this is 9 news now. hello. i'm jc hayward. thanks for joining us. our 9 news now team called it. our weather team said we were going to have storms and storms we have had. and they have been causing problems because there are pockets in our region dealing with flooding. the driver of a car in annandale, taking a look right now at the picture, he had to be rescued. he was in deep water. the question remaining is, how much longer before it's over. so let's get to our meteorologist howard who has more on the day's storm alert. >> jc, tropical rains have been phenomenal. they are letting schools out and i doubt they will be going again tomorrow down there.

the back edge and western sections pull in to west central virginia. in a few hours we will start to see a lull. we are not done with the rain yet. the tropical connection going to the atlantic and looks like another wave may be forming so that more rain could be tonight in to tomorrow. and with all of the rain we have had, the light greene county, the entire metro region, southern maryland, culpeper, up to pennsylvania, the northern neck, all under flood warnings at this hour. many of these go through mid afternoon and may be extended beyond that because there's more rain out there. tracking live doppler 9000 hd in is chief meteorologist topper shutt. >> thank you, hb. we are not done yet. you have to go back to floyd to see the totals east of town and some of us that remember agnes in ' 72 where we had a foot of rain across the area. start with live doppler and talk about the totals. the bull's eye has been east of town. eight inches to the south. ten inches, unbelievable totals

even inland a little bit we are talking five and three inches. everyone has received at least two or three inches of rain with this system. and as howard said we are not done yet. we have individual totals. 11.5 inches of rain in park hall in southern maryland and we are looking at 8.25 inches in california, saint mary's county and 7.5 in mechanicsville. so this has been the bull's eye today. the western shores of the bay and points east of town. still some heavy rain up north of 70. and the good news is back to the west there's some showers, but it's diminishing somewhat. we are actually in a little better shape if you are west of town. we are not done with everything just yet. again, we will be back and talk about when it will end and the evening commute because you folks east and south of town have a lot more to go through. >> thank you, topper and howard. you know, flooding is usually a concern for residents living in northern virginia.

peggy fox is live from alexandria and looks at conditions there. >> well, jc some rubber boots would be helpful about now. we have six inches of flooding here at the end of king street. it has grown since we have been here. look at the river right there. pretty rough out. the city is supplying sandbags right at the street at king and lee streets. they have a flat bed truck there and they are allowing any resident or business in the city of alexandria to come and get the sandbags they need to protect their property. we have seen several businesses in the area. coming up getting their sandbags. i you can thatted -- i talked to one woman in alexandria who has already seen flooding in her home, which is in a low- lying area. they ali five sandbags per person when you come. so do that if you need to protect your property here in alexandria. we have tony with us, direct of communications for alexandria.

how bad do you think it will get? >> flooding on north king street is something the city of alexandria is used to dealing with. and high tide is 1:16 today. so we are monitoring the situation and keeping an eye on the rising river. as you said, the businesses down here are used to dealing with the flooding. they have sandbags available to them. as you can see these businesses are open and we expect them to stay open today and we hope the worst of this will be over soon. >> i know that's the message you want to get out. this little bit of rain is not going to stop alexandria, right? >> that's right. >> reporter: you expect it to get deeper than what we are seeing a the end of king street. >> yes. with high tide coming up shortly, in our experience it will be rising slightly but this is something we are used to dealing with and we will keep an eye on it and do what we need to help the residents and businesses prepare. >> all right. hopefully it won't be too bad and hopefully we won't need boats here in old town but they

can deal with that too. back to you. >> thank you very much. some low-lying areas of annandale are now submerged. there were reports of drivers trapped after they tried to drive through flooded streets. kristin fisher is live from annandale where some drivers had to be pulled from their cars. >> reporter: that's right. hey, jc. this is a classic example as to why you should never try to drive through standing water. you see the signs over here? it says roads closed. high water. that sign was put up -- fairfax county fire department says the stein was up up around 4:00 this morning. two hours later, around 6:00 a.m., someone either ignored that sign or didn't see it somehow. i'm not sure how you couldn't see that sign but either way they found themselves a quarter mile down the road. this is woodburn road in fairfax county and they found themselves trapped in their cars, stuck in two feet deep

water. now, this water was coming from the creek, which had overrun its banks and had entirely flooded the roadway. well, fairfax county fire responded. the swift water team actually deployed two boats an they were about to use the boats to rescue the two people trapped inside the car. fortunately they never had to do that. two firefighters were able to get over to the car, open the door and get the two people inside out. no injuries to report. everybody was fine. but unfortunately that car is not doing so well. about four hours later, the car was finally towed out from the roadway. that's how long it took to get it out of there. and the main reason why is because, you know, the water was running so swiftly that the tow truck couldn't get it out. that's the conditions that we are dealing with here as we head to the afternoon after a morning of very heavy rain. right now you can see -- actually there's nobody behind

me right now but people have been making u-turns at this intersection throughout the morning. avoiding the high water. that's exactly what they want you to do. fairfax county fire says they have been working very hard this morning. they have been out on a ton of calls as this rain has continued to fall, but this case, right here in fairfax county, was the biggest one they have had to deal with. again, everybody is all right. no injuries to report. it goes to show you how quickly things can happen. one minute you are driving along a perfectly dry road and the next minute in two feet deep of water an the car is completely gone. tough situation for those two people, but fortunately they are doing just fine. back to you. >> thank you very much for that report. we want to know how is the rain affecting you? e-mail us your pictures to photos@wusa9.com. or you can post them on our facebook page. the address is

facebook.com/wusa 9. if you are a tweeter, you can hash tag your tweets with dc flood, and we will get them on the air and also on wusa9.com. a hazardous material incident occurred at an elementary school and it injured at least three people. it began shortly after class opened this morning at saunders middle school in the 13,000 block of springs road in dale city. none of the people injured was seriously hurt and class continued as usual. two metro buses collided this morning sending dozens of people to the hospital. this happened just after 7:00 on university boulevard just before brunette avenue near four corners. lindsey mastis has the latest information. >> reporter: the front end of this metro bus smashed in to the back of another metro bus that was stopped.

>> the front of the bus has a lot of damage. both of the windows are out of the bus. there was a significant force there. >> reporter: montgomery county fire and rescue took 26 people to the hospital the assistant fire chief scott graham said four people have injuries but they are nonlife-threatening. >> the driver was belted and utilizing the shoulder belt which probably saved the driver from more injuries. >> reporter: among those with minor injuries eight students from montgomery blare high school. the principal says he is going back to school to let students know how their fellow classmates are doing. >> i'm heading back to work to followup with announcing what happened. the ptsa leadership was informed and i need to inform the student body. >> reporter: investigators are not able to say if weather played a part. >> the metro transit police are investigating and will come to a determination as to what caused the accident. in silver spring, 9 news now.

the news continues, federal investigators return to the scene of a deadly tour bus crash in bethesda. plus, the legendary actor tony curtis has died. we'll take a look back at his amazing career. and of course we are continuing to cover the storm that is gripping our region. coming up, we will have an update on conditions and also howard's complete forecast. we'll be right back. hi. i'm jim perdue.

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temporary partitions are up but the flyover ramp from the beltway to i-270 is open this afternoon. federal investigators are on the scene of yesterday's deadly tour bus crash. the bus driver was killed. two passengers are in the hospital listed with serious injuries. the bus full of students was heading back to pennsylvania after a trip to the national zoo when the bus plunged off the ramp. the fbi tested an explosive device similar to the one a man tried to use in times square last may. it is estimated the blast could have killed dozens of people. the test is part of what the judge will consider in sentencing him next week. our storm coverage continues when we come back. howard is tracking the storm and we will have his full forecast. kind of wet out here,

surprise, surprise. but less than what we have seen. still heavy rains are showing up on live doppler 9000 hd. chief meteorologist topper shutt is joining me. we will peak down the forecast and look at the weekend when 9 news now returns.

actor tony curtis died of cardiac arrest overnight at his home in las vegas. he is best known for his role as billy wilder in some like it hot. an he was nominated for an oscar for the defiant one. curtis was once married to actress janet leigh and he leaves behind one daughter, actress jamie lee curtis. again, actor tony curtis is dead at the age of 85. howard is here with more details on this forecast. i remember you says last week we rain. >> yeah. but we didn't need this. we have had rain totals of ten inches in saint mary's county. to the north and west, rain totals one to three inches. more manageable but drought conditions extreme to severe in northern virginia. i want to show you what is going on. this storm system is pulling to the north a little bit now. we are seeing the rain shut

down there in parts of southwestern virginia, heading over to charlottesville. much quieter. over to culpeper, much quieter but that batch of tropical moisture is involved and while we have a lull now we believe we will see more rain moving up toward us as we get in to later this evening and overnight. eastern sections, even if it stops for a while, we don't think we are done with the rains yet. and with all of the rain we idea, look at the counties under flash flood warnings through 4:30 this afternoon. weather service will re- evaluate and may expand this and we have had a lot of rain. chief meteorologist topper shutt has been watching the totals. we are both amazed by this in yeah. really you have to go back to agnes in ' 72 or floyd. those are the ones that come to mind. this is a wide view of doppler. talking to me and we see more activity in south carolina. we are worried about that, really streaming essentially northward. we have a tropical conveyer belt and it will move through

north carolina and eventually we think at least up to the eastern suburbs. that's where the watch has been extended and perhaps affecting dc, montgomery county and fairfax. that is something we will monitor all day in terms of another wave. devon is circling it for you. and east of town you are not even close to out of the woods just yet. go to live doppler now and see the totals again. rainfall totals are daily records. 2.28 at reagan. and over three and a third inches at bwi. the totals around town, three inches. pretty much the norm. four inch toll the west in fairfax but down to the south look at these totals to the south. this is unbelievable. 11, 10 inches of rain and round two is just around the corner. look at these totals around saint mary's city, sixes, ten inches an reedville. unbelievable and the problem

is, well, we are not done yet. we still have heavy rains over that area. still very heavy rain through saint leonard, lusby, sane mary's city and this will be something we will be following all day with 9 news now. 9 news now crews will be down there. this is epic flooding and i think it is epic flooding. we have a picture sent in to us. solicit these pictures sent to us at wusa9.com. or fill out a storm report. send them in to wusa9.com or you can put them on the facebook and also tweet with hash mark the dc flood. do not cross any kind of flooded street or yard by car or by foot. back to jc. >> thank you, topper. by the way, we have we'll be right backing news of someone trapped in floodwaters in northeast washington. so let's get to delia. she is at rhode island avenue northeast with more

information. >> reporter: good news this afternoon. bernice clark, 5 years old and her grandson are now safe. they were trapped this their vehicle for a short time. let me get out of the shot so you can see. you can see just below the metro station this typically is an area that floods during heavy rains and that's what it did this morning. bernice clark tells us she and her grandson were heading downtown early this morning when visibility was just extremely poor. rain started to come down and within instants they splashed in to a huge puddle and water started to fill up their car. the grandson said the water was up to his shoulder an he was sitting down. he was afraid for his great grandmother's life. he said if we would have stayed in that car we probably would have drowned. it is incredible stuff. he got out of the car and dragged his grand mother out of the driver's seat. you can see all the way down, with the lights on, their car

is still there. several cars -- there were four cars in all. those cars have been towed but you can see miss clark's car is still here waiting to be towed and she and her grandson are here, as well. she say she was on her way downtown and her church mount calvary, that's our church, which is literally a couple of feet away from this whole incident. she says it was certainly divine intervention that she was able to get out of the car and close to her church when this happened. we will have much more on this situation and the chaos that happened in northeast, northeast washington hit very hard today with these rains. we will have much more later today on our newscast. back to you. >> thank you. so glad the situation ended the way it did. we will take a break and be right back.

right here in this neighborhood, i grew up learning strong families and hard work means opportunity. and that starts with good schools. it's a tradition here in maryland-- and why in these tough times i've put education first. we've made record investments in our classrooms... doubled the number of charter schools... and we've frozen college tuition for four years in a row.

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we have been saying all day we want to find out how is the storm affecting you? e-mail us pictures or photos. send it to photos at wusa9.com or you can post them on our facebook page and our address is facebook.com/wusa9. and if you are a twitter, hash tag your tweets with dc flood and we will get them on the air and put them on wusa9.com. let's go to howard. >> we will finish out the weather now. one of the pictures, look at

the water covering the yards an the streets everywhere down here in saint leonard with the heavy rainfall we have been seeing. we have had several tornado warnings for thely no reports of tornadoes. they were doppler indicated. back in virginia this is until 1:00 and may issue a replacement watch later this afternoon. storm total incredible. we think we could have another three to five inches if this conveyer belt returns, which we think will happen tonight. local amounts in southern maryland pushing a foot now, a foot and a half, 20 inches. worst case scenario this could happen. as far as the storm reports, log on to wusa9.com and fill a storm report out. we want to know what is happening by you. warm front is pushing through. winds are a problem, as well. we have 24 miles an hour in washington. gushing 30 miles an hour or so. and 45-mile an hour in the southeast and really pushing the water levels up and that's why we have coastal flood

warnings and advisories throughout the afternoon and evening. occasional lulls in the rain but returns as we go through the night. that means problems. lows in the 60s for the most part. 50s west. some morning rain will persist. south and east of town the flood watch goes until 6:00 a.m. west of town the flood watch will be expiring at 9:00 p.m. tonight. the rains will finally pull out. we think by midday tomorrow and the afternoon looks better. the weekend looks good. saturday around 70. sunday could be a passing shower as we cool down the first weekend in october. it will feel like it with highs in the low 60s. >> all right. topper is here. >> we will be here all afternoon. we will have half hour updates for you and round two is on the way and that's what we are concerned about. >> okay. >> topper, howard, devon, thank you so much for keeping us informed, and we will see you back at 5:00. please join us then.

bye-bye. hi. i'm jim perdue. in case of everyday emergencies... guys, go get changed! ...or soccer practice, it's important to be prepared for dinner. that's why i've prepared my perdue perfect portions fresh chicken breasts. they're individually wrapped, so you can cook what you need and store what you don't. we're not playing helicopter now. ready when you are, they're trimmed of fat and consistently sized to cook in just 10 minutes.

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