. 9news now special coverage of hurricane sandy begins now. we're taking a live look right now at chesapeake beach -- rehobath. hurricane send 250 miles east of virginia beach. good morning. welcome to 9news. our expanded coverage tracking hurricane sandy. today is monday, october 29th. >> monica has the time saver traffic, and of course howard has been studying his maps all night. he has the latest information on

sandy. we'll begin with a look at the impact that is already affecting our region. >> absolutely. that means the federal government is closed today. pretty much every local government is closed in our area. >> emergency personnel are still being asked to report in. every major public transportation agency is closed today, including metro transit and vre. almost every flight in and out of our region has been canceled. and so you are advised to call your airline. mark is shut down today. amtrak has canceled most northeast corridor trains. >> today is the third day of an extended weekend for most school systems in our region. and we have all of this on our website at wusa9.com, also running at the bottom of the screen and we'll keep it updated 24/7. all of the rain and wind associated with this storm are expected to leave several thousand of our neighbors without power. we hav on our phone a

representative from pepco. let's go to howard first. >> howard, tell us what's happening. >> well, the storm got stronger overnight, seeing the pressure drop more, one of the lowest pressures ever reported for hatteras. winds will be increasing throughout the day. 40 miles an hour, 5:00. gusting to 50, 60 by then. we'll see it move in from east to west. watching the conditions. in the next two to three hours, you'll see a dramatic rise in the winds and waves hitting the thannic. you can barely see the storm on the radar here. up the mid-atlantic, we've got this area of heavy, heavy rain, which has been along the coast. got reports out of prince frederick, about 2.5 inches. reports of over 5 inches already in the reedville area, northern neck of virginia. heavy rains continue now moving frts bay and the eastern shore

over to the metro. in the mountains, we've got snow. not going to talk much about that. above 2500, 3000 feet, blizzard warnings in effect from garrett county through the highcountry in west virginia. could be a foot or more of wind-driven, wet snow there. here's the latest on sandy. 7:00 right now, 5:00 advisory, the last one we have. we'll have another advisory, intermediate one at 9:00 a.m. 946 millibars. this dropped 4 millibars between 2:00 and 5:00 a.m., sign of a very strong and strengthening storm. that is a very low pressure, moving north at 15. we talked about the turn it would make. notice the northwest path, become northeast, now moving to the northwest. looks like it could have winds even stronger a little later today. forecast has 90 mile-an-hour winds. landfall at 10:00, 11:00 tonight south of atlantic city. devastating to the jersey coast. raritan bay, southern manhattan,

could have storm surge up to 10, 11 feet in spots here. southshore, long island, northshore. long island sound is going to get a lot of water from this. this storm will move inland here. by tomorrow afternoon, look at this, by tonight, 2:00 a.m. south of philly, maybe wilmington delaware, crossing into northern maryland. tomorrow afternoon early, city 60 mile-an-hour storm, not far from harrisburg. with that sort of path and this massive wind field, we're talking we could see gusts to 70 miles an hour, even more right here in the dc area. strongest winds will be north and east, a little less south and west. massive wind field with this storm. let's show you winds and waves right now. near 30 feet east of hatteras. this out here, that could be 40-plus out in the open atlantic, with 25 feet good ways east of virginia beach. it's this buoy i've been watching, 15 miles east of

rehobeth. winds gusting near 25 miles an hour offshore. 40 miles an hour onshore. we've had gusts near 30 in washington with sustained wind out of the north at 18 miles an hour. closer look at some of that rain that's coming across the bay, this is an intense rain band here. because of that, we have flood problems already for some of the rivers, streams, creeks, dawson creek. baltimore city dealing with runoff from intense rains. very heavy rains across cal bert and st. mary's, prince george's, anne arundel, even toward dc, rains starting to pick up. picking up out to the west. just not as heavy, western lowden and fairfax. slowly, but it's coming. the warnings, seneca creek and dawsonville, montgomery county, baltimore area and most of the eastern shore now dealing with flood warnings and we'll likely see a lot more of that

unfortunately with the very heavy rain we'll be dealing with. the winds, that's going to be the other big problem here. rainfall totals, going to see 6 inches in dc, maybe a foot south and east, where they have already had quite a bit of rain from yesterday and overnight. and the tropical storm force winds will be moving in probably in the next few hours. here we go, starting at 9:00. these winds in orange are gusts to almost 60 miles an hour and above. red is the hurricane force winds. this is a sustained wind forecast from the national hurricane center. this is a massive wind field. look at this, tropical storm winds past charlottesville, all the way up into maine. this is an enormous storm. the more damaging winds from new york all the way down to norfolk and dc here, by 8:00 tonight. your hurricane force winds along the coast may actually get close to the metro as we get into the overnight hours. this is tonight, overnight, especially dangerous, trees coming down, power going out. please, i urge you to sleep in the lowest level of your home if you've got any tall trees anywhere near your house that

could potentially come down and hit it. tomorrow morning, 8:00, still dealing with many gusts, over 60 miles an hour. maybe over 70 early. we'll stay with strong winds through early afternoon. the very strong winds through early afternoon. then we'll see that sort of pull off a little bit by tomorrow evening. it's going to be tonight, through middle of the day, midafternoon tomorrow that we have the words of it. you really gotta stay up on this. temperatures, going to be a cold storm. we're talking a hurricane, but it's a cold hurricane, if you will, with mid to upper 40s in the shenandoah valley, 52 in dc, 50 in eastston, bay at 55. 10 1/2 inches of snow a few years ago. we had 3 1/2 inches of snow in montgomery county, and dad an amazingly dangerous tropical system. winds by 5:00, 6:00 gusting to 50, 60 mile-an-hour range, as temperatures are steady or

slowly falling. tonight, we dip into the low to mid-40s. winds tonight could gust 70, if not 80 miles an hour in a few spots. very dangerous tonight. tomorrow, we stay in the mid-40s, with the heavy rain and wind in the morning, showers and wind in the afternoon. only in the mid-40s. by wednesday, showers here and there, 56 degrees on halloween. there's the rest of your seven-day forecast. passing shower friday, still cool. weekend starts cool, finishes off milder. i'll remind you, when all is said and done this, is the weekend that we turn the clocks back and gain an hour of sleep. we'll need a lot more than that when this is over. because of you and our team, we've known that this is coming from several days now. all my conversations with friends yesterday and at the grocery store, i saw that everyone was preparing for this, which is a good thing. now, what you want to remember is, when you see what i have for you on the roadways right now it's literally the calm before the storm. it's just the beginning. we just have a few road closures and light volumes.

my biggest concern today, tonight and tomorrow is going to be debris, power lines down, flooding issues as well. that's going to be the biggest concern on the roadways. let's start off with your public transportation. they planned early as well. metro told us they decided to close the system last night. therefore, you will not have rail bus, metro access, ride-on, all of those services suspended. you can get information on our website, wusa9.com, metro alert for updiets as well. if you're planning to use beach drive, little falls parkway or sligo parkway, portions of those roads are closed. crews there tell us that's in anticipation of flooding problems that they usually have when it rains hard. and all local airports remain open, but most flights, of course, are canceled. you want to plan ahead and call ahead for that northeast corridor and all your flights there. if you're planning to use any other public transportation, of course marc, dash bus, fairfax, connector, all of those canceled

for today, most probably for tomorrow. those decisions will be made later today. bay bridge, level 1 wind restrictions. that means 40 to 49 miles an hour. no house or empty box trailers. again, that will change as the day progresses and the winds increase. now, if you're planning to head outside, let's take a live look. here's what it looks like first at the bay bridge. i was on the phone with maryland state highway's laura rakowski, and she tells me at the bay bridge, restrictions, and further east is closed at golf course road. 90 remains open. let's go over to virginia. southbound 95, there was an accident near kwanaco. that is closed. wet road conditions. no delays for the rest of you trying to get to work. i'll be up with more updates later in the broadcast. >> thank you, monica. coming up on 7:14. all the rain and wind associated with this storm are expected to

leave several thousand of us without power. >> and a lot of people would like to know. pepco, are you ready? clay anderson from pepco is on the phone. tell me what preparations have you made, mr. anderson? >> we made automated calls last week to tell our customers that the storm was approaching and that they need to prepare their homes, their residences, their businesses for emergency preparedness kits. here at pepco, we've already worked -- we're starting our 24-hour -- actually over the weekend, 24/7 now with our customer care operation, also here our secondary rows, storm rows which we are involved with, and we will continue for the duration of the storm. out of town crews started moving in over the weekend. we do have crews that are in place, hundreds of men and women now in place from alabama and louisiana on the system now. let me say that again. they are on the system now. and we expect more to come in, but that will probably be early

today and possibly before the strong winds move in. everyone is asking for mutual assistance from maine down to virginia, but with us, it's safety first. we want to make sure that our listeners, your listeners, our customers realize that this is the time today to find that wool blanket, that wool sweater, that wool coat, because as you said, this is cold temperatures. these will be cold temperatures associated with these winds as they blow through tonight and tomorrow. >> clashings you say these crews from out of town are on site right now. what are we talking about? the ones who will put the wires back up, ones cutting trees down? who did you bring in? >> yes. yes. and yes. >> okay. >> we did bring in additional tree trimmers. we do have linemen and their trucks. we have the whole gamut. for us today, making sure their equipment is checked out, making sure they are fine and rested. we about 13, 1400 personnel for the restoration effort on the

property now, between our crews and those that are here. we're expecting more. so we are prepared and we are awaiting the storm, as all of you are. >> if a resident, when a resident loses power, what should that resident do? >> well, the resident should do, when the lights go out, call us. 1-877-pepco-62. 1-877-737-2662. again, we have beefed up our customer care contingent here. we have more men and women on the phones awaiting those calls when it does happen, particularly downed wires. even if your power's on, if you hear or call from a friend or relative, they say it is a wire down. whether it's telecommunications or not, let pepco make that determination, whether energized or whether we need to deenergize that. do not attempt to put the wire back in place, put it near the pole, place it away from the street, whatever, whatever. call us with a downed wire,

again at pepco-62. that is a high priority. >> that number again? >> 1-877-3762. >> clay anderson from pepco, thank you very much. we begin with a look at conditions to our east. >> ko im is in chesapeake county with a look at things there. hi, ko. >> reporter: hi, andrea. howard confirmed that it is cold. we're standing in the parking lot next to the dock here. as you can see behind me, there are several puddles forming already and the sun is starting to come up. with that, we see a bunch of people out and about, maybe couple people heading in for their morning commute. this bayside community is calling hurricane sandy's arrival an unwelcome one. we'll head over to the dock here. follow me and we'll jump down to the sidewalk and we jumped over

a puddle. this has formed overnight. we're seeing it come up to the edge here. and behind us, all the boats are tied down, ready to stay here for the brunt of the storm, which is yet to come, as sandy makes her turn, we're seeing the winds are not quite picking up yet, just here in chesapeake beach. we are seeing the boats rock a little bit, but the rain is really starting to come down. it had been steady and we know that it will be a long morning for us, maybe for a lot of people at home. this town, as dc and maryland and virginia, under a state of emergency. the mayor is asking that people stay home so that crews, when and if they need to, have full access to roads, to clean up debris and whatnot. as far as we know this afternoon, chesapeake beach has a trash pickup schedule, but if that changes, we'll let you know. we also know that yesterday afternoon, they opened up a shelter at huntington high school, and they will -- if the

power goes out, they will open up town hall so people can charge their batteries. in the meantime, you can post pictures on our facebook page, tweet them to us on twitter or instagram. back to you, andrea. >> ko im, reporting live from chesapeake beach down in calvert county. and wusa 9 will be with you throughout the storm. we'll be on the air, around the clock. our entire newsroom is out in full force. and today, the 9news storm alert hotline is up and ready to answer your questions and concerns. there, you see our operators here standing by. and throughout the day, we will have people here to answer your questions about shelter and any other information, updated information on closings and outages. and we have an important reminder for you, because most people are worried about losing power, but we want you to know that whether you lose electricity or not, all of our news will be covered, streamed

live on our mobile spot, m.wusa9.com. you can stream us live on our mobile site, m.wusa9.com. so if you lose power, you can watch 9news now on your tablet or your mobile device and you can get all the up-to-date information. we're going to take a break. >> we'll be right back. you're watching 9news now.

it is 7:23. we are tracking sandy. and our team coverage of hurricane sandy begins with kristen fisher. we just lost kristen fisher's

live shot in rehobeth beach. >> we do have andrea mccarron in bethesda and we understand that little falls parkway is already closed, andrea? >> reporter: yes, good morning. right behind me stle falls parkway. it is closed between river road and mass avenue. pretty typical during storms, standing water on the roadways. i'm told that officials closed it last night. but my partner, mark and i arrived at this location about an hour ago and he said to me, oh, my goodness, is that woman waiting for a bus? and sure enough, there was a lady who had not gotten word last night that all metro buses and trains were canceled for today. she had been waiting at least an hour. she said, oh, my god, what am i going to do? i pretty much told her the only option was a cab at this point. she was trying to get to silver springs, very dismayed. i immediately took to twitter, because that's what we do in this age. and i asked people to help

spread the word, please, that all metro trains and buses are canceled. i've been very pleased and surprised how many people are retweeting that, letting people know, because there's always a couple of people that slip through the cracks. a couple of other observations in bethesda morning, number one, there is a fair amount of traffic this morning. the government is closed, all schools are closed, early voting in maryland has been canceled today. mark and i were pretty surprised that there was the level of traffic that there is this morning. another observation, of course saturday was a beautiful day this weekend. i know a lot of my neighbors were raking their leaves into the streets and that has proven to be a real problem this morning. a lot of the roads are covered with wet leaves. that is making driving

particularly treacherous. again, we're at little falls parkway and river road. little falls closed between river and massachusetts avenue. again, metro trains, buses canceled. that's it from here. we will be relying on you our viewers to tell us the key trouble spots throughout montgomery county and beyond. e-mail or post on facebook or tweet us. back to you. >> good advice, and good suggestions, andrea. howard, take it away. >> looks like the waves are coming 15 feet onshore already in rehobeth beach. offshore, pushing 24, 25 feet, 15 miles offshore. i think in the next couple of hours, they will see a dramatic increase in the winds and the waves right along the coast. for us, we will see the increase in the rain and the winds. the rain now has already increased. winds will probably be picking

up after lunchtime. folks, if you've got to run out, you got just a few more hours at that. we really got to hunker down. starting with the day planner here, we do expect rains to be increasing. sunrise in a few minutes there. don't expect to see sun until sometime wednesday, maybe late tuesday with a little luck. noon time temp, same as it is now, 052. slowly dropping temperatures this afternoon, 50 degrees and increasing winds. by 5:00, i would imagine the winds could be gusting to 50 miles an hour even here in dc and higher than that to our east. we see the center of the storm, which is out here, just outside of radar range to see the real middle of it. what you're seeing are some of these bands of heavy rain that continue to pound the outer banks of the carolinas. then the shore areas have been seeing tremendous rains, which have been moving across the bay toward us. we do have snow in the mountains. there are blizzard warnings out with higher elevations above 2500, 3000 feet going to get pounded. that's a dangerous situation in west virginia, even up to

garrett county. our own threat is coming in from the east with the heavy rain and heavy wind. the rain will come first, making things soggy. when the winds come in, imagine the loose ground not able to hold the trees. lots of trees will come down in this situation, where you've got a hurricane with winds of 885 miles an hour now, even stronger. this thing keeps going up every time we get a new advisory, gusting to 105. it could potentially be a 90 mile-an-hour or stronger storm when it makes landfall tonight. it's going to make that turn, moving north now, making the turn to the northwest very shortly, if it hasn't already and slam into southern new jersey. tremendous wind field. 400, 500 miles of tropical storm force winds from the center. north of atlantic city, doesn't mean that much of a difference for what we'll feel here in dc. tuesday morning, that's tonight, 2:00 a.m., it's going to be south of philly, pushing across northern delaware. then it crosses into northern maryland and slowly makes a turn

toward harrisburg by tuesday afternoon, 2:00. then it will start to move up into central and northern pennsylvania during the overnight hours tomorrow night into wednesday morning. so this is a long duration wind and rain storm. it's going to be devastating in many, many ways. let's show you the forecast, sustained winds from the national hurricane center. by 9:00, we could start getting the the winds. this may be a little bit deep here on the west side. we start getting some of those tropical storm force winds getting closer to the metro. strong, really strong winds starting to get over 58, 60 miles an hour by 8:00 p.m. potential hurricane force winds from delaware up toward atlantic city, cape may. just about everybody's going to see winds gusting 40 to 50 if not overnight here in the metro and especially east of town, 60 to 700, 75 potentially. i'm concerned when i see this large area of hurricane force

winds from the hurricane center from dc to ocean city up toward around trenton, new jersey. this will weaken somewhat as the storm moves in. tomorrow morning, northeastern maryland will be dealing with the highest winds. here in the metro, still winds frequent gusts at 65, maybe 70 miles an hour. as we get into the early afternoon, strongest winds dc north will start to weaken and relax a little bit. but even in the evening hours, a very windy tuesday night. winds could still be gusting 40 to 50 miles an hour. finally by wednesday, we get breezy. some gusts wednesday morning will still be over 40 miles an hour. then increasing -- improving conditions after that. here's a look at the wind and the waves currently from sandy. we've got wave heights offshore in virginia beach, 25 feet. about the same offshore rehobeth. but the winds are gusting to near 50 miles an hour, sustained at 38. here in town, gusting to 29. along the shore, ocean city, now gusting to near 40 miles an hour out of the north. this is going to bring in colder

air and a very chilly night tonight into tomorrow. torrential rains also. here's another look at the radar. heavy rains across the bay, from dc over toward the bay, with snow in the mountains. want to show you the doppler here. if you got to travel, think twice. heavy rains, flood warnings up in the baltimore area, most of the eastern shore already under flood warnings. high wind warning in effect to tomorrow night, flood watch for tomorrow night, blizzard warnings in the mountains and of course hurricane force wind warnings for the chesapeake bay and the atlantic coast. we could have wave heights even in the bay exceeding 7 feet. southern maryland, i can't imagine anybody in a boatright now. southern maryland seeing the heavy rain to reedville. in the metro, moderate to heavy rain across much of the region, now moving into lowden county, fairfax, but western fairfax, starting to pick up. a dangerous situation developing as we speak. flood warnings, seneca creek,

dawsonville, montgomery counties, under flood warnings already. the entire state of delaware under flood warnings. temperatures, before we get to the forecast, low 50s right now. we've got mid-40s in in the shenandoah valley. blizzard warning up there, unbelievable. it was a year ago that we had the snow in the mountains. 10 inches in smithsburg. this was the same storm that ended up giving almost two feet aacross the street parts of new england. outside right now, cloudy skies, rain, 52 degrees, north wind at 18, gusting to 29. barometer, down to 29.47. looking at the forecast, it's a wet one, severe weather alert today with sandy. 52, wind gusting to 50 by evening, could be gusting 70 or higher overnight, as we stay in the mid-40s on tuesday. heavy rain and wind in the morning. heavy winds, showers in the afternoon.

with luck, we'll see tapering of the rain tomorrow afternoon. by wednesday, still breezy, mid-50s. could be a shower or two. rest of your seven-day forecast, friday, passing shower. then this weekend, looking a little milder sunday. this is the weekend where we turn the clocks back, as we fall back and gain an hour of sleep. stick around. 9news now special coverage of hurricane sandy will continue in a moment.

. we're tracking sandy here on wusa 9. as mentioned earlier, all dc government facilities and buildings are closed today. starting at 10:00 this morning, five dc public recreation centers will operate as emergency shelters and recovery sites. and they include guy, mason recreation center, 3600 calvert street northwest. emery recreation center at 5801

georgia avenue northwest. turkey thicket recreation center located at 1100 michigan avenue northeast. deanwood recreation center at 1350 49th street northeast. and bald eagle recreation center, located at 100 joliet street southwest. residents are also asked to please call 311 to report downed trees. call 911 only for true emergencies. all dc area residents are being asked to stay home and indoors. right now, there is only one shelter in virginia and it is located in the stafford county area. the shelter is the gale middle school. it will open at 10:00 this morning, located at 100 panther drive in fredericksburg. montgomery county has three shelters which will open at noon today. they are at white oak community recreation center. that's at 1700 april lane in

silver spring. this shelter in silver spring is for both people and their pets. the white oaks shelter is the only one accepting pets. the other two shelters open in montgomery county are for people only. they are the activity center at bohrer park at 506, and midcounty community recreation center on queens guard road in silver springs. and there are two shelters available for residents in prince george's county. ch flowers high school located at 10,001 ardwick road is open now. a second shelter at ritchie coliseum at the university of maryland campus will open at 10:00 a.m. that's located in college park. billy simons with rusten insurance joins us to talk with us this morning. >> what do we need to know?

>> you need to keep your important papers, family medical history, checking reports, tax returns, that sort of thing, up off the ground. get them out of the basement actually. i think a lot of people that haven't had wet basements in the past are going to misjudge this storm, because you've got a lot of wind, got a lot of rain, and you need to get them up off the floor or save them in big tupperware boxes. there are smartphone apps that you can scan it, e-mail it to a safe cloud location. don't get the papers and old baseball cards and stamp collections and that sort of thing and put them up in the attic, but murphy's law says a tree's going to go through your roof. then you've done yourself in. but bring them up probably where you'll be and make sure that for insurance purposes, you've got claim numbers if you, like me, you get a mountain of mail and sort of funnel through it and

kind of put it in a pile. go through, and if you can't locate it, go on the web now before we all lose power and find those numbers. >> and these are the kinds of things we should have practiced all year long, for any kind of emergency, whether fire, water or snow, have the one thing you can pick up with all of your information. what about putting things on thumb nails, thumb drives or dvds and taking those, would that help? >> i think if you put too much information on a thumb drive, it's too easy to lose. i think it's better to have a cloud space that you can access from a mobile device, or a safety deposit box. of course if trees go down and the power goes out and the bank's not open, you don't have those things. back when i was a kid, we had the poison control center and the phone number for emergency services before there was 911. maybe you keep something like that in a cupboard that's got insurance claim information, doctors phone numbers, that sort of thing. >> it's so important to have those papers now. >> absolutely. >> once an emergency occurs, then you're running and you

don't know where it is. >> that's right. >> we're worried about the water surge and the flooding that you talked about. >> sure. >> if you -- do you have to have flood insurance to make that claim in order to get money back? >> flood insurance is a funny thing. there's got to be a certain area affected by the flood and there's gotta be, you know, water in your basement isn't going to help. >> billy simons with rusten insurance, thank you for the help. we're going to take a break. we'll be right back.

. welcome back. 7:40, 52 degrees this morning. rain falling in dc, cloudy skies, temperature steady or slowly falling this afternoon as the winds really start to crank up. we've got sunrise, just occurred at 7:32. it will set at 6:11. most of us will be hunkered down today. as we're looking at sandy, it's going to be a nasty situation for us. let's talk about sandy's winds. by 5:00 p.m., gusts between 50, maybe up to 60 miles an hour, higher gusts off to the east. by 8 8:00, we could be gusting to 60 to 70, especially across the bay, into the bay area. overnight, gusts could top 70 miles an hour at the height of it. it really is going to be dangerous period tonight. i'm urging everybody, sleep

downstairs, if you got trees near your house, sleep in the lowest level. that timeframe for the worst looks to be between 8 8:00 and noon tomorrow. so, yes, we are anticipating conditions to be going downhill as the storm gets closer. watching it, the 5:00 advisory, already turned to the northwest now. you see that? north to northwest is the motion it will be taking with winds at 85, gusting to 105 around the center of the circulation. looks like it will actually strengthen a little bit as it heads towards the coast, with the potential landfall around 10:00, 11:00, south of atlantic city. tremendous wind field, hurricane force winds extending more than 100 miles from the center, tropical storm force winds 400, 450 miles, 500 miles potentially from the center of circulation. an amazing storm. unfortunately, terrible damaging storm also. 2:00, still 75 mile-an-hour winds south of philly, northern delaware. by tomorrow at 2:00 in the afternoon, still could have a storm of 60 mile-an-hour winds as it moves into south central pennsylvania and for us, that

means an extended period of wind damage, of heavy, heavy rains. quick look at sandy's winds and waves. you can see 29-foot waves offshore of hatteras. 24-foot waves already offshore rehobeth by 15 miles. as you look at the scale, looks like we're in the 15-plus foot wave category coming onshore in our area beaches. ocean city gusting right now to 38. and our wind gusts are about 29 miles an hour. you still have a little bit of time here in the metro if you got to get out and do something, but the rains have been moving in, rather heavy, too, this morning. you can see the water that's coming in from the east to the west. very, very heavy rainfall going on right now, especially east of dc. overnight, there's been 2 and 3-inch rain totals. we got flood warnings up in the baltimore area. flood warnings up in the eastern shore. the entire state of delaware under flood warnings right now. in the mountains, as i said, the snow is going to be flying. want to show you doppler right now. west of town, doesn't look so bad in frederick and leesburg

yet. but from dc and east, look at the deep orange, red, very heavy rains here extending into delaware as well, across southern maryland, northern neck. weather watch in reedville, 5.2 inches of rain, 3.2 overnight. they had 2 yesterday, to give you an idea of the heavy, heavy rains that have been ahead of this system. landfall for another 15, 16 hours or so. lots of orange across the map right now. lot of moderate to heavy rain falling across the region. already under flood warnings, baltimore north, up 95, eastern shore, southern third of new jersey dealing with the heavy, heavy rains and flooding that's already happening in the urban and small stream flooding. 55 in annapolis, our warm spot. 34 in oakland, getting ready for a blizzard up there. 46 in winchester and 52 here in washington.

outside on our weather camera, cloudy skies, moderate rain falling at reagan national, with 52. north winds at 18. watch the barometer, 29.47. i don't know how low it's going to get here, but it is near record levels, if not breaking records out with the storm for deep storm this far north of cape hatteras, rivalling the 1938 storm that hit long island. here's the next three days. today, 052, but dropping. winds again by this evening could be in the 50-plus category. overnight, maybe 70-plus. tonight, we dip into the 40s, upper 30s possible. we stay in the mid-40s tomorrow with heavy rains, especially the first half of the day, maybe showers later on. i have only 46 with ripping winds. wind chills potentially in the -- by friday, passing shower. better this weekend and this is the weekend that we turn the clocks back. we want to go to fairfax county. peggy fox is in herndon this

morning. peggy, how are conditions there? >> reporter: we're here on centreville road off the toll road, beginning eldon road. lot of people heading out to work this morning. i've run into a couple of people who have stopped at the station to fill up, only to tell me their boss just called and told them to forget about coming in and go home. talked to a guy who works for bb & t bank. he said they will close at noon, just a half day. this is amanda park. she just moved to herndon recently and you're on your way to work in tysons, right? >> right. then i got a text message saying it's getting pretty bad. you might as well stay home. >> reporter: wish they would have told you last night! >> right, but i was up anyway. >> reporter: you've done preps for the storm. what have you done? >> storing a little bit of ice, water, canned food items, got a

little more cash and topped off here at the gas station. >> reporter: what did you think about your short drive to the sunoco? >> the water is getting a little high. you can definitely tell on the sides of the road, don't drive in the right lane, but overall, people are pretty respectful and driving pretty safely. >> reporter: definitely going to get much worse than this. >> yeah. >> reporter: your boss, you're a financial planner, your boss said no work today. typical of most companies out there, right? >> you would think so, yeah. >> reporter: your parents live in western maryland. what have they told you this morning? >> their school systems are already closed. they are expecting a good amount of snow in a little bit. we'll get the rain, but they will get a foot or two of snow. >> reporter: wow, amazing. amanda, thank you so much for chatting with us this morning. >> thank you. >> reporter: you be safe. >> thank you. >> reporter: in your hunker down from the storm. we'll be out here in the herndon area bringing you reports and letting you know how things are. peggy fox. back to you. >> thank you, peggy. every time a major storm

hits our region, local governments establish shelters for displaced residents. they are also helped by the red cross. >> we have a special guest, cheryl kravitz, communications director for the national capital region of red cross. what can you tell our viewers about being prepared for this storm? >> it is so important to get ready, to know how to shelter in place, and we want to make sure that people have three days worth of supplies in their homes for themselves, for their pets, for their children. can't emphasize that enough. and also check on your neighbors. one thing that's brand-new at the red cross is we have an app for that, and i know you all just downloaded it. >> we just downloaded. it's still coming up. this is what it will look like when you sign on. what else do you have that make it is so special? >> it's so great. you can learn how to prepare for a hurricane. you can learn what to do during a hurricane and what happens afterwards. one of the special features of the app is something called safe and well, which is on the red

cross.org website, too. and what you're able to do is let your friends and family who live in other parts of the country know that you're okay. >> that's good. >> and let's get that address again. how do people get this app? >> they can go to the apple store, the apple store, and if you put in red cross, it's free. the other app is the first aid app. >> and we have realtime alerts that come up. it's a good app and we have more information about what to do, cheryl just told you, on our website, wusa9.com. cheryl's here, might even be answering your phone call if you have a question. we'll be right back.

. welcome back. 10 before 8:00, 52 degrees. sandy is bearing down on the coast, but won't make it, won't make landfall till maybe 10:00, 11:00 tonight. temperatures are going to be steady or slowly falling throughout the day. rain is already picking up. winds will pick up this afternoon. here in dc, we'll probably still able to get around through the lunch hour. but beyond 2:00, 3:00, you'll hunker down, batten the hatches. winds pick up by 4:00. these are sustained winds out of the west. we could be gusting to 45, maybe 50 by late this afternoon and this evening the winds will really start to pick up. overnight tonight, we could be gusting 70 or more in spots. dangerous situation here. heavy rain's been gust offshore of the carolinas, outer banks brushing them there. they have come onshore across southeastern virginia, northern neck. we've got snow in the mountains. the rain continues to pile north and west into southern new jersey. look at the rain! even in our area, seeing the heaviest rain from sandy right now, right across the areas of either side of the chesapeake,

right into the washington and baltimore metros. this is a dangerous and strengthening hurricane. we've got 85 mile-an-hour winds. we've got an advisory here coming up in a few minutes, 8:00 advisory, just updated. i'm going to look at this for the first time with you. now moving north-northwest at 20. so the direction has started to make the turn. pressure's still at 946 millibars, and we're looking at a storm still by this afternoon, could have 90 mile-an-hour winds, making landfall tonight about 11:00 or so. then moving off toward the west. the track forecast, when they adjust that, they do that at 5:00 and 11:00, a.m. and p.m. this is an intermediate advisory that we get at 8:00 a.m., which sometimes updates the pressure, the location and the winds. right now, it's the speed which has been adjusted, north-northwest at 20. tomorrow afternoon, still looking at a potential 60 mile-an-hour storm in south central pennsylvania. harrisburg, gettysburg, somewhere in that neighborhood, and that means we're still going to have gusts even into the

afternoon tomorrow. 50, 60 miles an hour. in the morning, it could be 65 to maybe 70 still going on. the storm will be pulling away from us. then we'll see improving conditions later tomorrow night, into wednesday. but wednesday morning, still a windy morning. as far as the wind and the waves, they are picking up certainly offshore, wave heights at 29 feet east of hatteras, 25 feet east of virginia beach. 24 feet now, 15 miles or so a buoy east of rehobeth with gusts to 29. winds slacking to the moment here at ocean city, gusting to 33. dover gusting to near 40 miles an hour, and virginia beach is gusting to 43. and it's only going downhill for the rest of the day, into tonight. heavy rain bands that i showed you, the wide picture, look at this, coming across the bay now, tremendous rains, producing flood warnings. tremendous rains coming down, so the stream, creek, urban runoff,

that sort of thing -- we see moderate to heavy rains move in across much of the region. west of town, western lowden, out 66, as you get into faulk county, heavy rains haven't moved in yet. moderate rain, but the heavy stuff hasn't moved in yet. as far as the winds from sandy, i want to show you again, by 5:00, gusts to 50, maybe even 60 east of the bay. by 8:00, i wouldn't be surprised if we've got gusts approaching 60 in the metro with higher than that to our east. overnight, gusts could be 70 or more. this is going to be a very damaging and unfortunately devastating storm in spots, with the heavy rains, ground will be loose. so trees will be coming down. i'm urging everybody, if you got any trees nearby residents, sleep downstairs. i'm thinking tonight, 8:00, to tomorrow noon, probably the worst time period for all of this. here's a quick look at the forecast. 52 today, winds pick up tonight.

tomorrow, 40s tomorrow. heavy rain and wind in the morning, showers in the afternoon. shower still breezy on wednesday, 56. next weekend we turn the clocks back. 7:55. not a lot of traffic, monica, but doesn't mean we don't have issues. >> you're absolutely right. i first want to start off by telling you all about public transportation. many of you take these every day. metro, marc, acela, dash bus, fairfax, all canceled today. for amtrak, 1-8800-usa-rail. give them a call if you want updates at least later tomorrow and wednesday. now to another graphic, this time i want to give you some advice. limit your travel, of course. things are just going to get worse from now through today and tomorrow, tonight especially. add extra time. i know a lot of you still need

to get things done and go to work. watch for debris later as the winds increase. slow down, buckle up. call 511 for road conditions as well if you're stuck somewhere or need to get somewhere and you're not sure. that is good information that you'll get on 511 and easy phone call to make. i'm going to step out and show what you it looks like live. on route 50, i was on the phone with maryland state highway and they tell me that eastbound route 50 is closed off at golf course road. you have wind warnings right now at the bay bridge. to virginia on 95 northbound, much lighter than normal, but all of these people do need to get somewhere. like i said, give yourself the extra space and time. you will need to deal with that today. a couple of accidents to tell you about as well. westbound route 50 at 197 in the left lane, southbound route 29 at fairlawn road, two right lanes blocked. alexandria, accident cleanup, north on 1 at huntington avenue, that one in the right lane.

still a lot to deal with, accidents as well. debris is my biggest concern and flooding conditions. high water by the way right now before the memorial bridge. it is not shut down, but it is beginning to flood. i'll have more, of course, coming up throughout the broadcast. andrea, jc? >> thank you, monica. our live coverage of hurricane sandy begins with a look at conditions in montgomery county. >> speaking of flooding, let's go to andrea mccarron at little falls parkway. >> reporter: jc and andrea, little falls parkway is closed between river road and massachusetts avenue, because of standing water. from my vantage point, i'm taking a good look at all of the traffic on river road. of course it is dramatically lighter than usual, but the water is already pooling up, even at this early hour. first thing this morning when my partner and i showed up out here, we noticed there was a woman standing at the bus stop. she had been waiting for an hour and we explained to her that all

metro buses and trains were canceled for today. she was understandably distressed. she said, oh, my god, what am i going to do? if i walk somewhere, can i catch a bus? we said no, you can't. we immediately took to twitter and thanks to monica and a number of other people, have retweeted to get the word out. no metro buses or metro trains are running today, and i believe that's meant a lot more people on the road. people are getting to work. a few people have let me know that they are walking to work. if you have to walk to work, i highly recommend some type of snow pants or rain pants, because the rain is coming down heavily and it is raining sideways. so you're going to get wet, regardless of what you do. but always good to take those extra precautions. again, this road is closed. montgomery fire and rescue has put out a very helpful list on its web page and via twitter, of all of the roads in the county,

both up county and down county in this area that are susceptible to closure during storms. you will want to avoid them as best you can. back to you. we'll be reporting across montgomery county throughout the morning and the rest of the day. >> andrea mccarron in bethesda. good morning, you're watching a special edition of 9news now. continue was live coverage as we track hurricane sandy. sandy has shut down metro trains and buses and most public transit systems along the east coast are closed. >> the federal government is closed, as are most local governments.

. if and when the power goes out, if you have a smartphone, you can get to wusa9.com. we're streaming on multiple platforms. we're here for you which is our purpose this morning. morning. the hurricane is headed for the mid-atlantic and northeast. it's not that bad. it may be raining heavy where you are but considering what's coming, it's not that bad out there, especially to our west where we still have lighter rains. moderate rains have picked up here in d.c. moderate to heavy rain for the rest of the day. winds increasing. temperature steady. these are sustained winds out of the northwest. by 3:00 35. by 6:00 p.m. potentially winds out ever the

northwest at 40 could be gusting to 50, maybe 60 by then as sandy gets closer and closer. throwing a lot of moisture back toward the coast. look at the heavy rains we've got from the chesapeake back toward the metro d.c. the northern neck, colonial beach. the waves are picking up. in the mountains that is snow falling in southern west virginia. we've got blizzard warnings in effect for much of the high country, especially above 2500, 3,000 feet. we think gusts could be 6 to to 70 -- 60 to 70 by 8:00. gusts potentially 75 miles an hour or higher. sleep downstairs. lowest level the safest place to be. the worst of the weather from 8:00 to tuesday at noon. it's starting to turn to the north, northwest. it was going northeasterly. more northerly this morning. the turn has begun toward the

coast. bad news in a big way as this storm may strengthen. maybe 90 mile an hour storm winds at 2:00. it will be 90, maybe stronger than that i believe when it makes landfall south of atlantic city around 10:00, 11:00 tonight. for us, you know, even though it's hitting north of the delaware bay, this wind field is tremendous. don't key in the fact this may move 10 or 20 miles. it doesn't matter. we're going to have daning and destructive wind -- damning and destructive wind. it loosens the ground and knocks trees down when the winds start howling. look at winds 60 miles an hour in south central pennsylvania with heavy rains and wednesday, thursday, this pulls up into new york state and the st. lawrence valley. as far as the damaging winds, i want to show you the forecast from the hurricane center. by 10:00 potentially looking at maybe some of the tropical storm force winds toward the metro. that may be overdone a little bit on the west side. but the damaging ones, the ones

58 miles an hour or higher by 8:00 get to the east side of the metro, calvert, st. mary's, anne arundel county, the chesapeake bay. everybody on the eastern sharp. then the hurricane force winds. he we are on shore in southern jersey. almost all of delaware. down through ocean city, dewey beach and rehoboth. that moves more toward the west and potentially on top of our area for a little while during the overnight. this will be the most dangerous period. here we are at 2:00 a.m. then we'll see the winds sort of weaken some as the storm slowly weakens overnight toward tomorrow morning. the orange area where the damaging winds still with us tomorrow at 8:00. even at 2:00 d.c. north still dealing with some very strong potentially damaging wind gusts through much of the afternoon on tuesday. today 52. winds picking up. rain picking up. tonight damaging tonight. i would expect the power to be gone in many, many areas. tomorrow 46. it's going to be cold. you have a pilot light, maybe

one of those fireplaces, you better figure out how to work it manually. wednesday showers here or there, 56. increasing weather, improving weather by thursday, 56. don't forget this weekend, this is the weekend that we turn the clocks back and gain an hour of sleep. monika, over to you. >> with those damaging winds, howard, that you're talking about, my concern in terms of the roadways is trees, debris, flooding and power lines down that will definitely be an issue in the metropolitan area. if you are heading out the door especially later this afternoon, that's going to be our biggest concern. right now the good news actually is that metro planned early for safety sake. they shut down rail, bus, metro access, ride an on. all services are suspended throughout the day. safe to say it's going to be that way tomorrow as well. metro alerts for updates. if you're planning to use any of these three roadways behind

me, they closed them down early in anticipation of flooding problems. beach drive, little falls parkway and sligo creek parkway. our andrea mccarren is at little falls parkway and checking things out there. we'll have her later in the broadcast as well. air travel, local airports remain open. most flights of course are canceled throughout the northeast corridor. at least 7500 flights canceled throughout the day today and probably tomorrow as well. if you're planning to use marc, acela or planning vre, dash bus, fairfax connector, amtrak, everything is canceled. add extra time if you do need to head out. watch for the debris i talked about. slow down, buckle up. 511 will also give you road conditions if that's what you need. >> thank you, monika. it's 8:05. we want to head to the coast where some of the worst damage could occur. >> 9news now reporter kristin fisher is live in rehoboth beach, delaware.

she has more on the current conditions there. both on the beach and in some of the nearby neighborhoods. kristin? >> reporter: nases a' -- that's right. we've been all over the place. the wind and rain are really dying down. the story on rehoboth beach are the waves. it's high tide right now. check out the surf. we're in a little bit of a lull right now. watch as this next set builds. the waves have been absolutely huge. at least 20 feet, possibly higher. although we have no way of gauging that from where i am except from just looking at it like you all are. just truly impressive surf as sandy continues to turn closer and closer to shore. you can see the waves have already taken out the fence along rehoboth beach down there. at times the biggest waves have crept all the way up to our hotel, the atlantic sands hotel literally kissing the sides. this is high tide again. for now at least, for the next

12 hours or so, this is probably as high as it's going to get in terms of the tide. we still have storm surge. we still have the hurricane churning several hundred miles away from us. this is by no means as bad as it's going to get throughout the duration of this storm. let me tell you a little bit about what we're hearing on the ground. we've been all over rehoboth beach. we started out in some of the neighborhoods on the bay side. that's where we're seeing significant flooding. we started seeing the flooding around 4:00 yesterday afternoon. it's been raining and the tide has been continuing to come in ever since. we are starting to see a significant amount of flooding on the bay side of dewey beach, rehoboth beach, not to mention significant road closures. route 1, delaware route 1, the road that gets fru here to dewey -- from you -- you from here to dewey beach, completely closed. the other big thing we're

hearing is from the governor of delaware. this whole area is under a mandatory evacuation order which means if you decided to stay, chances are if you get in trouble, nobody is going to be able to help you. but the governor of delaware just tweeted out that some folks are stuck in oak orchard which is about 15 miles south of here. actually let's take a look right down here. you can see the waves really coming in. that's what i'm talking about. these are some of the bigger surges we've seen back to what's happening in oak orchard. the governor was saying they had to send in the national guard and several local law enforcement, local fire department, they all had to go in and help rescue several people that were trapped in oak orchard. hopefully they're doing all right. i haven't heard back about what their conditions are. but again that's about 15 miles south of here from rehoboth beach. a little bit more good news to talk about. no power outages. widespread in this area.

there were about 2,000 across the state of delaware overnight. some of that power has been restored. some is still out. but no terrible power outages to speak of just yet. i have to say i know it's going to get a lot worse but so far the wind and rain hasn't been too bad. i think the big story here is just going to be the duration of this, how long it's going to last and as i said, this all started around 4:00 yesterday. we still have about 36 hours to go. i think it's going to get ugly but hopefully everybody here is going to be just final. no people out on the streets. no cars driving on the roads. that's exactly what we want to see here atra hoe both beach. >> thank -- at rehoboth beach. >> thank you very much. we know the coast is going to get hammered but also residents inland right now are seeing a lot of rain and a lot of wind. right now we want to talk with ken barker from dominion virginia power about how the utility company is gearing up for this major event. thank you for being with us.

already you're putting some of those practices into place right now. you have some outages in the eastern area? >> we do first of all, thanks for having me o. we've got about 700 customers out up in northern virginia. but obviously our primary focus is to make sure we're ready for this powerful storm. we're taking this storm very seriously. we think the impacts are going to be far-reaching in northern virginia and again we've got the resources in place to do battle with the storm. >> i'm surprised you have 700 outages already and the storm isn't here yet. >> right. on any given day we probably have a few hundred outages in a region as big as northern virginia where we have almost a million customers. but we do predict those outages are going to grow very quickly as this massive storm reaches land over the next 24, 36 hours. >> ken, how many jurisdictions did you reach out to for assistance and where are these

crews coming from in our area? >> we've secured about 2,000 crews. mainly the crews are coming from the southern part of the united states. as this storm clears those areas, the utilities feel comfortable letting the crews go. so down in georgia, kentucky, and as the storm gets further to the north, we'll be contacting other utilities to get them to release crews as well. so we have a very well orchestrated mutual aid program in place. >> do you have any last-minute suctions for viewers? >> well, as i told my family before i left last night to come up to northern virginia, you know, don't be lulled to sleep by the moderate damage so far. this is an extremely powerful storm. stay inside. be safe. take it very seriously. we have not seen the effects of this storm and it is a powerhouse. so again take it very seriously

and just watch out for yourself and your neighbors. >> if you do have any power lines coming down, what number should they call? >> say that again please? >> the number they should call to report any problems with power lines in their neighborhood? >> yes. 1-866-dom-help. a new application they can go on as well is dom.com on your mobile phone. either one of those would be great. >> ken barker with dom minute ya virginia power -- dominion virginia power already deeding with some outages in northern virginia. if you lose power, you'll still be able to watch us. we're live streaming on our mobile site m.wusa9.com so you can stay up to date on your tablet or mobile device and get the latest alerts about the storm. just text sandy to 25543. you'll be signed up immediately and start getting 9news alerts. as the storm progresses, we want to hear from you.

let us know what you and your family are going through. you can post information to our wusa9 facebook fan page as well as send us storm photos.

we're approaching high tide in alexandria. >> jessica doyle filed this report just a few minutes ago. >> reporter: this is jessica doyle reporting from old town alexandria. i wanted to give you a quick update on what the potomac is doing. as you can see, it's about a foot from jumping the bank here. what we've been seeing is that the river has been rising at about half a foot every 30 minutes. we're still a ways away from high tide which is due to take place at 8:45 this morning. the likelihoods if the river keeps rising at the pace that we've seen it this morning, it is likely to jump the bank as of my estimation. we're going to stay here in old town alexandria bringing you the latest coverage of the situation here. the rain falling and the wind really picking up. back to you. >> as sandy moves in, area governments will be opening shelters throughout the day. flowers high school in prince george's county is already

opened as a shelter. ritchie coliseum at the university of maryland will open at 10:00 this morning. >> starting at noon three shelters will be opened in montgomery county. the white oak community recreation center in silver spring will accept people and also their pets. the mid-county community recreation center in silver spring is open to people only. and there's another people only shelter on the other side of the county. it is the activity center at bohrer park located in we're go we'll be right back.

good morning. welcome back to nine nine now. we are tracking sandy here at 9news. it's 8:18. this is expanded coverage. we're asking for you to send us your questions or comments at facebook and twitter. we have a storm alert hot line up and ready to answer your questions. this question is from alvera who wants to know how long this

storm will affect the washington area. >> a couple of days. today all day, tonight, tomorrow. it will get a little bit better starting tomorrow afternoon, tomorrow evening. the worst it is going to be tonight and overnight tonight especially will be the worst time. >> and power outages occur, it will last even longer. >> schools closed monday and tuesday. what condition is the grid, the streets for schools to reopen if at all this week. that's a possibility. the question i was asked by somebody were the parking meters. who is going to enforce it i wonder. >> i think they have other issues but you never know. money's tight. >> i bet somebody is out there writing parking tickets. the other thing i want to make a point, clear your ice maker. if the power goes out and i think we'll have a lot of power outages, the ice will slowly melt and drip out the dispenser. clearing your ice maker -- take the ice, stick it in the freezer. the more freezer mass you have

the better to keep the cold as long as possible. let's get going with a look at the day planner. got some good tidbits from our viewers. >> we'll share more throughout the morning. >> keep them coming. we'll share it. 52 now. temperatures steady. slowly falling off this afternoon with the winds increasing. rain has already picked up. we'll have moderate rains. you can see the moisture coming on shore from sandy from the outer banks of north carolina. snow in the mountains. the heaviest rains are now coming across the bay. you saw kristin fisher. she's in a little bit of a lull she said but there's going to be more bands of rain developing as this thing gets closer and closer to the coast. one of the heaviest bands is coming right across the chesapeake, right across d.c. and points to the east. here's the story on sandy. 8:00 advisory winds 85 gusting to 105. the motion north, north west at 20. it has started to take that left turn toward the coast. winds are stirl going to get --

still going to get a little stronger, maybe 90 winds at 2:00. we'll probably maintain that. it could possibly strengthen before making landfall just south of atlantic city at about maybe 10:00, 11:00 tonight. hurricane force winds will precede this by several hours along coastal areas. tropical storm force winds are likely to be here later starting this afternoon from east to west. by 2:00 tomorrow, how long is the storm going to last? still 60 mile an hour winds around the center near gettysburg, harrisburg, somewhere in that vicinity. that's still 30 hours from now. then it makes the turn slowly through pennsylvania into new york state. the wind field, this is a big problem here. we have soggy ground, looser soil. we still have a lot of leaves left on the trees, especially east of i-95 that acts as a canopy to catch the wind. they'll be stripped off quickly. whatever is left leaf wise will help the trees come tumbling down with winds potentially over 58 miles an hour moving

toward areas even west of the bay by evening. hurricane force winds by evening. southern jersey, the delmarva, our area beaches, rehoboth, ocean city. not a good situation. even as we head into the 2:00 a.m. hour, some of those hurricane force winds might even get toward the d.c. metro area. this is a big, big concern. look how big the area of 58 mile an hour winds are. that is massive from new york city down to norfolk out toward winchester and martinsburg. this could bring trees down in any of those areas with the soggy ground and heavy snows in the mountains and even tomorrow morning we're still dealing with very heavy winds through midday. temperatures are in the 40s and low 50s now. they're not going anywhere except maybe slowly down this afternoon. winds could be gusting to 50 by 5. could be gusting to 70over night. 52. tonight the low to middle 40s. tomorrow we stay in the mid-40s with the heavy rains in the morning, showers afternoon and evening. still windy wednesday morning. a couple of showers, 56. thursday better.

over the weekend drier and this is the weekend we turn the clocks back. monika? >> i can't wait for that extra hour, howard. at least you had some good news. we could take a lot more than just one hour. i was afraid of is that now that we've got a bit of volume out there we're going to start seeing the accidents as well. this is on the northbound side of 395. you can see some of the flashing lights here. it's on the ramp from route 110 to get on northbound 395 right before you hit the 14th street bridge. it's an overturned van. we don't think there are any other vehicles involved. we're not sure about injuries right now. i was just on the phone with virginia state police. they had blocked 395 for some time to scoot everyone on the hov lanes. they were able to reopen that let's take a look at our delays on the northbound side of 395. this is coming up from the pentagon. in fact, this looks much improved from what it was about 5 or 7 minutes ago. let's also take a look elsewhere if you're planning to head here on 270. everything is final. no issues from fred -- fine.

no issues from frederick to the point where the lanes divide. you have your wet road conditions. this is all going to change quickly as the day progresses and the winds increase. please keep in mind we're going to have to deal with debris and trees down, power lines down and power outages as well. treat any intersection that you come upon, if the lights are out, it's a four-way stop. we go quickly to our graphic. want to let you know you need to limit your travel, add extra time, slow down, buckle up. 511 is a good place to get your road conditions. i'll have more on traffic coming up in a few minutes. back to you guys. >> thank you, monika. the power problems in the immediate d.c. area could start as soon as wind gusts pick up. we already heard of outages in northern virginia. if you still have power, charge your cell phone now. turn off any unnecessary apps to conserve battery power. make sure your digital camera has fresh batteries so you can take photos of any storm damage. you'll need that when you make your insurance claim. >> if you have halloween deck rakes up, take -- deck raingses

up, take them -- decorations up, take them down now. even a small pumpkin can cause damage if it's picked up and hurled by strong winds. we're going to take a break but we'll be right back.

good morning. welcome back to 9news now, our expanded coverage as we track sandy. we want to check on conditions in the district. >> scott broom is driving around the county. he's going to join us with details on what he has seen. scott? >> reporter: well, it has already started. this is a place called governor bridge road. i'm talking to you by the way off a dash camera on my live unit. this is a place that floods all the time. they have permanent gates here but this storm for practical purposes given all what's coming at us in the forecast, this storm has just begun. places like governor bridge

road are already flooded. so this is the line between prince george's county and anne arundel county. take a look at some of the pictures i took just a few moments ago. it's not a terrible flood at this time but we know how much more rain and how much more wind is coming. and if this road is flooded and closed already, i think it gives us a real measure of things for later. the roads right now are not great. it's a rainy day as you've been reporting all morning. there are a lot of accidents out there. there are spotty road closures like this one. people are getting around but thank goodness that schools and the government are closed right now because if you added traffic in all of this, it would be a serious, serious problem. governor bridge road is on the patuxent river. that's the boundary line between prince george's county as i said and anne arundel county which is on the other side of the bridge. and let me -- [ no audio ] >> you can see how heavily the rain is coming down already flooding streets. this is in prince george's

county. as jc said, this is near the anne arundel county line. we also want to remind you that wusa9 will be with you throughout the storm. we'll be on the air around the clock and our entire newsroom is out in full force. >> we want to let people know that 9news now has a story alert desk where we have people standing by on our phones to answer important questions. they may not have exactly the answer you need but they'll be able to connect you with the person that can give the right information. that number to call is 202-895- 5560. 202-895-5560. so if you have any questions about insurance or about a tree being down or losing power, what to do, whether something is open or not, give us a call. we want to be there for you to answer any questions that you might have. >> as we mentioned earlier, all

d.c. government buildings and office facilities are closed today but starting at 10:00 this morning, five d.c. public recreation centers will operate as emergency shelters and recovery sites and our hot line will have that information for you. >> we want to let you know that guy mason recreation center located at 3600 calvert street is going to be open. emery recreation senator 5801 georgia avenue northwest, turkey thicket recreation center 1100 michigan avenue northeast, deanwood recreation center located at 1350 49th street northeast and bald eagle recreation center at 100 joliet street southwest. >> residents please call 311 to report downed trees. only call 911 in true emergencies. all d.c. residents are urged to stay home and stay indoors. we'll be right back.

welcome back. 8:34. howard bernstein here. looks like sandy will head towards southern jersey by 10:00, 11:00 tonight. this is our weather camera in tysons corner, virginia. this is the beltway out here in the distant. we're looking toward the south right now or else the lens would be covered by the driving rains out there. we've got 52, moderate rain at reagan national. we'll have moderate to heavy rain the rest of the day. temperatures fairly steady. slowly falling off this afternoon. winds picking up this afternoon out of the northwest 20 to 40. by dinner time we could have gusts 50, maybe 60 miles an hour. watching the storm off shore. it's really centered about here throwing a lot of moisture back along the coast and the heaviest rains from d.c. east right now. the entire metro seeing some of this. a little bit of a lull in the rain along the coast. the winds and wears are picking up big time out there.

we've got wave heights now 29 feet off shore of hatteras. we've seen them come down a fraction. 19 feet. it's about 15 miles off shore but gusts to nearly 50 miles an hour. that's off shore rehoboth with gusts to near 40 right along the coast. we're gusting close to 30 here in d.c. with all of this water, we've got coastal flood warnings that are up for the potomac, for the chesapeake. we're talking about tides potentially 1 to 3 feet above normal. that could cause moderate flooding today, tonight, tomorrow as well. in fact in old town alexandria, jessica doyle standing by. you're about an hour from the next high tide. >> reporter: i want to show you -- hi there. i'm live here in old town alexandria. we've been watching the potomac rising this morning. i'm on a pier of sorts, sort of a dock, a pier here in old town. you'll see we're less than a foot away from the water coming up. we're very close to high tide here. once the water comes to high

tide, if it's going to flood, it floods quickly. that's the situation in old town alexandria. we want to tell you a little bit about the huntington section of alexandria. also very flood prone. we want to show you video of preparations there yesterday. why we talked about huntington. less than a year ago, just about a year ago this time, that area of alexandria flooded very, very badly. next week residents in fairfax county are going to head to the polls and they're going to vote on a $30 million referendum for huntington about whether to build a levee system because this area tends to flood often. in 2006, 2011 really big flooding in those parts. also bell haven, the new alexander -- the new section of alexandria, these are very flood prone areas. we're watching the water here. as you can see the rocks, this is starting to pick up. we have a lot of debris floating in the potomac river.

you can see out in the water. we have a lot of logs that are floating around. we still have some boats that are moored here on the docks. so this is the situation we're going to continue to watch. one other warning i want to give folks. i've been watching the water falling quickly this morning. and i've been watching the sewage system, the gutter system already getting clogged with leaves and small branches. of course this is the time of year when we're losing a lot of leaves off of the tree tops. they're also going into the gutter system so that could be a potential problem and possibly flooding problems if the situations get backed up. if you have the ability to actually go out and clean out any debris that you're finding around, gutter systems in our area, in your neighborhood, that might be something you'll want to continue to think about doing today. in terms of the rainfall, it is very heavy at this point. not the heaviest that we've seen it yet. this is actually giving us a little bit of a reprieve and the winds have not been

horrible but i want to give you a warning about wind. the national weather service is saying we could hit 55 knots here on the potomac river today. let me translate that into non- boater speak. what that means is strong gail force winds that tend to come with a strong psyche colonic system. s that -- strong cylonic system. that's what they call t. when you have high tides, heavy rainfall, water from tributaries into the main waterways like the potomac and high winds, if you could have a situation -- howard was talking about this earlier -- when the wind is going in a certain direction as it will later today, it's going to drive water into the chesapeake. when that wind reverses, which we will likely see, it's going to push the water back in again. so we could be seeing a situation here on the potomac that goes from bad to worse. we're going to continue to update you on the situation here in old town alexandria. we're going to watch the potomac getting very, very close to jumping the bank here.

and i'm going to send it back to you in the studio. >> all right. thank you, jessica doyle reporting live from old town where the water just keeps rising and it's going to get worse before it gets bernie time soon. >> the whole mid-atlantic coast has been battered by the storm already. our 9news now reporter kristin fisher is in delaware at rehoboth beach. let's check in with her. >> we can see the wind picking up on you, kristin. >> reporter: almost definitely. we've been getting beaten by high winds and heavy rain and we're still 12 hours away from the worst part of hurricane sandy and about 30 hours before we can even hope to get a break in the wind and the rain. but the big story right now the waves. we're about half an hour past high tide and just check out the waves as they come in and crash on to rehoboth beach.

this is some of the worst surf we've seen throughout the storm thus far. you can see the waves. so far they're crashing down a little farther back but every once in a while you'll get a big wave that just comes in and tears down up into the boardwalk. you can see it's already taken out the fence that lines the whole stretch of rehoboth beach. and on the bigger waves, the waves have broken all the way up on to the boardwalk and they have come all the way up, almost kissing the side of the hotel we're staying at. this is the atlantic sands hotel right in the middle of rehoboth beach. there are sandbags stacked up right outside it protecting the first floor businesses. so far the water has not touched actually the side of the building. they've only come up to the sandbags. we're still several hours away from this storm being over. some good news i'd like to share with you all. this is the boardwalk on rehoboth beach.

it is completely empty except for some of us crazy tv folks out here. no one is here. i haven't seen a single person out on rehoboth beach or the boardwalk here. a lot of that has to do with the level 2 driving advisory that was put into effect at 5:00 this morning. what this means is that nobody, no one is allied to be driving around on a hoe bath beach, dewey beach, anywhere in the county unless you're essential personnel. that is because so much of the roads, especially route 1, delaware heading down into bethany and dewey, all of that completely flooded out. you see these big waves. this beach holding up very well. but i tell you what. atlantic city just farther north up the coast of new jersey, we're hearing that the waves there have already taken out an 80-foot section of the boardwalk. that is going to be where the storm is expected to make its direct hit. we're just a little bit south of that but as i'm standing out

here, the wind gusts are intensifying. we have sustained gusts about 40 miles per hour now. the rain really picking up. no widespread power outages to report, although we are hearing some reports of folks getting stranded in their homes at oak orchard. that's about 15 miles south of here. but so far no injuries, nothing too terrible to report from here in rehoboth beach. back to you, jc. >> thank you very much. needless to say there is no absentee voting today in fairfax county. sandy is wreaking havoc with our political system. the county has also set up an emergency information line for all of its residents. that phone number in fairfax county is 571-350-1300. it can be used 24 hours a day by fairfax county residents who have questions related to hurricane sandy. this number is not to be used if you have an actual emergency. for life-threatening

situations, call 911.

we're tracking sandy. the hurricane has hit eastern maryland and parts of southeast maryland already. now the storm bands of wind and rain are wrapping their way into northern virginia. 9news now reporter peggy fox is live in herndon with more. good morning, peggy. what are conditions like? >> reporter: the rain is

picking up quite a bit. you can see the wind. take a look at the american flag here. we're at the sunoco station here at the corner of centreville road and copper mine road. the flag needs to be retired there. it's a bit tattered as you can see. the rain is coming down a little bit harder. a lot of people here filling up. some people going to work. this is brian rosenberg from caroll county, maryland. he is headed into work. he's a contractor, works for a place that's under development. you actually came back from vacation a day early. tell us where you were and why you came back early. >> we were out in arkansas, little rock arkansas on a trout fishing trip with the company, jlb partners. we came back early to make sure the job site is okay, our families are okay. afraid of missing a flight. >> reporter: why are you working today? so many people have the day off? >> it's the job site. you've got to do what you've got to do. >> reporter: you're only working half a day.

>> work half a day. take care of any issues we have on the job site and head out. >> reporter: not too many problems coming here on the roadways that you noticed? >> just everybody was taking it slow. not a lot of traffic. took me about an hour and a half to get here this morning. >> reporter: from the baltimore, caroll county area. good luck to you. have a safe drive back home. get your family safe. we're going to be here. we did notice they do have ice at the sun know company so if you lose -- at the sunoco so if you lose power a little later, they do have ice right now. a lot of people are out and about. i think a lot of people are headed out to work this morning. we'll be hear checking it out for you. we're headed to dominion virginia power to see how they're handling any power outages we see throughout the day. back to you. >> peggy fox reporting live from herndon. hopefully she'll find fewer power outages than we've heard a little while ago. now the latest on how the montgomery county authorities

are handling the early part of the storm. >> lucilli bower is on the phone with the latest. thanks for being with us. when will the shelters open? >> they will open at noon. we have three of them in montgomery county. one is serving the gaithersburg area, one in silver spring. we want to make sure that people understand that they should be prepared to bring prescription medications, any critical phone numbers and comfort items such as pillows to make them comfortable while they're there. >> willlucille, you were talking about comfort items. one of those shelters allow you to take pets. >> the white oak center on april lane in silver spring. that is the only shelter in montgomery county that is accepting pets. those would be the small four- legged varieties. >> of course you have to bring your own food for your pet and

a leash. >> that's correct. >> have you had any emergency situations you've had to respond to in the early morning hours? >> no. so far things are pretty good. what we're most concerned about now is flooding. what we know is the national weather service has upped its rainfall forecast to 5 to 10 inches. and already there are three roads closed in montgomery county. we want to make sure that people stay away from beach drive from the d.c. line to grovesner, from wayne avenue south to carol avenue and little falls parkway between river road and massachusetts avenue. it only takes two feet of water to move a vehicle. so the words to remember are turn around, don't drown. never, never go through a flooded waterway. >> that's good advice. >> important information. >> absolutely. all right, lucille bower with montgomery county government with important advice and word of the three shelters opening

at noon. one in silver spring on april lane will accept your small four-legged pets. >> with a leash and you have to bring your own food. they won't provide food for your pet. we know many of you have questions about storm-related problems or information that you need and we have a help desk with people manning the phones right now to get you answers. one of the calls that came in at our help storm alert line at 202-895-5560 was about getting sandbags in prince george's county. the best advice we could give you right now is to call their nonemergency line at 311, nonemergency. you still have some time. if they have the sandbags available, you still have time to prepare for the storm before the worst of it hits our area. again our 9 alert storm desk is 202 been 895 -- 202-895-5560. look at the happy people there waiting to do their best to

answer your questions. we'll be right back. you're watching 9news now.

we're back at 8:51. wusa is tracking sandy. howard is here. he's been tracking it all weekend long. what's the progress of the storm right now? >> still on track to make a devastating landfall in southern new jersey here 10:00, 11:00 tonight. for us our conditions will go downhill. if you follow me on twitter, we've just tweeted out all of the high tide times or a lot of high tide times for the

chesapeake, the potomac and atlantic beaches. i put them in separately. find your area of concern and you'll know when the next high tides because coastal flooding will be a problem also. one thing jessica was talking about were the winds. when the winds turn around more from the northwest as the storm passes us tomorrow, that's when we could have more water coming into the bay. those high tides tomorrow morning potentially could be the highest we're looking at with this particular storm system. look at the day planner for the afternoon. it's going to get uglier as the day progresses. we're going to have rain heavy at times. if not heavy, it will be moderate more than likely as temperatures slowly drop off into the low 50s here by midday, if not upper 40s in spots. the winds increase. 4:00 winds sustained 37, potentially gusting 45 to maybe 50 by then and by 8:00 we could have gusts maybe pushing 60 in spots, especially east of the bay. sandy has winds of 85 miles an hour gusting to 105. pressure at 946 millibars. our next big advisory is at 11:00. we might get it about 10:45,

10:50. we'll watch the pressure and winds then. it is now moving north, north west at 20 miles an hour. so we'll watch sandy approach the coast and probably strengthen a little bit. 2:00 p.m. expecting 90 miles an hour. will it be 90, 85, when it makes landfall. it will be in that range. regardless how strong it is by a few miles, this has a massive wind field that extends from maine down in toward virginia. that is enormous. talking tropical storm force winds maybe 800, 900 miles in diameter from the center. overnight tonight look at the track it takes. by 2:00 northern delaware. then it crosses just north of baltimore in the morning. by 2:00 p.m. in the afternoon, about gettysburg or harrisburg, somewhere in that vicinity. this is a long duration wind event along with rainfall which could be in the 5, 8 inches, 10 to 15 even east of the bay. areas like the northern neck already have 5 inches of rain in reedville just from last

night and yesterday afternoon. by thursday morning, this thing is starting to pull up maybe toward watertown, montreal area. here are the wind concerns. the yellow winds, these are the tropical storm force winds. it's a little over done on the western edge but this is the forecast from the hurricane center. orange would be the more damaging wind. jessica was talking about 55 knots or 58 miles an hour or greater. then these are the winds, the red ones that are the hurricane force winds. those are forecast to make landfall here sometime 6:00, 7:00 they could start feeling the winds up to hurricane force on the coast. we could be feeling the wins by 8:00, maybe gusting closer to 60 miles an hour. tonight we could see gusts over 70 miles an hour during the overnight. this is 2:00 a.m. tomorrow morning into tomorrow morning. still at 8:00 baltimore, westminster, howard, parts of montgomery county up toward york dealing with those winds which could still be gusting potentially 70 or greater tomorrow morning and even into the afternoon the winds will start to come down. we could still be looking at 60 mile an hour wind gusts through

mid afternoon on tuesday. then the wind will slowly improve and lessen starting tomorrow evening. waves are way up there, almost 25 feet to 30 feet. there off the carolina coast. locally waves closer to 20 feet with winds off shore gusting closer to 50 miles an hour. right along the coast gusting to 40. if you look at the table, looks like wave heights are between 15 and 20 right along the atlantic now. and they can get a lot bigger than that as the storm makes landfall tonight at about 10:00 or 11:00. heavy rains have been a problem, especially between d.c. and the bay right now. we've got flood warnings up in baltimore, the entire state of delaware, the eastern shore. so think twice about doing that. you can see the heavy rains extending down to the northern neck and across the metro as well with temperatures in the 40s and low 50s. coastal flooding a concern. again i tweeted all the high tides i could. many areas. so hb, wx for that information

on twitter. 52 today. heavy rain, increasing winds. could be gusting to 50 by about 5:00. gusts over 70 tonight as we dip into the 40s and stay there tomorrow. maybe heavy rain in the morning with just showers in the afternoon. a couple of showers still possible wednesday 56. by thursday 56, dry. friday passing shower. don't forget this weekend clocks get turned back. monika? you ready for this? we have three major incidents on major thoroughfares. i'm going to breeze through them right now. then i'll be back with more details in a few minutes. but first southbound 270 here at route 121, it was an overturned tractor-trailer. right side of the road affected. here's what it looks like heading southbound toward clarksburg. if you're planning to head on the inner loop of the beltway near route 355, it's a jackknifed tractor-trailer and a couple of lanes are blocked there. we're going to take a quick look at 395 on the northbound side. the camera shot is a little washed out but the main lanes are blocked at route 110 with an overturned van.

hov lanes are getting through and the ramp from northbound route 110 to northbound 395 remains blocked. i'll have more details for you coming up in a few minutes. back to you guys. >> we have cheryl kravitz from the red cross. what do our viewers need to know? >> they need to be safe and to try and shelter at home, shelter in place if they can, to have enough supplies for three days at home and most certainly download the red cross hurricane app which you have here. it is just terrific. it will give you information about how to prepare for a hurricane, what to do during a hurricane and what to do afterwards. i strongly suggest that that is downloaded. it's free on the itunes store. if you can do that this morning, i would go ahead and do it. >> thank you, cheryl kravitz from the red cross. we'll take a break but we will be right back. don't go away.