the problem is you can see that ladder truck the d.c. department has only extend 100 feet in the air. he's suffering from symptoms of hypothermia. so if he was unable to get himself down. i'm going to ask my cameraman to take a look up higher, because there are firefigers above him

another 100 feet who are trying to get to him from up you can see the one firefighter leaning outright now, there are multiple angles they're trying to get the rescue attempt from, both from above and fromb w. and those sirens you heard weree d.c. police of who had been escorting a private construction crane on the scene. kas we go b down to the picture of the firefighter and the rescuerk , you can see he's doing everything he can to carefully inch himself toward that ladder. he'll be then brought down andr of coursed to the hospital. with the hypothermia symptoms, he's been up there since 10:00 this morning. even though he's harnessed and safe they're very concerned about the sun gng down, the temperature dropping ven more and the hypothermia symptoms getting even worse for again this worker who's been up there since 10:00 this morning. >> let me ask you, obviously he now able to be lowered down to that ladder.

how were they able to geto him to get it around him? were the guybove him able to connect with him to get him there or were the guys below able to tie himo somethio get him down? >> so the people from below are the ones whoal have ac made contact with him. the firefighters who are coming from above, it has taken them more than hour we've been here just to get to that position. so they're sti trying to work their way over to lower lines down. but it looks if you can see that the firefighter on the ladder is ing to be the ones who's able to extricate him from that position. as you can imagine traffic along georgia avenue if that's your commute home or you know people

taking georgia avenue, the rubbernecking and the traffic here is backed up in both directions. so it's having some ripple effects these neighborhoods, and of course schools let out, and lot of pedestrians in this area who just wtopped toch what truly is an amazing rescue. and besides the temperature you have to take in effect here the wind. from time to time we see the wind just making that ladder just back and forth, leon. >> and c exceptionald today with a wind chill of 21 degrees out there. let's go to brad in chopper 4 right now. you have another vantageoint. tell us what you've been seeing. >> we've been watching this for just about two hours rightnow, and we've seen multiple crews trying to make their way up to this stranded worker. they came up in a bucket truck when we were first here for a littleedbit, tri to assess the situation, andy then the brought two guys up on one of the

adjacent leg of this huge tower. they're still up on the top. they're more or less spotting this rescue that's going to take place more tha 100 feet below them and 100 feet above the grund. you can see the tip of that ladder truck. we've gcy one emerg worker and he's reached this worker just about four or five minutes ago, right before we came into the show. and you can see that strap is kind of keeping thator workeror less strapped onto the tower and that's preventing him fromng fal but i've got to tell you after three hours in this freezing cold he's got t be almost completely numb. the wind is blowing around. you can see the trees kind of in the background there as the gusts come through, and he has no shelter from that wend, that crs wind comingn and just freezing him to the bone. obviously a very dangerous t situation, but looks like crews have a good handle on what they're going to do next to try

to get this worker down. and we'll continue to cover this until this worker reaches solid ground. leon, back over to you. >> as a matter of fact, next time around i'm going to c with you to get a look at what the traffic situation is like. mark seagraves was tell us about the backups. mark, you're down there. how's it look from where you are right now? it looks as though they've just about got him on that ladder. >> reporter: yeah, leon, you can ownt feel the frustration here. all the pedestrians and dozens and dozens of firefighters, everyone with their neck, you know, pointed upwards, this for hours. but you can just sense the frustration of just how close this firefighter has been to rescuing this man, and yet it's aill been hours he's been up there worki this, and he's still not close enough that he can safely trafer thean from his harness onto that ladder and then bring him down. so that's clearly what they're

working so diligently on and making sure that transfer from when that worker releases himself from his safet harness and then puts himself onto that transfer. a safe >> that's right. and on top of that if one of the reasons why he had to be rescued already e he was suffering from symptoms of hypothermia, he probably doesn't have full control o all of his extremities at this point? >> that's exactly right, and that's why they called 911 because he knew he was not going to be able to get himself downsophily on his own. was going to need assistance, and that's why he called his coworkers and his coworkers quickly called 911. and you see the response we have here now, working for hours to safely rescue this man from this tower. again 10 feet above the ground. just 20 feetutf the reach of d.c.'s tallest hook and ladder trucks. >> and rk, you mentioned how close this rescuer is to the

worker and that he's trying to get him onto the ladder. do you know whether once he gets him onto the ladder the idea is to try to get himo climb down those steps, or does he have to be cared down the steps by the rescuer? >> you know, they can actually lower the ladder down with them on there if they ve to, or the firefighter could put himself -- put the victim inside of him and the a ladder kind oaf work as a harness to shimmy themselves down. i've seen them in the past do it both ways. it reallyepends on what the victim in this case, the worker is able to do on his own. as leon pointed out he's sy suffering thestoms of hypothermia which means his extremities are not working 100%. i've got to tell you, just being here it's hard for me to just speak because it's so cold. it's affecting everybodyha imagine it's like being up

there with no protection from these winds and elements with the sun dipping down and it continues to get cder and colder. >> doug kammerer, our chiefme orologist he can tell us more about the wind out there and what the effects may be on that man stuck on that towernd the rescuers trying to get to him. >> the first thing they're going to be doing with hypothermia is the extremities. and it's not the arms and legs but the fingers and tows. and if you've ever climbed a ladder before, your hands are grabbing up mb, your putting your toes on the outer rungs of that ladder, and this guy knowing he was not going to be ableo getown on his own, and grasp that tower safely enough, was able toake that call to 911 and of course we've been watcng this now for hours. you mentioned the wind at 120 feet-love above the grod vel, you're looking at about 25% to 35% increase in the wind. so we were dealing with winds

gusting about 35 miles an hour about an hour ago. right now that would put his wind gusts close to 40 mooirpilr hour, and you add that to the low teeratures, you get a wind chill a bit colder for him upe ther about 120 fee hopefully the main part of his body is definitely the biggest t part he nee be concerned about right now. hopefully his jacket is going to be strong enough to maintain some warmth right now. one thing for sure they're going to warm him very, very quickly -- you have toarm the slow, but they're going to get him to a warmer spot as soon as ey get him down. >>in if it had been raor even drizzling in these kinds of conditions. >> thank goodness we don'tat ha to deal with. >> as weit here and watching

this it looks like they're getting closer and closer to secure this worker who's been on is tower now for almost three hours, to get him secured to that ladder pch and onc that happens, it'll be very curious to see how m theyage to get both of these men down, whether or not the firefightre actually going to have to hold onto this worker here or whether they'll bring the ladder down and bring them both down at the same time. but this has been going on for three hours now. >> tell us what the scene is on the ground and the status of is that bucket truck that you mentioned. >> reporter: i can tell you the private cnes here, it is in position, but they haven't started to deploy it ye which indicates that this is the route they're heing, that ladder truck and a team of paramedics have beentanding by wit an ambulance, with blankets, everything they need to treat

him for hypothermia just as soon as he gets down to the ground. so a there entire second team from d.c. fire, p waiting down on the ground to take over once this firefighter from the special ops division gets him onto the ladder. you can see the firefighter now has just left the ladder is now standing on the beam along with the worker, and it looks now he's now attaching him to his s, harnnd will be making this transfer very shortly. so aga 120 feet up in the air with the winds doug kammerer described. the bitter cold that is in the air, allhi going on, you know, while one of those guys is suffering from hypothermia. >> we're seeing that worker now making his first steps down that ladder. it looks like he is moving pretty well.oi folks, we're to take a quick break, but we're going to

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that's biper u way for quite some time now and they just got their hands on him and now they've got him on the ladder. >> and what's good to see is he's actually using his hands to climb dow that ladder on hiss own. this is at the georgia and missouri avenue behind the fourth district police station if you know that area northwest. and the call went in this man had been suffering symptoms of hypothermia after been on that tower 10 feet up in the air for so long. an we were concerned whether he'd be in good condition to climb downha himself on ladder. and as you can see he is managing to come down. >> mark, this is quite a relief to see. >> reporter: yeah, everybody's breathing a sigh of relief here, pat. i can tell you you can see him coming down the ladder now. and one of the things tell everybody is one of the reasons he couldn't get himself down is from where he was in order to getown he would have

had toe g up at least another over et to the cross panel, crossed over to the catwalk and come back down n'0 feet. so it was as simple as just coming done from where he was. he would have had to actually make his wayack up across the catwalk and down the servicela er that they use. hopefully chopper h a shot -- >> we have switched over to the chopper 4 >> he went up there starting work -- h went up there about 10:00 this morning to work. he's been up there for the better part of six hours today. through those hours in distress with search and rescue teams fr d.c. fire department trying to get him down. as you can see after three hours they have now successfully gotten this guy down on the ground. he will be met by paramedics who

will examine him, get him warmed up and rush him to the hospital. we hope to be able to talk to that firefighter who went up that ladder to conduct this rescue. efourse he's got a lot of team members down hn the ground, but he's the guy who's been in contact and talkingo him for the past three hours. and, you know, there's more than just rescuing a guy like that. it's reassuring him, keeping calm, making sure he doesn't panic. so there's a lot of that goes in for that one firefighter who made it up to the top of that la ter. more thaee hours after that 911 call came in, this man is safely down on the ground and will be headio the hospital very shortly. >> was this particular fi hfighter, iowa was himself there at the top of this ladder for three hours? >> he had been up and down. as we were told before, you know, the was a different truck. they have two ladders.

the ladder you see now reaes 95 feet. the bucket truck ladder which is kind of the cherry picker that three people can get into, that goes up to 100 feet. they had that extended first, but from the position that was up, they couldn't get anywhere close. and that firefighter tried clbing up himself up the side of that scaffolding there, if you will, could not reaim. brought the bucket truck down and deployed this ladder truck from a differe position. and that firefighter went back up there. so behave seen that firefighter der maybe down that l half a dozen times today. with ae he went up there big backpack on his back with all those ropes and harnesses u see now reesassembling and putting back. a safe rescue here in upper d.c. washington. >> just amazing. g

let'so to doug now. doug, it's pretty amazing that suffering from hypothermia and knowing his extremities had to be so cold that that worker was actually able tlimb down the ladder himself. >> very much so. because the very fir thing with hypothermia is the loss of extremitiesnd having to climb a tough factor. and another tough factor how mark sea. graves saying in order to come down he have had to go back up 100 feet. and we had 30 mile an hour winds at the time, about an hour to two hourso, about 30 miles an hour. at that height at 120 feet that wind speed at that height, 120 feet would have been about 40 miles pwa hour. if h to climb another 100 feet up, that wind speed could be upwards of 45 miles per hour. just imagine yrself on a ladder or tower like that with

45 mile per hour woming at you and then you put in the cold. that'shy he had to call 911. 33 right now in d.c. you add in the wind and this is the way it feels out there. your feels like temperature, your wind chi, 22 in d.c. his would have been more like 16 in the gaithersburg area at that evation. 21 degrees in leesburg 17 enwinchester. a frigid, frigid day f sure. thank goodness he was able to make his way down, and now we've got those firefighters that have to get down as well in this extreme cold. hopefully they're going to be maki their way down over the next couple of hour as well. for gusts i am tracking some snow chances coming in for friday. 10e a.m., notice around 1:00, 1:30. now this is not a big storm. ng much in the way of accumulation, but we

could see some north and wes as i mentioned one more time, this happening on the worst day of the week as far as the cold goes because temperatures moving up at least a little bit as we head in towards the weekend. 64oming up onsunday. that of course with a chance of rain. >> going up higher winds in that situation. unbelievable. >> sounds like he knew it very well >> thank you doug. >> and we're going to take a break and we'll be right bork with of our breaking coverage, a rescue successfully made here at missouri and georgia avenue in northwest. that worker who'd been stuck up there at 10 feet in the air down

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it's hard to believe with the bitter cold outside today here.ing is almost and there's no surer sign than these. the cherry blossoms. d.'s famous trees a not looking like this quite yet, but today the national park service revealed their peak bloom prediction. and news 4's cory smith with the date we've been waiting for.

what did you hear?k, >> reporter: l i know cherry blossoms are old for you d.c. veterans, but what i that peak bloom going to be? that was the question on this very cold day. >>he colder the better. >> reporter: old man winter still has a firm grip on d.c. but look closely. a little closer and you'll see budding signs of good things to come. >> this is almost christmas as far as we're concerned. >> and the projected dates are april 3rd thrgh 6th. >> reporter: in a months's time the district will once again look pretty in pink as thousands of cherry blossoms reach peak bloom, that is assuming thek national pservice's prediction is correct. >> as we say if you can tell us exactly what the high temperature is going to be every day until peak bloom, we'll hit exactly on the nose, buts know, that'ogists not an exact science. >> reporter: there will be

celebrities, there will be swag. this will never get >> today to me this is like the yrst festival i've ever done because eachr the team works hard all year round to create new and exciting innovative fresh events and programming. >> that excitement has kept the district park ranger coming back for the last 40 years. >> it's like the lincoln memorial. there's something special about living in washington and being able to experience this. >> and in a city where we spend so much time following the man made drama of politics, it's nice for some natural beauty to take the spotlight. >> it's the happy side. it's what peopleo should come washington for. >> reporter: it's been more than 100 years since japan gifted the u.s. its first cherry tree. in the next hour i'll tell you how that relationship still

endures. >> thank you, cory. a bitter blast as we look aheado spring. >> doug says there's a warmup coming our way but it comes at a cost, plus he's tracking a little snow on friday. >> plus chopper 4 live over breaking news in the district. a mann stuck this tower

if you're just joining us now at0. 4 we've got to tell you about something we watnessed, a dr rescue in the district. a worker who was stuck 120 feet upe air on a radio tower has been safely rescued and now on the ground. the 911 call went o shortly after 1:00 this afternoon, but it took severalours for crews to figure out how to reach that guy. he's now being checked for hypothermia rightnow. news 4's mark seagraves has been covering for us on the ground. so stay tuned. now looking at other news, other big news today the natio talking about r&b singer r. kelly is in court right now for a child support hearing. reportedly owes hundreds of millions in back child support. >>elly has pleaded not guty.

>> they were describing lucifer. i'm not lucifer. >> reporter: at times his voice here cracking. >> the reason i apologize for that is this was the first time i was able to say something. i've saidnothing. >> reporter: at other times, angry. three time grammy winner r. kelly speaking out the first time since his arrest in an interview on cbs this morning. >> so they're lining on you. that's your explanation, theinre on you? >> absolutely. >> reporter: charged with ten counts of sexual abuse involving four women, three of them minors. more than a decade ago kelly was aquilted on child pornography

charges. >> youge saying everyth they said in that documentary about you is not true. >> they are lying on me. >> it's disturbing. it wasemotionally disturbing for all of us. >> reporter: her family accuses the singer of controlling their estranged daughter and not allowing them to contact her in two years. >> people are coming for justice. >> reporter: r. kel remains steadfast in his innocence. >> that exploesf r. kelly interview on cbslk is today's around town. you saw the whole thing. he was cry, he was yelling. said that he's being called the devil. i can't wait to hear what your listeners thought of that performance date let me rephrase that, that spectacle. >> let's be honest, our listeners were saying they felt like they were seeing the

beginning of the end for r. kelly. they also l felte he was self-imploding. when you think about r. kelly he is a musical genius who was well loved throughout the majority of the usga and abroad. but these rumors have been swirling for decades about him. and now they feel like o somef it is starting totick. this w janice out of temple hills. she called in and shared her thoughts after seeing this morning's interview. >> i feel he's definitely in defense mode, and i feel that catching up nally with him. i don't know exactly what happened, but i'm hopeful that the truth comes out either way. >> and that'sha exactly our listeners want, the truth to out. if he's committed a crime they want him punished. there's a little bit of discussion whether it's some kind ota m help for him or incarceration. >> that's going to generate af lotalk for a while. let's change gears.

another story that's been such a big talker around here where a white principal in hitsville used the n-word several times. >> we're back again talking about this word. again our listeners feel that white america just doesn't seem to understand the power of that word when spoken out of their mouths to an african-american person. and let'sot forget you can always say n-word, every child they understand that. you don't have to use that word. now rene from hyattsville called in and shared her thoughts. >> i feel -- >> basically she felt like, you know, we have to listen, let's

not jump to judgment and let'sl get the f story. and again we can go from flch because sometes when people hear it they immediately jump to think it's a racist situation and that's not always the case. but that word never has to be spoken. it's derogatory and hateful. >> pat, over to you. prince george'souy public schools addressed the state of its schools at an annual luncheonoday. the event brings together both educators and busineders who work together to support county schools. the district had been under a scrutiny sin scathing state audit back in 2017 found graduation rates were bei boosted. new numbers showed graduation rates dropped 4% in 2018, but the interim school's ceo says it's all part of the improvement process. >> i'm trying to achieve a mber. pat i cuz now is provide us a

very clearicture of where we'r going and what we want to do to get to our ultimate gel to make sure every student graduates from georgetown. >> reporter: the state board of education has now declared prince george's school one of the most transparent districts across t state of maryland. some breaking news now from facebook. company's ceo says what you do with the social media network could totally change in the coming year. erika gonzalez at our live desk with the future of facebook. >> this has just come into our newsroom a couple of hours ago. the future of the company is in private messages. zuckerberg says people want to connect online like they would in a living room and less likeo they in a town square. what does that look like? when would you see a changes? zuckerberg says it'll happen over a few years and mean less

sharing and more privatees mess encrypted even from the company. for the immedhete future focus shifts to making apps like focus shifts to making apps like messenger and hi, i'm jeff. focus shifts to making apps like messenger and in my johnsonville commercial, we open upe forest. i'm out in the wild eating my breakfast. and all of a sudden, raccoon come up and ked me, "are those bigger patties?" i said, "yep." wolf comes in and says, "wow, that's a lot of sausage." and we had a good laugh about that. (laughing) johnsonville breakfast sausage has 15% larger patties.t. fits on a bisc

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being moved up in its release date. disney is putting the second j angelinaolie movie out in october of this year instead of may 2020. dennis freeman was team miley on the voice and she passed away leaving a 12-year-old daughter behind. mileg says she's stepp in to help take care of the little girl and gwyneth paltrow she's more of a businesswoman these days. says to "the new york times" the web property is worth a quarter of a b, billion dollars. gwyneth paltrow. that's tommy mcfly with your celebrity 60 on nbc 4. time now to take your fitness journey to the next level. today we're going to be hitti the bag at a new boxing class in northeast washington.

news 4's molette green helping you get fitor spring. >> okay,'m trying my hand at technical boxing this morning. it's a fullt class a # a.m. here, and look at all these people going. they're sweating this morning. some of them are on a 90 day challenge. i wanto bring in rachel snyder who is the owner. and you've seen pple reallytrancefirm in this class, right? >> absolutely. boxers aret in the b shape. conditioning wise, strength kizing wise,oxing they are in the best shape. so we traen you in the exact same waypr oxers train you. people are losing weight, gaining muscle. >> yeah, a w great to get fit fore spring. so c check out a class here because this will be the option for you to help you get going right heri. alt, back in to you. >> all right. >> i thought we were going t see her do some boxing.

>> i guess next. it's coming. >> you're on notice. 00 150iders ditching metro. next transportation reporter adam tuss wit whether those riders are nowo helping t clog up the roads and slow down your commute, and the upcoming metro work t could push more people onto the reeds. doug and amelia saying arm is on the way for us. when we could see 60 on the ten day

if you are just joining us at:45 let's g you caught up with the four things to know. a utility worker keeping his ol while trapped 120 feet in the air. he went up there to donc mainte work at around 10:00 this morning. and about three hours ago he suffering help aft from symptoms of hypothermia. ure scene playing out high above georgia and mis avenues in northwest d.c.

and within the past few minutes he was able to walk down a ladder and make it safely to the ground. we've got more breaking news. singer r. kelly has just been taken back intoustody. this after he appeared in court for child support hearing. he reportedly i should say owes more than $100,000 insu back chd pport. during a cbs interview with gale king kelly said angrily denied any sexual abuse to anyone. kelly has ple ted not guiltyo ten counts of aggravate sex abuse. the indictment lists four victims, three of themunderage. facebook is expected to look very different in the future to date. ceo mark zuckerberg says he believes the facebook interface will have less sharing and more pencryptedvate messaging. the changes are expected to happen over the next few years. michael cohen back on capitol hill. nbc news has learn he brought documents to back up one of the

explosive claims in last week's testimony, thatawyers at the white house edited the false written statement he gave to congress in 2017. the statement coirms the timing of discussions on the trump tower moskow project. trump's lawyer jay sekulow says cohen's testimony is false. nbc news has not viewed thosecu nts. back over to you. metro says it has a plan to win riders back. and the agency may need to hurry it up. >> new figures show ridership is down well over 100,000 trips a day from just aew years ago. transportation reporter adam tuss is le at the metro station tonight on the story. he's tracking thisrend and how pill overhave a effect for our roadways. tell us about that, adam. >> that's ght, leon. just think about it. if more metro are riders aren't on system, then they're more likely in a car. and we all know the last thing that we need is more rs on the

road. empty seats, quiet station. is this the new norm on metro? well, take a look. a lot of metro rail cars look like this at this point right now. not a single person onboard. but is there a bigger explanation for why people might be staying away? >> it doesn't murprise a bit because the roads aren't any better. >> reporter: that's true. trfic is still bad and a drop in metro ridership could actually make matters worse. more on that in a second. between july and december last year there were only 595,000 trips on average during weekdays. t compare that just a few year a ago when metro regularly topped 560,000 trips. he takes metro all the time, but lately he's been switching to

uber and lyft, especially late at night. >> after a long day at work i'd rather prefer just to use an uber. >> reporter: and this is where the problem could get worse for th entire region. study aft study has shown more ride share vehicles only contribute to congestion, especially in big cities. for what it's worth metro disputes some of the lower ridership number heres saying they came at a time when major maintenance was shutting down and seriously impacting lives. >> the bottom line here is what can we do to get riders to come back. >> reporter: the gm has laid out plans to getiders back to the system andelieves that will happen but it will also take time. metro guys tell us they do have a plan to get the riderck it will take some time as the jeperal manager wa mentioning. and that ridership should start to bounce back in the spring. >> adam tuss reporting live.

turning now to the weather. doug, when are you going to get us out of this deep freeze? and how dare you bring more snow. >> i know. we've got another chance of that coming up friday. the best news looking at in this forecast is sunday. sunday is looking a lot different. yesterday was looking warm with rain. toy looking interesting. in a good way. out thereoday not interesting at all. this isn't any kind of interest to anyone. it's cold, windy. llnds gusting 30 miles an hour and wind c right now a big factor. 33 degrees with the wind out of the northwe at 17 miles per hour. down to 22 in d.c., 14 in martinsberg, and 23 in wemanass. don't normally see this cold air in the month of march. we're about 20 degrees below average. that is waye down. weot going to see anything today and not going to see

anything etomorrow,her. this back here around kansas city, this is the first einklin of the clouds moving in and eventually thosel clouds w become snow. not much happening early, but are cold enough if this moves in it is snow. and we think even in the city we could see snow moving in. not a very strong system by 3:00, and now clear here. we've got snow to the nort rain to the south. same deal with snow winchester. rain d and eastward. if we were to see accumulation t would be to the north and west. and we'll continue to watch that. right now maybe an inch on some of the grassy surfaces. it's not a big storm or one where we're nkeven tg weather alert for. that's not my dpraskhic but amelia's graphic. amelia, you're down there for what is your favorite time of

year. >> oh, my gosh, i love this time of year in ourearea. it's soiful. right now it still looks a bit desolate out here. but yesterday the national park service announced the cherry blossoms down here are in stage one out of six. i'm not going to touch the tree here, but you can see the little buds are starting to come out of the tree here, so wead m our peak proejz forecast, again this year, last year we got it right so you figure we'll take a stab at it again. you look at years similar when the buds first started to come out and that was 2004, 2005 and 2007. temperatures are going to be the biggest variable especially hose daytime highs, and we're looking at cold temperatures for pretty much the month of march, or at least temperatures staying at or below normal. so when we talk about our peak projection, we're thinking it's going to be between ail 4

and april 8th. so very similar to last year, and again all becse of tho temperatures. and speaking of temperatures it is breezy.it it is defy cold down here. tomorrow another cold day. wind chills temperatures tomorrow afternoon around 30. around 40 as weook to friday. and a around 50 as we look to saturday. sunday might not be as bad later in the day w. >> we really want sunday. that's the day we're waiting for here o going to see warmer e temperatures. 42. there's that chance of rain. and temperatures in the 40s for most of us. and this is the big change for sunday. ain now looks like it's out of here by around 10:00, 11:00 inhe morning. and some sunshine in the afternoon sunday afternoon actually lookingretty nice. not bad early next weer, either. teures in the low 50s

monday, tuesday and wednesday. another chance ofhowers next thursday and friday. temperatures remaining at or below average for most o that, but you could see a couple of milder days in ere. >> com on, sunday. >> yes, indeed. let's get a look at what's all new at 5:00. >> we continue to follow that breaking news from the district thatas so dramatic. the rescue of that man stuck up the radio tower 120 feet. >> while we were on the edge of our seats, we're going to have to latesten the hours long scue effort, plus what we're learning ability his conditi an hour after that frigid rescue. it tooht him eig years to get justiceis for h sister after she was murdered, and now he's got a new mission. >> comingt up 5:00 tonight, how he's hopg to keep his sister's killer behind bars and bring healing to another victim's family. >> we'll see you with those stories. it's been a bus wednesday.

so we'll see you li from the starlite lounge. ♪ one plus one equals too little too late ♪ ♪ a sock-a-bam-boom

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if you're just joining us doug's tracking a bitter blast heading our way. see outwind you can there whipping the flag on our patio. the updated forecas and it includes a little chance for

snow. so you don't want poomiss that. democrats grilled the homeland security chief on capitol hill today. they pressed kirsten nielsen on the so-called child separation policy and hisal natimergency declaration. >> and nielsen insisted there's a crisis on the border and the time to act is now. homeland security secretary keirsten nielsen in the hot seat. nielsen repeatedly backedum president s national emergency declaration. >> we're on track to encounter close to 1 million illegal aliens at our southern border this year. his is not a manufactured crisis this is truly an emergency. >> new customs and border protection figures showorethan s tro ssed he southwest borr last month, the highest in 12 years. >> make no mistake this chain of human misery is getting worse. >> democrats blasted nielsenor

that miserspecially for the treatment of immigrant children. >> when y saw those babies in cages, what did you do to just screamr bloody murp the chain to the president to say i cannot represent an agency that is forcing its border patrol to do this? you have no feeling, no compassion, no empathy here. >> but nielsen defendedhe children's care and blamed their parents. >> there is no parent who had been deported to my knowledge withtit multiple opportu to take their children with them. >> nielsen sounding the alarm over a growing crisis as the senate judiciary committeer cals n investigation of reports of sexual abuse of uccompanied minors in u.s. custody. jennifer johnson, nbc news, washington. first, dangling above the district. >> this is very serious rescue going on right w. >> a worker trapped on a tower more than 100 feet up in the igid air. chopper 4 for you as we continue

watchingis >> the rescue that's unfolding live from chopper 4. >> that firefighter right there is there t assist him. >>akews 4 you step by step through the sky high drama and how d.c.'s bravest brought him down. >> oh, it wasne e-wracking. you saw the dramatic rescue play out liv here on news 4. >> a utility worker now stiffly on the ground but he sdnt hours trap on this radio tower, 120 feet in frigid air. >> you mazingly he kept his calm through it all while suffering as you can imagine from hypothermia in those bitter colp tes. news 4's mark seagraves narrated the rescue live for us and he joins us now from his vantaget po northwest. what a relief, mark. >> reporter: yeah, i can tell you this went on for more than three hours as that man dangled

in those hh winds and freezing temperatur 120 feet above the ground. let's listen to their press second.nce just for a >> having a medical emergency, his need was to bess ated and not necessarily providing care. there wasn't even real frustration with him. this is one of the things we have to deal we're going to operate safely. once we identified he was not in a medical need to be removed from that position immediately for care, we knew that we could -- this may not sound appropriate to people outside of our business, but we realized that we could slow things down a little bit and operate in f safehion to where we could bring him off of that tower in a safe manner and nrm cause any ecause there was none in place to begin