carolina. >> the wind is already starting to pick up there. you can see throu haze there on the left-hand side the seas are churning up and the rain i falling. our sheena parveen is keeping an eye on the storm's path. we begin w a check on current conditions and your commute with melissa and chuck bell. what can we expect here? >> allright. for today, we've got another pretty high chance for some showers around later on in your thursday afternoon. a typically dark start to the rning. showers overnight have basically come to an end now. we will get a few peeks of sun.l itbe warm and humid again today. another likelihood of showers and thunderstorms later this afternoon. there you can see local radar here. the showers we had in northern maryland are now above the mason dixon line and moving away from ss. temperatures, i humid morning out there. we're in the low to mid-70s now. wternoon highs todayl be up in the low 80s once again. about 83 downtown. 40% chance or so for rain today. hurric se florencell a

serious threat to the north and south carolina coastlines ns well as tthern half of georgia. landfall is likely about this time tomorrow morning, maybe an hour or two earlier than that. impacts locally in the monday, tuesday time frame for us.in hreat will be flooding. sheena will have the latest from the 5:00 advisory coming up in about five minutes from now. good morning, melissa. good morning. i'm going to hold on tight to this thing now. thank you for your help, by the way. fairfax westbound 66 after fairfax county parkway, right si blocked by the crash there. centerville eastbound before centreville, crash on the right shoulder. slow spots through woodbridge. normal there on 95. southbound 16th street at u street, still have that close su here this mornin you can see those flashing lights here right now. northbound doesn't seem to be an issue through that area. 12th street tunnel near constitution avenue, center of the roadblocked by the crash there.tw and the b looking pretty good right now. your travel times coming up. melissa.ight,

thank you. it's 6:02. breaking news right now. d.c. police say an elderly man is in critical condition after being hit by a car. the accident happened late last night on the corner of north capitol and channing streets in northwest. police say the man crossing the street when he was hit. driver of the car remained on the scene. detectives are also ngti investigating a shooting in. northwest d it happened last night on lamont street near the va medical center on irving. police say therere two victims. both are being treated at hospitals, and both are expected to be okay police haven't released at suspecinformation, but we're going to keep you posted. crews from our area are rushing down south to help communities that will be impacted by hurricane florence. we were there yesterday as maryland task force one deployed to south carolina. >> and now today virginia dominion energy crews will head south so they can be in place to help reore some of that power

after the storm. news 4's justin finch is live at their facility in fairfax. what are you >> reporter: chris, this is going to be an all hands on deck efrt. now dominion energy is supplying some of those hands as well as gear, including these big bucket trucks, three of them like the ones you're seeing behind us. e all know that power i critical after a big storm. that's what they will be going down to do. this will not onlyhe benefit t residents and businesses but lso first responders who need electricity to t better ir jobs and better help the public. as it stands now, millions of customers ag stand to be left in the dark by the force of this storm. also, frequently in big disasters like this, is not uncommon for agencie across the country to be called into assist. as we are here now live, we are seeing crews beginning toiv arre between now and 6:30. on the roadng to be

by 8:00 p.a.m. and on their wayo the carolinas to help. live here in fairfax, i'm justin finch, news 4. >> .justin, thank y the track and power of the storm is something that continue to change everyhour. >> that's why you'll want to stay with us. storm team 4's sheena parveen is tracking it all. what is the latest? >> well, the latest we have here from the hurricane center, it's still a category 2. i have the updated tck as. we here it is in radar view. there's wilmington. this storm is basically in the direction of wilmington right now. they haven't seen the rain just yet from it, at least the heavy rain. here's the updated track. 110-mile-an-hour sustained winds. high pressure near new england will keep it south. as we go into early tomorrow, a little less than 24 hours from now t will make landfall as a category 2. you see this path, taking more

of a sth turn and slowing down. that's because of this stationary front. that's going to be byif sunday. ou're wondering about our weekend forecast, look how far soxph it's stillted to be. we'll be fine this weekend. then it's next week, early next week whene expect the remnants to get here. seeingwhen we'll be heavy rain. chuck will talk more about that and show you the timing in a bit. >> thank you, sheena. you can count on news 4's jim handly to bring you rtdates from carolina for the rest of the week. you can fd their continuing coverage right here on news 4. it's 6:. we'reollowing a developing story in alexandria. take a look at ts fire at high-rise apartment on duke street. you can see the flames shooting oupp of the floor window there. a viewer sent us this cell phone vio showing this fire in the apartments. the fire went to two alarms, but firefighters quickly knocked it down. alexandria's fire department said medics treated one person, and theye trying to figure out how the fire started.

also developing this morning, a bad overnight crash in the district. this is on 18th and pfi streets. als say they had to rescue one person from inside the car. a total of four people are injured and one of those injuries is said to be life threatening. no word yet on what caused that crash. the future of cardinal donald wuerl's leadership of the catholic church in d.c. lies in the han of pope francis. a spokesperson for the archdioces of washington confirmed wednesday that cardinal wuerl will ask the pontiff to acceptis resignation. a pennsylvania grand jury report suggested wuerl did not do enough to protect victims from predatorriests whenuerl was archbishop in pittsburgh. some students we talked tot catholic university say they're fed up. >> for me personally, it's a completely infuriating and frustrating situation. >> the holy father,she pope, not required to accept it. he'll accept it at the pointhn whe's ready and willing to replace him with his apostolic

successor. >> last week wuerl met with priests of the archdiocese. mapo showed suprt for wuerl personally, but not all felt he should remain as archbishorn this ing, police have reopened some of the roads around the u.s. capitol and union station. d.c. and u.s. capitol police investigated a suspicious vehicle yesterday near union station and louisiana avenue. officers had to use binoculars to scope out the area. we did see a man gear upnto a bomb suit to inspect that vehicle and take some items from inside the car. investigators are not saying what they found, if anything. now to the latest in the search for amazon's second headquioters. specul is zeroing in on our area, and here's why. amaz ceo jeff bezos and the board of directors are reportedly in town. tonight bezos will ait for interview hosted by the economic club ofto washing on september 19th, bezos will be the keynote speaker e an air foonference at national

harbor. his space company blue origin intendsom to cte for pentagon contracts. tomorrow he'll visit "the washington post." he owns that paper, but amazon officialsave already told post reporters he will not be answering questions about blue origin or hq2. ay> adult film star stormy daniels she still has a lot to say about her alleged affair with president trump. she says she will do so in her new tell-all book "fulllo dire." daniels, whose real name is stephanie clifford, announced her new book on abc's "the view." she says it will detail her life, her legal battle with the esident, and give a behind the scenes look at the president's attempts to intimidate and silence her this morning, there is a new warning about e-cigarettes from the foodrund administration. the government calls the devices an epidemic among american teenagers. the f is cracking down on retailers that illegally sell these products toinors. the agency sent 1300 warning

letters to five major e-cigarette brands andav g manufacturers 60 days to come up with a plan to keep their products out of the hands of children and youngeens. >> the resulting path to addiction must end. e-cigarettes have lower toxic chemicals than r cigarettes but higher amounts of nicotine. they've become popular for people trying to quit cigarette smoking, but teens are often attracted to their flavors and designs. it's nowyou ha6:09. for several days we've been talking about coastal floodingh and h tide along the potomac. but water isn't the only problem. >> no, ma'am.oi and you're to want to hide your eyes on this one. residents say the high water is forcing more rats out into the open. shomari stone has the latest. >> reporter: as the sun sets wier the georgetown waterfront and ducks gentlyin the potomac, the scenery doesn't

comfort some local businesses. >> it's depressing. >> reporter: edward lynch manages tony and joe's seafood place.ly >> it's reurt us. >> reporter: business has dropped like water in this fountain. >> it's not just me, not just the ownersp. it's every employee affected by this. >> reporter: affected by this week's coastal flooding from the potomac. it's filled rat holes, pushing the rodents inland. tony and joe's says business is down 50% compared to lek. >> water goes up, the rats live next to the river. e.they have to go somewher luckily we have these walls. >> reporter: he's right. the flood gates are up, er separating wnd rats from restaurants. >> i don't want the rats to come through and scareverybody. >> 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 those rats. >> it's really created a real situation. >> reporter: d.c. councilmember jackvans. >> unfortunately we'll have a lot more rats than we've had in

a little while. >> everybody is waiting to s what this hurricane does, what the flooding situation does.as >> reporter: sou can see, the business owners out here on the georgetown waterfront are in the wait-and-see me. meanwhile, councilmember jack evans recommends you dial 311 for the district's rodent control program if you see the rats. that way someone can come out here and do what they can to fix the problem.g ale georgetown waterfront, i'm shomari stone, news 4. >> if the flooding and the water weren't bad enougaf >> to look again. >> okay, good. >> i just imagine you covering that story. >> no way in the world i could do that story. still ahead, our coverage of hurricane florence continues. we'll show you how aomopular beerny is stepping up. plus, why officials are concerned local parking garages could be at risk t with forecasted rain. sheena? >> well, as we go through the morning, we're looking at a ttle bit of patchy fog out there. otherwise, today will be another

humid day with mostly cloudy skies and ae chance for s passing afternoon showers. lorence stays to our south for now, but the local impacts,

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it's been nearly 50 since neil armstrong took the fistn steps othe moon. now the national s air andce museum is getting ready to cele gate one of theatestac hievements of all time starting this fall. on display will be armstrong's helmet and space gloves and the space suit of buzz aldrin. aside from the artillcts, there be events with formers a th -- former astronauts and

celebrities on the nnal mall. we know them for their beer, but anheuser busch is stepping up to produce canned wateran fo hurric affected areas. last year the company provided almost 3 million cans to areas affected by natural disasters in texas, florida, and california. with the ground already so saturad, the concern is that any more water we pick up could lead to flooding. >> news transportation reporter adam tuss shows us one area of focus is parking garages. >> reporter: well, take a look. a lot of the rain we've already had is causing rivers to overflow, like the potomac 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 car is a huge

crack. >> reporter: sherry henry lives here at the wharf. even though heparking garage is pretty much brand new, she says there have been water issues. w n it just rains, you know, on a normal day, a lot of water gets down below. >> reporter: and now management here advising residents that they may want to seek high ground because of standing water in lower portions of the garages. >> i want to hide my car in my apartment, if i could. >> 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 drenched low-lying parking lots. this is a ncern in flood-prone areas all across the region like old town alexandria as well. alexandria's transportation department tells us if you are park in an area that usually floods, higher is always better. thhee are no guarantees once water starts rising. just be aware all of this could be a concern as we keep our eye to the sky over the next week. in the district, adam tuss, news

4. >> i saw tt first hand in old town over the past couple days. the amount of rain we had. >> it causes serious damage all around. >> soon you'll need a periscope on that car. we may be dealing with flooding early next week. fortunately, it will not be a hurricane or tropical storm once it gets here. the wind won't be as much of an as issue, but the rain is the very last thing we need. it's already been the fourth wettest year on recor visibility this morning down under a mile through parts of the shenandoah valley. watch driving i-81 or the far end of i-66 could be foggy this morning. closer to town, temperatures in the low to mid-70s. veumid outside today. gardening forecast for your thursday, hit-and-miss shower chances. not too much of a threat this

morning. that threat has now moved into highs today will be in the 80s. september is a good time to do some lawn improvements, but wait until after the heavy rain and flood threats disappear. so wait until about this time next week. let's get everything done withe fl first. tomorrow, another rainy day around here. your friday is going to be pretty much lost to rain chances off and on throughoucourse of the day. rainfall could be half an inch to an inch tomorw as the outer most reaches of the influence of florence move in. the main core of the storm, though, is going to be going west and south, away the short term. here's the latest official forecast track from the national hurricane center. slowing down considerably as it makes an approach on the north n and south car coastline. probably scraping thetoast from abilmington all the way down to myrtle beach before going inlandnd thenoming up the spine of the appalachians.

we will have to deal with here in the sunday, monday time frame. rainfall amounts could be extremely cross the carolinas. rainfall amounts around here could easily be between 2 and maybe as much as 5 inches of rain. here's a quick peek of the five-day forecast. keep those umbrellas handy and hold on to that clicker. >> i'll try. apparently the thing likes to fly. i don't know. southbound 16th street between e and t street, we did have a closure. i think it may have just reopened. fairfax westbound 66 after fairfax county parkway, right side blocked by a crash there. eastbound 66 at centreville has cleared. inner loop and outer loop of the beltway looking good this morning.un waldorf, north 301 at 5, left side is blocked by a disabled bus. new pr 270 southbound at montrose. might see slowdowns there soon.

top of the beltway, normal slowdowns in virginia. 66 and 95, no big issue. remember to listen to wtop fm when you hop in your car. they've become the must-see alents. we'reng about apple product announcements. people wait for this, right? >> it'sike christmas. we know now what the company is oing to be putting on the market coming up, we will show you. >> and be sure to check out elle been today at 3:00. kristen bell from "frozen" is b stoppi stoppi be se to stick around for urne i put criminals son during the day i'm jennifer wexton, and as a prosecu pr, and changed diapers at night.w laten i had a law practice,

i voluntecred to help moms collt child support. then, as state senator, i worked across party lines to target sexual offenders and take guns away from domestic abusers. in congress, i'll stand up to president trump. eci approve this message bse, like every working mom, what's ahead is as important as what's in the rearview mirror.

welcome back. 6:24. if you're looking for work this holiday season, macy's is ring. yesterday the company announced its plans to hire 80,000 temporary workers. in about a month, there will be a seasonal hiring event at macy's stores nationwide. new workers will also e eligible for bonuses if certain sales targets are met. really creeping toward that time. makes me nervous. >> make a little extra cash for those christmas presents. speaking of needing extra cash, apple has unveiled its newest products. >> from three new iphones to a next generation apple watch, nbc's raphael smith tells us what you can expect to see on the market. >> now let's talk about iphone. >> reporter: it seems that bigger is better. at wednesday's product launch, apple unveiled three new phones that pushed the boundaries of technology andocket space. >> the biggest screen ever. >> reporter: the iphone xs max features a 5.6-inch display. the company also gave it a

small-screened little brother called the iphone xs. both have revved up processing and cameras. but the big buzz comes from a goldilocks phone. >> iphone xr will allow us to deliver the future of the smartphone to even more people. >> reporter: the iphone xr has larger screean last year's original x, but the main feature is a smaller price tag, $749. >> apple pulled off a trick here, making us feel like a 749 phone is actually cheap. >> reporter: it has a different caasra but the same face i.d the other phones and comes dressed in a more colorful wardrobe. >> it's striking. it's beautiful. it comes in all these colors. at 749, i think that's the new mainstream product. wa reporter: also released a bigger screen applh with technology on board to record your heart's rhythm. over the years, seems they have focused in on health as the real core use for the apple watch. part of an arr of products designed to pull at any techie's

heart strings. >>t's hard torap my brain around the fact that a phone that costs $749 is going to be the mainstream forle a it's just crazy. >> when you've got phones that cost you a grand, 750 doesn't look quite so bad. >> i'm going toy stick with here. >> me too. as long as i can. >> i still have a razor, guys. no, i actually broke that in half long time ago. remember how thin they were? so not getting a phone that expensive, but thisng we're looking at cloudy conditions when you walk out the door. it's a little muggy outside. we're seeing even a little patchy fog through part of the area, but eventually today we'll have some passing showe from ese clouds. and i'll show you where lo, icane frence is coming up

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that weather alert this morning a continues we track hurricane florence. take life loove look right now wilmington, north carolina. you can see the flag blowing pretty hard there in the wind. >> only going to get worse. that's expected to be one of the areast hit the latest track was just released a few minutes ago.

it's still a cat 2storm, on track to make landfall tomorrow. >> just about 6:30. good morning everyone. i'm eun yang. >> and i'm chris lawrence in for ron. we have team coverage. >> chuck and sheena are here to start us off >> we're not having too much around here. obviously we're focusing an awful lot on hurricane florence. i just teretw something from jim cantore. they're measuring wave heights between 60 and 80 feet. that is amazing. , a oh, yeah. and we're talkiut out to sea, not the a the coastline. that is amazing. a very strong storm. a very large storm. here's a close-up the radar is picking up aliittle ghtning with some of these rain bands making their way close to shore. that's north carolina right there. you see how far south it is. we're notny dealing with of that today. we're looking at mostly cloudy skies on the a radar satellite

image with a couple showers in the forecast as we go through the afternoon. this morning, fog from martulsburg. be carf you're driving in those sections. temperatures are in the mid to low 70s. as the kids head out to the bus stop, we're looking mainly dry. maybe the raincoat for later today with those passing showers in the forecast. in about es staying the low 80s. coming up, a closer look through the rest of this week and the weekend and the effects of florence on our weather. over to melissa with a closer look at your commute. >> gd morning. brand new problem in the district. eastbound, southbest freeway re the 3rd street tunnel. we have a crash, seeing slowdowns there. looking27t slow here as you leave 70 through fredrick. then it opens up a little bit. you might still see those delayed effects. inner loop and outer loop of the beltway nice and clear. hopefully it stays that way. eastbound 66 is okay.

inbound 95 through woodbridge, northbound tinre is fine. fairfax, westbound 66 after way, right nty pa side there is blocked. eun? >> melissa, thank you. it's 6:32. right now we are preparing for hurricane florence. this is aic livere from fairfax where dominion energy o head re preparing south. a 12-member crew is headed to the hurricane zone. after the storm passes, thel crews welp restore any lost power. we're expecting to see a lot of that. officials believe millions of people could lose power because of the wind and raiwi the storm bring. coming up, news 4's justin finch will have more on the equipme they're taking. meanwhile, jim handly is leaving our team of reporters urcoveringcane florence. he's starting his day in north carolina's outer banks. >> there are people who plan to ride out the sstorm, but jim reports, many people have already boarded up and left town. >> reporter: we're along the outer banks where the windand the waves are starting to amp up.

florence still hours and hours away, but anxiety is running high. the big concern here is the flooding that may fo bow. will thepower outages? will the hundreds of residents who evacuated be able to get back in, and howong will that take?e some peove decided to ride it out, but for businesses, they are all but a handful shut down they harded up. boats have moved to higher ground. some have been boarded. we'll be following along in the urs to come and have live coverage this evening and tomorrow too on news 4. in nags head, jim handly, news 4. >> and remember, storm team 4 is tracking this hurricane aroundo the you can learn when the storm will hit, how it affects our area, and see the latest tra in our nbc washington app. d.c.'sarnal donald wuerl's title may be changing later today. >> he'sxpected to ask pope francis to accept his resignation after being named in a massive child sexual abuse report. news 4's megan mcgrath is livst

in north.c. with more.we >> reporter:, good morning, guys. cardinal donald wuerl has been facing tiincreasing csm that he hasn't done enough. he didn't do enough children from predator priests back when he was the bishop of pittsburgh. now there is word that cardinal wuerl will go to rome and ask pope francis to accept his resignation. now, it is a standard procedure for bishops to offer their resignation when they turn 75. wuerl did that nearly threeag years but the pope did not act on that resignation letter at the time. now, cardinal wuerl is flying to the vatican today to perasnally the pope to allow him to step down. it remains to be seen what pope ancis will do. many catholics, of course, watching very closely to see how the church handles thisatest scandal. we spoke to a professor at it catholic unive about the reaction of young people on

campus. what i hear a lot of m students saying is that it's time to get all the truth out. let's get it all out. let's get this all out because if we get it all out, we can w begin to do thk that the church is called to do. >> reporter: now, a recent pennsylvania grand jury report showed that 300 priests sually abused a thousand children since the 1940s. cardinal wuerl has been criticized because he reassigned some of those priests that were involved while he was the bishop of pittsburgh. certainly something we'll be keeping a close eye a on, we could learn what the pope is going to do soon. back toou. >> all right. megan mcgrath in norwest for us, thank you. it's 6:35. now to our other top stories. a recent high school graduate was shot dead on his way home from the store. tapian ney was killed sunday afternoon in stanton road in southeast d.c. his mother tellss news 4 he

just getting a soda from the corner store. he was part of th nonprofit horton's kids that provides tutoring for kids in the community. he was also set to begin classes at udc soon. nowo the trial of the man charged in the d.c.ansion murders. yesterday, talk about an emotional day in court. amy's father took the stand. he says he learned about the fire in his daughter's house from a reporter. he eventually learned his daughter, son-in-law, and 10-year-old grandson all died in at fire. their housekeeper was also killed. the director of heather's kids day care is accused of assaulting a child in herhe car. her whitfield is charged with assault and battery. police say she told the little boy's family that an accident led to injuries to his lip and ar last month. family services launched an investigation, and that led to the criminal charges.

whitfield is out on bond right now. the state is still reviewing her license. it is 6:36. coming up, the end of the championship run for the washington mystics. this morning we hear from its star about another historic season for a d.c. franchise. and we are still tracking hurricane florence as a category 2 storm, heading closer to making landfall. much more in our tea coverage, including a live report from north carolina coming up.

i put criminals in prison during the day i'm jennifer wexton, and as a prosecutor, and changed diapers at night. later, when had a law practice, i volunteered to help moms collect child support. then, as state senator,i ws to target sexual offenders and take guns away from domestic abusers. in congress, i'll stand up to president trump. i approve this message because, like every working mom, i what's aheas important as what's in the rearview mirror.

d.c.'s brianing joseph is officially in the finals of "america's got talent." ev though the tough judge simon cowell, said the finals will be more exciting because of brian. praise.ug so we checked out his personal website, and he is >>self-taugh. retty amazing.

they don't call him the king of the vion for nothing. you can catch him next week as he competes against nine other final acts for that million-dollar prize right here on nbc 4. >> we are rooting for him. now t your cnbc morning business report. >> good morning. i'm leslie picker at cnbc headquarters. americans love to splurge, no surprise there, but a new study by bankrate.com finds exactly where we're spending nearly $3,000 a year on financial vices, such as eatingilout, of that. in fact, 38% of people say they dine out at restauranr get takeout at least three tim a lottery tickets are also a big splurge amongehower-income olds. 28% play the lottery at least once a week. with your cnbc morning business report, i'm lesliepicker. 6:41 on a thursday morning. still a mostly cloudy sky overhead this morning. take the umbrella on your w out to work. temperatures are in the mild 70s here this morning. we'll be up in the upper 70s to around 83 for a high this

afternoon. again, a likelihood of more afternoon showers. the ten-day forecast and the test on florence with sheena coming right up. >> brand new problem on the beltway this morning and some delays around town. where is it slow? cong up.

your time is 6:45. we continue our team coveragef hurricane florence. if you are just waking up, here's the latest.or the cat 2 hurricane is expected to make landfall by thime tomorrow, likely somewhere near the border of north and south carolina. >> we're less than 24 hours away. here's live picture from wilmington, north carolina, now rith the sun coming up. you can get a betlook. you can see that flag flying pretty fast. you ca see that wind picking up already down there. that's expected to la few days. some forecasts are predicting up to 40 inches of rain could fall before that sto moves out. >> we've really seen the winds pick up, even since we started on the air. >> you see the seatarting to churn as well. the carolinas are getting ready for extended power outages.

we'llet to that soon. >> we go to craig mel vvin in south carolina.t have meople evacuated? >> reporter: yes, most people have heeded the warnings from local officials here and got out. they started those evacuations earlier in the week. we spent some time in wrightsville beach last night. there was an 8:00 p.m. mandatory there was concern people might not take the advice of officials because thi is an area that experiences storms just about every year. but people sensed this one was going to be different. all about but 200 people, we're told, got out. you've been talking about the winds here. i can tell you firsthand based on this time yesterday, this is first time that it actually feels like a hurricane might be approaching. the winds hav picked up. you probably can't tell, but behind me the waves are a lot choppier than they were. clouds are starting to roll in

as well.re wexpecting hours from now that the tropical storm force winds are going to start, and the chief concern i here that those winds won't die down for edveral days. you menti the category 2, that classification being downgraded. a lot of folks here may think, oh, we're much safer now. we're outf the woods. that's not the case. a lot of cat 2 storms have caused catastrophic damages in the past. that's the eectation here. the storm surge still going to be a pig part of the story. the inland flooding stillo expected a major part of the story, and power outages. folks wh able to get back into parts of wilmington, north carolina, for several ys, chri eum. >> craig melvin live for us in wilmingt, north carolina. craig, thanks so much for joining us. we'll see much more from craig coming up on th"today" show. >> while we are not going to get a direct hit from hurricane florence, our area is sending

reurces down south to help some of the communities that are impacted. >> we were there yesterday as f maryland tasce one deployed to south carolina. this morning dominion energy crews are preparing to deploy news 4's justin finch is live at their facility in fairfax with more on the mission. justin? >> repter: eun, that's right. just more than an hour's time, they'll make their way sout a 12-person crew not only bringing experience but also bringing equipment asell, including three bucket trucks like you're seeing behind us. an auger truck as well. i'm joi by chuck pin from dominion energy. chuck,nt at this p you were saying you've got to get down there first and see before you start to get to work. >> that's right our first order of business is to make sure everything is okay with your and your family. then after that, you've got to take that safety mind set on the road because we're going to be traveling down interstate 95. there's a lot of people leaving

nort carolina, doing what they should be doing, given what the storm's potential is. so they're going to develop, make sure they tak tt safety protocol. they'll get down there, go through a safety briefing, get their assignments in terms of where they're going to be staying, get a hot meal, a good night's sleep and then hunker down, wait for the storm to subside. then they'll begin their restoration work. >> that's critical too because d have seen the storm at least on paperp in terms of strength. for you guys on the ground with what you do, you won't know how to attack the situation until everything for the most part has died down. that does not mean there wil not be an extensive need for power restoration. >> that's exaly right. you will not -- we will not place our men and women in harm's way. the fist order of business is tl wait u the storm subsides. then you have to do aamage assessment. you just can't start doing restoration, otherwise it would take you , 15 times more time

in order to complete your restoration. you have to kno what you're looking at. so we'll use all kinds of methodology. we'll do drive-bys, packaging at night, perhaps some aerials, get an idea about what we're looking at in terms of the restoration. then we'll engage and begin a lookin critical infrastructure, hospitals, 911 centers, police, fire, homeland security, water treatment facilities, things likethat, and look at the major transmission those lines that are high voltage where when you do your fixes, you can getusands and thousands of customers back on as opposed to tens or hundreds with some of the lower voltage lines. >> reporter: chuck, thank you so much. again, that crew is on its way down right no a 12-member crew from dominionou energy. they be there for several da days helping that area bounce back. we're live in fairfax. justin finch, news 4. back to you. >> i'm sure the folks in the carolinas are surely appreciating all the help they cannd get. >> count on jim handly and his photographer to bring you

inupdates from north car for the rest of the week. you can find their continuing coverage right here on news 4. >> remember, storm team 4 is tracking this hurricane around the clock. you can g updated tracks both on air and on the nbc washington app. 6:51 now. we have breaking news. d.c.olice say an elderly man is in critical condition after being hit by a c. the accident happened late last night at the corr of north dp capitol and channing streets in it northwest. police say the man was crossin the streen he was hit. the driver of the car remained on the scene. anyone who may have seen the accident should call d.c. police. d.c. fire and ems responded ov this bad night crash as well. thisas on 18th and p streets in northwest. officials say they had to rescue one person from inside the car. a teal of four peo are injured, and one is said to be life threatening. no word yet on what caused the crash. take a look at this fire at high-rise apartments on duke street. you can see the flames shooting out of the upper floor window.

a viewer sent us this cell phone video showing the fire. last night the fire went to twof alarms, but fhters quickly were able to knock it down. the fire department says medics diat one person. right now they're trying to figure out how it started. well, it was a great run, but the washington mystics' histun to the championship is over. >> they lost last night's game against the seattle storm for thewnba championship title. the season, though, the mtics set the franchise record for most wins and made theirirst appearance in the championship. a lot to be proud of. they fell short and the storm swept the series 3-0. even though last night's elimination game didn't turn out the way they wanted, the misice ea -- mystics aredy looking forward. >> we don't feel like we peaked and this is it for us. obviouslyhis isn't how we wanted it to end, but it's an experience that we can grow from. >> you got to keep things in perspective. everybody else in the league

wishes they were playing tonight. so we're very awa a of that thankful we were here and we know we can improve. and so we will. >> well, the mvp award went to breanna stewart. the final score was 98-82. >> no shame. they lost to a better team. >> they d so great t season. >> we want to congratulate them ics on such a great run. it's now 6:53. we want to turn back to the forecast. sheena parveen is here with the latest. >> good morning. here you're looking at a live radar image of hurricane florence. it is nearing north carolina. some of th rain bands just offshore. you're starting to see somef the lightning in view. there's the eye. later on today, some of this rain will start move into parts of north carolina. tomorrow about less tha24 urs from now, they're going to start to see the strongest winds, which are right around the eye. sustained at 110 miles an hour, it's are category 2. the updated track from the hurricane center. this is 2:00 a.m. friday. should be moving on land or ose to it.

carolina.ngton, nor that's the area right there. as we go through time, it slo down. there's the stationary front. that's what's been responsible for giving u cloudy weather. that's going to help this thing slow down. that's sunday. t ok how far south from our area sunday. we don't have to worry about it impacting our weekend forecast. it's later next week when thim st finally catches in a cold front and swihes up through northeast. that's when we'll be seeing it.vy rain from here's your rainfall forecast. as we go into monday and tuesday, that's when we expect the most amount of rain from this system. we could see a few inches shehe locally. nothing compared t seeing in the south. they could be seeing catastrophic flooding. we have some patchy fog in areas north and west of d.c. this mprning. atures are mild. it's humid outside. we're in the mid to low 70s. for the most part, we're dry. rain just north ofer hown. as we go through the day, expect passing showers. your commute this morning, a little patchy fog. most of the area just cloudy.

mostly cloudy skies thrgh the day. highs around 83 with those spotty showers. here's future weawier s those passing showers this afternoon. not a washout of a day. but tomorrow we're goi the rain in the forecast. higher rain chances as we go into tomorro afternoon. make sure you have your umbrella tomorrow. weekend rain chances not too bad, but there you see florence's impacts here monday and tuesday. let's check in with melissa. good grning. d morning, sheena. taking a look at outer loop after branch avenue. a crash theres morning. seeing a tiny bit of a slowdown. nothing teheible. in t district, eastbound southwest freeway before the 3rd street tunnel, a n crash there as well. southbound on 270 here, a little slow asou're headed through fredrick. it gets slow again approaching montgomery mall. going about 33 miles per hour there. waldorf, inbound 301 at 5, l bt side iscked by a disabled bus this morning. as for your travel times, 270, you n see thatslowdown from germantown to the spur. top of the beltway typically

slow in virginia. inbound on 66 and inbound on 95, so eastbound and northbound, you can see going about 35 to that miles per hour. remember to listen to wtop 103.5 fm whenou hop in your car today. >> thanks, melissa. d.c. cardinal donald wuerl is set to ask the pope to accept his resignationd today. a grry reportedly accused wuerl of not doing enough to protect children from predator prieals. the tontinues this morning for the man charged in the d.c. mansion murders case. witnesses will continue to take the stand today. in court emotional day eesterday as amy's father explained how h lthrned about deadly fire at his daughter's home. roads around union station are back open this morning. they were closed for a suspicious package last night. investigators are not saying if they found anything. right now we're preparingca for hur florence. dominion energy crews are preparing to head south to the

hurricane zone this morning. after the storm passes, a 12-member crew will help restore any lost power. more on the storm next on the "today" show. >> we will be having to deal with what's left of florencebl here pro in the monday, tuesday time frame of next week. in the meantime, still have rain chances today, tomorrow, saturday,robably theriest day over the next four might be sunday for the redskins homeop er. >> how about that. that would be really nice. >> thankso much for joining us. the "today" show is next. >> we'll be back in 25 minutes with all of your weather, traffic, and local news. we leave you with l pictures from wilmington, north carolina, where the winds are picking up and the seas are churning. the latest on hurricane florence next on the "today" show and here on news 4.

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breaki breaking news. closing in. the first rains and wind from hurricane florence begin lashint the e coast. this monster storm growing larger overnight. time running out for millions ordered to flee. >> this is a mandatory evacuation. leave. s must >> the region bracing for a life-threatening storm surge and catastrophic flooding. wellave it covered from on the ground to al with the very latest forecast. breaking overnight, deadly rampage. a gunman goes on a terrifying shooting spree in california,