e're not talking days anymore. we're talking hours at this point. here at new 4, we' tracking this hurricane very closely. >> sheena is keeping an eye on the storm's path, but we'll begin with your commute and stor team 4 meteorologist chuck bell. >> we'll eventually have tdeal with hurricane florence's remnants once they get here early parts of next week. for now, all eyes on the carolina coastline. locally, we don't have to worry about that for a couple more days. what we do have to track thisre morningain showers across parts of shenandoah valley. moreain across parts of northern maryland, the panhandle of west virginia. not much rain around the city yet, but a stray shower or two can't be ruled out. it's a warmnd humid start after an 86 yesterday afternoon. we're back down only low and mid-70s this morning. a very warm and veryy,umid much like yesterday. cloudy, kind of a showery start for some this morning. a few peeks of sunsh just enough to get us back up

into the 80s and bubble up more rain showers late and thunderstorms later on today. the higher rain ihances come for tomorrow, but slightly lower for the weekend. more about that. for now, let's go to melissa. >> good morning. lanham, left lane is getting by the work zone. inner loop and outer loop don't have any problems reported right now. a live look here, inner loop, outer loop rolling along. alex dr nd is dria, northb blocke inbound 14th street bridge, two work lanes get by there. >>melissa, thank you it's 4:01. hurricane florence continues to barrel toward the east coast. the carolinas it are preparing for extended powerag o and potentially a sea of rain. >> wendy woolfolk isg wat these developments fromwr htsville beach, north

carolina. >> this is a man evacuation. >> reporter: whether packing up or staying put, esidents along the carolina coast are bracing for florence. >> this is not our firstrr ane. it's probably going to be the worst, bi but i think we're prepared.ep >>ter: her impact will be felt far and wide. >> it's really big and very dangerous. we just need to get out of the way. >> reporter: millions hea inland to escape powerful winds and potentially catastrophic rain and flooding. >> powerful, damaging hurricane is hours away fromur coast. >> reporter: president trump promising full support from the federal government. >> my administration is in close coordination wit state and local authorities and fema. eotection of l is the absolute highest priority. and that's what we're doing. it's called protection of life. >> reporter:still, some are confident they are safest at home. >> just batten down the hatches and get ready to ride it ou >> reporter: an unprecedented disaster still hundreds of miles

out at sea,lready being felt along the coast. at this pot, forecasters believe florence will either make landfall sometime late thursday or into friday. in wrightsville beach, north carolina, i'm wendy woolfolk, nbc news. >> so the track and the power of the stormhi is som that continues to change every hour. >> yeah, storm team 4 sheena parveen has been tracking this all morning. what's the latest? >> the latest is it is getting closer to land, and those rain bands are approaching the outer banks of north carolina right now. loo a our satellite image is a little delayed here. look at these rain bands thouhe. there are outer banks of north carolina. here's the storm. it is approaching land, sot's alread starting to bring some wind here to parts of northli ca. these rain bands are going to be watched very closely as this gets closer. we're talki about 24 hours or so away from landfall or at least skimming the coast. it's now a category 2 hurricane, 110-mile-an-hour sustained winds. high pressure over new england

still going to block it. there's that stationary front. that's what's going to slow it do. as we go into early tomorrow morning, that's when it'll starw to move on lankening to maybe a cat 1, quickly a tropical storm. if the center of it goe over land. if not, we could be still dealing with a hurricane. now we're looking at saturday, sunday still way dow to our south. eventually it will get wrapped up int a cold front. w thld be monday when we will start feeling the local impacts. we'll talk more about that with your extended forecast. >> thank you, sheena. of course, we're going to have ouports from the ground. you can on jim hanley dily to bring you updates throughout the week. t's 4:04. we're following a developing story in alexandria. take a look at this at a high-rise apartment on duke street. you can see the flames there shooting out othe upper floor window. a viewer sent us this cell phone video showing this fire.

the fire went to two alarms, but firefighters quickly knocked it down. exandria's fire department said medics treated one person, and they're trying to figure out how the fire started. the future of cardinal donald whorl's leadership of the catholic church in d.c. lies in the hands of pope francis. a spokesperson for the archdiocese of washi confirmed wednesday that cardinal whorl wil ask the pontiff to accept his resignation. a pennsylvania grand jury suggests whorl did not do enough to protect victims from predator priests when he was archbishop inso pittsburgh. students we talked to at it catholic unive say they're fed up. >> for mepersonally, it's a completely infuriating situation. d> the holy father the pope is not requio accept it. he'llccept it at the point in which he's ready and willing to place him. >> last wee--

oads around the u.s. capitol and union station are back open this morning. d.c. a. u.sapitol police investigated a suspicious vehicle last night near union station and louisiana avenue. officers used bilonoculars to scope out the area. investigators are not saying wh they found, if anything. now to the latest on the search for amazon's second headquarters, speculation zeing in on our area. here's why. jeff bezos and amazon's board of directors are reportedly in town. tonight bezosng is goi to sit down for aninterview. on september 19th, bezos will be the keynote speaker at an air force conference at national harbor. his space company, blue origin, intends to compete for pentagon contracts, and tomorrow he's going to visit "the washington

post." of course,e owns the paper now. but amazon officials have already told post rep will not be answering their questions about blue origin or the new headquarters. 4:07 now this morning. there's a new warning about e-cigarettes from the food and drug administration. the governmental the devices an epidemic among american teenagers. the fda is cracking down on retailers that illegally sell these products to mins. the agency sent 1300 warning letters to five major e-cigarette brands and gave manufacturers 60 days to come up with a plan to keep their products out of the hands of children and young teens. >> theisrbing and succe accelerating trajectory we're seeing in youth must end. >> e-cigarettes have lower toxic chemicals than regular cigarettes but higher amounts of nicotine. they've become popular for people trying touit cigarette smoking, but teens are often attracted to their flavors and designs.

well, for seral ys, we've been talking about coastal flooding during high tide along the potomac, but the water isn't the only problem. >> you're going to want to cover your eyes. >> ieriously cannot even look at this. i really appreciate this. >> iot to givou a heads up on that one. the rising water is forcing more rats out into the open. here's news 4's shamari stone. >> reporter: as the sunsets over the georgetown water front and ducks gently swim in the tomac, the scenery doesn't comfort some local businesses. >> it's depressing. >> reporte edward lynch manages tony and joe's seafood place, where business has droppe like water. in this fous >> it' not just me. it's every employee. >> reporter: affected by this week's coastal flooding from the potomac, it's filled rat holes, pushing the rodents inland. tony and joe's sayses busin is

down 50% compared to last week. >> the water goes up, the rats live next tove the they have to go somewhere. >> reporter: the flood gates are up, separating water and rats from restaurants. >> i don't want the t rats come through and scare everybody. >> reporter: sean mckenzie has seen the rodents on the other side of the wall. >> i just look at it and i'm like, ewww, that's disgusting. i can't stand thoseats. >> it's really created a real situation. >> reporter: d.c. councilmember jack evans -- >> o fortunately we're going have a lot more rats than we've had in a little while. >> everybody is kind of biding their breath right now, waiting for what this hurricane does, what the flooding situation does. >> reporter: so as you can see, the business owners out here on the georgetown waterfront are in the wait and see mode. meanwhile, councilmember jack evans recommends you dial 311 for the district's rodent thntrol program if you see the rats. way someone can come out here and do what they can to fix problem.

along the georgetown waterfront, shamari stone, news 4. n something you didn't e think could happen with all this watt p water. >> of course, you can't see the rats if you have your head buried in your hands. >> i'm notating. our coverage of hurricane florence continues. ow a popular beer dpaen is stepping pup. >> plus, why officials are concerned local parking garages are at risk with the forecasted rain. >> this morning we're also a.oking at patchy fog across part of the a this is another thing that we're going to be watching, but our weather pattern still staying on the mostly cloudy side until we see the impacts from florence. that's coming up.

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about this bad overnight crash in the district. take a look at the scene. d.c. fire and ems tweeted this photo. you can see the damage to that officials say they had to rescue one person from inside of that car. a total of four people are jured. one of those is said to be life threatening. years s been nearly 50 since neil armstrong took the first steps on the moon. now the national air and space museum is getting ready to celebrate one of the greatestac evements of all time starting this fall. on display will bearmstrong's helmet and space t gloves and space suit the pilot buzz aldrin wore. aside from the artifacts, there will be a celebranaon on the onal mall. we know them for their beer, but anheuser-busch is stepping

up to provide safe drinking water for affected communitiesh in turricane. two plants will be producing canned water iia georg. 3 t year they provide million cans to some of the areas affected by natural disasters in tes, florida, and california. waen tlrand with the ground so saturated, the concern is that any more rain we pick up could lead to flooding. >> transportation reporter adam tuss shows usre one a of focus is parki garages. >> reporter: well, take a look. a lot of the rain we've already had is causingo rivers overflow, like theotomac here at east potomac park. now the concern is if we get even more rain that some underground parking garages could actually get flooded. that has car owners a little worried. >> what happens is when there's heavy rainfall, the ceiling will leak. over top of my c is a huge crack. >> reporter: sherry henry lives here at the wharf. even though her parking garage

is pretty much brand new, she says there have been wat issues. >> when it just rains, you know, onl a nor day, a lot of water gets down below. a >> reportend now management here advising residents that they may want to seek higher ground because of standing water in lower portions of the garages. >> i want o hide my car in my i could., if >> reporter: she says instead, she'll just park on a higher level. now take a look. this is what it looked like outside bwi marshall airport a while back after heavy rains enched low-lying parking lots. this is a concern in onflood-pre areas all across the region like old town alexandria as well. alexandria's transportation department tells us if you are parked in an area that usually floods, higher is alwaysbetter. there are no guarantees once the water starts rising. just be aware all of this could be a concern as we keep our eye to the sky ove the next week. in the district, adam tuss, new 4. >> you feel for the folkst

park the airport, go off on vacation and come back to that. >> and there's nothing you can do about it. >> you're stuck at that point. we will have to deal with florence's rains eventually. it's probably in the monday/tuesday time frame now. yesterday we were thinking it might be tuesday/wednesday. we'll bring you constant as new information and new forecast data comes in. we'll update accordingly. four things you need to know about the weather in the short term. few showers around this morning. much like yesterday. were you outside yesterday from about 2:00 to 3:00 or 4:00 in the afternoon? sunshine broke out. temperature jumped to 86 degrees yesterday. >> i s the sun yesterday, did. >> it was amazing. that was bonus sunshine, everybody. you weren't supposed to get that. today will be a similar story. startingff with clouds but a few peeks of sunshine later on today as well. then outer r bands are just about reaching the outer banks of nth carolina forurricane florence. locally here, broad southeasrly flow is pushing

very warm tropical air over us. so it's a very humid start this morning. a couple drops near hagerstown this morning. there will be more of that witht timeay. here's future weather. lunchtime, n,ageeks of sunshine but also opportunities for rain. eventually, you can sort of tel this is all going from southeast to northwest. this is the outer most effects of florence.e not floretself but just theff outer overallts. by later tonight, thursday night, showers moving in at 11:00 p.m. rain is more likely tomorrow than today. less sunshine tomorrow as hwel. e a 30%, 40% chance for rain today. a 60% chance forai tomorrow. here's tomorrow afternoon. some locally heavy rains t possible durin afternoon on your friday. temperaturewise, we're in the low to mid-70s here to get your wursday going. it'll be am and humid day today. afternoon high right around 83d ees. the very latest forecast track -- and again, this will be updated at0 a.m. from the

national hurricane center. probably going to be making landfall now. this is also a little bit of a change. instead of late tonight, it's probly now early friday morning. so landfall is probably poing to hed back a little bit. the best news of all is that the storm has encountered a little wind sheer. instead of landing as a category 3 or 4, it might now land as a category 2. that only affects the wind speed. it will d nothing t diminish the potential for rainfall. so minor weakening, slowing down once it gets on to the coast. track now brings it close to the north side of atlanta by late on sunday and brings us the impacts monday, tuesday. i mentioned the lower wind speeds have nothing to do. look at these forecasts of potential for rain. two feet or more of rain still across a big piece of southern north carolina and eastern south carolina. then that slug of moisture comin comings -- comes our way. a minimum of 2 to 3, maybe as

much as 5 inches of snow -- rain. >> uh-oh. >> i'm already thinking about winter. yow how i love snow. there's your forecast. 80s today, 70s urtomorrow. eekend will not be a total washout. highest chances f rain will be saturday. sunday, mainly just clouds. the redskins home opener sunday, may be able to leave the poncho at home. we'll be in weather alert mode for mondayay and tues the heavy rains from florence arrive. sheena will be back with a closer look at this in a few. good morning, melissa. >> good morning. taking a look at the roads right now. on the beltway after loop50, just two left lanes getting by the work zone there. rest of the beltway is looki good. inbound key bridge before m right side a lo of your screen. as you're headed ib bound, we have a little built of a work zone. leesburg, eastbound 7 diverted at river creek parkway. that's a-s londing work zone. lanes blocked because of th this morning.

95 in maryland, southbound, 32 to the beltwa going aittle quick there but it's going to aske you about ten minutes this morning. ar as the other roads around town, 270 looks good through prince georges county. 95 in virginia and 66 insound rolling along nicely. >> melissa, thank you. they've become must-see events. we're talking about apple product announcements. >> we now know what the comptiy will be p on the market. coming up, we'll show you. >> and check out ellen today. risten bell from "frozen" is stopping b stay with us. we'll be right back. i

>>you're looking to work this holiday season, macy's is hiring. yesterday the company announced it plans to hire 8000 temporary workers. in a about month, there will be a seasonal hiring event at macy's stores nationwide. new workers will also be eligible for bonuses if certain are met.ge it's that time of the year. holiday hiring. >> cash for that chris mtmas shopping. well, apple hasalre its new products. >> three new iphones to a next generation apple watch. nbc's raphael smith tells us what to expect on the >> now let's talk about iphone. >> reporter: it seems that bigger is better. at wednesday's product launch, apple unveiled three phones that pushed the boundaries of technology and pocketpace. >> t biggest screen ever. >> reporter: thephone xs max

features a 5.6-inch display. the company also gav it a small-screened little brother called the iphone xs. both have revved up processing and cameras. but the big buzz comes fro a goldilocks phone. >> iph exr will allow us to deliver the future of theo smartphone ten more people. >> reporter: the iphone xr has a larger screen than last year's original x, but the main feature is a smaller price tag, $749. >> apple pulled o a trick here, making us feel like a 749 phone is actually cheap. >> reporter: it has a differeme but the same face i.d. as the other phones and comes l essed in a more color wardrobe. >> it's striking. it's beautiful. it comes in all these colors. new49, i think that's the mainstream product. >> reporter: also released a bigger screen apple watch with technology on board t record your heart's rhythm. over the years, it seems they have focused in on health as the

real core use for the apple watch. ort of an array products designed to pull at any techie's heart strings. >> that man said $749phone i going to be basically a standard. >> the x was like a thousand. that seems astronomical for a phone thatre you're going to or lose or have to upgrade in another year. >> that's why i'm still paying on this one i got two years ago. >> i think sheena's tone is olden mine. >> i finally got a new one. it old one finally stopped working. deleted everything inside the phone. it's gone. but ye i only get new phones when my current one breaks. that's how i do things. locally, we have a couple showers around hagerstown. otherwise, more showers in the afternoon forecast. i'll show you where florence is coming up.

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y2ydoy y16fy hat weather alert this morning continues as we track hurricane fkerence. live look at wilmington, north carolina. you can see the fg pole there. it's a bit blurry.

sheena just said that is a bullseye in this storm right now. >> they're going to take the brunt of it. folks there starting to see and feel the effects of florence. this category 2 storm is expected to make landfall by this time tomorrow. we're tracking each upte as it comes in. >> good morning, everyone. i'm eu yang. >> and i'm chris lawrence. we're looki at the local forecast and your commute first. >> chuck and sheena a here to start us off. what can we expect today? >> yes, chuck will have a closer look at he afternoon forecas coming up. this morning, take a look at where florence is. it's getting t closer to carolina coast. wilmington is right in the center of this track. we'll talk about that coming up. rain bands approaching parts of the outer banks of norht carolina r now. locally, we're not dealing with any of that. we're looking at mostly cloudy skies, showers up and around ha hagerstown this mog.