follow it all the way out. >> they rushed into the third street tunnel when everyone else was trying to get out. >> smoke is coming fast. >> 75 or so cars were trapped in the tunnel unable to go forward because a school bus was on fire ahead. unable to go back because people were abandoning their cars behind them in terror. >> it was a pop and then you could actually hear the fuel igniting. >> they inhaled a ton of smoke, but refused to leave. >> we saw the dense smoke coming. it was so dense that you couldn't see the light. >> what was scary is the smoke. smoke was bad. >> one woman was so terrified she left her car and left her one-year-old behind with the keys locked inside. >> i broke the window out. opened up the doors, got the child out of the car seat. >> the bus may have caught fire because someone left the emergency brake on even as they

towed it into the tunnel. >> special agent wade and i were obviously yelling at each other the whole time, making sure we had sight of each other. it was very easy to get disoriented. >> breathing smoke sent one man and another capital police officer to the hospital, but wade and mabo are back at work and ready to do it all over again if they have to. in d.c., bruce leshan, 9news now. >> that's some great police work. the capital police officers we just saw never really got a chance to talk to all these poem people they got out of the tunnel, but the drivers and passengers could not stop talking about what a great job those officers did. lesli. imagine calling 911 and having the dispatcher fall asleep on the other end of the line. that's what happened to a montgomery county woman when she had an emergency. >> reporter: a woman calls from this residential building in rockville. she calls the 911 on april 4

just after midnight concerned this her husband was having trouble breathing. >> hello? hello? >> fire and rescue there? >> the 911 call taker quickly transferred the call to a dispatcher, but soon realized something wasn't right. >> hold on one second, let me get them on the line again. >> reporter: what you're hearing is snoring from a sleeping dispatcher. another dispatcher got on the call to help. montgomery county assistant fire chief says the dispatcher snoozing on the job was 17 hours into a 24 hour shift. >> the employee was immediately taken from the floor, placed on paid administrative leave. >> the woman's husband was taken todd hospital and released without any life threatening injuries. in rockville, anny hong, 9news

now. a mess of a commute for thousands of us after two deadly accidents along i-95 in virginia. around 4:30 this morning, a van ran off the southbound side of the road near dale city. one person was killed. the driver is charged with reckless driving. around 7:45, three vehicles involved in a chain reaction crash in the northbound lanes, about two miles north of the first accident. one person in that crash killed as well. all lanes finally reopened around 9:30. >> no word if this morning's weather was a major factor. but we do know it caused a lot of problems down in prince william county. residents living near the dam were evacwaited as a precaution. more on the flooding damage. >> well, this is a god good example of how fast flood waters come and go. i would not have been able to stand here. i would have had to swim because the water was this high. one guy did try to drive

through and he had to be rescued by boat. now tonight, authorities are keeping an eye on the river and a lake jackson dam. just one night of pounding rains pushed lake jackson dam to an alert level. people who live close to the river from western prince william county to the other were put on notice. >> so, precautionary measure to notify communities and towns and residents downstream from the dam that the dam has gotten to a specific level over the normal limits. >> the storms dumped 3 inches, vdot workers hurried to close a dozen flooded roads after streams and creeks flooded over the banks. ripped out part of the road when the pipes under ground could handle no more. >> over flows the road and it digs under the shoulder and exceeds the capacity of the

types we have. >> police closed park gate road when a small bridge was deemed unsafe. and near the golf course, it was kettle run's waters that crippled this bmw. the driver of this pickup truck regretted taking a chance near the manassas station. he had to be rescued by boat. >> unless you are driving a tank, i wouldn't even attempt to go across. just find alternate means to go around. >> now several school bus routes had to be canceled this afternoon. but now that the flood waters have receded, hopefully everything will be back to normal. tonight, authorities still are looking at that dam and keeping everybody notified downstream as far as the town. i'm peggy fox reporting live. back to you. >> time to be vigilant, thank you. if you have flood damage or using today as a wakeup call, go to wusa9.com. we have a story with everything you need to know about flood insurance. topper, are we going to see

anymore storms today? obviously some people do not need them at all. >> the good news, not getting hit right now. there are heavy thunderstorms on radar. let's start with doppler 9,000. let me outline the area that got hammered last night. we talked about this last night. this is the area that got anywhere from 3 to 4 inches of rain. now the good news, well, that's not the area that is getting hit now. now we have to go further south and west of us. this storm is a monster. they have issue add severe thunderstorm warning. it has some hail and has some very, very heavy rain. we're going to watch storms as they begin to move off to the east. right now, they are hugging the i-81 corridor. so we'll keep you posted and when they do develop, they will produce some heavy rains and talk about that when we come back and look ahead to the holiday weekend. >> thank you, top. >> the measure that tries to keep the arsenic out of the water supply was signed by the maryland governor. the first state to ban an

arsenic additive to which i think feed. the governor also signed bills requiring all public schools to keep it on hand for students if they have an allergic reaction. and the budget deal that will raise taxes on 14% of state residents. >> leaders of the district police officers and firefighters union want to know why dumpsters were found burning at the department's training academy. firefighters say at least some of those documents were personnel records. documents were also found nearby in an abandoned car. gary giordano has been charged with indecent exposure. he is the gaithersburg man that was linked to the disappearance of robyn gardner. giordano was arrested last friday for a completely different matter. according to a police report, giordano and a woman were naked in the back of his suv. the parking garage manager called to report possible

sexual activity. >> and coming up tonight, was it artistic license or did it break the rule of advertising? a federal appeals court settles a two-year fight over a dog mural outside an arlington dog groomer. is it advertising, is it art? we'll find out. but still to come, parents are protesting on capitol hill. we're going to talk about why. but first, we all know traffic isn't so great in this area and we'll tell you how we compare with the rest of the nation up next.

good news can be a relative term when you're talking about commuting in our area. but tonight, we can tell you that our area has the sixth worst traffic in the country. that might sound bad, but it is actually an improvement over our fourth place finish last year. last month the average d.c. driver spent two hours and 48 minutes sitting in traffic.

that is down 54 minutes from a year ago and more than two hours from two years ago. montgomery county wants to keep improving the commute for as many drivers as possible. and today, county executive received the recommendations of a transit task force and they include building a 160-mile rapid bus system. it's being described as light rail on rubber tires. the estimated cost, $1.1 million per mile. coming up, a campaign aide to d.c.'s mayor has his day in court.

marchs on washington are nothing new, but they don't feature a sea of strollers. why these parents came to capitol hill today.

>> there's more than rhyme to this chant, there's a reason. as parents, cancer survivors, and lawmakers gather to say they want to know what's more in the chemicals than products they use every day. >> you have to be a chemist to sort out all the ingredients. >> they call themselves the national stroller brigade. they deliver signaturing to congress asking senators to overhaul chemical logs. >> 80,000 chemicals in america. 200 have been reviewed by the epa. four have been banned. that tells me there's work to be done. >> they worry things as simple as baby cushions could be contaminated with toxic flame retardants. they want more information. moms must speak out for their kids who can't. >> let everybody know how important this is. >> so far, his bill, the safe chemicals act has no republican cosponsors and lacks the

support to become law at this point. >> we need more bipartisanship. why is this a partisan issue? >> an industry lobbying group opposes the bill. says it's willing to work on an update of existing law. choose dates, brigade participates hope their presence gets more than strollers rolling on the issue. in washington, i'm emily. >> in southeastern virginia, four people face charges of tieing a 50-year-old girl to a tree and assaulting her with eggs and beer. the assault took place last week. two of the suspects are the teenager's guardians and the other two are neighbors. investigators say they are trying to figure out what the motive could have been. a guilty verdict for a d.c. liquor store owner accused of selling alcohol to a minor. the town square market in northwest. now we first introduced you to the store and police concerns about it as part of our series on teen drinking. he now faces up to a year in prison and a $1,000 fine.

tonight, d.c. mayor remains out of town and mom about the news at the top finance man in his campaign appears headed to prison. 56-year-old thomas gore admitted in federal court today that he illegally diverted gray campaign dollars to minor candidate, sulaimon brown. blues bruce johnson has been on this story since the beginning. >> reporter: tho thomas gore confessed he and a second campaign staffer were involved in a scheme to get money for sulaimon brown. sources identified howard brooks as that second campaign staffer. he diverted money from the campaign and gave that money to brooks who used it to purchase money orders that he delivered to sulaimon brown. >> vincent gray's campaign gave me cash and money orders

to maintain my campaign for mayor, cover living expenses, and attack then mayor fenty during the 2010 mayoral race. >> i can't imagine. i know absolutely nothing about any one of my campaign who did that. >> he kept a record of payments until he learned of the fbi investigation he destroyed the notebook. in total, we're talking about five money orders. some bought here. a total of $660 that went to sulaimon brown, all misdemeanors. gore destroyed the notebook, got caught on tape admitting it, and lied to federal authorities. he is facing 12 to 18 months in prison. according to sources, howard brooks has his own deal. no word on when he'll appear in court.

bruce johnson, 9news now. >> a year ago today, a tornado half a mile wide and spinning at more than 200 miles an hour destroyed a third of the town of joplin, missouri. 161 people died, dozens of buildings wiped out. today, crews broke ground on three new schools. high school students spent the last year studying inside the town's shopping mall. a year later, a will the of work to be done, but they have accomplished so much. >> in good spirit. >> absolutely. 86% of their stores are back up and running. that's amazing when you think about the damage in that town. >> half a mile wide. hard to wrap your head around that. >> that's a big one. that same system brought us tornadoes a couple days later. >> we're looking at a humid pattern, unsettled pattern for the rest of the week. we'll show you big storms on live doppler. let's start with a live look outside. this is our live weather cam and brought to you by michael and son. high temperature, 80 today.

winds light south, southeast at 6. pressure up over the past hour. 29.81 inches of mercury. all right, here's a look at live doppler 9,000. nothing going on in the immediate metro area. down to the south, we have been watching this storm since 4:30 this afternoon. this is a monster. around 64. it has heavy rain. it has hail in it. or did a little while ago and beginning to push off. notice how slowly it moves over the past 20 to 30 minutes. that's why they are getting heavy rains. hardly any movement at all and that's the problem with these storms. once they form, they sit there and they have a will the of moisture with them. thankfully, nothing around the metro area. that's good. 75 in bethesda. 78 out toward great falls. and 74 in reston. 77 out in leesburg. down to manassas, 77 also. and we're locking at 79 in college park and 77 as you go up the northeast. okay, unsettled and humid. some storms tonight, some of which will have heavy rain.

more sun tomorrow. more showers and thunderstorms tomorrow and thursday, more of the same. we are looking at a little break in the pattern by friday and certainly over the weekend. mostly cloudy and mild tonight with showers and thunderstorms. some with heavy rain. winds light and then by morning, we'll keep the chance of a shower or thunderstorm in. very little will be happening in the morning. winds light and by afternoon, kind of do it all over again. partly sunny and warm. more sun tomorrow, but showers and storms possible. high temperatures around 80. winds out of the southwest at 5 to 10. now the next seven days, we start to heat up. 81 on thursday. some showers and storms. a few storms on friday, 87. and then we're talking low 90s on saturday and sunday and memorial day. my goodness, it's going to feel more like july 4. 93 on monday. a few isolated storms and tuesday a couple storms possible and temperatures still

flirting with the 90-degree mark. so, not exactly shower-free, but unofficial beginning of summer, it's going to be warm. >> and hotter is right. >> look who came in. >> who is the most popular redskin outside of rg3? >> i would have to say london fletcher or chris cooley. >> he's back at full strength and hey, he wants the media, guys like me, to do them a big favor. i'll explain in a couple of seconds. organized team activities continuing in ashburn up in philadelphia. they give bryce harper some exfrom special treatment. we'll tell you.

and now, 9sports with dave owen. the best sports in town. >> from what we know, mike shanahan was not knocked down at practice today. i say it like that because today's practice was closed to the media. so typically, teams are concerned about injuries to players, not coaches. the redskins certainly had plenty of those last year. chris cooley being one of them, which is why redskins nation was smiling ear to here when it was reported that he was healthy and ready to make a full return. broken finger, bad knee. now he is refresh eds and ready and he has a request for reporters like me. >> i want so much to jump all over it. everything is going to be great. i want to.

i'm excited to work with everyone. i'm so excited to work with robert, but i'm going to work and move forward. >> i am not going to say they are going to be a playoff team. denied. arbitrator upheld the least, 36 million penalty on the team for overloading contracts. gm said the team was overloaded. you might not follow lacrosse like football, but it's big in northern virginia and maryland and as a result, the universities are really, really good. the terps are pumped. both men and women are pumped. advancing after an 11-5 beat down, now comes duke. that's all you have to say. >> played them twice already this year so we are familiar with them and looking to win this one. they got st best of us, but this is the final four game and we are looking to move on to

the championship game. so we are looking forward to this win. >> extra security. that's what was necessary last night in philly. the team had it in place for the rookie. he got beaned by cole hamels. hamels said he did it on purpose so the stage was set for those phillies fans to do something. good news, nothing happened. which . they didn't waste time. the vets have been working. he will go to the bullpen. finally, marlins, rockies from last night. mike stanton is going to drill a game winning grand slam for florida. that's not the story. check out this beautiful hd score board out there. now he's going to round the bases, look up. there's going to be a big black hole. see that black hole? boom, gone. baseball through the score board. give that man the bill. good thing he makes $7 million a year. >> and that is it for us. have a great night.

>> good night.