point? >> it's very early in the investigation. we don't know what happened. we know we have a charter bus that we believe went over a guard rail down a hill there on northbound i-270 in the area of the sky ramp. troopers are working with troopers from montgomery county on the scene and trying to make sure everyone in the bus or was injured are taken to the treatment they need. but again we don't know a cause. we know it's a charter bus. loaded with children and parents. we don't have any numbers right now but we are working to get those. >> do we know where they were coming from? >> not specifically. we're not sure of all of that. it's much too early. the workers are assisting the individuals and getting the help they need and get traffic moving as quickly as we can. >> the assistant fire chief told us several vehicles were involved in hitting the bus. you can give us any more details on that and did the bus, when it fell over, fall into traffic and run into vehicles there? >> all of those are great questions. it's just going to take us time

to sort out what happened and we don't have any of that information right now. again our concern is for any of those who were injured and to make sure that we conduct a full investigation. >> greg, i don't know whether you have access to the scene or whether you are there, and we are looking at pictures and for a long time we saw a lot of activity with emergency personnel inside the bus and pulling people out but we haven't seen as much activity now. what do you know about that process, if anything? >> i don't know. i'm trying to get to the scene myself and so you have a much better visual on it than i do now. >> are you on the road right now, greg? >> i am. but i am riding, i am not driving. >> where are you and how is the traffic where you are? >> i'm actually on interstate 70 and so i'm not even in -- down in the general area yet. >> so you have a ways to go. >> i'm at state police headquarters. >> so it will take you a while to get there and obviously you all would know the roads and

the terrain so you know not to get into the midst of all of that. but do we know anything else about -- did you all take a lot -- i know that montgomery county probably would have taken the 911 call there. we just heard there was one call that was taken. you can provide any other information about what any other callers may have said about this accident? >> i really can't, ma'am. our troopers at the baracks, our sergeant is working to get the resources we need to the scene. it's very busy and those kind of questions will have to wait until later. >> so are your folks even on the scene yet? >> yes, ma'am, they are. >> okay. >> so your role will be when you get there, to help deal with the traffic and beginning the investigation, is that fair to say? >> my role will be to help deal with the media. [ laughter ] >> fair enough. >> and we appreciate that. >> and so do you know if your folks are going to be the ones that have to potentially have to reroute this traffic in some kind of way or if people are just going to have to sit there and wait this out? >> ma'am, on a -- when a crash

like this occurs on a major interstate, we work with the state highway administration very closely as well as allied law enforcement, montgomery county police will be working to implement a detour plan. that is a priority once the injured are cared for and those operations are already underway. so we'll be doing our best with the state highway to get those detours in place. >> and so obviously you are very cognizant of the fact that the traffic is so adversely effected, you try to clear it as quickly as you can. >> we do. but this type of crash, there is a lot to do with the investigation, but we know there are thousands of motorists sitting in traffic tonight. we will do everything we can to expedite their trip home. >> let me ask you this. we are expecting a lot of rain later this evening. how does that effect what you do and your ability to investigate this situation? >> there is dedicated troopers that work in any kind of weather and so they will continue and make the necessary

arrangements to process the scene and as efficiently as possible regardless of the weather. >> greg shipley with maryland state police. thanks so much for calling. and do give us another update as they come into you, would you? >> yes ma'am. >> thank you so much. >> we appreciate it. >> again, this is the aftermath of a 20 passenger bus carrying parents and children. we don't know where it was going. we know this bus company is based out of pennsylvania but it's not clear where those folks were going. >> or where they were coming from. >> absolutely. we know one person sadly has couple comed to his or her injuries. there were several people taken from the bus with some life- threatening injuries and now there is a full-court press out there trying to both assess the people that need to be treated and as greg shipley just said, come up with a detour plan for the people stuck in traffic. and this is going to be a lengthy operation and so those two things working in tandem

will require incredible logistics management. >> we are getting more information, just little bits are coming our way about exactly what happened. now we know that bus apparently rolled down the hill. we don't know whether it actually landed in traffic and was moved out or stopped before it got to the traffic. we did hear that it interacted with several vehicles. i'm beginning to suspect they meant before it rolled down the hill. but again that is still a little cloudy and murky as we talk about it right now. and right now, those 20 passengers, those number of passengers are apparently off the bus. although greg shipley couldn't confirm that because he's still up at interstate 70 for those who know is several miles away from where this accident occurred. but we see now the triage area is being folded up. the yellow, the green and the red tarps that were down to sort of separate the injured are being rolled up. that would suggest that they've finished dealing with them at least here and everybody who needs to be treated has been sent for treatment. >> well that would be good news. let's hope that that means that

all of the people that got out did make it out alive. at least the people that they were trying to get out. and so as that parent of the operation wraps up, they can begin to sort of recreate what happened with this accident. there is always the re creation team that's come out and try to figure out what caused that and then to figure out what to do with all of the traffic. >> and how long it will take for them to begin to open up parts of the road. because as you know, lesli, it's often not just, okay the whole thing is open. i think almost certainly the southbound lanes will reopen first. if they don't have to stage the rescue there any more, we were told they were starting in the left bound lanes and there may be a chance for traffic to move. and again we are seeing one truck there, at least beginning to move. i don't know if that means it's leaving or what is happening. >> and we don't know what that truck is. it's not clear if that is connected to the investigation. but it is moving and that's the first movement we've seen sort

of in that general vicinity of a vehicle that size in a while. since we've been watching this accident. >> and we've been watching it via sky 9. earlier we had a traffic camera. i wonder if we may get back to that view and that might give us insight. we had had a traffic camera of that exact scene. do you recall, lesli? and if we can look at that again. it may give us insight as to where they are and compare what we saw before, which was just a plethora of sirens and vehicles in there. perhaps some of those who have begun to move on and maybe we can get a sense this drama is coming to some sort of conclusion. >> and there is an emergency vehicle leaving. and it's hard for us to see where we are whether that is an ambulance of some sort or a hazmat crew of some sort or just a fire vehicle. and obviously it's out of the shot right now. but again, a lot of the stuff that we saw earlier, the tarp -- >> here is something. here we go.

this is the shot i was talking about. so it's still a lot of vehicles, a lot of back-up right there. but as you can see, perhaps a little less than it was earlier. >> and this again was shortly after this accident was reported. shortly after we got this on the air, which was shortly after 4:00. now you transition that to show you the shot of the situation right now. >> that is the shot live. >> is this a live shot, right here? okay. this is a live shot. >> this is a live shot. that is what is going on now. this make be -- that may be the truck pulling away. perhaps before too long one or two lanes would reopen. that would be good news for commuters. >> because now those cars on the side, they look like emergency vehicles as well. let's toss it over to patranya because you have your eyes on the cameras. automaker looking at -- i'm looking at the reaction to this. people are starting to get home

and people may not have heard and getting on the inner loop and heading toward i-270 and they are going to run into a lot of mess. as you can see on the screen, there are realtime maps sensing the traffic on the roadways heading up 495 toward 270. people in the red are barely moving, meaning they are crawling right now. under 20 miles per hour heading toward the spur. the scene of the accident right now, we're seeing a back-up on 495 west of town starting at route 123, all the way up to the spur. that will take drivers around 40 minutes. you are taking a live picture of the american legion bridge traffic. and you can see it is a parking lot. nobody is moving toward maryland. it is moving towards virginia, but still very slowly on the outer loop as well. but inner loop traffic in virginia, 495 toward the 270 spur, right now if you know folks heading out that way, leaving work, let them know to avoid it at all costs. it will be a mess. get off river road, clara barton and get into d.c. and out of this and find another

way home. 355 rockville pike, that is our main alternate away from the accident. again 40 minutes from 123 up to the spur. right now an hour and a half from 123 to bw parkway in montgomery county. >> and that should take maybe 15 minutes at the most. and that's an hour and a half. that gives you some indication of the severity of this traffic situation here. but as we look at the scene, things look like they are starting to wind down a bit. we certainly aren't there, so we can't tell you that. >> but fewer emergency vehicles, fewer sirens and not much activity around the bus itself. but let me get to you with the latest on this deadly bus accident on i-270 and again live pictures right now from sky 9. the northbound spur between rock ledge on montrose roads, firefighters tell us one person is dead, that bus went off the ramp, it fell 45 feet on to the shoulder below. the crews had to cut out four people who were trapped in there and two of the victims

did suffer life-threatening injuries. at least 10 to 15 others were hurt. merrill state police tell us parents and children were the ones on board when the crash happened. >> and that bus, just so people understand, from the sky ramp to where it landed, that was a 45-foot fall. that's an incredible fall with incredible power in an area where there wasn't a whole lot of cushion. although when you fall in that kind of manner and you're in a bus with metal, it's just an incredible fall. and so at this point we only know of one fatality, though we were told there were other people who did suffer some life- threatening injuries. so at this point, we are watching the scene to see what is happening next. a short time ago -- or rather a while ago there was a really incredible effort to try to get into the bus and get all of the people off. it was a 20 passenger bus and the last time we were able to talk to emergency personnel they said there were still ten people in there.

it looks like they've gotten everybody out at this point. >> we can see a state trooper standing right by the bus and it looks as though they are beginning to perhaps. and is that a tow truck. >> that looks like a tow truck. >> maybe they are clearing things out just a bit. we are still waiting to get the details. it is coming together pretty quickly as we understand this was a horrific accident on 270 today with a lot of people hurt and some really badly and somebody lost their life today. >> we know that there were several other cars that were involved in this accident. just because they happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time, we don't know if there were other cars that may have caused this accident. and so that is indeed part of the investigation and that may take some time. the results of all of this, traffic, traffic and lots of traffic. >> now you are looking at again that is 495, right near the accident because we're talking about the 270 spur which splits off from the beltway and takes you north on 270. on the left, that is the inner

loop. that is the part of the beltway that would be heading towards the spur and as patranya told us earlier it is just not moving at all. you know how every now and then we have something that happens so badly around here that people end up spending hours on the beltway. this could be one of those nights. >> we hope that is not the case. but this was an incredible crash and there is a lot of work to be done and state police said there is going to be a sizable effort to try to detour all of these people. >> you can say that, but there is not a lot of places to go. and we have a note that they have been out there for quite sometime. this happened at 4:00 this afternoon, it's coming up on 5:15. >> so this scene has been active for a while now. and we've seen it kind of die down a little bit in terms of -- >> we've seen things begin to change and hopefully come together in terms of the investigation. as we talked to the spokesperson for the maryland state police who was on his way there, even as we speak, he

said they are going to -- they do have a priority to get this cleared as quickly as possible to try to get you home, if you are -- if your loved one is stuck out in the traffic. but the biggest priority was getting the injured out. that has happened and then they have to figure out what went wrong and that might take some time. >> this was a bus full of parents and children and we don't know where they were heading, we don't know where they were coming from. but we do know that there is incredible traffic surrounding this. patranya, what do you see right now? >> that's right. well we're definitely tracking the traffic for you. we'll start off with the m-dot camera in montgomery county and i'll show you the mess on the beltway to reaffirm to folks why not to take the west side of the beltway right now to get home because you are going to be stuck in this. we are taking a live picture at 495 over the american legion bridge. you can see it's crawling on the left side of the screen toward maryland. down to river road here, we're going to see it's the same

story, still pretty much backed up. and if you are veering off toward montgomery county, it is stuck as well. so a long stretch of delays we are dealing with here. now in terms of travel time, delays starting right now, and i'm looking at the map, and we're seeing delays down and to the maps real quick, it will be all red here. okay, it's going to be on starting way before 66. if you look at the left side of your screen there, all the red toward 66. 495 up to 270, it's a long stretch of delays here on the beltway. it's heavy up to the 270 spur where the accident is. right now all lanes are shut down north and southbound as derek and lesli have been telling you between 495 and the merge on 270. thankfully no other accidents we're seeing on the beltway so that is good news for folks traveling on other side of the beltway.

now we're moving over to the trafficland camera and checking the other cameras we're looking at in terms of alternate commuter routes. 355, we've been telling people to take rockville pike around this because that is the main route toward maryland. and here not too bad. this is where they are heading up north toward maryland. so not a major back up yet. let's check out old georgetown road real quick here and see how things are looking there because that might be another route that folks are taking and that scene is backed up as can see on the right side of the screen. and not really moving. so old georgetown road one of the commuter alternates, also rockville pike, that's not looking bad. but if you are going to stay on 495 toward maryland, you will run into a lot of trouble. go back to the m-dot camera here and see how things are looking over the american legion. it will be a tough commute heading home. so if you know folks heading that way, tell them to avoid it

or turn on the tv and watch us to see how traffic is not moving. so right now on the chain bridge toward bw parkway, i'm tracking an hour and a half commute. and lesli you were saying it takes only about 15 minutes. so it's a tough commute to get home. light showers around the area as topper has been telling us so that will add to the slowness of this commute throughout the afternoon. i'll keep my eyes out and see if no other accidents pop up for the rest of the day. back to you. >> patranya, thank you for that. we know there were a number of people transported from the accident scene to the hospital. our brittany morehouse is on the phone and live at suburban. set the scene for us. have you seen a number of emergency ambulances coming into the hospital? what do you know? >> brittany, are you there? >> we do have some ground video just coming into us that we want to show you and we'll bet back to brittany. >> there it is.

right at the accident. >> this is some unedited video. >> this is, as we say, raw video footage of what had been going on there at the accident. this is not live, this is on tape. >> this is on tape. and this is a shot of what was happening there right after the accident occurred. there is the sky ramp right there. and then as you look down, that's the 45-foot drop. >> and you can see the -- the triage area there where somebody is being cared for by the ems technician. >> and do you see the children. >> it looks like the children do not seem to be badly hurt. >> right. but again there is an effort to treat some children and some other people. maybe we better come off that video for a second. >> and then the yellow area there and as he described, how they break it up, triage wise and there is somebody badly hurt and we see the people in the green area, you can see the

injury scene relatively minor. >> we should tell people, this is unedited video or raw video so we are showing it to you as we are getting it in. and that's why you are seeing it move a bit. this is raw video of the accident. this was early on in the accident where the first responders there are literally going in to what is left of the bus, trying to extricate the people still stuck in the bus. some of them were traveled in the bus -- trapped in the bus and one person has succombed to their injuries. this is the scene right after the accident happened and you are looking at it right now, and as we saw earlier, as it went down. we saw firefighters and others going inside, saying i need some help and people were trapped. and the camera man moving around but this is raw and unedited. we are seeing it at the same time you are. and right there they have rope to perhaps give someone ep -- someone help in getting out of the bus. and some folks were trapped in

there but they are out now and back in the triage area in the green zone where the least badly hurt are being taken care of. >> as we look as the scene it looked like there was a minivan off to the side too. and you know that captain garcia was telling us there were other cars that were down there at the time. you have to wonder if that was one of the vehicles that might have been in the area at the time. because we didn't see that, at least not the close-up of that as the event has progressed and they've been treating people. >> and if there is any good news, it looks like several folks are in the green area. those who are least badly hurt and that is good news. we want to see as many people in that area as opposed to the yellow and red. and as we were told by the assistant chief, perhaps if they were badly hurt, they don't even stop there. they get them out of there as quickly as possible. >> and we know a number of people have been transported to the hospital. parents and children that had to be incredibly rattled and traumatized by this kind of

accident. you get on a bus and you think you are leaving point a and you're going to get to point b and here they are on 270 and somehow something causes this bus to fall 45, 44 feet and roll down the hill and end up over there. it is an incredible thing. >> it is horrific. and we are showing you again this unedited video of what was going on down there perhaps an hour ago. we were -- a few minutes ago, we were trying to get to brittany morehouse who is at suburban hospital where we believe some victims were taken. and we believe she is there. are you there? >> you can hear me this time? >> can see -- we can hear you. have you seen any patients come in. >> we have. we can only assume they are related to the accident but we are waiting on confirmation. what i saw was shortly before 5:00 one ambulance arrive into the emergency trauma center. they took one person on a

stretcher into the sliding glass doors and 15 minutes later north ambulance arrived with three people who came out of that ambulance, one of them on a stretcher, two people walking. one woman with a bandage on her head. now we have called the hospital spokesperson and we're waiting for their call back to get confirmation that this is indeed connected to the wreck but the way they came in here. you could only assume. so there have been no family members outside of the waiting room, nobody rushing up here. actually it's fairly quiet, which doesn't match the sense of emergency that i imagined is going on. >> any children in that -- in those ambulances, brittany? >> it looked like i saw one elderly person walk in and then another woman middle age with a bandage on her head. i couldn't tell the age or who was on the stretcher. but it did not appear to be children. >> that is the closest trauma hospital. you would think if there were

more significant injuries and transports that there would be more activity at suburban. let's hope that is a good sign, that the people that were taken out of that bus and may have suffered some kind of injuries that hopefully they were not significant. brittany, so no one has told you anything about the status of any of these folks that have been transported to suburban, correct? >> that's right. but there is some security who have been tied up with what i was told by employees here, "the trauma," quote unquote. >> and i'll cut you off for a second to note, we are back looking live again at accident scene and we see at the road where it appears the guard rails are broken down and that may perhaps be the area of the spur right above where the bus ended up. and you can see, there it is there and we see an officer, perhaps state police or montgomery county police officer going down to begin the investigation phase of this, trying to figure out exactly

what went wrong. how did this happen? what went so badly up on that roadway to cause a bus to tumble 45 feet down to the road below? >> brittany we know you are keeping your eye on things at suburban. let us know if there is anything else that evolved and let us know if you get any updates in the next -- >> i do believe we have an -- thank you. i do believe we have an ambulance arriving at this moment. so i will get back to you on that. >> brittany -- >> tell us more about that. i'm sorry, brittany, i couldn't hear you. >> it hasn't arrived but we have people waiting on stand by. they are pulling into the trauma center as we speak. we have a number of fire and rescue crews waiting outside their truck. >> why don't you keep watching and just tell us what you are seeing. >> okay. they are parking the van and there is no identification of where this ambulance is coming from, county or city. i've seen one from rockville

and one from montgomery county. >> so you are waiting to get more information. brittany, please feel free to -- interrupt us if you see anything in a sense if there are more injuries still to be taken to the hospital, still showing up at suburban. >> are you seeing something else, brittany? >> we are seeing -- they are about to open the back doors. >> if you are watching us, brittany morehouse is at suburban hospital. she is describing the scene there as several ambulances have arrived. presumably from this accident scene on i-270. brittany? >> that's right. i still cannot see. >> well we'll get back to you as soon as you get more information. >> i think we should update everybody right now, just letting you know we are live, looking via sky 9 at i-270 where a bus has crashed, at least one person is dead, fell off the bus -- the bus fell off

the i-270 northbound spur. four people were trapped inside. it looks that all are out as of now. 10-15 others were hurt and that bus sadly was carrying parents and children. it's a bus called wolves out of york spring, pennsylvania and we wish we could tell you more about the tour, where they were headed, who was on the bus. we are trying to get that information for you and we will give it to you as soon as we know. >> what we do know there is incredible traffic in the wake of this horrific accident. pet -- accident. and patranya has been trying to tell people at home to reach out to loved ones and tell them not to go into this direction because it is backed up. what are you seeing? >> it has been backed up for quite sometime. i am tracking the realtime maps very closely to see the delays. on the left side of the screen, that is the beltway. a good spot to avoid or tell folks to take another route

home from the accident which is on 270 spur, between 495 and the merge, so a very busy area. as i zoom in closer to see the delays, you can see the red cars and all of the sensors are picking up, nobody is going above the speed limit here. approaching 270 spur, delays on the west side beginning down at 66, all the way up to the spur, it's going to be close to an hour right now. so let's take our live camera on m-dot. we'll take a live look at river road. take a look on the right side of the screen. it's a parking lot. approaching river up to the american legion bridge, as i switch on over to the camera, you will see that the traffic moving toward you is going to be a big mess. so if you know anyone who will be jumping on or you are jumping on west of the beltway, i would say the best exit to get off is river road and get back into d.c. and head north from there. now i'm going to give you some information to get through this. we have been telling you that rockville pike is one of the alternate routes.

as we switch on to the next camera on trafficland, i'll show you how it is looking now. on the left side, you can see traffic is backing up as folks are learning about this as the best alternate route to take. but if you are in d.c. you can go farther away from the accident and take connecticut, new hampshire, georgia, all of those routes will cut across at randolph which becomes montrose toward 270 which will get you back on 270. so there is a way to get around that from d.c. without even getter near the beltway. so i'm telling you, if you are already in d.c., take any of those major routes out of town and you will do much better, because right now you are going to be stuck on 495 toward the merge. all lanes right there toward democracy boulevard are still blocked in both directions. guys, back to you. >> patranya. thank you for that. as we continue to show you the aftermath of the scene from the traffic to the accident that is still going on where this accident happened. we wasn't to get to veto

maggieola with d.c. fire and ems and he's on the phone. we have come to know your pictures from traumatic scenes like this in recent years. tell us what you are seeing and what is going on from your advantage point? >> well when i arrived on the scene, the extrication efforts were still in progress. what appears to have happened is the bus came off the sky ramp, tumbled down and landed on its wheels but in a very predarious position. the firefighters here had to stabilize the bus so it wouldn't tumble any further and then they had to extricate people from inside the bus. they had to use specialized tools to accomplish that. i have been told all of the victims have been extricated and transported. >> reporter: transported a number of children who did require help. it is a recovery operation and

investigation. >> when you say recovery operation, are you saying that there could still be someone in that bus? >> my understanding is the fatality is still inside the bus and what they usually do in these cases is leave it, leave the victim there, while the police conduct their investigation. so my understanding is the one fatality remains inside the wreckage of the bus. >> that wouldn't happen to be the driver, would it? >> i can't confirm that one way or the another for you -- or the other for you. >> and let me ask you this question, as the investigation moves on, have you heard anything about how this bus tumbled off? you have been able to contact any of the cops there on the scene? >> i have not. i have spoken primarily with the fire department and that primarily deals with the rescue operations and the medical treatment of the injured. so i really am not privy to the law enforcement portion of it. >> veto, you are down there and so you have your eyes on this

scene as it is wrapping up. we are looking at pictures rights now. tell us what is going on at this point. does this look like this is purely investigative right now? have you seen any efforts to do the detouring of the people sitting on 270, waiting to get around this? >> well i -- the part of the roadway where the bus landed is sort of -- it is out of my sight at the moment. i'm at your truck making some videotape available to you. so i'm a bit of a distance away from where the bus is at the moment. >> okay. so as you saw the unfolding situation happen and you noted that the children did not look to be badly hurt. we've been told there were a couple of critical injuries. can you tell us anything about that? did you see folks who were -- who had gotten out quickly, did any have to be med evacked out of there. >> there was no med evac. fortunately this location is quite close to suburban hospital which is a trauma

center and my understanding is that the critically injured folks will probably take -- were taken to suburban hospital. i did see several adults who were packaged by the medical personnel, probably were suffering from serious injuries. >> vito, i'm sorry to interrupt, what happened to the people that weren't transported to the hospital? how were they transported from the scene, do you know? >> as far as i can tell, everybody -- all people i saw were suffering injuries in some manner and were overtaken by ambulance. there were numerous ambulances here on the scene. and of course that portion of the incident is over. there really aren't many -- there was also -- there also were other damaged vehicles on the highway. whether -- how they got damaged, where they stand in relation to the bus tumbling down, i really can't determine.

>> well vito, you say they were on the highway, were they on the road above where the bus was or where the bus ended up? >> they are down on the highway below where the bus ended up. there was one minivan and another what appeared to be an suv which both suffered death. >> but apparently no injuries. >> i couldn't tell. there was no way to determine whether the injuries that i saw, especially the number of children, whether they came from the minivan or one of the other vehicles. i suspect they were -- there were injuried not only from the -- injuries not only from the bus but from some of the other vehicles by the extent of the damages and victims as they were being treated. >> and vito, could you tell from the things happening and i know there were a lot of things happening, a lot of parents and children, it might have been hard to sort out, do you know if the parents or kids in the cars, if they are still at the scene? are they still there with their

vehicles? >> not that i could tell. it appeared that they probably went with the children. it was a very order -- orderly scene. the fire department set up triage to determine the nature and severity of the injuries. children were being consoled by adults and the scene was -- the scene was cleared relatively quickly in terms of getting all of the patients and injured out of here. >> vito maggie oleo, thank you for your on the scene accounts and for your video that you were able to capture from the horrible scene. vito with d.c. meyer and ems. >> and we have been on the phone with the wolves bus lines and they are still trying to reach their driver and they will not comment for us. however they do say if you know somebody or have a loved one who may have been on the bus, there is a phone number for you to call. here it is.

717-528-7654. 717-528-7654. if you knew somebody or think you may have known somebody on that bus, call the number for information on what may have happened to them. >> and vito was there but could not confirm for us either way whether the fatality was the bus driver. somebody stuck in traffic is sheila cowsman. and she's on the phone. >> i'm here. >> where are you? . >> i'm getting home after an hour and a half. when we tried to get on to river road, it took quite a while and as i could look from river toward falls road, as far as i could see, it was like a parking lot of traffic. and then it was practically a parking lot trying to get from river down to seven locks and

then it took more than 20 minutes, 25 minutes to go from seven locks to democracy where i needed to turn left. and looking up democracy towards old georgetown was like a solid parking lot of cars coming down, trying to turn on to seven locks heading towards tuckerman. but cars were going up democracy toward old georgetown. >> i'm glad to hear from you, sheila, because it's horrible what you are going through, but it gives us a good picture of what some of the side roads and the medium size arteries are looking like now. but you are telling us even if you tried to go around, you had a very rough evening? >> right. and river road, now that you are really into rush hour, heading down towards the village, it's worse than it ever was. >> you just kind of -- >> if you could go river toward washington and then somehow cut over to some other streets to get you home, you might be better off. >> are you saying turn around

and go south on river and then find another way north because river northbound is terrible? >> yes. well north is the way i'm heading toward falls road, yes. >> sheila, you just kind of came across this scene. so you had no idea what was happening? >> no. >> and where were you coming from? >> i was downtown at whole foods on p. street and then we came up canal road which is usually 15 minutes. but at some point canal began to be very, very backed up and then when we went to get off at river, we began to hear on the news that something, we weren't sure what we were listening to, was happening. >> well we're glad that you got out of that traffic jam and glad that you are going to get home. but we know there are a lot of people still stuck out there. sheila, thank you so much for calling and sharing your story. >> thank you. >> we appreciate it.

>> get home safe. now let's turn to patranya who can help other folks get home safe or tell us where they are. >> that's right. i do feel for the drivers out there right now trying to battle this commute home on the west side of the beltway. if we want to take our camera real quick and see where our driver was that we were just talking to, she's talking about seven locks traffic on the right side of the screen where it's barely moving as it heads north toward the leith -- the american legion and it is bumper-to-bumper to where the scene of the accident is as emergency crews are still there, trying to clear this as fast as they can so folks can get home on time but right now it's not looking good on the west side of the beltway. our driver said earlier, if you are going to be out there, take another route home. she said take river road south and get out and go north in another direction. and i was telling folks in d.c., if you want to avoid 495 altogether even though it is your normal route home, you can take other major arteries like

connecticut, new hampshire, georgia, go north on that, cut across on randolph, randolph actually becomes montrose when it crosses over rockville pike and that will take you north towards 270. so that is definitely another way to get home because right now on the capital beltway, i'm tracking travel times for you and it's going to be slow. an hour and a half right now from 66 over to bw parkway. guys, back to you. >> we should note that we just heard from sheila. she mentioned names like democracy boulevard, falls road, river road, all of the roads in those areas. >> those are your routes. those are the main ones. >> they are all clogged and bad right now. >> let's go back to brittany morehouse. she is at suburban hospital trauma center, closest to the scene. catch us up to date. >> well the last ambulance that was pulling in when i was on the phone, pulled in another person on a stretcher and i have now confirmed that suburban will be taking in nine

patients. five of them are already here and four of them are trauma. so perhaps the three of the four people i've already seen come in on stretchers and it's unclear whether they are children but suburban spokesperson tells me they do have some children they are helping here. we know that the first rescue squad on the scene of the crime -- or on the scene of the wreck was bethesda chevy chase crew of two gentlemen, two workers here and they told me they have seen worse and there were a number of people who had minor injuries. so that is good news. but again, they have four people who are trauma. >> so the activity is kind of picking up a little bit outside of the hospital? >> that's right. >> and when you say four people who are trauma, i assume you mean four people seriously injured. >> reporter: that's right. >> brittany morehouse keeping an eye on things at suburban,

the closest trauma center to the scene here on i-270. again if you've been watching us or just joining us, there was a horrific crash today with this tour bus. it was on the sky ramp when somehow it fell 45 feet, rolled down an embankment and landed right there where you see it. there were -- it's a 20 passenger bus. there were parents and children on board. we don't know where they were coming from. we don't know where they were going to. but we do know that one person has succombed to his or her injuries. we also know that the bus company is still trying to reach the driver and we've had no confirmation whether the driver made it out of that accident alive or if that person unfortunately perished. >> and we should know that vito told us that the fatality was still on board the bus. they had not moved the person. i guess as part of the investigation they piece things together and are careful when you do that kind of thing but that person may still be there

as we speak as they are again away from the rescue phase and the recovery phase. >> but this was a huge lung -- plung. that was an incredible fall. >> and it was interesting to note that it was predariously perched. -- predariously perched. they had to stable it up and use equipment and techniques to make sure the bus wouldn't tip over on the road and cause injuries and get firefighters or ems hurt before they could get folks out of there. so it was a tough day for those involved there. >> and now the investigative work begins to try to determine what caused the bus crash and whether there was a medical condition, did something happen with a car, did a car get in front of the bus? what in fact caused this

accident? and then there is a mammoth task of having to reroute all of the people who are still sitting there, more than an hour and a half after this accident occurred. this number that you see on your screen, it's for wolf's bus line, that is the name of the bus traveling there. and if you have a family member that you believe may be on that bus or you have some questions, the number to call is 717-528- 7654. >> and one other small tidbit of information, we want to know vito told us there were several vehicles down there that appeared to be damaged. he couldn't tell us exactly how that happened or how they came in contact with the bus but he said they were down on the road below where the bus appeared to have fallen. there were vehicles there and didn't know whether or not the owners were still there with people or if the injured people were the owners of the vehicles. he couldn't figure that out yet. but something very bad happened and it involved more than one vehicle and it ended up taking us where we are right now, a very, very serious accident

which has been very, very tough thing for everybody involved, especially the people on the bus and now radiating out to those stuck in traffic. >> this is going to be a lengthy operation and people may have to be patient and that may be hard to come by where some folks may not know why they are sitting in traffic. >> well if they turn on their news stations which they tend to do if they are stuck in traffic, that's what i do, they will know there is a good reason for the backup. there is a very bad accident and right now both directions of 270 are closed and that has just been -- the ramifications of that have been awful for our area. >> these are shotted from our earlier effort to try to get the people who were still on the bus out of the bus and this is some new video that we're getting in. this is i believe edited video. but these are shots of the work in progress, the first responders literally inside the bus, coming outside of the bus,

trying to extricate the people stuck inside, trying to treat them and trying to figure out who had the most serious injuries, to get those people out of the scene and to the trauma center at suburban hospital and vito suggested that everybody there on the bus had been transported somewhere in ambulance. >> i was surprised that brittany was just seeing some ambulances show up now. it's been an hour and 45 minutes since its crash happened so you would think by now everybody would have been transported, but perhaps those ambulances were stuck in some of the same traffic that everybody else has had to deal with and it took them a while to get to suburban hospital. but again, she just a few minutes sedan ambulance showed up and -- she sedan ambulance showed up and there were nine patients at the hospital and four of them were described as trauma or seriously hurt and we'll wait to know about those conditions. >> and we don't know where all of the ambulances are or were.

they could have had to go into various positions, the first responders down there may have had to take the people to a location, we just don't know. this is our vantage point here and the work on this scene is going to be lengthy and it will take some time and it could be a long, long rush hour for people waiting to get home. >> and sander or later it will late -- and sooner or later it will be a wet rush hour. and that was our top story today until this happened. >> it sure was. and that probably is mobilizing these folks out here that do this very important work, to try to do it even quicker, because they know that there is something just around the bend that could certainly complicate their efforts to clear this area. >> and you have to think, if you are sitting in that traffic right now, knowing that the bad weather is coming, you are there another hour, hour and a half waiting to go and the bad weather begins to roll in, it makes for a very, very long night. i have to think as the state

police told us a while ago, it is a priority to get this traffic open again because people have to get home and you end up stuck in the weather. now they have gotten the rescue phase down, now you have to think in opening the roads up, it has to happen before too much longer. >> that will not be an easy task. that is a lot of logistical work. you have the state highway administration, maryland state police, montgomery county police, all of these folks trying to work in tandem to get all of those cars and the incredible backup, all of these people have to be mobilized and moved. >> patranya described for us earlier, but right now the entire western side of the beltway is backed up. now we are looking at a map, this is one of topper's maps i'm told. >> thank you, topper. >> and it's difficult to talk about exactly what there is, but i believe that is where both sides of the spur sort of connect with 270 right there and i guess where it happened is on the left side. >> closer to tuckerman lane. >> right on the left there. something happened there where

that bus rolled off that part of the spur, that fly-over and fell 45 feet to the road below. so you can see, that is a massive traffic merge there, a lot of traffic coming in there and that's why it's backed up at rush hour and now we're seeing nothing can get through there. patranya. >> let's take a look at our realtime maps real quick. i'm trying to give folks a better idea of where this is happening. this is on the 270 spur between 495 and the merge. as we zoom in closer, our operations center has put where this incident is exactly. this is between 495, traffic moving up north from 495 toward the 270 main lane. so the spur that connects the beltway to the 270 main lane, that is where the accident is happening. so you can see the red cars on 495, below where the accident is, that is where a lot of traffic is being congested so let's take our camera over to m- dot to see how things are looking and it's not looking

good both on the inner loop and outer loop of the beltway over the american legion. it is essentially a parking lot in both directions here and that's because all lanes are still shut down around the democracy boulevard area, north and southbound right now as crews are trying to clear up the scene. right now i'm tracking delays up to an hour and a half close to two hours all the way over to the bw parkway. it will be a mess. folks are taking alternate routes this afternoon. one of them is old georgetown road, if you want to take over the trafficland camera and we'll show you how the situation is over there. it is going to be pretty messy as well as we check that route. as you can see all of the traffic being rerouted over that direction. let's check our camera over at 355 rockville pike. this is another area where it will be congested. if you are in d.c. you can take georgia, connecticut and new hampshire to get over to randolph, which gets you over to montrose to head north on

270. derek, lesli, back to you. >> but you have to be patient, because all of the side arterial roads, even the major roads that are other alternative routes are jammed up. this is a major story, but we don't want to neglect the other major story that is just around the bend. a incredible super soaker as we'll call it that topper has been telling us about and we'll get to that in just a moment. but we want to make sure you know we have not forgotten about that because that is important and we ant to get -- we want to get that to you but this is a live shot. >> this is a live look where it went down. is it started at around 4:00 this afternoon on the northern spur, i-270 coming off the beltway as we've mentioned many times, the bus went off the road and tumbled down the slope. they had to shore it up. stabilize it. and they got the folks out and as of right now we know of one fatality and four people are described in trauma at suburban hospital. that ground shot, you can see

there is still a lot of activity there and flashing light and we're getting more new video right now. this is from earlier today because you can see the triage area, they set up right in the middle of 270, which is amazing, it was still there this afternoon and they were dealing with pulling victims -- victims out of the bus and parents and children on their way there and they didn't get there. >> the one person that did not make it out alive is apparently still in the bus as this recovery operation is going on. and as the investigation is going on. and so we don't want to forget that this is still the scene where someone lost their life and indeed they are still inside that bus and we don't know where. >> and i think if we had a close up, a few seconds ago, i think i see trees and leafy branches that had broken through there as the bus tumbled down through the grassy noland was -- a grassy knoll

and we're waiting to figure out who that is and if the wolves company can reach out to their driver and they know exactly what went wrong if they survived the first responders never know what they will come into work and face. and boy was this an incredible thing to have to deal with, because not only did they have to get the people out of the bus but they had to stabilize the bus and cause even more damage. we'll continue to monitor this, but there is other big news just around the bend. >> a big storm headed our way. topper has it in the weather center for us. and topper, we know later on tonight it will be very uncomfortable out there. this is the calm before the storm. some of the roads are wet and that may have contributed to the accident but the main event is going to roll in after midnight. here is your forecast first, we'll go to the computer and talk about really what will

happen here. temperatures 78 tomorrow with flooding likely. 75 on friday. we'll salvage a good end of the week and then looking at 66 on saturday, breezy conditions. we'll be okay after getting through tomorrow. but the heavy event is on the way. we'll break down tomorrow. add extra time to your morning commute. flooding is likely minute morning. 65 and heavy rain, even up until noon and then by evening, we're looking at temperatures in the 70s, but still some leftover showers and thunderstorms, although i think by 5:00 the rain event will be winding down as it were. for tonight then, flash flood watch, rain and thunderstorms, heavy after midnight. lows between 60 and 65. winds east, southeasterly at 10- 15. they increase through the night and into the morning hours. in fact by tomorrow morning, heavy rain and thunderstorms, flooding likely, 2-4 inches of rain possible, just in the morning period. between 6:00 a.m. and noon. and temperatures in the 60s and

70s and winds east southeasterly at 15-25 and gusty. there is about every kind of advisory on the bay, including a gail warning, a small craft advisory and a coastal flood advisory and a wind advisory. now for the afternoon, flood watch will continue. rain and thunderstorms are tapering off. an addition app -- an additional one to two temperatures. despite the rain a mild day. and winds turn and become northwesterly at 10-15. and that means the system will have passed and moved off to the north. look at this moisture. just a conveyer belt of rain along the coast and duing north. we still have tropical storm nicole southwest of miami. but that doesn't matter. we talked about this yesterday. the moisture is coming any way. it doesn't matter. nicole will race northward and then at noon become extra tropical or post tropical and hammer north carolina. look at the rain to the south. this is what will roll in here

after midnight. and we're talking heavy rains from north carolina, delaware, new jersey, pennsylvania, new york state, all the way up into vermont and new hampshire. this will cause flooding up and down the eastern seaboard. this is just light activity for now. we had a first wave. we see a little bit of a lull and then heavy activity we showed you is just entering north carolina and southeast virginia and that is what will roll in here after midnight and cause big-time flooding tomorrow morning. so we are concerned about the 3:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. time frame. that's our critical time. we want you to send in pictures. if you live in a place that is prone to flooding, maybe you live by beach driver off of cedar lane or off of layhill road and 28 where it floods, get a before picture and then send us a before and after picture when the flooding, if the flooding occurs. don't take any advances, be safe but if you can get a before and after picture we would love to have it. check your subpump and gutters.

and if you are going to try to drive, we try to diswage you from doing that, have half a -- but have a half a tank of gas because the roads may be flooding. and share some pictures with us. e-mail your pictures and photos to wusa9.com or post them on our wusa 9 facebook or tweet us and hash tag your tweets with d.c. flood. we'll get those on the air as soon as we can for you. here is a look at our rain potential. we'll start wide. look at the amount of rain covering from providence roadoy land, through atlantic city, through d.c. and down there richmond and raleigh. a tremendous amount of moisture. we're talking four to five inches of rain in a very wide swath, up to williamsport and this will go northward into new york state and northern new england. the silver lining here, and we're reaching, but we get this rain and it's going to actually help the fall colors. it will put the trees in a much

healthier state before they change and they are just starting to change in the metro area. we'll zoom in a little bit. here is one computer model. it's predicted 2.5 to 3 inches of rain in the immediate metro area around the beltway, up to 5 inches toward culpeper, up to 4 inches toward winchester and this is changed. computer models have changed since noon. howard ran this at noon and the amounts to the east were less. now they are heavy. 3.5 in baltimore, 3.25 in easton and 5-6 some in areas across the delmarva. so everybody is in the cross hairs with this particular storm. next seven days, 78 tomorrow and rain. thunderstorms at 6:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. we are not as concerned with severe weather but if you are east of town, anne arundel county and calvert county and st. mary's county, your best chance of seeing some severe

weather but we're not as concerned about that, mainly focused on gusty winds and heavy rain. 75 on friday, we'll have a nice day and night for high school football. and then some of the coolest air we've seen so far. only in the 60s on saturday and sunday and monday. very nice fall for fairfax. temperatures in the 50s. low 60s on single-digit. we do have a drop on sunday. a system will roll through here. it's weak. it doesn't have a lot of moisture but clouds and maybe a sprinkle. a good bet in the mountains and -- mountains. and we have 49 downtown. these are downtown temperatures. that means upper 30s in the burbs and then back into the low 70s on tuesday and back into the mid-70s by next wednesday. so a lot going on here in the next 24-48 hours. stay with us. that was 9 news now at 5:00. 9 news now at 6:00 begins right now. and you are watching 9 news

now at 6:00. this is our continuing coverage of the deadly bus accident on i- 270. we've been watching the shots just after -- since just after 4:00 when this horrific accident occurred. when that bus that you see over there off to the left side of your screen toppled 45 feet from a sky ramp and landed over there. let's get to gary nuremburg who is not too far from the scene. gary, are you there? >> hi, lesli. let me give you a rough idea of where we are. you see where the state highway truck is blocking that lane. that is the very beginning of the sky flyover that you were talking about where the bus was traveling before it went off the road. as you know, that fly over crosses over the northbound lanes of 270 and merges several hundred yards that way. take a look at the traffic. it is backed up for miles. this is northbound 270 you are looking at now. much of the traffic being fed in from rock lith drive, driving by the accident where a bus from york