on interstate 270, as well as eastbound 66 inside the beltway. we have quite a few traffic signals out this morning. monika is going to give us an update on those. and please be aware. because when you slow down and the other guy is still barreling through, that could be a problem. olga breese is in for howard bernstein. she has our weather first. a special good morning to the engine dc department, a hot one for them as well. >> reporter: this morning we got a little cloud cover. a shower toward dale city. we have seen the clouds manufacture on out and the sunshine is coming through. today is going to be hazy and humid, very hot as temperatures move into the 90s by noon, and hit the middle 90s by later on this afternoon. overall we are calling for highs right around 95 degrees for the city center. going to feel a couple of degrees warmer than that.

the 7-day forecast though looks good, we'll have sunshine to start us out on the fourth of july midday. but late afternoon and early evening hours we are tracking a chance of showers and storms. monika? if you are planning to head around town as the anchors have been saying and i have been saying all morning long and even our reporters outside, the signal lights are scattered out all over town and these are the numbers that i have. the latest numbers that i have so far. in montgomery county about 1-d 9. in fairfax about 75 and in the district about 57. these are some of the examples where you may find police direction at wisconsin avenue, at arizona fox hall at nebraska and rena road at tiled don. those are a few examples of where signal lights are out and police are directing traffic. but that is not the case everywhere. keep that in mind and approach the intersections slowly, treat them as a four way stop. the good news is hov

restrictions were resisted inside the -- lifted inside the beltway on 66. we'll take a live look at 95 and springfield on the northbound side. you have initial delays in woodbridge and 35 still looks good heading up to the 14th street bridge. i'll have more at 6:12. back to you. pepco says more than half the people who lost power in friday night's storm now have it back. >> that does not make it any easier for the more than 100,000 customers still without electricity. pepco's president says this is the worst damage he has seen since hurricane isabel. >> what is the progress delia? >> reporter: your wish is my command. the lights are on. literally, just about four or five minutes ago the lights came on. as i mentioned in our previous

hit, we have been seeing pepco crews literally inching their way. we have been seeing the lights turning on, traffic up and running at normal speed. maybe a little too fast. but you know, progress is being made. and fairly quickly. because we are four days out of the storm, and now we are finally back up and running, in regards to traffic. but of course, we know lots of neighbors and neighborhoods are still in the dark and folks are still frustrated, a bit, with some of the conditions they are dealing with at home. of course we are talking about 90, 100-degree temperatures. and you know, without ac, you could be boiling hot inside your home. we talked to a couple of residents here in montgomery county. here's what they had to say. >> they are doing the best they

can. it is a tough situation. >> i think people want something for nothing nowadays. nobody wants to wait a minute. it was a real challenge to figure out how we were going to put this all together. >> people want something for nothing nowadays. she puts it all in perspective. maybe her age has something to do with that. maybe a little wisdom there because she has perhaps been in this situation many times over. but there are some folks who are not as patient and we are going to have more on that side of the story, coming up at 63:00. so andrea, mike, good news. maybe i should just travel around the doesn't county today? >> i know we are getting twitter information saying where is delia going next because the lights will come on. and dc residents want you back on this side. working her magic in rockville, maryland this morning. the lights go on wherever she and baby go.

i think mother nature doesn't want to mess with our mommy to-be. for thousands of dc residents, this will be their fourth day without power. it is believed power could be restored to most residents by this friday, but mayor vincent gray says that is not going to fly with him or pepco rate payers. >> pepco's pace of restoring power, to me anyway, is unacceptable. and the speed of their response has been disappointing. >> pepco had a little more than 20,000 customers without power following the storm. we are going to talk live with pepco, coming up at about 6:12. as far as dominion, they restored power to more than 76% of the people who lost it friday. what about everyone else? >> joining us now on the phone is leija anderson. good morning, those people are saying what about us?

what about them? >> good morning, yes. that is exactly what we are focused on, today and into the next several days is getting that last customer on. we have 5000 total crews working on our system and over 2000 of them are right here in northern virginia with more coming today. last night we welcomed a contingent of 200 that came from quebec, canada. we processed them and they have begun work this morning. there is a lot of work to do out there, and we are deeper into the neighborhoods. we are working on removing trees from lines and beginning the rebuilding inside the neighborhoods today and into the next several days. >> is there anything you can suggest customers do if they are still without power and there are limbs down on the street or the front of their property? can they prepare anything before the crews get there? >> they need to stay clear of the trees and any lines that are

down. the likelihood is they are not energized, but we don't want to take a chance and get anybody hurt. so there is nothing really that anybody can do to prepare or move limbs to help. we understand that customers want to help. in fact i was in a neighborhood yesterday where neighbors wanted to pull as many of the limbs as they could to help the crews, and we appreciate that so much, because this is about all of us working together as a community to get our lives back to normal. but when it comes to removing trees and getting the power lines back up, we need to leave that to the professionals who are trained, and are very safety conscious about what needs to be done to keep the community safe. >> good advice. thank you very much. good talking with you. >> same here. take care. we want to see how things are elsewhere in the commonwealth this morning. >> that's right. jessica doyle is live along route 7 in bailey's crossroads. she has shown us the haves and the have nots awhile ago.

how is it going? >> reporter: mike, we want to say good morning to the dominion virginia power folks. they are doing shift change right now. i welcome them to come to my house anytime today. i'll thank them in person for the power being back o and also delia if she stops by my house. i'll show you here along route 7 we have the have his. and the have not just a couple of feet away. the whole neighborhood is without power. streetlight is without power, one of about 80. currently this intersection is not working and this is supposed to be a three-way stop here. as you can see, everybody is blowing right through it. could be a tough situation later on this morning. in terms of talking to folks who still don't have power, we caught up with a bunch of people yesterday and here's what one lady had to say about her

story. >> i don't have any expectations for several days. a huge tree is down on madison street. it took down wires about an eight house stretch. so it is just a mess. >> just went to give you a little bit of ideas about a timeline here dominion, virginia expecting to get maybe as much as 95% of customers back on by thursday. the rest of folks should be back by this weekend. also want to give you an update about 911. 911 lines went down friday in northern virginia. there was a problem with a station for verizon when the power went out, that went out. fairfax county supervisor is calling this unacceptable. there should have been redundant systems in place she says, also cell phone service has been spotty and continues to be so.

the cell phone companies are working on that. but i will tell you i'm getting great service here. if you need to make a phone call come say hey. >> good advice, jess. today the district is going to try to make it easy for you to dump all the spoiled food nod your refrigerator when the power went out. you don't have to wait for trash day. they will be open from 3:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. today. we have the entire list on wusa.com. keep it right here with 9news now.

in montgomery county 199, in fairfax 75. in the district 57. the good news is, no restrictions inside the beltway

on 66 we are here at duke street. you can see traffic moving very well again. restrictions are in effect on 95 and 395. back over to the maps. this time you have the slow traffic forming as you head toward woodbridge and through springfield. there is an accident blocking the two left lanes. leaving you with another live picture over in montgomery county 270, no hov restrictions. coming up another look at area roads. back to you guys. >> special good morning to victor and gary dc engine company 31 and we think the number for intersections and lights is down now to 198 because delia just worked her

magic again. now can olga compete with is that? >> reporter: -- with is that? >> reporter: i -- >> with that? >> reporter: today we are on the sticky and steamy side due to our humidity. we are starting to pump in winds from the southwest today. forecast for today then, lots of sunshine. you want your sunglasses with you. bottled water and stay out of the sunshine as much as possible. temperatures this morning upper of 80 degrees. midday when all of the clouds clear out, we are quickly into the lower 90s by your lunch break.

here's what you need to know to get your day going. today tomorrow and the next day we are looking at the opportunity for late day showers and storms on your tuesday. once we get to wednesday, independence day is going to be hot once again. a shower or thunderstorm possibly could move on through by tomorrow afternoon. that could impact some of your fireworks displays in and around town. overall we'll keep an eye on that for you. the forecast for today, starting out on the warm side as i mentioned. 68 for the baltimore city center. really warm in the city at the rage began national -- reagan national airport. dewpoints fairly high making our temperatures already feeling close to 80 degrees inside the beltway. overall today we are going to be pretty good with our sunshine into the afternoon.

showers will be hit or miss in nature, then overnight tonight we are partly cloudy. tomorrow i think the first half of your fourth of july celebrations go without a hitch. we are tracking showers and thunderstorms moving on in late in the day. again that could impact your delay. some of the fireworks displays in the evening. today's highs right around 95 degrees. next three days are yellow weather alert days. showers and thunderstorms possible each afternoon and definitely looking another a sticky 7-day forecast. overnight lows in the 70s, daytime highs in the middle 90s. monika? we know you want to hear from pepco. we hoped to bring you that interview but we are still waiting. we hope to get that to you before the end of the show. our time 6:17. still ahead a big vote on

metro's silver line project in west virginia. four decades ago the majority of americans did one of these things. is it drive a stick shift, change their own flat tire or write a letter? >> facebook friends james and molly write hands down, drive a stick shift. the question does not say pen a letter and i doubt the percentage has changed that much on changing tires. keep the guesses coming. we have the answers at 6:49. we'll be right back. with no added sugar. just one glass equals two servings of fruit. very "fruit-ritious." or try ocean spray light 50, with just 50 calories, a full serving of fruit, and no added sugar. with tasty flavors like cranberry pomegranate and cranberry concord grape, it's like a fruit stand in every bottle.

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pepco hopes to get updated power restoration times to its customers by tonight. it has restored electricity already to more than half of customers who lost it in friday night's storms. >> joining us now on the phone is clay anderson, a spokesman with pepco. clay i did see crews from george george and florida yesterday so help is definitely here. >> absolutely guys. we have help coming in. they continue to move and

direct. they are in our hard hit areas, across the area. we are here, more coming in. we have at least 2700 personnel dedicated to the restoration efforts, so we are at a maximum overdrive at this point. >> clay we are hear you are telling us 2700 total dedicated to the restoration of power in the district and parseghian of montgomery county. we are hearing from northern virginia they have 4000 people and 5000 when you add in the reserves. did we not call in from pepco enough people to handle this? that is the question from the mayor and the county executive, you didn't call in the reserves early enough and fast enough. >> the calls were made. friday evening the calls were made at the same time it was made to the other utilities. pepco is for the going to get into a utility battle. but we want our customers to

know that across the potomac, they are the power companies with the state of virginia. pepco is the power company for washington, dc metropolitan area. we do not combine with other utilities, so we do not combine with bgand eand other utilities to raise our numbers. we are for the going to get into that this morning but i want to make that clarification. we understand people say pepco, people go across the potomac and try to compare the two. that is a state utility. >> so a different situation all together? >> it is. >> where are we, when it comes to the number of outages at this point? and are we still on track as far as trying to get things done by friday or saturday? >> yes, i think we are making definite progress. about 115,000 total customers are out. montgomery county 69,000. prince georges 26,000 and in the district 1000.

24 hours ago we were over 200,000 customers that were still out. so we have restored an additional 100 thous plus customers in the last 24 hours. the additional resources continue to come in, we are still on track for later in the week. we know it is a long time, absolutely. but we are continue to move foregored clay the biggest problem is getting all the downed trees out of the way. is there a coordinated effort as soon as a tree comes in does a pepco crew come in behind it? >> we have the wires. first they are tagged located repaired and replaced. once that is done the trees are moving out of the area. a lot of trees are down in the district in montgomery and prince george's, wend that. you will see more and more trees cut up cut down and moved out of the way. >> i can attest to that. i have it on my facebook page bye bye tree. it was nice to see it go. clay anderson we appreciate the

hard work and long hours the men and women at pepco are putting in. today is the day in loud don county. the board of supervisors will decide when to extend phase ii of the silver line. county leaders will vote today when to fund at least $270 million of the project. without it, it is unlikely metro will go past dulles and that could throw the entire second phase into jeopardy. the federal government is selling two vehicles repossessed from former dc councilman harry thomas jr. thomas is in prison for emabout hisling more than $335,000. he used some of the money to buy a chevy tahoe and victory motorcycle. those vehicles are now in uncle sam's possession. the stars are in town today. host tom bergeron is here, they

are all going to rehearse for tomorrow's performance. after the individual rehearsals, the whole cast will join together for a dress rehearsal at 8:00 tonight on the steps of the capital. just in case you need another reason to drink coffee, which i do not, here's another reason. calf final may lower the risk of developing skin cancer. a harvard study found people who drank regular coffee or tea or a chocolate were less likely to develop basal cell cars gnome may. the reason, caffeine may block the formation of tumors. >> and i can eat the chocolate in the dark. when my power comes back on, i'll start with coffee. our time is 6:26. up next getting power back to everyone and cleaning up after the storms. long lines, learn what you can do, depending on where you live. right now monika has a

quick check on traffic, especially at the dark intersections. >> reporter: you want to treat them as a four way stop. it looks good on the beltway at alexandria. up ahead, an accident along the right side. i'll have more on traffic, coming up in my next report at 6:30. you are watching 9news now. much more to come, stay with us.

power crews across the region are hard at work to get people back online. at last check, pepco had 16,000 customers without electricity. most are in possibility good morningry county. dominion has 7 customers in northern virginia without power. federal agencies are indeed open this morning. workers have the option to take unscheduled leave or telework. >> nonet good morningry county schools are closed for summer programs today. so is montgomery college. restrictions have been lifted on interstate 270, as well as eastbound 66 inside the beltway. good morning again. in just a moment monika will have an update on the commute and hopefully it is going a little bit smoother this morning. >> there are still lots of traffic signals out. right now olga breese is in for

howard. yet another scorcher. >> reporter: there is month mistaking the change in the air. step out this morning you'll notice the humidity. our day planner has given us a lot of sunshine through midday and early afternoon. out of the 80s into the 90s in no time. you will feel the heat. then we are tracking a late day shower or storm chance and i have details for you coming up on your 7-day forecast. including the fourth of july holiday. monika? overall no real change right now with the power outage situation. and what it is doing to the signal lights around town. i'm going to give you the numbers right now. montgomery county 199 signals out. fairfax 75 and in the district, about 57. i have been on the phone with all the different jurisdictions trying to get the updates for you. treat those as a four way stop, give way to the right. it will make everyone's life easier. first of all 66 and the dulles

toll road seem to be doing okay. inside the beltway no restrictions today or yesterday. that helps things out for sure on the inbound side of 66 again inside the beltway. no restrictions to worry about tomorrow as well. back over to the other side of town, there is an accident on the outer loop of the beltway, just past the wilson bridge as you approach saint barn bus road. leaving the wilson bridge, it doesn't seem to be affecting the beltway in alexandria. let's take a live look outside. if you are planning to head over to hunter mill road, that is shut down between lawyers road and the dulles toll road with a problem there. northbound i-95 just your normal slow traffic here in springfield headed for i-95. i'll have more in my next report coming up in a few minutes. back to you guys. traffic lights on major

intersections in maryland are coming back on loin. one problem spot had been veer's mill road. >> that is until the lovely delia showed up. it seems wherever she goes, the lights are coming on. poof. good morning delia. >> reporter: good morning. i'm carrying extra mojo with me this morning. blame it on the pregnancy. literally, traffic is at full speed. the morning commute is well underway, and these traffic lights had been on for about a half hour, at this point. as we had mentioned all morning long, literally, we have been tracking and following these traffic lights and the signals that were darkened and were blacked out. folks were treating those as four way stops and miraculously, one by one, the lights were coming back o thankfully here

in montgomery county, traffic, will not be quite the headache it was yesterday. however lots of folks we know in the neighborhoods are still struggling. there is some good news out here on the main roads. but on the side roads and in the neighborhoods, folks are still having a hard time, because they are dealing with a very slow recovery and restoration process. in regards to the process, and what pepco is doing and how quickly they are moving, let's hear what he had to say. >> i want them to come out and do this and to get every nursing home and every citizen in montgomery county back to full restoration and i'm not going to accept july 6th as a date for doing this. >> reporter: all right he won't accept july 6th. we'll hear what he is going to say. in just a few -- moments he will be live with you and andrea.

we need to send you to another location so you can turn the lights on somewhere as well as. crews from ontario, canada, teams from hydro one are going to help dominion and pepco get the electricity flowing again. teams as far south as from florida and new brunswick in our region as well. >> you can always expect something like this. this storm has people trying to make a quick buck. maryland's attorney general is investigating price gouging at hotels and gas stations. the washington post reports one gas snags virginia has raised prices to $4 a gallon. that is not a problem at this gas station on river road in bethesda, maryland. the station is it out of gas. it is a problem seeing that

stations across the region as people fill up the generators, and supplies are slow to come in. a lot of people are also looking for dry ice to keep their food cold but they are having no luck. the only company to make dry ice in maryland has been without power since friday's storms. capital carbonic and baltimore had about 10,000 pounds of dry ice in stock and it is just about gone. the company hopes it can get a truck in from other locations in delaware soon. this morning jessica doyle has been showing us northern virginia in the land of those who have power and those who have not. >> when you can look out your window and see just across the street they have power. >> that is exactly right. i'll tell you we are now into day four for a lot of folks in northern virginia without power. four very long, very hot days. i'll tell you the frustration

level goes up when you look across the street, exactly what you said and you see the neighbors are on and you are not. sometimes it can seem very arbitrary. behind me, i can vouch for this, all morning long, there is power here. power, power, power, you get to the street lights though, no power. and across the street no power and down the street, we have power in beth directions. sometimes you say to yourself what is the deal here people? why are we not on and others are. in terms of the streetlight, this is one of about 180 in fairfax county that aren't working. some people are treat it go as a four way stop. we have also caught up with people walking around northern virginia, driving around who are really froes straight. about still not having power after all these days. >> we went out on friday night with everybody else, and we are

still not up. it is unbelievable. it is probably about 90 in the house. i have some medical issues, so i'm living in the basement right now. we don't have any refrigeration, we lost everything, so we are looking at $200, $300 to replace everything. >> reporter: one quick note for you. dominion virginia power is saying if you are still out of power, at this point, it does not hurt to call the company again and tell them you still don't have power, even though they probably know it, they might not. so it is a good situation to do just back yourself up. mike i'm going to send it back to you in the studio. >> keep your fingers crossed to get your power on soon. many people are wondering what to do with the tons of debris that we all have on the yards and inn front of our houses and in neighborhoods. there are long lines to drop off storm debris. what do you do if you have

broken branches? prince george's county residents can dispose of storm debris through friday on sanitary landfill. virginia residents are being asked to place their storm debris with the regular trash. if you live in the district, residents can place tree branches cut into four foot length and his tied into bundles no more than two feet wide. keep it right here with 9news now. it was like a red rash...

very sore looking kinda blistery. like somebody had set a bag of hot charcoal on my neck. i was a firefighter for 24 years. but, i have never encountered such a burning sensation until i had the shingles. i remember it well. i was in the back yard doing yard work. i had this irritation going on in my lower neck. i changed shirts because i thought there was something in the collar of the shirt irritating my neck. and i couldn't figure out what was going on. i had no idea it came from chickenpox. i always thought shingles was associated with people... a lot older than myself.

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welcome back. it is 6:44 and 78 degrees. monika here with your timesaver traffic. all morning long i have pretty much had the same graphic up. that is because signals are out all over town. montgomery county i would put that at 198. delia has been out and everywhere she goes the signal lights turn back on.

fairfax is 75 and the district is 57. each time awe approach an intersection, treat it as a four way stop. if you are planning to head to the north side of town it is jammed right now. silver spring the pace improves. let's take a live look outside right now. here's what it looks like heading past new hampshire again. by the way the accident on the outer loop near saint barn bus road on the south side of town has been cleared of the shoulder with traffic getting by. been telling you all all morning long hov restrictions have been lifted inside the beltway. that has certainly helped traffic there. this is the sown sigh of hunter mill road east of reston where tree and his power lines came down. use twin branches road as your alternate route. coming up in my next report

another look at area roads. summer school programs in the district are closed today. we have the stickiness factor really kicking in today. gone are the drier weather days for us. temperature 96, 97 degrees. today in the territory as well. day planner for today starting out muggy. although we have clear skies as of this hour, a lot of sunshine building clouds through this afternoon. temperatures move quickly through the 60s 70s and 80s and into the 90s by your lunch break. we should top out right around 95 degrees. we will include some more cloud cover as we get later on into the afternoon, which means that overall today is still going to be hot, very muggy with the

southwest winds. we are going to let you know about afternoon sunflowers and storms that could pop up around the area. we will be hot again on the fourth of july and yes there is a chance for late day showers, possibly heavy storms coming through on the afternoon of our fourth of july. overall we will see a lot of sunshine, dew points quite high and very muggy through midday and late day. current temperatures 78 in town. we'll definitely stay sticky and steamy. futurecast pulls in cloud cover late this afternoon. clears us out overnight. the later portion, well the rain moves on through. here is the 7-day forecast. mid 90s for today and tomorrow. late day rain chances through thursday. we are looking at a fairly dry day for friday. mike, andrea? thank you very much. we have been talking about the power outages for pepco and most are concentrated in montgomery county. >> definitely one of the hardest

hit areas. the executive director joins us on the phone. are you noticing any improvement? we did see crews in montgomery county from florida and georgia and other places. >> we know that they have got additional crews in. today would be a big day in my opinion in terms of how fast they resolve these very challenging problems for us in montgomery county. they have crews in, but as i have indicated earlier i thought they should have been here earlier. >> you expressed your displeasure less than 48 hours after the storm. we know the maryland public service commission heavily fined pepco. roger berliner, no fan of pepco, saying it was too soon to judge. why did you say unacceptable less than 48 hours after the storm had moved through? what more should pepco be

doing, besides calling in people? they say they did call in troops. >> i'm not convinced they called them in as quickly as they should have. within an hour or so from the storm, i'm not sure whether or not they have done so in this case. in addition to that, we need to make certain that they also ensure that once crews are here they are well organized and positioned in such a way they can respond quickly. having crews here not knowing what to do and not properly managed is a concern we had in the past. given the response time you know, we are beyond excuses at this point in time. telling residents they are waiting until july 6th is simply unacceptable. we are talking about 95 for -- 95 to 100 degrees temperatures. >> we hear this time and time again from all local officials.

they have upset with pepco. is there a change to be made? is that a length any process? >> -- a lengthy process? >> i'm not suggesting that. pepco will be our service provider now and will be so in the foreseeable future. we simply need to make certain they respond better. they are making improvements but i'm not sure it is fast enough. i'm not suggesting a change in leadership, i want to make sure the leadership performs at a level we expect and continue to push them to do so. >> is it politically difficult to ask for a rate increase when you are dealing with this kind of public pressure to get the hour on quickly? >> it is difficult to ask for a rate increase even before this. this would be a very difficult case for them to make if a rate increase and i'm not sure it is warranted at this time. >> 90% of the customers should be back online by the weekend.

if not, what should the public service commission do? they fined them a million dollars before and we are still having the problems so what else besides continuing to fine, which ends up being put back on the consumer? >> i think additional fines, certainly they need to look at what they are providing in terms of the dividends they are paying out to shareholders to make sure they also put that pressure on them as well. i think there are some other measures they need to examine. but at this point in time, we simply want the service restored. we'll deal with the aftermath later on. but right now my major task is to hold them their feet to the fire, to ensure that we get the service now, not a few weeks from now or a month from now about what could have happened. i want service restored now and waiting until july 6th is unacceptable. if you are that other 10%

waiting until after july 6th, that is unacceptable. we need service restored today. >> montgomery county executive ike leggett, thank you for joining us. we'll be right back. activate your 5% cash back at chase.com/freedom

even without power, people are managing to use facebook. our question of the morning, four decades ago a majority of people did this. but today only 20% of us do this, is it drive a stick shift, change their own forecast tire or write a letter. >> the answer is a, drive a

stick.

steamy highs in the 90s today. late day storms possible. we are going to take a live look on i 66. it has helped so much. hov restrictions are in effect on 95 and 3-d 5 though. many people have started their vacation. cbs this morning is next. more on the presidential campaign. charlie rose talks of the cast -- with the cast of the new spiderman movie. power restoration all day, keep up with it at wusa.com. have a great day, everybody.