entire metro area. here's a view of the watch. it goes all the way to the mountains, down into southern maryland as well, so this is the only areas right now where we have the warnings in effect. again, that goes until 5:15, fairfax expiring at 5:00 and arlington county. look at temps. 73 in frederick, 91 downtown, big storm in frederick earlier. in fact, we have some video around liberty town road. this was pretty goodwin. they think the wins were 35 -- good wind. they think the winds were 35 to 40 miles per hour this. is hitting the eastern portion of our viewing area. slow going in frederick earlier today and another line of storms behind this. we'll go back to the computer and we will talk about the radar and lightning, a lot of lightning with these storms as well, but look upstream. we have more thunderstorms in pennsylvania and those will move south as we go through the evening and also the early

nighttime hours. so we're not out of the woods yet. we'll keep the warnings in the bottom of your screen, severe weather alert day until midnight. guys, back to you. >> we do have some power outages to report because of this afternoon's storms. pepco says it has 5,500 customers without power split evenly between montgomery, and prince george's county county, bge with 600 outages, potomac in 3,000 people without power and dominion power with 278 outages in northern virginia. breaking news on the dulles access road, a crash involving at least one shuttle van has both the westbound access road and westbound toll roads backed up for miles. here's a picture posted by sheryl engle on our facebook page. the front of the supershuttle van is nearly crushed in and an airport authority spokesman says that van ran into an audi. five people in the van were hurt, one with life threatening

injuries. last year a 9 news now investigation into supershuttle found serious concerns including drivers working long hours after a deadly shuttle accident on that access road. it only took an instant. tonight we're learning more about the freak accident that killed a 64-year-old man. >> seemingly out of nowhere a massive tree fell onto albert roeth, iii's car last night in great falls. the tree was old and rotted out and was so big rescuers had trouble getting to the body. >> the accident happened about 6:30 tuesday on georgetown pike. we have live team coverage beginning with sue chain at the scene of the tang -- surae chinn at the scene of the tragedy. >> reporter: the tree that we haves the equivalent of 20 cars has -- weighs the equivalent of 20 cars has its inside rotted out and the roots with decay, nothing to it.

the nearby building people in there say when the tree fell, the ground rumbled and shook. >> it was kind of like being in an earthquake. the building shook. >> reporter: david kinney is shaken by what happened, the jew began particular tree crushed 64-year-old carl -- gigantic tree crushed carl roeth. >> it was such a ran doom thing to have happen. >> reporter: the fairfax county urban management director was on site and instructed a second tree to come down. >> it had a similar rot pattern going on as this tree. >> reporter: michael knapp says 98% of its roots are rotted. >> basically lost all the structural integrity because of fungal inroads, perhaps bacteria to some extent. >> it will slowly year after year make its way up into the structural root zone. >> reporter: it could have been caused by the development around the tree.

we've got a walking path here. we've got a major highway here. we've got the sewage there. i mean the tree roots didn't have much to go. >> that's what i think, there was an accumulative impact. it wasn't any one of those things. >> reporter: the incident has the county's arborist shaken up. >> seeing that person extracted or being close to it had a lot of emotional impact. >> reporter: because of these power lines the tree had lopsided trimming and the right- of-way actually belongs to vdot but they say they can't handle the 22 million trees in fairfax county or the half million along roads like this. they say they need the county's help and residents to speak out when they see rotted trees. surae chinn, 9 news now. >> just to give you some perspective how large these big trees are, we've got a google image of that block of georgetown pike. this was taken back in may of 2009. the first tree, that's the one that fell on the car last night, it's just huge and the second one, that's it there,

that's the one cut down this morning and that was believed to be at risk of falling. so it's pretty easy to see how the damage from a falling tree this big could be at it strophic. meantime kristin fisher joins us -- could be catastrophic. meantime kristin fisher joins us now live with more on the man killed. >> 64-year-old albert carl roeth, iii. his friends called him carl. he's lived in the area a long time and he opened a commercial fleet servicing company in manassas. friends describe him as nice to everyone, always smiling, modest, but he loved living large, loved his mercedes and throwing parties. he was probably best known for his annual party at gold cup. he had a plot that everyone knew about right at the finish line. carl was connected in middleburg equestrian scene, loved polo and a big player in the d.c. social scene, but friends say he was probably most looking forward to having his friends over to the new home he was building out in

great falls. in fact, one of his friends was on his way over there last night right before carl was killed. >> i was on my way out last night to his house. i was about a half hour behind him and i tried to turn here and i saw a tree and all the emergency equipment and i thought wow, i don't know what happened. i had to drive miles to get over to his house. wasn't there. i thought well, he's just having dinner or he's late and i called him. i said hey, don't go down georgetown pike. there's a tree on the road. i didn't know he was under it. >> carl is survey offed by his 20-year-old -- survived by his 20-year-old daughter and friends say part of the reason carl loved his new home in great falls so much were all those great trees out there. who would have thought that is what ultimately would have killed him. >> thank you so much for a thin sight into the man's life. -- that insight into the man's life. three years ago 40-year-old kelly murray and her 7-year-old daughter sloan was killed on connecticut avenue in chevy

chase, maryland. a tree branch knocked loose days earlier by a thunderstorm fell on the family minivan. this happened in june of 2009. six other children in the car were hurt. ironically yet another tree came down this morning in northern virginia. fortunately this time nobody was hurt. the fallen tree shut down north glee road between military and chain bridge roads for a few hours while workers cut it up and removed it. police directed drivers around the scene. sky 9 was on the scene of a ride-on bus fire this morning. the bus burst into flames at intersection of ramsey avenue and bonafont street during the early morning rush hour. ken molestina is live in rockville with more on why these buses are being labeled death traps. >> reporter: yeah. this has been a known problem and known fight here in the county for years now. since 2007 the county bought about 50 of these buses.

at about 2009 they started going up in flames, so people have known about this for some time. now they are permanently and officially off the road following the executive order that came down earlier today. no one was hurt this morning during the bus fire in silver spring. the cause is still under investigation, but early speculation is that it has something to do with an electrical issue. since 2009 this particular model of bus, which is called the champion bus, has had 13 instances where they just simply go up in flames. the president of the union that represents the driver says in all cases it's been due to the stress put on the buses. he says they weren't built to be used the way montgomery officials have been using them and the result has been more than a dozen of them catching fire. it's a fire both the union and county have agonized over for years, but following today's event the executive order was passed to keep the fleet of 37 buses off the street. >> i feel relieved. i can tell you my drivers are relieved. i visited the drivers at the

depot where the buses operate. they're ecstatic and relieved and can finally not worry about getting on the bus and not knowing when it was going to go up in flames. >> reporter: in a statement released by and the executive ike leggette he said, "the bottom line is removing the buzzes from service is -- buses from service is the right thing to do to ensure the safety of the public and our bus drivers." these buses will be dismantled that are parked here and either sold for parts and what they can't sell will be trashed. in the meantime the county has brought in some buses from other areas to replace these buses and temporarily, of course, they'll be getting a permanent fleet sometime in the near future. back to you. >> that is good news, ken molestina, thank you. we have new information tonight on a computer glitch that shut down metro twice over the weekend. metro says computer crashes were caused by a failed module in an information management

network device. they say once they replaced the module, the problems were fixed. the computer error prevented controllers from remotely controlling switches and knowing where the trains were located and that caused major delays on metro saturday and sunday. metro says the problem is now fixed and it's been working to make the system more robust so it doesn't happen again. signed, sealed and delivered, robert griffin, iii is now under contract with the washington redskins. >> the two sides made the deal this morning allowing robert griffin, iii to take part in redskins rookie camp. he's a little late but better late than never. >> everyone can breathe a big sigh of relief. robert griffin, iii is now officially a redskin. rg3 missed the last two days of camp trying to work out those final contract details, but the redskins tweeted out this picture of rg3 this morning signing on the dotted line. after that he joined his fellow rookies in ashburn on the practice field. rg3 signed a four-year deal

worth $21.12 million including a $13.8 million signing bonus. rg3 will make just under $400,000 in his rookie year, which is the rookie minimum. the holdup was deciding what happens if he is released. if that happens before the four years is up, rg3 get paid the remainder of his deal. now redskins also with 3rd round punish joshua rebus which means every member has now been signed. we'll have more details at 6:00. >> that is kristen berset, not fish, kristin -- not -- fish, i i'm -- a big warning through shelve and we'll track them all

for you as -- cheverly and we'll track them all for you as we have declared today severe weather alert today. a small rally in front of the wilson building today for d.c. mayor sprig visiting not only do they believe he's innocent of knowing about that shadow campaign. they believe he may have cooperated with federal investigators, that story coming up.

today a small but well connected group of people turned out to support d.c.'s

embattled mayor sprig in fact, they remember critical of -- mayor vincent gray. >> bruce johnson has been on the top of this scandal from the very beginning and reports some of gray's supporters say they've gotten some from the mayor in private. >> reporter: it was a small but well connected group that rallied in front of the wilson building on behalf of mayor vincent gray today. not only do they believe he's innocent about not knowing anything about a shadow campaign, they believe when he found out, he passed that information on to federal prosecutors. >> folks want all of us to engage in some language that is divisive and creates a whole other debate. we refuse to do that. >> one of the great reporters keith silver was treated for heat exhaustion. he stepped out of an ambulance to defend mayor gray. >> the mayor contends he has no knowledge. i've known the man for three decades. he's a man a that gray up in

d.c. and i only know him as a man integrity. >> reporter: the protestors blasted three council members calling on mayor gray to resign. prosecutors claim gray defeated incumbent mayor adrian fenty with the help of an illegal war chest of more than $650,000. >> i worked in the campaign. didn't get a dime. >> i have been troubled by the rush to judgment and the media feeding frenzy with regard to vincent gray. >> we need to wait to see, to really wait to see, you know, because the fact is that things can look a certain way and not be that way. >> other supporters not authorized to speak today said the mayor in private conversation has claimed that he didn't know about the shadow campaign until a post campaign meeting with convicted felon jeanne clarke harris. they say gray claims he notified his attorney, robert bennett, who then notified the u.s. attorney's office. just yesterday mayor gray was repeating his public position of not saying if or when he

knew about the off the books campaign on his behalf. mayor gray wasn't at the rally, but neither were the nine d.c. council members who are refraining from asking him to step down at this time. bruce johnson, 9 news now. >> meantime here's this. president obama's campaign is apparently giving back a campaign donation from the businessman who allegedly financed the shadow campaign on behalf of d.c. mayor vincent gray. politico is reporting the democratic national committee is returning $10,000 jeffrey thompson contributed to the dnc and the president's reelection efforts. >> we went from code yellow to code red today, temperatures in the triple digits again and we have a frontal system and you put the two together and get some big thunderstorms. the entire metro area under a severe thunderstorm watch until 9:00. there are many areas around the immediate metro area under a severe thunderstorm warning. check this lightning strike out

we just captured a minute ago. boom, lightning five times hotter than the surface of the sun. you can have cloud-to-ground lightning, cloud to cloud. montgomery, the district, prince george's county, anne arundel county still lit up, severe thunderstorm warnings there, also howard county until 6:00. we'll zoom in. there's a couple storms that prompted the warnings. by far and away this is the heaviest storm right around lanham down to the south, pretty good storm up towards severna park 97 going out 50 and another storm out 50 towards chantilly. we'll zoom in. this storm in town is now pushing over into prince george's county, cheverly getting hammered with rainfall rates 1 inch per hour. so a tremendous amount of rain between lanham, whicheverly, back down to the south. you folks on the beltway will have -- cheverly back down to the south, you folks on the

beltway will have rain going down 50. this is growing in intensity, pretty big storm southwest of dulles heading out 50 past chantilly, another storm up around 15. we'll zoom back out. all the storms are moving southeastward. again this storm by far and away is one that has us most concerned with heavy rain and slowing down traffic, the greenbelt going up bwi, going up 29, 95, going fob slow going. it's going to move south and -- to be slow going. it's going to move south and head through southern prince george's county in the next hour. the next hour it will be out of district but again severe thunderstorms and heavy rain. look at the lightning with these storms. look at all the lightning there. there's another batch back to the north of us. the frontal system itself is still well north. that front will take until friday to get south of us. we're still looking at the potential. we have a trigger in the atmosphere to produce more storms tomorrow and friday. look at the temps. it was 101 a couple hours ago

in d.c., 84 now, 79 in gaithersburg, 73 frederick. you can see with the progression of the storms knocking down the temps because it's still 93 toward andrews. severe thunderstorm watch until 9:00, threats, hail and damaging wind, storms diminish by midnight, more strong storms thursday and some strong storms even possibly on friday. so for tonight severe storms ending by midnight, partly cloudy, muggy, lows in the 70s, winds turn northwesterly at 10. tomorrow morning shower or storm is possible, 70s and 80s, wind northwest at 10. we get a break tomorrow on temps. that is a little silver lake. partly sunny, lining. -- silver lining, partly sunny. next three days, 91 tomorrow, 87 friday and 89 with just an isolated thunderstorm on

saturday. next seven days weekend by and large looks pretty good. 91, 90 or so sunday, just isolated storm, heats up a little next week, back in the mid-90s with just isolated thunderstorms monday, tuesday and wednesday. the nats are playing, lots of e- mails flying. they may get the game. in they may get a delay, a little window between the storms. >> i heard lightning is five times hotter than the sun. is that true? >> you are correct, sir. let's look at this live picture courtesy of our scott broom, his dashcam coming in from annapolis. boy, that rain is coming down. >> matches radar, doesn't it? >> yes, it does. slow it down, . coming up this person tries to ride their scooter up the escalator. >> up next more fbi agents called in to help in the search for two missing cousins who vanished near an iowa lake.

right now the fbi's child abduction rapid deployment team is on the scene in blackhawk county, iowa, where two cousins have now been missing for five

days. tonight the families of the two girls say they're afraid they've been kidnapped. last week police found their bikes by a lake near their grand mom's house. they thought they might have drowned. the lake was drained tuesday, but the girls were not there. authorities believe the girls were at the lake because that's where dogs picked up the scent. the investigation is ongoing. nearly 30 firefighters suffered minor injuries fighting a massive apartment fire. it happened this morning in the bronx. the fire started just before midnight at a building only a block from yankees stadium. the flames started on the sixth floor in the back of the building and spread to the roof. more than 200 firefighters responded to this. dozens of families are out of their homes and they're still trying to figure out the cause. going down? a new york parking attendant got a big surprise yesterday when he drove a luxury suv into a fifth floor vehicle elevator. the problem was that elevator wasn't there. the car plunged four stories down the shaft landing on top of the elevator which was down

there. both the attendant and another worker in the elevator were hurt, but they're expected to be okay. investigators don't know why it happened. surveillance video caught this, motorized scooter mishap last friday in boston subway. this woman in the scooter decided to take it up the escalator despite the fact that there was an elevator right nearby 50 feet way and you see how it worked out. she falls down, flips over backwards. other passengers jumped in to help her and a subway worker rushed to stop the escalator itself and the 56-year-old managed to walk away from all that. coming up on 9news an unusual prison break in which no inmate even tried to get out, but something did break. in we'll explain. >> up next calls getting louder for the ouster of the man responsible for allowing pepco and bge to bill you for your first 24 hours with no power.

we're looking at a severe weather alert day until midnight and we have a watch covering the entire area until 9 p.m. we have a severe thunderstorm warning for prince george's county and anne arundel county until 6:00 and the reason being this storm we showed you a couple minutes ago is pretty heavy, going out 50 right now and going east of town, really not a treat. very heavy rain between lanham

crossing 50 down toward woodmoor ahead towards forestville and upper marlboro. the storm itself is moving south and east about 9 miles an hour. it's a slow mover. it will cross 301. it's headed for highland park, 5:27, kentland, bright seed, ardmoor as well. we are looking for a warning for prince george's county and anne arundel county until 6:00. we'll keep the severe weather alert day going until midnight. we'll track these storms and all the warnings at the bottom of your screen. got a picture for us? go to our website www.wusa9.com and fill out a storm report. are you still scratching your head about who would okay letting pepco and bge bill you for 24 hours without power? tonight we'll tell you who is

responsible. investigative reporter russ ptacek brought the story and people are some kind of mad. >> we're hearing from them. we've received hundreds of comments and if it's just pennies overwhelmly maryland customers don't think they should have to pay to bail out the power companies because they lost revenue during that storm. the commissioner of the maryland public service commission approved the billing for outages and now there's a move to get him fired. >> you're taking the pressure off them. >> montgomery county council member hans reamer is fed up. >> catastrophe and once again pepco is able to charge residents for not having power. >> reporter: it's not just the outage billing. he calls pepco a nonperforming utility and blames the regulator in charge douglas nazarian who approved billing customers to cover billing utility outage losses. >> throw him out. let's throw out the pfc and top

staff and start over. >> reporter: not only does he want nazarian to lose his $150,000 as chairman, he wants commissioner harold williams, commissioner lawrence brenner, kevin hughes and kelly bachmann forced out of their $120,000 appointments as well. he's created an online petition and is asking the governor to fire the entire public service commission or psc. >> the psc is the only group that can change pepco and the governor is the only one that can change the psc. >> we've asked the maryland governor to respond. he has not. neither has the public service commission. the commissioner will be facing off with reamer tomorrow and other montgomery county council members at a hearing in rockville in the council chambers, starts at 12:30. the energy is back on. the air conditioning is working, but i think it's going to get hot. >> contentious to say the least and i think people are talking about accountability more than anything. more than a few pennies, it's

being held accountable. by now we all know things are getting catastrophic in syria and today it got significantly worse than that. randall pinkston is at the united nations where a scheduled vote on the crisis was suddenly called off. >> reporter: syrian college students chanted freedom. anti-assad protesters fired shots and waved the opposition flag celebrating at sass nations of several members of the -- the assassinations of several members of the assad regime the defense minister and deputy defense minister were killed by bombs. rebels claimed they set off the blasts by remote controls. a new defense minister was appointed immediately and he called the attack the work of terrorists. the obama administration says it's clear assad's regime is losing control. >> assad is a spent force in terms of history. he will not be a part of

syria's future. >> reporter: at the pentagon defense secretary leon panetta rejected calls to aren't pebbles. >> is it more essential -- to arm the rebels. >> it is more essential than ever that the united states and the international community continue to work together through the united nations. >> reporter: the u.n. security counsel was scheduled to set to on a resolution on syria, but that was postponed until thursday while diplomats try to agree on the wording. international envoy kofi annan reportedly asked for the delay hoping russia and the west could settle their differences over sanctions and the possible use of force to end the fighting that has claimed more than 15,000 lives. randall pinkston, cbs news, united nations. >> hours after the blast the u.s. treasury department imposed economic sanctions on assad and 28 other top syrian officials. those sanctions freeze assets and bars americans from doing business with them. there was a deadly blast in bulgaria today killing six

people at least and israel's prime minister says it was a bomb placed on a bus. that bus was carrying a group of israeli tourists. 32 people were hurt. israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu calls it an iranian terrorist attack. today is nelson mandela's 94th birthday. a private celebration was held at his home. mandela spent 27 years in prison after being convicted of sabotage under south africa's apartheid regime. he was released in 1990 and became south african president in '94 during president bill clinton's administration. mr. clinton got a chance to visit with his old and close friend on the eve of his birthday. >> i saw in him something that i tried not to lose in myself, which is no matter how much responsibility he had, he remembered he was a person first. then i learned a lot about living from him, about living with adversity, living with setbacks, living with

disappointments and living without anger. >> in 2009 the united nations designated his birthday july 18th nelson mandela international day. a new study is offering hope to people with egg allergies. someday you could get over them and enjoy an omelet. >> we're looking at severe weather now east of town. we'll show you live doppler 9000. the entire metro area is under a severe thunderstorm watch until 9 p.m., but you folks at prince george's county and anne arundel county getting hit hard. we'll come back and track these storms and talk about the prospect for storms in the future. we're not done with them after today. >> but up next the man kidnapped leaps from a moving car to save his life and he runs away. >> don't forget we're always on www.wusa9.com. stay with us. we'll be right back. ♪

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caught on tape, a man leaps from a moving vehicle to get away from kidnappers. this is surveillance video from last thursday, sheridan, pennsylvania. look closely as this maroon van zooms through the intersection. the man jumps out on his back, slides, jumps up in his underwear and runs to the cops for help. >> i just seen a guy flying out the van running in his boxers like they just robbed me, you know, they just robbed me, help

me, help me, screaming. >> this doesn't happen every day. the man tells the cops he was walking down the street when the van pulled up, asked him for directions to a local bar and when he said he didn't know, the side bar opened and two men with guns snatched him inside. the man was forced to take off his pants while they robbed him and when they began talking about where they were going to take him to kill him, he said you know what? i'm out. the kipnappers are still on the loose. >> that is just a crazy story. also on tape an elderly man turns the tables on two would be armed robbers. surveillance video shows the man, one armed with a gun, the other with a baseball bat trying to rob an internet cafe in ocala, florida. as one of the robbers turns, 71- year-old samuel williams pulls a gun, stands up and starts firing. one suspect was shot in the arm, the other in the rear end. both of them were arrested and taken to the hospital. prison officials in washington state sound the alarm, not to capture a

prisoner who escaped, but to help capture a bobcat who broke. in. >> the officers first noticed the bobcat during a perimeter check of the prison late monday night about 30 miles northeast of seattle. the startled animal apparently ran through a razor wire fence and made its way to the roof. a local vet was called in to sedate the injured animal and bring it safely down. >> he's probably just hunting. it's probably hunting grounds. you know, something may have spooked him and he took off up the fence. an animal like this is a good tree climber, so height is their defense. >> you do not want the bobcat in the prison. there he is being treated for cuts to his paws suffered on that fence. it will eventually be released back into the wild, so that is a good ending. an update on the deal of a lifetime that's now turning into a headache for some united airlines travelers. >> also there is a newly approved anti-obesity pill.

in tonight's health alert we're talking about who can get it, how much weight people lose coming up next.

there is a brand-new weapon against obesity. in our health alert last night the fda approved a new pill that will be marketed under the brand-new kusimia. patients have to have at least one weight related health problem like high blood pressure, high cholesterol, type 2 diabetes and it has to be described with exercise and a low calorie diet. >> in a supervised program the studies from thousands of people, almost half of the people lost a 5% weight loss. we kind of say well, 5%, that's not a whole lot, but 5% can improve diabetes, high blood pressure, sleep apnea, your arthritis. now also almost 1/3 of those

people lost 10% of the body weight. >> the drug combines two existing drugs, phentermine and topiramate. also a new study out in the new england journal of medicine offers hope for people allergic to eggs. researchers gave kids tiny amounts of egg curing many of them to their allergic reaction over time. 10-year-old davada alex has to be careful about what he eats. >> right now i am allergic to peanuts, sesame and dairy. >> reporter: but one food he no longer has to worry about, eggs. he took part in an oral immunotherapy study. doctors gave children with egg allergies tiny amounts of the food every day over a two-year period. at the end 75% of the kids were able to tolerate a lot more egg than when they started and 28%

were able to get rid of their egg allergy altogether. >> i love eggs now. >> having an allergic reaction to eggs is very common. most children outgrow it by age 5, but some can have it all their lives and having this particular food allergy can be difficult because eggs are in so many other dishes like breads and desserts. >> the first thing he had was french toast. he loved it and had no reaction, so it was a big celebration. >> but researchers warn parents do not try this without medical supervision. >> we need to do more to find out who is this right for, what is the right regimen and can we move this to be regular clinical practice? >> davida had to endure blood work and ivs, but he said it was worth it. >> it wasn't cool, but it really paid off at the end. >> in fact, oral immunotherapy did not work for all patients. 15% had to stop because of significant reaction. again, don't try this without a doctor. an organization known for stimulating the sorts of

cravings that can kill your diet is sponsoring a new smithsonian exhibit. candymaker mars, incorporated is donating 5 million bucks to the museum for an american enterprise exhibit. that exhibit will trace america's economic development from its agricultural nation to an economic leader. the gallery is scheduled to open in 2015. >> severe weather alert, it was right over us there for a while. >> we're not done with the severe weather and we're under a watch until 9:00. even after today we're not done with the thunderstorms. more storms tomorrow and friday. let's start, though, with the radar because this is the main deal. again there are some warnings in queen anne's county across the bay, but in the immediate area we're okay for the time being, not to say it's going to be a quick commute. there will be some wet roads. we'll zoom in to the storms pushing east of town, the

storms that prompted warnings earlier out toward 50. they've calmed down a bit. we'll show you where they'll run the next hour or so. essentially eastward almost across the bay bridge into chester and over into queen anne's county around queenstown and points east. some improvement for the immediate metro area, but we're still not out of the woods yet. there's still another round of storms up to the north and west of us, in fact, big storms this hour approaching cumberland and hagerstown and winchester with a lot of lightning as well. lower the umbrella, stay away from windows. if you're outdoors and hear thunder but it's not raining, doesn't matter, get inside. live look outside, our live weather cam brought to you by michael and son. we hit 102 or 101 today. we're down to 82. we've been cooled off 20 degrees in the last couple hours with the storms. dew point not great in the 70s, a little sticky, winds out of the north and pressure 29.87 inches of mercury. we've got 70s, 80s and 90s on

the map, haven't had this in a while. we've had only 90s and triple digits, 82 downtown but 70s in gaithersburg and frederick, 91 still in manassas but 81 leesburg and 75 in martinsburg. here's the deal. severe thunderstorm watch until 9:00, hail and damaging winds. storms diminish by midnight. more strong storms are possible tomorrow and some storms are possible even friday and some of those could be hefty. severe thunderstorm watch tonight ending by midnight, watch going until 9:00, lows in the 70s, winds out of the northwest at 10. in the morning a storm or shower is possible, 70s and 80s northwest at 10, not as much sun tomorrow morning as we had this morning. so we'll say partly sunny both in the morning and in the afternoon. not as hot, some thunderstorms, some heavy, some severe, high temperatures around 90 which will feel refreshing. next three days our 9 weather alert codes, yellow, yellow, green, 91 tomorrow, strong

storms still possible, more strong storms friday, 87, good saturday even though there's an isolated thunderstorm chance saturday afternoon, but mainly south of town. next seven days weekend really not bad, sunday keep an isolated storm in, about 91, pretty close to average, a little heat returning monday, tuesday and wednesday, just isolated storms then with temperatures back into the mid- 90s. so again a watch until 9:00, warnings off to the east. the warnings are listed at the bottom of your screen and we'll keep you posted. 65 years ago jackie robinson changed the culture of baseball forever when he took the field as a brooklyn dodger. >> now a group of youngsters are going around the country paying homage to the great no. 42. dave owens caught up with them at nationals park. >> reporter: scorching hot, sun beating down on nationals park. these kids could care less. meet the anderson monarchs from philly.

they've embarked on a cross- country tour. >> 18 cities. >> cleveland. >> pittsburgh. >> over 4,000 miles. >> kansas city. >> iowa. >> detroit. >> 22 days. >> reporter: paying homage to no. 22, jackie robinson every step of the way. >> 66th anniversary. >> reporter: pretty cool to wear his number? >> yes. >> reporter: not your average cross-country tour, though. they're doing is the way robinson and other negro league players did back in the early 1900's on a 1946 vintage clipper bus, no ac. >> no air conditioning, no. >> reporter: wow. >> indeed. >> hot bus ride. >> sometimes we stick our head out the window to get a cool breeze. >> reporter: here's what it looks like inside. 1947 vintage, no renovations in 65 years. the upholstery is original, holes in everything, overhead racks. tell you, what it's hot in here, guys. can you tell? but hey, they're kids.

lack of cool air can't trump meeting a washington nationals baseball player. >> you got to work hard. >> reporter: thus far they've been to the negro league museum in kansas city and after this visit to d.c. it's off to the cal ripken experience in aberdeen, maryland. hot? yes. awe, so heck, yes. >> it's -- awesome, heck yes. >> it's been the experience of a lifetime to be able to share this with my son and this team. it's been a wonderful experience. >> anderson monarchs, no. 1. >> that's what i call dedication. the monarchs wind up their tour this weekend in cooperstown new york where they'll attend the hall of fame induction ceremony before they head back home to philadelphia. you may have heard of jumping the shark, but what about jumping on a shark? more on this close encounter coming up. >> reporter: i'm scott broom in talbot county, maryland, the extreme weather and how it's pushing some farmers to extremes. the drought is on over here and

in at least one case a farmer has simply thrown in the towel and cut down his crops. >> but first the federal government wants to know more about reports of sticking accelerators. we'll tell you what we know so far up next.

back with a consumer alert about a sticky situation. the national highway traffic safety administration is looking into reports of gas pedals getting stuck in some

fords and mazdas. the agency has received almost 100 complaints so far and reports of one death. the problem may be in 700,000 ford escapes and has dray tributes manufactured between 2001 -- mazda tributes manufactured between 2001 and 2004. an update on the computer glitch that gave some united airlines customers the deal of a lifetime. >> they were able to buy round trip tickets from the u.s. to hong kong for just four frequent flyer miles, but the question now is will the airline honor them? >> reporter: to frequent travelers it was the steal of the century, round trip tickets to hong kong for just four frequent flyer points, but you know the old saying if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is? >> they don't care. there's no consumer protection or consumer awareness or attempt to do anything. >> reporter: turns out the dream deal was nothing more than a computer glitch. instead of honoring the tickets and cutting their losses,

united told passengers they could either use the regular amount of miles for the trip or cancel their flight with no penalties. al analic is an expert in travel law. >> they learn standing up and saying we'll protect our reputation -- rather than standing up and saying we'll protect our reputation, they have no reputation anymore. now they say we made a mistake, tough. >> reporter: this isn't the first time united has goofed. out of all the airlines united alone receives over 1/4 of all complaints and that's not being lost on frequent travelers. jeff mcqueen often flies united when he goes home to australia. >> i try not to, but it happens. >> reporter: he's had his fair share of headaches flying the friendly skies and thinks united should pay for their faulty fare. >> you put it out there. that's your promise. if you don't deliver, that's your problem. >> reporter: there have been cases where the airline has been forced to honor its discounted price even if it's a

mistake, but points is a gray area. >> this is frequent flyer mileage and as soon as you wave frequent flyer mileage, it's like the cross to the werewolf. >> the department of transportation says united has to make good on the deal. this is 9 news now. >> some slow moving storms have the 9 weather team declaring a severe weather alert day. let's go straight to chief meteorologist topper shutt. >> some good news, some bad news. the good news, severe thunderstorm warnings gone for the time being in the immediate metro area. the bad news is we still have a watch for the entire metro area until 9:00. let me show you live doppler 9000. up to the north and west is another batch of showers and thunderstorms about to hit cumberland and hagerstown. this will approach winchester in the next 20 minutes and leesburg in the next hour or so. there's also a pretty big storm straddling the prince george's county and charles county line. this at 1 time was a severe

storm. now it's just a heavy storm with heavy rain between brandywine and just east of waldorf and st. charles. this is the 301. straddling 301 pushing south and east as well. so eventually it's headed into northern calvert county, but again good news, no warnings at this time, bad news, there's a watch until 9:00. in fact, there's the watch. it covers the entire metro area. notice there's no bright yellow. so there's no warnings at all at this time even off into the delmarva, no warnings at this time, but the watch is going to continue because the threat is still there. we got a break in temps, 74 hagerstown, 82 downtown and still 93 patuxent river, but we haven't seen 70s and 80s and 90s on one map in quite some time. we have a lot of thunderstorms now approaching cumberland and hagerstown. that will be the second round. we'll track that for you and come back and tell you what codes we've decided upon the next three days because we're