this is in the turks and caicos. they are fairly close but i don't think they'll get hit quite as hard as they did from hurricane irma. the storm itself, 18 hours away making its way into st. croix and into south portions, it's back over open waters. the latest advisory has shown that it's a category 2 storm and not just getting away from land and strengthen back and just off to the east of the southeast coastline as we move in to the day on sunday, monday and then into tuesday and that's where this could intersect and interact with jose bringing jose back onto shore. this is something that we'll watch very, very closely over the next couple of days, trying to get the track to load for you to see where it's heading. winds at 110 miles per hour. this is the track moving up toward

models want to keep it off the coast. after this time, it does move back towards the coast towards jose. much more on these two storms and their interaction as well. see you back here in 15 minutes. >> thank you, doug. hurricane maria moved over puerto rico like a buzz saw. the power is out and misery is setting in. it's a category 2, as doug just said, but it was a four when it hit that island. that's 155-mile-an-hour potentially catastrophic winds. people could be struggling for months. chris lawrence has the latest. chris? >> an island with 3 million people and none of them have power. all of the electricity may not come back on for four months.

sounded like as maria's eye ripped through puerto rico and even though the storm is moving on, there's no way people can letdown their guard. they're getting wind gusts up to 75 miles an hour. a flash flood warning is in effect and mudslides could do just as much damage as the winds did, if not more. power has been knocked out and there are no reservoirs of drinking water. water rushed into hotel lobbies. some tried to get out ahead of the storm but the flights were either all booked or canceled. maria is going to dump between 12 to 18 inches of rain on puerto rico and then again as doug just showed you, start heading out to sea. folks there are not yet out of the woods yet, jim. >> chris, unbelievable. thank you. some incredible video showing the moments of death and destruction. just yesterday when that 7.1

more than 200 people are confirmed dead now. hundreds of buildings destroyed and a frantic search for survivors is still under way. news4's erika gonzalez is following the latest developments from the live desk. right, erika? >> in the midst of the death and destruction, it's the stories of miracle and survivors. volunteers crawled into the debris from a collapsed school and mexican soldiers and shopping carts are being used to cart waters to the searchers and help take away rubble. hospital workers rushed patients from gurneys onto the streets where victims were also being lined up and no word on when the hospitals are completely operating again. at last word,

capital city is without power. mexican president pena nieto has declared three days of national mourning. the secretary of the united nations says the u.n. is ready to assist mexico with its recovery efforts but also today at the u.n. general assembly, iran's president blasted what he called extremely offensive language in president trump's address yesterday. he says his people are waiting for an apology. president trump told reporters today he has made a decision about the iran nuclear deal but when pressed mr. trump oem tonld reporters i'll let you know. disgraced anthony weiner should spend two years in prison for sexting an underaged girl. he is undergoing treatment for what his layers call his deep sickness. but prosecutors say

behavior while not criminal should be considered when sentenced. young women getting back to college this fall, the same man may be targeting women near the university of maryland. prince george's county bureau chief tracee wilkins is joining us. police want to get this guy and fast. >> reporter: yes. the crimes have been happening here in the 4500 block of gilford road. we're not going to show you which apartments were involved in these attacks but police are saying that they need to lock the windows and doors here. some students are going further than that and protecting themselves. they have a reason to want to protect themselves. a lot of bad stuff has been happening here. >> she's still rattled about it. >> reporter: justin is the neighbor who was

assaulted it's far from okay. >> i don't know what to make of it. >> reporter: police say the woman was groped by a man in her sleep. >> around 3:00 a.m., someone broke into the window. the window was unlocked but it was closed. someone snuck in. >> reporter: now police say there were two other incidents the same night on the same block. a man opened an apartment window, looked inside and ran when the resident screamed. approximately 30 minutes later, there was another break-in, inside of jack's apartment. >> we lost two computers, an xbox and pair of $300 headphones, so pretty expensive stuff. >> reporter: the weekend before, another break-in, the same block. a man entered an unlocked apartment door and ran when a female tenant saw him and screamed. >> we always lock our door but now we're keeping our windows down, you know. i don't want that guy to look into my house. >> reporter: it's got everyone

little differently. >> overall conversations don't center around what has happened. more like it's what we should do next time. >> reporter: this block of gilford is about a block away from route 1, a few blocks up from campus. police are asking for anyone with information to help give them a call. they don't have a picture of this guy. they don't know what he looks like. tracee wilkins, back to you all in the studio. >> tracee, we hear about people locking their doors and closing their windows. we can assume police are stepping up patrols. is that right? >> reporter: they absolutely are. we've seen a couple of officers since we've been here. >> tracee, thanks so much. we'll see you at 6:00. >> artificial turf is the preferred playing surface across the country. but for parents, it can be a night mar.

now there's concern in d.c. schools after a dozen fields failed their safety test. aimee cho has more. >> reporter: the safety tests have to do with how hard the turf is. the older the field, the harder the turf, which means more danger if the child were to fall. this is one of the fields that was failing the test. it's been since repaired. several other fields in d.c. have not. >> this mom says her boys are the first to play hard. >> they shouldn't have wear safety gear to go to recess. >> reporter: her oldest s

in first grade. their turf field is one in d.c. that failed recent safety tests. >> we haven't had any information in terms of follow-up in terms of what they are planning to replace it with. >> we understand their concern. >> reporter: d.c. general services promising action and they say they will be fixing the field in the next few weeks but some parents wonder why they weren't told of the problems sooner. >> we give our kids over to the schools every day and have to put a lot of trust in those educators. and so obviously safety and security are high on the list of priorities. >> reporter: when it comes to her children's safety and those hard surfaces, she and many others aren't softening their stance. and we've got a full list of all the d.c. fields that failed the safety test. you can find it in the nbc washington app. just search turf. back over to you. >> and you had a question? >> i was wondering, when they go to replace it, doy

have to pull the whole thing up and how expensive is that and how do they know it's going to stay safe? what's the fail rate of these? >> reporter: yeah, wendy, that's a good question. it depends on how bad that field is. for some who only have a few patches that are bad, they can be repaired. but for the entire field marked unsafe, they have to be completely prepared. that full list on the nbc washington app will tell you which of those fields need to be replaced and which need to be completely repaired. as far as costs, that's something that the d.c. department of general services says they are still working on and they'll have a complete timeline by sometime early next we're. >> aimee cho, thanks so much. we're following a case of a massage therapist accused of sexually assaulting a customer. still to come after this short break, the new a accusations being

person. a bigger problem when it comes to baseball. i'm adam tuss. that's coming up. and it's called yappy hour when you take your dog to the bar with you. >> when we come back, d.c. is cracking down

ralphcandidate for governor,rtham, and i sponsored this ad. they're studying for 21st century jobs.

to take money out of virginia public schools and give it to private schools. as a washington dc lobbyist, ed gillespie worked for lenders trying to keep student loan rates high. and ed gillespie's plan to cut taxes for the wealthy could cut virginia school funding, too. ed doesn't stand for education.

i'm erika gonzalez. seven fair goers in maryland have tested positive for influenza after coming in contact with pigs at the charles county fair. this is the strain that has popped up in more than a dozen other cases across the country. the maryland health department says these people are not seriously ill and not in the hospital but they are asking the public if they are feeling flu-like symptoms to please head to the doctor. at the live desk, erika gonzalez. a dilemma for those who are fans if you plan to use metro to get yourself home. metro has no plans to stay open late. our transportation reporter adam tuss is working for you to help you get around. >> reporter: sunday night foll

the redskins and raiders. if you're planning on taking metro to the game, don't plan on taking it home because it's not going to be opened. but will the same thing happen at nats park when playoff baseball comes in october? will the nationals pay to keep metro open late? >> reporter: the metro debate. >> this sucks. >> reporter: as long-time fan howard works at fedex field, he's upset that the skins haven't offered to keep metro open late for this weekend's game. >> you know, 12:00, how do you get home? >> reporter: mike roberts just picked up his gear from the team store. >> nobody wants to pay up the money to get the transportation where it needs to be at. >> they have to pay $100,000 per hour to keep the system open late and then metro pays back what it makes during that hour to the organizers but the event

the system. now, all of this could become a bigger issue if the nationals make it into the postseason. >> nationals and the world series, you think it's going to happen? >> i do. >> it can go well beyond the closing time and upwards of 20,000 fans a game take a train to the ballpark. this should be the transit agency's responsibility. >> extend the hours at least to midnight or 1:00 a.m. >> metro says it's up to the mets to decide if they want to keep the system running late. for now, your best bet, have a good backup plan. adam tuss, news4. >> and if you don't want to worry about finding a ride, you can watch the matchup here on nbc 4. redskins versus the raiders, kickoff is at 8:30. >> can't wait. hey, one year later and it's still one of the most popular tiet

you won't need a ticket this weekend, though, because their first anniversary celebration on the grounds of the museum, free, open to the public. things kick off at 10:00 a.m. this saturday and sunday. our own molette green will be there on friday with a preview. more than 2.5 million people have visited the museum since it opened. the leaders of historically black colleges and universities are in town celebrating the contributions that has been made to the country by hbcu. president trump drawing sharp criticism from the groups after promising to support these institutions and then saying construction funding for hbcus may be unconstitutional. today the founder and co-chair of that caucus quoted e.w.

e.w.dubois. >> we take students wherever we find them, we mold them and nurture them into what we know that they can become. >> howard university's president says the hbcus are coming up with innovative ways to find new sources of funding. senate majority leader mitch mcconnell plans to bring the latest republican effort to repeal and replace obamacare to the floor of the senate for a vote next week. but it's still unclear if this measure has enough support and we have yet to see a score from the congressional budget office. news4's chris lawrence is here with a closer look at what's in this bill. chris? >> jim, the latest effort is coming from lindsey graham and louisiana's bill cassidy. the new bill would eliminate the employer and individual mandate. so you're not going to be forced to buy health care. it gets rid of the money that's currently

purchase of some of the private plans and it would cut the expansion of medicaid. so instead of the federal government paying a percentage of each state's costs, the government would award sort of block grants to states so they can come up with their own health systems. it's a lot more fair than what we have now, republicans say, where a ird ththird of the mone obamacare goes to four states. senator rand paul has already opposed the measure. that caught the attention of donald trump for sure. the republicans can only afford one more "no" vote and the latest effort has a bigger challenge and that is time. there's a special procedure that allows the republicans to pass an overhaul this year with only 50 votes. that expires at the end of the month. after that, they'll need a full 60 votes, meaning they'll have to convince some democrats to get on board. wendy? >> thank you, chris. former president obama called the ets

signature legislation frustrating and aggravating. at an event hosted by bill and melinda gates. mr. obama conceded the affordable care act is not perfect but he calls it better than what we had and says the gop is trying to undo their progress. >> being done without economic or actuary commonsense is frustrating to mobilize every couple of months to keep our leaders from human suffering on constituents. >> senator lipd sndsey graham c it unrealistic that the former leader would call it failing. it's a dire situation in the caribbean. the island of puerto rico in the dark after hurricane maria passed over, topping trees and buildings. >> and it's now headed north. doug's back with more on where it's headed nextnd

i'm a lawyer, and i have clients, and i am proud to do what i do on behalf of my clients. narrator: the clients john adams and his team are so proud to work for? banks accused of money laundering. big corporations accused of defrauding taxpayers. and mortgage lenders accused of unfairly foreclosing on homes. now he wants to be attorney general. john adams: the best attorney general the powerful and well-connected can buy. i'm mark herring, candidate for attorney general, and i sponsored this ad.

all right, doug is joining us with the latest of maria. she's coming down in numbers and is now a two? >> it doesn't really matter because she's done that work

puerto rico has mountains and because of that it down graded to a 2 but now over open waters it's going to restrengthen over waters. it's not expected to hit any other land. let's hope that's the case. the track takes it very close to the turks and caicos as irma went over the turks and caicos. it may stay to the east. you can see it right there and you can see the eye. you can see it there and then watch the eye completely degrade and then now on the other side, starting to see the eye open back up. i think that's what we're going to see here. we see strengthening and we see it right there starting to open the eye back up. this was yesterday and this was an 18-hour loop. taking the storm south of st. croix, it missed it by 15 miles. and that really helped the island. they were dealing with big-time damage and it would have been so much worse like we saw down around the dominica area. puerto rico, very heavy rainfall. water is the

begin to pull off. the flooding will continue for days. wind, 110 miles per hour. moving northwest at 12 miles per hour. here's the turks and caicos. it's just to the east and well east of florida. a lot of my friends, people on facebook asking me about florida. i don't see this as a threat to florida at all. i really don't. now, what about the carolinas? here it is next monday as a category 1 hurricane at 90 miles per hour. this is very important. it's much weaker as it moves up to the east coast. the other weak storm will be jose. that storm as well will be a very weak storm. it's 70 mile-an-hour winds and it's a tropical storm south of boston. it's continuing to sit and spin and bringing them a lot of rainfall and wind as well. there's a lot of trees down in this area and power outages. it brings flooding down towards our area including the

and chesapeake bay. coastal flood warning for st. mary's county and alexandria, areas around king street. starbucks, that may be under water later tonight. you may have some water up to the curbs in that area. and then we watch maria and jose for next week and it's next week because we have a beautiful next couple of days. tomorrow, gorgeous high of 88. it's looking great with highs in the 80s and we track both jose and maria next tuesday, wednesday and thursday. they will meet and come together and may actually work with each other to bring jose back into the coast and back into our area this time next week. that's why we have some clouds and showers. we've dealt with the worst of both of those storms thus far. >> what a season. doug, thank you. your

a yappy hour for your pet. ahead at 5:00, where they are cracking down on dogs at bars and restaurants. and the i-team revealed serious problems inside the district's va medical center. the changes happening in the wake of our reporting. and the new accusations against the massage therapist accused of sexllyua

we have breaking news at 5:30, a second woman has accused an employee at massage envy of sexual assault. >> she says that the man touched her inenly about three weeks ago. >> news4 broke this story earlier this week. pat collins has new details. pat? >> reporter: wendy, a second woman has come forward to say that a massage therapist attempted to sexually assault her here in tenleytown. she said it happened last august and she reported it to management. that massage therapist in the new case is the same man charged with sexually assaulting another woman here last sunday. that man identified as 24-year-old man. he's denied any wrongdoing. he has no crina

has a court hearing tomorrow. he's been fired from his job here at massage envy. there may be more to be known here. watch this space. now back to you. >> did the woman say why she didn't call the police? did she really think that notifying the management was enough? >> reporter: that's all we have to go by is the court records and the statements that she gave to the police. what she did say is she saw our story earlier this week and when she saw that story, that's what prompted her to go to the police. she went to the management but apparently nothing was done. it happened, i think, august 28th. she reported to management, i think, september 4th or 5th. he was still working here on september 17th when the second case happened. >> all right. pat collins, thanks so much. well, stop me if you've heard this one before. the u.s. department of

head of washington's va medical center again. it's the second time the agency has tried to remove the man who is accused of mismanaging the giant medical center. scott macfarlane says this time it may stick. >> reporter: wendy, it's a major facility and treats tens and thousands of local veterans each year. there were serious problems inside. including supply shortages, unsanitary storages and long-time director brian hawkins is accused of mismanagement and sending confidential information to his spouse's e-mail the the va fired him earlier this year. the agency was forced to rehire him and today the agency announced its fired him a second time indicating the appeals are over. in a statement to news4,

decision for veterans in d.c. and employees at the medical center and underscores our commitment to hold employees accountable if they fail to live up to their jobs and responsibilities. the va has hired a replacement but congressional investigators are looking into possible problems there, including a report that a patient's body went undiscovered in a medical center parking lot for near two day this is spring. jim? >> thank you, scott. terry mcauliffe wants to create a car pool culture on i-66, similar to what exists on i-95. he spoke in falls church about ways to ease bumper-to-bumper traffic in the common weld. new toll lanes debut in december and the governor announced enhanced regional bus service coming to fairfax county. it's one o

trends for bars and restaurants and coffee shops. yappy hour. mark segraves has found that the laws are different around our region and some may be changing. mark? >> reporter: yes. as a matter of fact, since we started reporting on this this morning, there's been movement. when i talked to the d.c. department of health, they say it's against the law, the law is the law and that's that. they issued an updated statement saying that they are reviewing their best practices and their policy. here at java, it is legal to have food with your dogs. >> every restaurant i've worked at has allowed dogs on the patio. it's never been a problem. why start

>> reporter: yesterday, a d.c. health inspector ordered this place and all of the dogs off the patio. many businesses want to encourage customers to bring their dogs, so much so that some restaurants and bars host yappy hours. the d.c. department of health says that's against the law and they've been telling establishments to keep the dogs out or face a $500 fine. other jurisdictions in our area have found a way around those health code restrictions. across the river in arlington, bars and restaurants can get a permit to allow dogs. they host regular happy hours here. in montgomery county, restaurants can get a permit to allow four-legged companions on the patio. >> it's great to be able to have exemptions for specific restaurants that want to have animals. >> reporter: so back here in arlington

there are nine businesses and restaurants and coffee shops that have the exemption. in arlington, there are 14 restaurants and montgomery county. go to our nbc washington app and search dogs and we'll give you a complete list. also in d.c., a councilwoman will introduce emergency legislation that will help restaurants to be able to allow dogs. that's the latest. mark segraves, news4. >> mark, what is the health issue? i mean, the dog isn't standing on a table and eating out of your plate. what's the big deal of having a dog at someone's feet or just standing there? >> reporter: you know, it is just not specific to dogs, wendy. it's all animals prohibited from being in any establishment that prepares and serves food. there are actual federal res restrictions on this as well. there's a s

you have to follow. the dogs can't eat out of the same water bowls that they serve humans and have to remain on leashes and can't get on the chair ors tables. there's rerestrictions that go hand in hand and that's something that d.c. will have to look at. >> that will not fly in france. there's dogs all over the place. >> no, it would not. but it flies outdoors in arlington i think it's pretty cool. thank you, mark. they can be among the most vulnerable to scam artists. tonight, the new effort to crack down on those who hurt senior citizens. behind the scenes of the d.c. ties

ralphcandidate for governor,rtham, and i sponsored this ad. they're studying for 21st century jobs. but ed gillespie supports donald trump's plan to take money out of virginia public schools and give it to private schools. as a washington dc lobbyist, ed gillespie worked for lenders trying to keep student loan rates high. and ed gillespie's plan to cut taxes for the wealthy could cut virginia school funding, too. ed doesn't stand for education.

you gentlemen are making a big mistake. >> this here is mr. thurgood marshall. he's an attorney. you treat him with the respect that he deserves. >> a scene from the new film marshall that chronicles thurgood marshall's early life as a lawyer. >> he has ties to washington, d.c., that r

>> very deep. in fact, fuse 4's meagan fitzgerald is getting a local perspective of the importance of this upcoming film. >> people do forget. people do get complacent. >> reporter: scholars will be the first to tell you that if history is forgotten, it will likely be repeated. >> look at conference room two. >> reporter: that's why this woman became the president of the thurgood marshall trust. >> may i help you? >> reporter: determined to keep alive the legacy of the first black supreme court justice. >> this is marshall adjusting justice marshall's robe. >> reporter: he was fighting to ensure people of color receive justice under the law, forcing the university of maryland to integrate after winning a lawsuit not long after he was denied entry in 1930. >> he mentored young men in this building. he wrote portions of brown versus the board of education in this

>> reporter: he argued that case before the supreme court and won, which made segregated schools unconstitutional. now his life will be remembered on the big screen. >> i only represent innocent people, people accused because of their race. >> reporter: in the movie "marshall" viewers tried to free a black man wrongly accused of a crime. it's just another way of remembering history. hoping that the injustices of the past aren't repeated in the future. >> it's just so important that we continue to recognize him and what he did for this country. >> reporter: reporting in the district, meagan fitzgerald, news4. >> the movie will come out shortly, october 13th. mark your calendars. it's important to understand the struggle they went through and how long and hard that was. >> a lot of people aren't aware of it. it's a reminder for younger people to

the calendar says we're still in summer but retailers, guess what, they are already looking towards the holidays. >> just a look ahead, who is hiring and who is not hiring as the shopping season fast approaches. >> i'm julie carey in stafford county. th

well, i'm ready for autumn. i know it kind of officially arrives on friday but the heat and humidity is getting tedious. >> the interesting thing about it, we have 88 degrees today. >> right. >> and this is the hottest day we've seen so far this month. it's been a fairly cool and really last month and a half across the region and temperatures are much more like

summer. 87 degrees is the current temperature right now. look at that, nothing but sunshine. it is gorgeous right here. and we have a little storm to thank for it. 87 degrees with winds 7 miles an hour. here's the storm that we have to thank for. it's jose. we have jose moving off. we have upper level area of low pressure bringing storms to the south and west of charlottesville. that's where jose make its way out of here. this is the latest track for jose. it's going to be sitting right here for days and the latest track with the european models into form here. winds of 70 miles an hour, tropical storm. watch what happens. it goes out and comes right back and look at this, right back into the u.s. potentially as a tropical depression at 30 miles per

of this storm but it may move into our forecast area next tuesday -- next monday, tuesday and wednesday. but first, we have to look at maria. these two are going to interact. maria would bring jose onto the coast. it did make its way onto the coast last night and into early this morning and moving over open waters and strengthening here. still a category 2 storm and expected to go back to a cot gore 3 of 115 and 120 miles an hour off the coast of bahamas and up into portions of the southeast. just off the southeast coastline at 90 miles an hour. the code of uncertainty, out to sea and in towards the island -- or rather towards the cape here. that's the cone. how do we come up with the cone? people wonder if it's a real thing. most definitely. lauryn

have that cone. >> that's right. the model data gives us a good indication, kind of what is going on. winds at 110 miles an hour. this gives us a boost of confidence and where this goes. we do a lot of forecasting along with this but this will show the different paths of hurricane maria with the dinner model data. and this is something that we'll watch into the middle of next week. once it enters the mid-atlantic off the coastline, water temperatures will be fairly on the warm side especially south. and we really need the warm water to fuel the hurricane, to make it bigger and stronger and more

and we could possibly see it with maria but it's too early to tell. doug? >> both of which would be much weaker than they currently are right now. so that's good news there. we're looking at tuesday, wednesday and thursday. we track both of those storms because as maria moves up, it sling shots. wendy says she wants cooler weather. not happening. 85 on the first day of fall. temperatures in the mid-to upper 80s. next weekend, a strong cold front will pull maria out to shore. >> you can't complain about a sunny weekend. >> no. >> but you can complain about this. senior citizens, they are an easy target for scammers and the

these crooks. susan hogan is in the newsroom. susan? >> if passed, the law will require financial companies to report suspected financial exploitation of seniors and other vulnerable adults. those businesses would be allowed to temporarily delay payments related to suspicious transactions and a second piece of legislation being introduced will help d.c. more more quickly and effectively to eliminate financial predators and they say d.c. is on pace to become only the third u.s. city designated by the world health organization as what they call an age-friendly city. not bad. jim? >> not bad at all. susan, thank you so much. starbucks is looking to

young people resume ajob applications helped, too. 70,000 young people need work but may lack education or training. this campaign helps millions around the country over the next few years. >> if you're looking for seasonal work, don't waste your time. target is planning to hire 100,000 seasonal workers and ups will be hiring that many workers for shipping season from black friday to early january. a group of kindergartners and first graders have an incentive to open the books and start

this is part of the read to achieve program and students who reach this reading goal will be getting a special prize from the wizards. well, the redskins are back at practice looking to keep the good times rolling after sunday's big win. george wallace is at the redskins park for us tonight as the team gets ready for a tough task this sunday night right here on nbc. george? >> reporter: what a difference a week makes. josh norman is ready for the big stage. >> obviously the plays are bigger. >> someone not here today of course was

is over after being placed on the reserve squad list. >> we have to, you know, put it behind us and move forward and let him take care of his personal life and let us take care of the season. >> every individual is different and this game isn't for everybody. i'm not speaking for sue or anybody else but this is a major commitment for a young man and if you're not fully commitmented, then you shouldn't play it. >> the big injury news of the day at redskins park, george wallace, redskins sports. some of the strongest local police officers and firefighters are competing in the annual ironman competition. it's under way right now in laurel featuring a variety of physical tests and challenges like that one. some 100 people are competing in teams of four at

and anne arundel and joint base andrews. they make it look easy. >> they do. but it's definitely tough. coming up, a teenager was missing and his family was worried that he was in danger. >> the police were able to find him with the help of a drone. news4 gets an inside loo at howk mark herring: my mom always worked hard to provide for our family. at one point, she got fired for of all things -- getting married. that was a lifelong lesson for me: when people are hurt, you need to stand up and do something. and i've never forgotten that as your attorney general.

shady debt collectors, or cracking down on gangs and drug traffickers, i have one guiding principle: do what's right for people. i'm mark herring, candidate for attorney general, and i sponsored this ad.

we've been hearing about how local law enforcement is using drones. >> and this

and night fell, it was a drone that came to the rescue. julie carey has our story. >> reporter: this is the drone that came to the rescue monday night. a special needs student never made it home after school. it was 9:00 p.m., dark and entered the drone with its thermal imaging equipment. >> one of the benefits that you have with a drone technology is the thermal imaging capability. >> reporter: it took a few passes but on the fourth swing, success. the young man was found, returned safely to his family. we believe in the technology. >> reporter: technology that today this captain shows us how it works. i played the part for a missing person. >> just to demonstrate more of what this drone can

well it tracks me. >> reporter: it's much tougher to see in daylight. >> you fly in, get a closer look. >> reporter: sure enough, the drone is right over my head. they found me. >> the stafford sheriff office started the program last november. early this summer, they found an armed fleeing felon. there is mostly praise for the drone used in the rescue. there is question whether it will intrude on privacy. the sheriffs are now peeping toms, was one comment. more departments will follow staff effort's lead in stafford, julie carey,

hurricane maria is on the move after pounding puerto rico. torrential rain and dangerous flooding leaving the entire island in the dark. it could impact our area next week. the situation is still unfolding as we come on the air. tonight, team coverage of the natural disasters. >> doug takes a look at where hurricane maria is headed next. >> we begin with jay gray and the costly cleanup in puerto rico. >> reporter: the island is unable to fight back winds of mo

tearing apart homes and businesses and soaking and flooding rain. swallowing neighborhoods. >> this is going to be the most devastating storm. >> reporter: devastation scattered across the caribbean, ravaged by the monster storm as it made its way to puerto rico. one of the strongest to hit landfall in nearly a century. thousands pushed into shelters across the strike zone. >> we have people in flooded areas and those houses had no chance. >> reporter: puerto rico and the san juan that we knew yesterday is no longer there. >> reporter: for survivors to have a chance once the storm clears, officials say they'll need help from the mainland. an emotional plea. >> remember that you are part of us even if you're not here. don't