. it will weaken into monday and tuesday. then it moves inland to the northwest. locally for us, that would give us less rain and wind. we have rain in the forecast. still bad for the state of florida. hurricane warnings through the florida keys. i expect that to become a warning as well. what that basically means is they expect 70 to 90 mile an hour winds, sustained winds. 125 mile an hour wind gusts as it moves on shore saturday and sunday. storm surge warpnings are up. 7 to 10 feet storm surge. that's the worst part of a hurricane. as f

135 miles wide is central florida. look at this storm. 400 miles wide. both coasts of florida will be impacted by the hurricane. we'll be tracking it as we get closer. locally, cool temperatures. mid to low 50s this morning. make sure you grab the jacket before you head out. mid-70s. we don't have to worry about anything this weekend. sunny skies, nice conditions but then rain by next week. let's check the roads with jack taylor. good morning, jack. >> sheena, thanks. good morning. woodrow wilson bridge is up. the beltway is closed. we had shift that was leaving owe ship that was leaving. tall ship. all lanes are blocked with the wilson bridge up in the air. should be another 10, 15 minutes or so. should get the bridge back down and make sure everything for the traffic to cross. the beltway is blocked at the woodrow wilson bridge. as you leave

paving project in that area. the left lane getting by. 66 headed eastbound after 234, the prince william parkway, two right lanes getting by. sounds like a crash inside the beltway on 66 west near route 70 to head toward the beltway. be careful near sycamore. only a left lane getting by. >> jack, thank you. major changes on the way when it comes to guidance about sex assault on college campuses. the trump administration changed -- are changing what parents are going to want to hear about. also ahead, the wife of a trump adviser

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born and raised incian, dr. rrural virginia went to vmi. trained at johns hopkins. an army doctor who treated soldiers seriously wounded in the gulf war. eighteen years as volunteer medical director of a children's hospice. as lt. governor, he's fighting to expand healthcare in virginia. he'll get it done as governor. ralph northam: i'm ralph northam, and we need to provide access to affordable healthcare for all virginians, not take it away.

the wife of ethics adviser for trump's -- she apparently had sex with a virginia inmate and giving him contraband. according to the new york daily news, they found teresa birchfield in the back seat of a car with the inmate. this happened outside the fauquier county detention center on tuesday. she gave him cigarettes and vitamin supplements. birchfield is maried to the d.c. attorney appointed to the president's trust. waves continue in the trump administration with a big announcement by betsy devos. >> she plans to overhaul the obama-era title 9

she made the announcement on thursday. >> one rape is one too many. one assault is one too many. one aggressive act of harassment is one too many. one person denied due process is one too many. >> devos added that the guidelines would also need to be more precise when defining sexual misconduct. >> before you make breakfast or lunch for the kids this morning, we're working for you by letting you now about a wegmans recall. the assorted muffin four pack may contain nuts. it's not listed on the label. those without a sensitivity to nuts should not eat the muffin. you can contact

a slap bracelet your child received with a trolls book. it can wear through the fabric and cut your child. they were included with the book, dreamworks trolls, it's hug time. some 79,000 were sold at stores and fairs nationwide. if you have one, contact the company for a free trolls book. stay with us. "news4 today" continues now at 5:00 a.m. "news4 today" begins with breaking news. >> the breaking news while you were sleeping, parts of mexico fell apart. a powerful earthquake, 8.2 hit off the coast of mexico minutes ago. a sixth person who died there, chris lawrence at the live desk monitoring the updates. those in a moment. first, good morning everybody. i'm aaron gilchrist. i'm eun yang. the other breaking news right now we're following for you this morning. hurricane irma. take a look at the storm which we just learned is now a category 4 hurricane. >>

an hour. our team is working for you this morning. everything you need to know about this, start with sheena parveen update from the national hurricane center. >> we have the update at 5:00. an advisory that came in a little bit early this morning. here's what it looks like right now. hurricane irma is a category 4. 155 miles an hour sustained wind. even though it dropped from a 5 to a 4, it doesn't matter. still expected to impact florida. between cuba and the bahamas, very warm favorable waters for it to remain. it should turn to the north, anticipated turn, still a major hurricane. really impacting the florida keys. it's not going to be good for the keys or south florida. storm surge could be 7 to 10 feet. it moves inland through the day sunday. that would be impacting both coasts of florida still as a hurricane possibly. this storm is about 400 miles wide. the state of florida is only about 135 miles wide right near the center. then it moves