meantime thousands lost power as this latest group of storms rolled through. pepco outages have soared. now more than 11,000 of its customers are in the dark up from five thousand five hundred one hour ago. bge has more than 6,000 without power, most in the bath area, potomac edison -- baltimore area, potomac edison has 3,000 outages. we're getting damage report from these storms. flash flooding on rhode island avenue in northeast d.c. is one example. this is a photo tweeted but a justice engineer -- out by a justice engineer. there were flash floods several weeks ago leaving many homes water damaged. breaking news out of reston where five people have been injured after an airport shuttle was involved in an accident on the dulles access road. it happened in the westbound lanes near the reston parkway

exit. several viewers e-mailed us pictures of the crash. the fire department tells us four people have minor injuries, one person's injuries, though, life threatening. both lanes of the westbound access road are completely closed, as are two lanes of the westbound toll road. we have a news crew on the scene and will bring a live report as soon as they arrive. today's accident comes nearly a year after a deadly accident involving another supershuttle van along the same stretch of roadway. in that case a 31-year-old man from nepal was killed. the 59-year-old driver was charged with reckless driving. a 9news investigation revealed long hours for supershuttle drivers and a record of speed and reckless driving for that particular driver. an update on the computer glitch that caused major delays this past weekend on metro. today the transit agency announced a failed module in an information management network device is to blame. we asked our i.t. team in the building. they say that's basically like

having a bad network card. metro says replacing that module fixed the problem. derek? well, the corruption scandal goes on for mayor vincent gray. today we began to hear from the other side. a bunch of supporters of gray said they would continue to support him and even though he has been dealing with council members who say that they would like to see him resign. meantime tonight president obama's campaign said it plans to return $10,000 donated by d.c. businessman jeff thompson. he allegedly financed that shadow campaign for d.c. mayor vincent gray. as we mentioned today, some of the mayor's supporters rallied on his behalf at the steps of the wilson building. >> reporter: here in front of the wilson building on behalf of mayor vincent gray today, not only do they believe he's innocent of knowing anything about a shadow campaign, they believe when he found out, he passed that information on to federal prosecutors. protestors blasted three council members calling on

mayor gray to resign. >> vince gray has not been charged with anything. however, there's been this ongoing slow dribbling out of leaks. >> reporter: he hasn't been charged, but prosecutors claim that gray defeated incumbent mayor adrian fenty with the help of an illegal war chest of more than $650,000. >> if you're working with an attorney, if you're under legal council, you're a fool not to follow the legal council advice. >> reporter: 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. the chief justice of the u.s. supreme court is stepping into a maryland case about collecting dna samples. justice john roberts today issued an order temporarily blocking an earlier ruling that dna cannot be collected from people arrested for serious crimes. maryland's highest court has said investigators need a warrant. some penn state students are camping outside beaver stadium to protect the statue

of the late football coach joe paterno. an investigation sanctioned by penn state found paterno intentionally failed to take sufficient action to stop former assistant coach jerry sandusky from sexually abusing young boys on campus and there have been calls to take down the paterno statue. more than 10 years after the 9/11 attacks the u.s. may still be vulnerable to similar terrorist attacks. a loophole was revealed at a homeland security committee hearing today. transportation security administration officials say u.s. citizens banned from flying on planes on that. >> fly list can still learn to fly at the nation's flight schools. >> the transportation security administration cannot assure the american people that foreign terrorists are not in this country learning how to fly airplanes. yes or no? >> at this time no. >> right after 9/11 security checks were put in place to prevent foreigners from

attending u.s. flight schools, but u.s. citizens have not been sunned to the same review. at least -- subjected to the same review. at least six activists were arrested on capitol hill today. they chained themselves to large tripods outside the capitol building. those tripods read clean needles now will end aids. their protest comes before a global aids conference that starts in the district sunday. coming up tonight at 7:00 doling out the doe for your drive, the proposed rate hikes for the dulles toll road and it could have commuters seeing double or maybe seeing red. we'll break it down year by year. >> still to come in this half hour we're learning more about the fallout from this spring's secret service prostitution scandal. >> but first the length some david hasselhoff fans seem to be willing to go to feel closer to their favorite star. we'll be right back. ?gw?qyjw

there wasn't a storm last night, but an old huge tree came down along georgetown pike last night. albert roeth, iii died when that car hit his car and crushed it as he sat in traffic in great falls. surae chinn has more on the investigation. >> reporter: with severe weather moving through our area tree experts say it's these types of conditions that helped weaken trees like this one and they also say the vines here helped hold the tree up and hid the rotted roots. >> it's just so incredibly random. >> reporter: it's what people here are talking about. >> i guess maybe when your number is up, it truly is up. >> reporter: they say it could have been me. it could have been anyone. >> i had driven under that same area an hour and a half earlier, for example, and it could have been anybody. >> reporter: a freak of nature, no one saw it coming unless you talk with rob lazzaro. >> here we are 34 years later,

tree not looking much better, i meant danger of falling. traffic has increased -- imminent danger of falling, traffic has increased. >> reporter: lazzaro say community activist and had petitioned some 30 five years ago to take down -- 35 years ago to take down rotting trees in great falls but was met with opposition. >> two weeks ago somebody gave me a picture of that tree and i was -- i was going to set up a meeting and fry to get something moved on that and i can't tell you -- try to get something moved on that and i can't tell you how sad i feel today not doing it. >> reporter: but now the tragedy has moved him to do something about the trees and folks have been calling into fairfax county government to have the trees further inspected. fairfax county urban forest management director came out to do just that. >> here we are 34 years later, tree is not looking much better, imminent danger of falling, traffic increased and visibility has gotten worse and after seeing this i just can't

sit still. i think the call is going out, let's do the right thing. >> reporter: the white oak had stood more than 150 years and it's left this community appreciating more of what they have. >> i told my wife that i loved her. >> reporter: people have been stopping here snapping pictures because of the sheer mass of this tree and its tragedy. there have been four deaths because of downed trees in fairfax county in the last three weeks. that matches the number in the past 20 years. in great falls, surae chinn, 9 news now. >> a footnote here in laurel, the city council is scheduled to pass a bill next week that would force property owners to take care of their trees. they would have to remove dead or dying trees from their property in 30 days of being told there's a problem. if there's no action taken, the city would be able to take down the tree after 75 days and bill the property owner for the removal process. you can learn more about some of the signs a tree is sick at www.wusa9.com. have you ever heard the saying not to hassle the hoff?

what about just stealing him outright? that's what's happening with life size cutouts of actor david hasselhoff all over new england. here's the spokesman for a change convenience stores who says the signs are there as ads, but the owners say people just keep making off with them. still ahead dealing with the drought gripping the nation in our own backyard.

9 wants you to know more about the fallout from that spending scandal at the general services administration. our colleagues at federal times say gsa canceled a major energy conference in st. louis next month because the conference did not meet the new standards put in place last spring after our report about wasteful spending at a 2010 conference in las vegas. it appears this will not be any criminal charges for members of the military in the wake of april's secret service prostitution scandal in

colombia. the a. reports seven army soldiers and two marines are getting -- the a.p. reports seven army soldiers and two marines are getting military punishment. tonight the secretary of agriculture says about 1/3 of the counties in this country are under some form of a disaster declaration because of the drought. the president is calling on congress to offer farmers assistance. >> now it's all hands on deck. the president is very concerned about making sure we do everything we possibly can to help as many producers through this difficult circumstance. >> this is the worst drought in 25 years. >> not much of our area is included in those drought designations, but the hardest hit is on maryland's eastern shore where drought conditions are at extreme levels. scott broom is in talbot county where agriculture is king and where the economic pain is expected to be sharp. >> reporter: look around me in

this field in talbot county and you are looking at something now one can remember seeing around here. this is a cornfield that was so withered and burned by drought that the farmer simply threw in the towel and decided to cut it down months early. >> it almost looks like it was hit with a blowtorch which was again that heat. >> reporter: rain and vegetable farmer chip counsel says he's never seen anything like it this early in a summer season. >> there's literally nothing there. >> the grain side of the operation, which is the majority of agriculture in maryland, is a complete disaster. most of our grain, corn, soybeans and wheat go to the poultry industry. them being our largest customer in maryland, we're deeply concerned about what they're doing to ensure supply. everybody is going to get hurt in in drought, but ultimately it will take a while. >> reporter: on counsel's 1,600 acres in talbot county the soil has turned to dry powder. a neighbor's pond is drying up. the only salvageable crops are

in fields with expensive drip irrigation fed by wells. now even the groundwater in some shallow wells is showing sewns of drying up according -- signs of drying up according to the county's agriculture extension agent. along route 50 some crops like mellons and tomatoes actually -- melons and tomatoes actually thrive in hot dry weather as long as they are irrigated and if they are, the quality of these this year is as high as it's been in some time. >> we've bought canteloupes, watermelons, tomatoes. >> we've got to have more watt than we're getting now. that's for sure -- water than we're getting now. that's for sure. >> severe weather alert day. >> you know what? there's severe thunderstorm warnings for parts of the delmarva. it may come with some hail unfortunately, just can't catch a break. we showed you lightning earlier around the monument.

check out this lightning strike down toward ft. meade. that's pretty amazing. remember, you hear thunder. you need to begin doors. you don't mess around with light -- go indoors. you don't mess around with lightning. it results in more fatalities than hurricanes and blizzards. let's start with dive doppler. we do see -- live doppler. we do see some warnings out to the east across the delmarva. the metro area is quiet, but there are a couple storms popping up, first south and east of town. this is a respectable storm down toward malcomb pushing off south and east, so eventually headed toward hunting town. we'll zoom out to the west, a couple storms west of town are gaining some strength. we have one around chantilly going out route 50 and another one east of 15 towards the plains as you go way out 66. again, those aren't severe, but

they're getting stronger, especially the one just east of the plains. we'll widen out the radar. there's another round of storms off to the north and west on the other side of i-81. we'll put this into motion. where will these storm goes in the next hour or so? these will drift south and east crossing i-81 in some spots. we aren't done with the storms tonight, nor are we done with the storms after we get through today. we're looking at storms again tomorrow and also on friday. the big picture, radar and lightning, there go our first batch of storms. here comes the next batch now entering the panhandle of maryland west of i-81. don't let your guard down. keep the umbrellas lowered. a little wet on our live weather cam brought to you by michael and son. down to 82. the high was 101 at national and dulles. a new record high at dulles. dew point 71, that's not comfortable, winds out of the north at 10, pressure 29.87 inches of mercury steady. this is kind of cool, 70s, 80s,

90s, 82 downtown, 79 gaithersburg, back up to 91 manassas but only 81 in leesburg. we got at least a break in terms of temps, although it's quite humid. severe thunderstorm watch until 9:00, damaging winds and hail the a man threat, strong storms -- the main threat, strong wind and hail. tonight severe thunderstorms ending by midnight, partly cloudy, muggy, lows in the 70s, winds northwest at 10, in the morning showers and thunderstorms possible, 70s and 80s thursday morning and more showers and storms in the afternoon, much less sun tomorrow, not as hot, highs around 90, winds northwest at 10. the next three days, yellow, yellow, green, 87 friday, risk of strong storms, 89 saturday. we'll make it good because they'll be isolated and temps will be around average. next seven days pretty good shape sunday. we're around 90 under partly cloudy skies and heating up a little bit next week. we're talking mid-90s on

monday, tuesday and wednesday with just isolated thunderstorms. so again no warnings right now. we're just good, watch till 9:00. but we've had some power outages and damage, we'll talk more about that with matt jablow in northwest washington where we understand a tree has fallen on a house at western avenue and arcadia place. what can you tell us, matt? >> reporter: that's right. i'm on arcadia place in northwest washington just off western avenue. this is a tree lined neighborhood hit pretty hard by that derecho a few weeks ago, trees down all over the place. this neighborhood was hit hard by the storm that rolled in late this afternoon. a large tree behind me came down, collapsed on several power lines knocking out power to many homes in this neighborhood. also brushing a house, one house, on arcadia place. firefighters told me about seven people were evaluated for injuries. fortunately no injuries were reported. you might be able to see the tree that collapsed has a hollowed out root system which indicates it was very prone to something like this happening.

essentially the root system of this tree was dead, very much like what happened to the tree yesterday in great falls that tanically killed a person there. fortunately -- tragically killed a person there. fortunately no one was killed or even hurt here, seven people evaluated for injuries, nobody taken to the hospital. nobody was hurt d.c. fire says. power will be now the this neighborhood a little bit at least. i'm told pepco is evaluating the situation. hopefully they will not be out of power as belong as they were a few weeks ago. >> looks like that earlier strong, strong storm really weakened some of these major trees. >> it did and you get a second storm and they're already in kind of a weakened position and not good. let's turn to some good news and rg3. >> that's right. you can keep these rg3 jerseys if you already bought one, not a waste of money. is he officially a redskin. we'll break -- he is officially a redskin. we'll break down the details of his contract. >> plus can tiger woods finally end his winless streak. he talks about his chances next in sports.

now 9 sport with kristen berset, the best sports in town. >> it took a little longer than many would have liked, but fret no more. robert griffin, iii is officially a redskin. he had missed the last couple days in ashburn with his fellow rookies while the two sides worked on a few final details, but he rejoined the team this morning after signing a four- year deal worth just over $21.1 million in guaranteed money. that includes a $13.8 million signing bonus and an option for

a fifth year. he'll earn the rookie minimum 380,000 during his first season. now it was evident rg3 who is happy to put all these wheelings and dealings behind him. he sent out this tweet this morning saying well, people, it's time to go to work. off the unemployment line and oh, yeah, hail to the redskins. the entire team reports next wednesday with training camp starting the following day. capitals are all about bringing back familiar faces this season. they've hired former capital cally o-hanson for coach. after a long trip home late monday night the washington nationals turned around and put on one of their best performances of the season. the nats took a two-run lead into the 9th inning last night only to see new york take the lead back, but the nats rallied from behind not once but twice for their 52nd win of the

season and ultimately it was a wild pitch that gave the nats the w. the two sides back at it again. chris young going for new york, jordan zimmerman for the nats tonight. tiger woods having a pretty decent year. he's won three tournaments so far, but it's those pesky majors that eluded him four years now. this week he is the odds on favorite to win the british open. tiger says it's just a matter of time. >> i just try to put myself there and i think that if i continue putting myself there enough times, then i'll win major championships. >> topper, prediction? >> he might do it, no. lee westwood. >> westwood. how about your guy? >> i would cry if phil won. severe thunderstorm watch until 9:00, update the warnings for you at 7:00. >> we'll have much more on that tonight at 11:00. derek is back at 7:00. we'll see you later.