rkt hello and thank you fosh joining us, i'm jc hayward. three days after superstorm sandy barreled through the region, thousands of customers are still without power, but the numbers of shrinking.

here are the latest figures. pepco reports it has zero outages related to the storm. dominion power has more than 3300 people without power, bge has more than 1,700 in our region without power and potomac edison has more than 26,000 outages in maryland and just under 79,000 in west virginia. novec has 380 sandy-related outages. and while things are quickly returning to normal in our area, it is going to be a while before new york recovers. the city's road to recovery is literally gridlocked. subway trains began rolling a short time ago for the first time in 3 1/2 days. but service is limited. 14 out of the 23 subway lines are now running, but only in limited areas. multiple tunnels and stations remain flooded. authorities say that it will take a week just to pump out

the water and then crews will begin assessing the damage and making repairs. most of new jersey's barrier islands remain off limits after sandy. the massive storm left communities along the jersey shore devastated. allison harmlin reports that gas shortages across the state are now a big problem. >>reporter: people who live on long beach island are being forced to stay away, like many of new jersey's barrier islands, there's massive damage everywhere. homes are in pieces and huge amounts of sand are in the streets. residents who decided to ride out sandy on the island are now working together to pick up the pieces. >> everyone whose business depends on the summer, thank god they got their summer in and now we have eight months to fix it up, and we're strong. everybody is strong. >>reporter: the mayor of lbi said the storm could end costing more than $700 million. >> we had no water, sewer, electric, gas, phones.

we're basically dead in the water here. >>reporter: the town put out this giant belong-long sandbag to try to protect these homes from the storm. it didn't make much difference, sandy yumped right over it. in hoboken flood waters remained high and flood waters -- and supplies remained low. an estimated 20,000 people are stranded in their homes. fuel is also in short supply. drivers are waiting in lines for hours to fill up their tanks. >> this is the worst i've ever seen. >>reporter: officials say 80% of stations in new jersey are unable to sell gas, mostly because they don't have electricity. drivers who are on the road are facing massive delays. anyone trying to get into new york city needs at least three people in their car. backups should get better. most new jersey transit buses are starting to run again. the trains are out of service and could be for days. allison harmalin for cbs news, long beach island, new jersey. nearly a million customers in new jersey have regained power since the storm, but just

under 2 million are still without electricity and they are likely to remain in the dark for days. sources close to the penn state sex abuse scandal investigation say former university president graham spanier has been charged. he's accused of perjury and obstruction of justice. spanier was forced to resign last year in the wake of the child sex abuse charges that put former football coach jerry sandusky in prison. it is believed that spanier and other school administrators tried to cover up sandusky's crimes. a search is under way for a man accused of setting homemade explosives at three virginia homes early tuesday. yesterday stafford county investigators identified the suspect as 25-year-old lawrence alan stewd, ii. they say steward was targeting an ex-girlfriend and two local

sheriff's deputies in explosions. luckily no one was injured. detectives believe that steward has more explosives in his car which is a red four-door hundai accent which may have virginia or pennsylvania plates. they're asking anyone with information on steward's whereabouts to please contact police immediately. right now d.c. fire authorities are trying to figure out what sparked a warehouse fire overnight. flames broke out on morris street northeast near florida avenue. kristin fisher has more. >> i don't know what's going on. what caused that fire? we don't know. >>reporter: dozens of business owners in d.c.'s warehouse district are frustrateed that the fire at the old union market is costing them dearly. >> there's no power, no business. >>reporter: their businesses did not catch fire, but d.c. firefighters still had to close down streets and shut off power to every warehouse within a two-

block radius. the fire broke out late wednesday. it took all night to contain and it was still smoking thursday morning. >> a lot of products inside the locations and certainly security to prevent burglars from getting in, but that also prevented firefighters from getting in as well, so a very, very stubborn fire. >>reporter: just to be clear, this fire broke out at the old union market. that's very different from the new union market that was just rebuilt and it was rebuilt because it too caught fire. so if there's any good news here and that is this is now there's some hope that the fire will lead to a revitalization to this whole area. any idea what caused the fire? >> none. >> i hope they will come to our aid and give us some power so we can do business. >>reporter: in northeast washington, kristin fisher, 9 news now. >> luckily no one was inside that building when the fire broke out. we're going to be back in two minutes, but before we go to our commercial break, here

at wusa9, we are donating $1 to the american red cross sandy relief fund for every everyone who likes us on facebook. it's a quick and easy way for you to help victims. we'll be right back.

all right, i'm back. we know that maryland voters are facing some crucial issues when they go to the polls on tuesday, besides gambling and gay marriage, governor o'malley's congressional redistricting plan is going to be on the ballot. it is question 5. what is at stake, what does it mean? city councilman phil an draws is here to tell me -- andrews is here to tell me exactly what is this redistricting plan. why is it and what does it mean? >> thank you for having me.

voters have a major decision to make because what was done by the governor and the general assembly was to approve new congressional districts that are extremely gerrymandered and split up communities all over the state. memory a million and a half marylanders were moved into different districts including more than half in montgomery county. and why gerrymandering is a problem is it undermines our democratic system of government by reducing political competition, by pushing candidates to the extremes in their parties, by splitting up communities and by reducing the ability of people to make a difference with their elected officials, and we see gridlock at the national level partly as a result of gerrymandering across the country which has made so many congressional districts noncompetitive in general elections, the candidates have pushed it to extremes in their primaries. the best example of this gerrymandering is a map. >> you brought it map in. >> i did. this is congressional district 3 in maryland and this district

ha to be seen because it is so hard to describe. it runs from towson to annapolis in the east to silver spring in the west but excludes most of the area in between. >> so why does the governor want this? >> it's all about politics. it's all about trying to advantage one party over the other, but also to help certain democrats over other democrats, and that's why gerrymandering needs to be stopped. voters can stop it in maryland by repealing this map, by voting against question 5 and it will create the impetus for reform and for an independent risk-taking commission to get legislators out of drawing these boundaries because look what they do. >> that is a crazy map. that is absolutely incredible. i mean, it's in and out and in and out. >> right. >> i have some questions about that map. >> so does everybody else when they see it. the challenge is getting it in front of people because proponents don't show this map to people, so it's up to those who want to reform this process

to get this around. >> it's up to the voters. it'll be on the ballot on tuesday. thank you for coming in and explaining to us. we're going to take a break, and when we come back, howard is going to have his forecast. stay with us.

our next story is about a fairfax county virginia resident to lost power at her home in clifton. she wrote anita brickman because her loss of electricity

did not just affect her, it put her husband's life in jeopardy. her husband has lou gehrig's disease and his life depends on a ventilator, and so we sent reporter deborah alfarone and a photographer to see the situation. >>reporter: thank you for sending us that e-mail. >> thank you very much. i appreciate your time and efforts, but now i'm going to run down. >>reporter: you go. and steve is the reason we're here. his wife, helene nichols e- mailed anita because her power is out and her husband steve needs it to live. >> we've been married 32 years. steve is beginning year 19 with als. they say he is trapped in his body. >>reporter: which means helene has the equivalent of basically three full-time jobs, round-the- clock care, cleaning the house. there's no where she would

rather be. >> i would be meaningless without steve. >>reporter: the nichols are using a generator right now, but if it goes, they only got a few batteries and that means a few hours. >> if steve loses power capability, he could live for 40, 45 minutes, that's it. >>reporter: steve uses this computer to speak, this tv to watch 9 news every night. that's why the nichols reached out to us for help. we called novec and told them about the life-or-death situation. anita wants the nichols to know that they weren't alone. >> we want to give a shoutout to a couple of viewers, helene and steve nichols are out in virginia. they called during the storm. they are one of the few in fairfax county without power. steve has als. >> i am honored and quite humbled by the recognition by my favorite news team and especially anita. >>reporter: it looks like the former computer guru, husband, father and grandfather has a sweet spot for the ladies. >> i like all pretty women.

>>reporter: and derek. >> and derek. and derek and tucker, right? >> oh, yes. >>reporter: and if that was like christmas for the nichols, well, this was like new year's. >> you accept the fact that you're a little bit afloat because health insurance is taxed. i think we just heard possibly the power come on. take care, steve, because now we know we're safe. now you know you're safe, steve. >>reporter: and smiling. >> he's smiling. >> that was a report by deborah alfarone, and we're just happy that the electricity was able to get back on and that he is going to be -- you know, he's going to be okay. >> thanks for watching, we really appreciate it. >> did he mention your name?

>> no. me, anita, me, anita, yeah. >> anita. >> i got it. hey, weather wise, it's not that nice outside, it's a little cool, it's a little sprinkley out there in a few spots. i got spit on by mother nature when i was outside, but in a good way. let's check out the day planner for the rest of this afternoon. plenty of clouds, plenty of chill. we'll have highs in the low- to mid-50s. they're not going to be moving much from where they are now. winds may pick up out of the west. again, very light sprinkles here and there, not really amounts to all that much with a 54-degree reading at 3:00. might get to 55 today. and by this evening, we're back in the upper 40s. we'll break up a little bit of the cloud cover overnight, turn partly cloudy and chilly. low 40s in town, but 30s in the suburbs. and out on the shenandoah valley, we've got a freeze watch in effect tonight. not so much culpepper, but just south and west of there. so if you still have any plants outside -- i can't imagine you would, but if you do, get them inside, cover them up because it's going to be close to freezing tonight, maybe even down to 30 degrees there.

we've got the flow still coming in from the northwest. this is part of sandy, what's left of sandy spinning in ontario. you see some radar echos? well, we'll take you in, and we got a few light showers here and there. they are few and far between, but look at this, from burk back twoordz springfield and alexandria, we've got some light showers extending up into towards forestville here, just upper marlboro and central avenue in the county. parts of fredrick we've got some light sprinkles there as well and we're seeing a few light sprinkles out towards parts of west virginia, trying to head toward the winchester area. so some clouds, a couple of sprinkles and just a cool day. mid-40s up in the shenandoah valley, northern part, anyway. we're at 49, we've got 52 culpepper and even annapolis across the bay, we're holding out at the 41-degree mark. on the michael and son weather camera, mostly cloudy out of the capitol dome. light sprinkles being reported at reagan national right now. feeling like 45 with that eight mile per hour breeze out of the west/northwest. we have two storms around the

country, one in the northwest and then the one in the east. this is still the remnants of sandy, but it does look like this is winding down, so we'll see slowly improving weather over the next couple of days. but don't expect a big warmup. today 55, stray shower or two, breezy at times. tonight low 40s in town. generally in the mid-30s in our suburbs. tomorrow 54, still breezy, a little more sunshine. as we head toward saturday we'll be again in the low- to mid-50s, still looks nice. sunday we're looking at temperatures in the mid-50s, so good weather for the terps and the skins' home games and this is the weekend where we turn the clocks back. it is thursday at nine, pet line 9 time. joining me is maryland kinger from oldies but goodies cocker spaniel rescue. this is coyote charlie and this is a lap dog if i ever met a lap dog. >> he loves to be petted, he loves attention. he's very affectionate. >> so tell me, coyote charley, that's an interesting name. >> well, he was attacked by a coyote in tennessee and he was found -- he screamed, i guess,

and some people came out and rescued him. he did have an ab ses on his face and -- abscess on his face and his ear drums were broken, so he doesn't hear perfectly. he's healed pretty much otherwise and moved on. >> you tell me he's about 8 years old. >> right. >> he's middle aged for a doggy, but a real snuggler, somebody who just loves people. he was coming up to me, like, take me home, take me home. >> he does great at adoption shows and he'll be at the colombia one this weekend. >> where are you going to be up in colombia? >> at the petsmart in colombia, maryland, we'll have dogs there too. >> how can folks contact and learn about coyote charley and other animals? >> our website is cockerspanielrescue.com and you can find all the information on fundraisers. >> thanks, maryland. if you missed any of that, go to our website, wusa9.com, go to the pet section. charley, you're a sweety. we'll be back with more right after this.

today i am one on one with hank brothers. hank brothers is a local boy scout leader and he's coordinating a special effort that i want to tell you about because the scouts of america have banned together to help the hungry in the metropolitan washington area, d.c., maryland and virginia and wusa is a sponsor of the program. the program is called scouting for food. so tell me exactly how the campaign works. >> of course. this weekend, saturday, november 3rd, boy scouts throughout the area will fan out in neighborhoods passing out flyers and plastic bags, asking homeowners to leave some food the following weekend on

their doorsteps, and then the following weekend the boy scouts will return to those neighborhoods, collect the food and take them to central location points. in the district of colombia, that is just about every safeway store in the district of colombia. there are some safeway stores and other collection points as well in maryland and virginia. >> so if you do not have a bag at your door, because we don't have enough boy scouts to go to every door, you can go to a safeway safeway store? >> that's correct. in the safeway stores, they're also offering an opportunity for patrons to purchase prepackaged bags of groceries and there will be -- in the district of colombia there will be boy scouts at most safeway stores encouraging patrons to do the good thing. >> it's scouting for -- >> scouting for food. >> scouting for food, boy scouts will be dropping off the bags this weekend and they'll be coming back next weekend. of course we want nonperrishable food, canned

goods. don't put anything in the bag that's going to go bad, that's perishable, but if you don't get a bag at your door, then go to the safeway, your local safeway and you can get more information. congratulations. >> thank you. >> thank you for this program. >> thank you for your partnership. come back and visit us at 5:00. have a great day. bye bye.