hello, everybody. i'm bruce johnson. tropical storm isaac churning toward the northern gulf coast tonight. the national hurricane center says isaac could make landfall as a category 2 hurricane somewhere between new orleans and the florida panhandle sometime on wednesday. now, the storm has been battering the florida keys tonight and pounding the coast. louisiana and mississippi have both declared states of

emergency. karen brown begins our coverage from key largo. >> reporter: fierce winds whipped through the florida keys, knocking down trees, while isaac's torrential rains caused some flooding in parts of south florida, but by sunday afternoon the dolphins were back out swimming and carol anderson was taking down her storm shutters. >> it was not as bad as i thought it would be. >> reporter: officials in key largo say 23,000 visitors left ahead of the store. even though the beaches remain empty they expect to be fully up and running for the lucrative labor day weekend. isaac is now headed northwest and forecasters say it could make landfall along the northern gulf coast midweek. louisiana's governor issued a state of emergency, and some low lying areas are already being evacuated. new orleans is on high alert. >> one of the things that we've learned here is to be prepared

for the unexpected, and caution is always the better part of wisdom in these regards. >> reporter: hurricane warnings stretch from the florida panhandle to louisiana. on dauphin island in alabama, people are already boarding up their homes. >> all we can do is prep for it, and whatever happens, happens. >> reporter: forecasters say if isaac stays on course, it could make landfall wednesday, on the 7th anniversary of hurricane katrina. karen brown, cbs news, key largo, florida. >> 9news now is reacting to isaac by joining a team of reporters headed to the gulf coast to meet isaac when it reaches shore. we're deploying some new technology. scott broom reports tonight from our mobile newsroom. >> reporter: the only thing certain on the gulf coast tonight, from new orleans all the way to here where i am on the florida panhandle, is uncertainty. in destin on the florida panhandle it's white sand and a

sunset as advertised, but for lorena, who just got married, tomorrow will be time to pack up and go. >> we decided to leave. it's not good to stay here. >> reporter: despite hurricane warnings on the beach here, a lot of other guests are taking a calculated risk that isaac will strike further west. >> so we decided to come east, and we're going ride it out. >> we don't want to drive 10 hours back home so we're going to ride it out. >> reporter: with four states now preparing for a possible impact i'll be prepared to move with the storm in our 9news now mobile newsroom which includes the capability to broadcast while on the move. and isaac does not have to hit tampa to disrupt the convention. a disaster elsewhere could bring politicking to a halt as the nation has to pause to focus on recovery and aid. in destin, florida, scott broom, 9news now. >> and what scott just talked about has happened before. back in 2008 the republican

convention was suspended for a day for a hurricane to hit the gulf coast even though the convention was actually being held inminnesota. our area took a pounding from heavy rain but no ports of damage. we've got video of a waterspout that formed over the potomac river on cob island in charles county. tornado warnings were issued for the southern part of charles county. so what's on the way for monday morning, the first day of disienl district, montgomery, and loudoun county? over to anny hong in the weather center. >> hi, bruce. hey kids, getting ready for school tomorrow? pack the umbrella just in case. i don't expect to have as many storms and showers come through on monday but we still have a chance we could see a few showers. here's a look at your back-to- school forecast. summer is over for a lot of these kids in the area. again, we're looking at mostly cloudy conditions for tomorrow morning. also some areas of fog potentially. showers just possible. temperatures will start out in the 60s and 70s. also want to show you some

pictures we got in from our viewers. this is from jamie in german town, maryland, where she's got this funnel cloud, where we also after severe thunderstorm warning earlier in montgomery and frederick counties. here's also a picture from colonial beach, maryland, of that waterspout. we had that video over in southern charles county and on cob island. this is taken by bob hooker. again, this did prompt a tornado warning for southern charles county, but there were no reports of any damage over land. and there are no plans to survey that as of now. according to the national weather service. live doppler 9000, much quieter around the beltway. still more showers out to the east. look at all the lightning strikes and the storms that went through. some places got two to three inches of rain, especially east of 95. right now closer to home we've got just a couple of spotty showers out toward frederick. we can see most of the heavy rain still out toward the delmarva. we'll talk more about tropical

storm isaac and take a look at your seven-day forecast a little bit later. bruce. >> thanks, anny. the republican party has canceled most of monday's events because of the storm. it is now kram ago four-day lineup into three, starting on tuesday. party officials say mitt romney will now be tom nature as the gop presidential candidate on tuesday. same for vice presidential candidate paul ryan. randall pinkston is in tampa tonight with more on isaac's impact on the republican convention. >> reporter: volunteers for the republican national convention welcomed delegates to tampa sunday night but it is an uninvited guest that's getting most of the attention. the storm, known as isaac, forced party leaders to scrap monday's convention activities. more than 4,000 delegates must now accomplish in three days what they had planned to do in four. >> i think this group will get it done. so i don't think that's going to affect our party in any way, except maybe bring us closer to

together and work harder. we've got to win in november. >> reporter: officially the convention here h open as planned monday but then immediately recess until tuesday. that's when mitt romney will officially receive his party's nomination for president. the impending storm did not deter protesters. members of the occupy movement held a demonstration outside a faith and freedom rally. one protester was arrested for allegedly having a machete strapped to his leg. mitt romney spent the day allegedly rehearsing his acceptance speech. delegates agree, and a shortened convention doesn't scare them. >> republicans are much more organized than democrats so i think we can get it done in three days, and we could probably get it done in a day if we had to. >> reporter: with wind and rain on the way, convention planners are putting safety first. randall pinkston, tampa,

florida. >> vice president joe biden was scheduled to hold campaign stops near tampa on monday and tuesday, but he's canceled those events due to the store. of course, you can stay tuned to 9news now and go on-line to wusa9.com for all the latest on the republican national convention all week long. police are trying to determine what caused two separate accidents in our area tonight in northeast. a car crashed into a pole and overturned and knocked down several wires. matt jablow is there. matt, anybody hurt in that incident? >> reporter: bruce, the call came in right around 9:00 tonight. as you said, a car into a power pole just a few blocks from where i'm standing. after pretty significant rescue operations the driver was extricated from the car and taken to the hospital with serious injuries. meanwhile the entire neighborhood here, perhaps as many as 1,000 customers is now without power because of the electrical lines that came down

after the crash. >> a boom, and the lights flashed, went out, then came back on, then it didn't come back on no more. just a big boom. we don't have any power. and no telling when we're going to have power. but the pole is bent in half. >> reporter: she's exactly right. it's not known at this point how long they will be without power in this neighborhood. as i said, perhaps as many as 1,000 customers in the dark. as soon as we have any updates as far as when the power will be back on in this neighborhood we will be sure to pass it along. >> matt jablow, thanks. a single-car crash sends two people to the hospital including a seriously injured child. that crash happened just after 6:30 tonight in german town. police say the driver struck a utility pole. both the driver and a five-year- old child were taken to the hospital. we're told the child was seriously hurt. police have not yet determined what caused that crash. heavy rain is being blamed for a huge sinkhole in east

baltimore. the sinkhole in the 2300 block of east monument street is so bad authorities forced several residents on the block to leave their homes as a precaution. many of those residents live above storefronts on the block. a department of public works spokesman says right now it appears those buildings are stable but the city didn't want to take any chances. >> the buildings are okay right now, all right. we're hopeful that everything is going to be all right in terms of that, that receiving pretty well stable on either side, but we are concerned enough that we had to get people out. >> you know, people got to live and eat on what we're doing here, and with the street being cut off, there's no foot traffic, and it's pretty rough. >> we're told the smaller version of that sinkhole was filled in the last week as repair crews began trying to fix the drainage pipe that caused the initial problem. tomorrow workers will cover the sinkhole with metal plates and evaluate whether it's safe to start trying to repair that hole yet again. coming up on 9news now this

sunday night a local man gets an unpleasant surprise walking into his garage. that story when we come back. and we're keeping a close watch tonight on tropical storm isaac. that's a live look at ft. lauderdale. stay with us.

a 35-year-old port washington man is charged with murder tonight after turning himself in to police. james howard braddy junior surrendered last night. police say he's charged with first-degree murder in the death of 37-year-old trevor johnson. investigators concluded that braddy shot johnson after discovering him in the home of braddy's ex-girlfriend this month. planned parenthood kicked off a $3 million campaign to counter efforts to cut funding to the organization today. the launch of today's women and watching bus tour comes on women's equality day commemorating the passage of the 19th amendment which, of course, gave women the right to vote. a bus will make its way from arlington to richmond, later to ohio. the mission, to make sure women register to vote in the november election to help protect planned parenthood and

to help provide screening to women. >> the importance of this election to women's health is really the message today, that women, particularly the 3 million women who count on planned parenthood every year for healthcare services, need to make sure they're informed and voting this november. >> government has noplace in our bedrooms, and certainly noplace inside a woman's body. we have to let people know that we will call mitt romney out when he says he wants to get rid of planned parenthood. >> gop presidential candidate mitt romney and other conservatives are on record opposing public dollars for planned parenthood because abortions are performed at those clinics. poisonous snakes may be common around this area than you might think. a herndon, virginia, man found out the hard way when he was bitten by a copper head in his garage. surae chinn has the story and how you might want to protect yourself. >> reporter: john was just

taking his dog out when he stepped on the snake in his garage. the bite sent him to the hospital last week, and he spent three days in intensive care. >> i didn't turn the light on when i went out to the garage, and the dog went running out, and i followed him, and after a few, three or four steps, the snake was on the floor and i stepped on him. >> i felt the excruciating pain up my leg. >> he's like, it's really painful. >> reporter: his foot swelled. doctors gave him antivenom and kept a close eye on him in icu. >> get me something to kill him. so i grabbed a huge knife from the kitchen. >> after knocking him unconscious i cut off his head and took him to the hospital. >> i was surprised how small it was. i thought it would be a lot bigger. >> but he learned, the smaller the snake, the more venomous.

>> anyplace that mice can go, snakes can go. >> reporter: keep wood piles off the ground. >> that's feign here. >> reporter: but this one isn't. >> right by a kid's playground. >> reporter: keep play areas clean. >> this is a perfect habitat for snakes, or another thing that, for example, see this, how the back is open, and you have some standing water. >> reporter: the hannas left dog food in their garage, and they also live next to a creek. jacob says make sure you cut back your lawn. >> they have a home that's right next to nature, and when you have that, you are going to have nature visit you. >> the snake is still present in my mind, and i'm really hoping that i'm going to get over to the have a normal life. >> reporter: wildlife experts say you can find three boy inous snakes in northern virginia. the cotton mouth, and others. contact a local pest control

company. make sure they are wildlife certified and they can help you snake and rodent-proof your home. with area students now headed back to class some lawmakers are calling for the government to crack down on toxic school supplies. a survey of some commune supplies by the center for health environment and justice found that some laden with a toxic chemical. it is banned in toy but it does not extend to vinyl backpacks and lunch boxes. >> why, for instance, would a -- would you ban thalates in a spider-man toy but not in a lunch box or backpack. >> adhd, diabetes, asthma. >> the american chemical council has issued a statement saying there's no reliable

evidence that thalates have ever caused harm to humans. still ahead, summer vacation over for thousands of local students with the new school year monday morning. it will begin with a wet start? we'll update the forecast. and we're tracking tropical storm isaac tonight. that's a live look at ft. lauderdale. we're back in a moment. stay with us.

you didn't see it, but we had a live shot of the state capitol, not ft. lauderdale. it definitely looks dryer tomorrow compared to today. it's been very unsettled this whole weekend. especially today we got a couple of severe thunderstorm warnings earlier. frederick, montgomery county, even some minor flooding. right now things are much quieter. not so quiet, though, out toward the florida keys, and boy look at miami-florida, where it was an ugly day today. tropical storm isaac dumping large amounts of rain. as much as six inches of rain fell in some areas. an average of two to four inches overall.

some wind damage also reported, although not a lot of damage but still more rain expected for the night and into monday. let's go to our computer to show you the tropical satellite image of what is still now tropical storm isaac. and it's a little better organized tonight. in fact, it will continue to strengthen over the next 24 to 48 hours. here is a look at where isaac is supposed to go. now, right now we've got it moving, expected to move west- northwest at around 14 miles per hour. it's gusting up to 75. you can see it's supposed to become a category 1 hurricane, also strengthen to a category 2 hurricane by tuesday night, and then make landfall along the gulf coast as early as wednesday. so we are definitely watching tropical storm isaac. storm surge always big concern. the wet weather here, right now on live doppler 9000 hd, the beltway is drying out, but still, more showers and some heavy rain, even a couple of flood warnings right now out

toward the eastern shore. so we're still looking at some wet weather. you've just been getting pounded out east of interstate 95 and the delmarva. a lot of rain. some people calling in saying, hey, i got two, three inches of rain from this we can questioned. closer to our area, just a couple spots of isolated showers right now, and temperatures are definitely cooling down. oh, we lost our capitol shots. temperatures in the lower 70s, mostly cloudy. upper 60s in gaithersburg, 70 in manassas, 68 north in frederick. keep the umbrella handy tomorrow as the kids are going back to school. we could see some areas of patchy fog monday morning. a few showers are possible. not as weighed spread. we are also looking at the possibility of dealing with the remnants of isaac maybe later in the week into the weekend. we'll get to that in the seven- day forecast. our 9 futurecast, as we put this into motion, overnight a few showers. tomorrow morning most of the showers should be out toward the bay and eastern shore. i think most of us tomorrow

morning will be just dealing with mostly cloudy conditions, maybe some areas of fog, but we could see some showers potentially tomorrow and also during the afternoon hours. and then tuesday night, maybe some showers as well as a cold front comes through, and we'll see cooler conditions by wednesday. overnight, though, mostly cloudy and mild, a few showers possible. keep in mind we could see some patchy fog, lows 65 to 70. monday morning, kids heading back to school. mostly cloudy and mild, maybe a couple showers possible. temperatures starting out tin 60s and 70s. check out your next three days. all right, our 9 weather alert code green for monday, tuesday, and wednesday. again, highs mid-80s for monday. tuesday, a little warmer, upper 80s, only a stray storm possible. wednesday, cooler, lower 80s. looks good, though, for the redskins game playing at home at fedexfield. thursday and friday we heat things up. 89 by thursday. friday, look at that mid-90s. same deal for saturday. we talked about maybe dealing with the remnants of isaac. right now may see some clouds

move in by sunday into the weekend. so we'll see how the models do. maybe a little unsettled, but for now looks like the heat is on for the end of the week. >> any, thanks a lot. it hasn't drawn the same attention as the economy, healthcare, or even jobs, but a california lawyer is seeking answers on a topic about which the obama team is keeping tight lipped. a campaign stop in iowa, you might recall president obama mentioned that he had a stash of the white house beer on the tour bus. that prompted a man to file a freedom of information act to get the recipe. he gained his vj the law and his love of beer to start a brewery in his garage. now he wants to craft a batch of the white house barry to serve at a debate watching home at his home. >> i would like to welcome it into the culture by offering to have a drink with him, bring

him my home brew, we'll have a drink on the white house lawn. >> he isn't alone in his quest to get the recipe. more than 1,000 people signed an on-line petition on the white house website to get the white house to disclose that recipe. the white house makes three types of honey barry. all the honey, get this, is supplied by bees from the south lawn of the white house. still to come on 9news now this sunday night, the nats trying to avoid the sweep. we'll have a sports plus preview coming up next. 

the nationals are a very young team with very little postseason experience. now, talking with the guys this week i got the feeling they were handling that pressure just fine. but something happened this weekend. the nats struggled all series against the phillies, getting outscored 12-5rbgs while the phillies brought out the brooms. it's the first time the nats have been swept since mid-june. there's also reports of some discourse in the clubhouse. we'll talk about all that coming up. >> don't underestimate this ball club. they've got a fine ball club here. we came in, and they had a little momentum, and we got a little banged up. happens. >> now, we've seen the last of robert griffin iii this

preseason. but good news, it ended on a high note. the rookie impressed against indianapolis, but he wasn't the only one. grant paulsen will join me tonight to talk some skins. speaking of impressive, peyton manning needed less than a quarter to prove he is ready to placement he is back we've got highlights from his game against san francisco, plus the rest of tonight's nfl game, and highlights from the barclays golf tournament out at bethpage black. jam packed. rain or shine tomorrow? >> maybe a little bit, otherwise pretty nice tomorrow. >> thanks a lot. have a great week, everybody. bye.