we begin with a severe weather alert. hello, i'm jaycee hayward. thank you for being with us.

we're in jeopardy of severe flooding because of the rain so let's get to howard with full details. >> really more concern with severe thunderstorms today, with the wind damage potential later today. looks like that flooding concern not as much of a threat as the main rain, the heaviest stuff on the carolina coast and new england. but this storm out here with the heavy rains that are going on, as this gets closer, that is when our thunderstorm threat will increase, and we're talking about damaging wind gusts and isolated tornadoes. the moisture right now getting closer. we had a nice break after this morning, but rain returning into fairfax county through manassas and prince william county, and points of the south and west, this is one area of showers but i do expect we'll see more. the problem we have for later, we've got two storms. one area of low pressure, weakening one, near us now. but a much stormier area of low pressure west with upper level wind support so these will come together, this will be moving towards us, and as this low approaches later this afternoon, maybe not until 4 or

5 or 6:00, into the first part of tonight, that's when the severe weather threat will increase and we're talking again about possibly some damaging wind gusts in the thunderstorms and isolated tornadoes can't be ruled out. and you see the area from southern pennsylvania, right through the entire washington, baltimore, metro region richmond, down to the carolinas. so this is something for late this afternoon, and tonight. we'll center to worry about over the next few hours just a couple showers here and there, but a lot more on coming up during 9news now at noon. and about 15 minutes. back to you. we are not sure if weather was a factor, but one person was killed by a falling branch this morning. the unidentified man was struck in the 3200 block of adams mill road in northwest washington. lindsey massive joins with us more information. >> reporter: it was a long branch that fell from the tree

about 25 feet up and hit the man on the left top side of his head while he was walking to work. a detective says this branch was likely falling because of wind. shortly after it hit the 35- year-old man, his landlord found him. he's a pediatrician, he was on miss morning run, and he fried to revive him by doing cpr. the man died at the hospital about 20 minutes later. and we're told that man is a personal trainer. he's an athlete and his friends just shocked this happened. >> he was our personal trainer, five days a week. my wife and i shared him, and he was such an athlete. just unbelievable. he was an iron man. he finished an iron man triathlon this summer and had that tattooed on his leg, and he had a lot of tattoos that startled people but he was a sweet guy, incredible. >> the department of public works came out and expected the tree, they said that it is safe

so police opened the sidewalk back up. we're not saying his name because the police told us they're still trying to contact his family. we're told his father recently died, but in spite of tragedy in the family he had signed up to be in another iron man competition and training to become a yoga instructor. >> thank you. we will learn more about the murder of 12-year-old jessica nguyen. yesterday her stepfather was arrested. the arrest came months after the girl was found dead. delia is outside police headquarters with more information. >> reporter: police identifying the little girl stepfather as the killer, after they say they received positive matches on footprints left at the scene and also a -- was on the scene that. had his dna. let's look at his picture. 42-year-old david hang is behind bars after police say he

stabbed 12-year-old jessica nguyen in may. her body was found in a basement bedroom. there was no forced entry into the home so investigators focused their search on folks who had access to the home. the suspect lived with the family from 2005 to 2006, but then moved out. we're told he and the girl's mother were going to a very ugly divorce, but police at this moment still searching for answers as to why that 12-year- old girl had to lose her life in the process. >> this was an absolutely innocent victim that as far as we can determine would have had -- just makes no sense why she was killed. so at this point, we still have that same question. >> investigators say even more puzzling, there was no history of domestic violence in this family or between the stepfather and the mother. the suspect we can tell you will be in court in just about an hour. we'll have much more on this story live at 5. back to you. >> thank you very much.

the worst fears of friends of william mcquain came true. yesterday, the missing 11-year- old boy was found dead alongside a road in clarksburg, maryland. william had not been seen in nearly three weeks. police found his mother last week killed inside their germantown home. and police were hoping they would find william alive. investigators are going over a surveillance tape of william and his stepfather taken near a storage facility the day they believe william was killed. >> it did not appear there was any distress between the two in the footage. he appeared to be running around as you would expect a boy that age to do. >> mcquain's stepfather is -- has been charged in jane mcquain's death. he is likely to be charged in

the boy's murder as well, and he could be brought from north carolina back to montgomery county. more children are expected to take stand today in the abuse trial of a former montgomery county elementary schoolteacher. yesterday four boys testified that susan burke choked, punched and scratched them. as did the boys' mothers. the teacher was working at greencastle elementary school in silver spring until her arrest in january. the four boys say burke attacked them after they misbehaved. the defense spent the day trying to poke holes in their stories. still to come when 9news now continues, dozens of exotic and dangerous animals are running wild in eastern ohio. and it's forcing hundreds of residents to stay locked in their homes. we'll have details.

and we'll also have information of a potentially serious problem that is plaguing the intercounty connector. we'll be right back. [ screaming ] [ zapping ] there goes dwayne's car. oh, man. there goes dwayne's house. whoa! whoa! and there goes dwayne. man, that thing does not like dwayne. [ male announcer ] state farm's got you covered. nice landing. it was. [ male announcer ] get to a better state.

authorities in prince william county are sounding an alarm. it appears that tough economic times have caused shelves to go bare in many of the food pantries in that region. the demand for help has

skyrocketed, but donations have dwindled. francis harris is the executive director of the ax food pantry in virginia. she's joining us by phone to talk about the situation. how bad is it down there? >> well, we just decided on monday when we came in to work that we couldn't stay open to serve the people that came in because we didn't want to give out two cans of food. our need has increased 40% in the last six months, and that's over the 90% increase since three years ago, when the economy kind of went down. so we've been meeting the need and we get to a point several times a year where we cut it really close because we know a big food drive is coming up, but we just couldn't hold on this time. we had to close the doors. >> and you're been in existence for 42 years. he helped so many people in the

dumfries area. what will happen to the families who cannot get food from you? >> we work closely with many of the churches that have smaller opinion trees in their churches so we've given them a heads up, and they help more with the people in their neighborhoods when they're not able to come down to us, they can walk to their -- closer to food pantries. so we've given them the heads- up. we're giving out fresh produce we get from the farmers market and breads and pastry items that volunteers pick up regularly from the grocery stores some we give them that if they come down, but we haven't been able to give this. a week's worth of food we normally do right now. >> i hope we can change that. we thank you for being with us. we'll continue to follow this story throughout the day and have more information on 9news now at 5. we'll try to turn that around. thank you for being with us. howard has the forecast next. >> little witness of drizzle out here, but i close the

umbrella you'll see you'll need rain gear. the wind gusts are there. that's another story. that's bringing up the waters on the coastal areas. we can coastal flood advisories and warnings. rain is on the way. we'll have the full forecast when 9news now at noon returns.

not to good news for the connector in maryland. state inspectors have found small hairline cracks in three bridges, which go over the toll road. they're at georgia avenue, emory lane, and needwood road in montgomery county. ray feldman with icc says the bridges will be reinforced to make sure that they last 50 to 100 years. so that's going to mean a few lane closures in the next few weeks as workers put in temporary reforcements, but they still center to find a long-term solution. and intense search is underway in ohio for wild animals that escaped from a preserve. schools are closed and residents are told to stay inside until authorities are able to kill or round up the animals. randall add pinkston has more. >> reporter: police are warning drivers to stay in their cars near an animal preserve in ohio, where dangerous animals

are on the loose. >> it's still, still not a completely secured area. >> close to 50 animals, including lions, tigers, wolves and bears, escaped yesterday after their cages were left open. authorities have hunted down about 44 of them. schools are closed as a precaution. >> we're covering these animals. we're getting inventory of what we have. >> when police arrived yesterday, officers found the owner dead. they say he killed himself after freeing the animals. >> i had deputies that had to shoot animals with their side arms at close range. that's how volatile this situation was. >> police are particularly worried about large cats and bears. residents are on edge. >> we put our dogs inside, and my mom and dad told me call when you get there, make sure we know you got there okay. and then they said, stay inside all night. >> so far the animals haven't injured anyone. authorities say they will try

to tranquilize some of them, if possible. animal experts say it is not possible to tranquilize wild animals at night because the animals only get more excited. it sank more than 2,000 years ago. but now archaeologists have recovered the final piece of a roman barge from the rhone river in france. it yielded a kitchen with a ceramic oven. and now researchers will study the artifacts as they piece the ship together. a 300-pound turtle is back in the atlantic ocean, thanks to the virginia aquarium. the loggerhead was rescued in may. vets at the aquarium had to amputate the left front flipper because of several injuries. a satellite transmitter has been attached to the turtle so that biologists will be able to

see how well it adapts as an amputee. >> migration patterns of those guys as well. >> weather? >> we've got rough weather moving in late this afternoon, into the first half of tonight. storm systems coming, upper level wind support is there. and we just center to wait and see how it will involve the next few hours. scattered showers around here this afternoon, and i think the worst of it will probably not start until 5 or ofand be about us until 10 to 12:00 tonight. as winds go from northeast to southeast. and the southeasterly winds will bring us slightly warmer air. notice the temperatures slowly rising until the upper 60s. we may have our high near 70, towards midnight tonight, before the colder air moves in with the cold front. so you'll have to stay up on the weather later today. this is the rain we have this morning. moved up towards new england here, and this afternoon we're watching another batch of showers. smaller one coming out here and on to the west.

this is what we'll watch for later on, late this afternoon and tonight. want to take to you live doppler 9000, north of town it's quiet but west and southwest side of the metro we're starting to see the new showers return across areas just getting in across the american legion bridge, over towards the spur here on 270, down 66 and fairfax county. we're seeing those showers, and this stuff is fairly light through just about back towards manassas, chantilly, and gainesville, over towards notionville. and prince william county seeing yellow, so starting to get moderate rainshowers returning. see that from midland and warrenton, all moving off towards the northeast at about 30 miles an hour. and a couple new light showers towards this area, and down to the south show you this as we head down towards -- let's go towards fredericksburg and spotsylvania we're seeing more showers here west of thornburg, towards the northeast. so yes, there is more shower activity headed this way, and then later we'll have problems. look out the window, they've

been risk out of the northeast. sometimes gusting close to 30 miles an hour except in oakland. look at the response, southeast wind now into western maryland, gusting over 40 miles an hour. so there's a lot of energy that will be coming towards us later this afternoon. with the winds, easterly fed, coastal flood warning, across anne arundel on the bay and then it turns into an advisory on the potomac. we get tide 1 to two feet above normal category tonight punish that is in effect tonight until 5 thursday. our temps in the low to mid-60s with these light sprinkles around, a brisk wind, temperatures not want to go move much. although we're sitting at 60 and 63 here in washington. with a brisk northeast wind at 16, gusting at times again, 25, 29 miles an hour. not barometer, real low at 29.51. if you're sensitive to barometer changes, you're feeling it today. couple storms in the east, this one here has an upper level

storm with the surface low and that's why it's going to cause so many problems with us. it's very dry namic. there's a lot of energy here that could be transported down to the surface, lot of wind energy. if that happens, damaging wind gusts and even an isolated tornado can't be ruled out later this afternoon. good news here, this will pass us tonight, tomorrow we get into a brisk westerly wind. it will be colder, though. temperatures will struggle. today near 70 late. severe weather alert day. stay up on the weather topper will have more this afternoon on 9news now at 5, of, 7 and 11. tomorrow,. >> with the wind. friday 58. so cool friday but a lot less wind on friday. and then as we head towards saturday, near 60. and nicer and warming up monday and tuesday. we'll be right back with 9news now at noon in just a moment. senators

we're on cruise control right now, just a few days ago i found out about some amazing wine cruises right in our area. here they are. there's nothing better than smithfield ham, cheese and peanuts from virginia. but i would like for you to meet jim barker. jim has brought this here for me because we're promoting cruising on the potomac. it's something new. it's fabulous. and when you're cruising on the potomac, what is better than sipping virginia wines? that's right! the washington wine academy is sponsoring these cruises every friday on the potomac, and jim is here to talk more about it. let me tell you, you don't have to go out of state to get a

great wine! because virginia has fabulous wines. >> i agree. >> really? and everybody -- this is something new that we're trying to promote. >> yes. >> yes, i'm ready. >> this is now the official grip of virginia. >> that's right! yes, yes, yes! cheers. and this is a great -- i'm going to take a little sip. mm! i've had this before. this is very good. this is very good! >> german sellers. >> okay. very good. this is lovely! and what is the red? >> the red is actually from a blend in virginia. >> okay. now, what i heard was that back when george washington was in virginia, that wine started back then. this is not something new. >> not at all. they are huge proponents of

european wines. they both thomas edison and george washington never made a drinkable wine in either of their lifetimes. but now we've improved that. >> and we've got great vineyards. >> absolutely. >> and on the cruise, tell me about how many vineyards will be on the cruise. >> we have 10 vineyards from lynden, virginia, wineries at lagrange, breaux, boxwood, white hall, other great wineries. >> all right. and so you should board the ship by 6:30. it's the patriot, down on 7th street. >> gangplank up the main avenue. >> and it's a one hour and a half cruise. >> 90 minutes. >> you get a chance to taste some lovely wins on and will be at this -- smithfield. >> yes. >> and cheese. >> cabot teas and milton crackers, and -- >> and some peanuts from virginia, and it's wonderful. so bring your friends. it's a $55. >> it's dollars 55 for a night

on the cruise. >> 90 minute cruise and you can have all wine you want! cruising on the potomac. all right. keep your umbrella handy. thank you for being with us. go to my website every came i'll be off thursday and friday. i'll be become on monday. >> check with topper at 5 for the weather. see you tomorrow! >> thanks for being with us!