the park service tried the chemicals on another memorial and the biofilm returned. we talk to tourists as how they deal with it. >> i get a brush and dip it in paint. it looks cool. sam: the memorial is 75 years old next year. president roosevelt's idea to honor thomas jefferson. if the first phase goes well, the work will continue. the memorial will be open to the pun lick throughout. sam ford, abc7 announcer: "7 on your side." >> leave now. you won't get an answer if you dial 911. >> standing on my leg. >> i am trying to get as far north as possible. >> as we come on the air at 6:00, a mass exodus to escape a deadly hurricane happening right now in florida. nowhere more than 500,000 people said to evacuate. larry: disney world is shutting down. irma left behind a trail of devastation in the caribbean islands and they are assessing the damage as the death toll climbs. michelle: we have a whole team tracking irma. doug hill watching the track. brad bell and josh knight are in florida to check on the preparations. jonathan: jeff goldberg talked to relief for a second

work crews are using special lasers to zap the so-called biofilm away. a technique that should kill the marble. >> we don't always know what chemicals do to a stone, if they're left on for a period of time, so we wanted to stay away from chemicals. >> reporter: this phase is a test being done on one section of the memorial. if it works, the technology will be used on the rest of the jefferson. as you can see in this video, it's a slow, pain staking process. the test will take about four weeks. to do the entire memorial will take much longer. and how long, they don't exactly know, but the good news is, none of this is going to interfere with visiting the memorial. everything is open. it is happening right now up on the dome. experts don't think it is a permanent fix, but they think it'll knock back the biofilm for about ten years. then they'll probably have to do it again. back to you. >> thanks a lot. >>> there's a bit of a debate in takoma park and it has to do with street names. takoma park has identified 18 treats and one park that to honor civil war

work crews are using special lasers to zap the so-called biofilm away.e that should kill the organisms without damaging the marble. >> we don't always know what chemicals do to a stone. if they're left on for a period of time. so, we wanted to stay away from chemicals. >> reporter: this phase is a test being done on one section of the memorial. if it works, the technology will be used on the rest of the jefferson. as you can see in this video, it's a slow, painstaking process. the test will take about four weeks to do the entire memorial will take much longer. now, the experts don't necessarily think this is a permanent fix, but they hope that it will not back the biofilm about ten years at which point they might need to do it again. from the jefferson memorial, megan mcgrath, news 4. >> now, if you have a high school student, you know about this. getting them up and out of bed and there's growing research, though, that says giving kids a little more shut eye in their teen years is not only good for their health, but it's good for the economy, if you can

that biofilm seems to be coming off. the laser is the eraser tool, if you will.lly zapping away the bad stuff here. pretty incredible considering the grime has cover memorial for more than ten years now. at this point, they're only testing the equipment to make sure it works. the national park service says it couldn't find a cleaning agent that would keep the memorial safe. >>> i'd still be worried about damaging anything. >> like on your sofa, you find a 1309 on the back, you test out the stuff and then do the whole thing. >>> we're almost halfway through september. time to talk about christmas? >> no, no. >> nothing like it. >> i still have to get through september. >> you weren't supposed to be able to plan the national christmas tree lighting. that's happening outside the white house. the lottery for those free tickets opens on october 12th. find out october 30th. if you score tickets to the november 30th event, we'll remind you about those -- those are the sorts of things you should plan for. we're waiting to see who will perform, of course. knowledge is pow

they will use laser ablation treatment to remove the biofilm on the iconic landmark. it will take about four weeks. >> we should see results pretty immediately once it's started. >> if that works, use for a lot of other cleanups around the mall. >>> it's 4:34. we want to get another check of weather and traffic. >> sheena and somara are updating our local forecast and track irma. >> good morning. irma is still a category 5 hurricane. this is a very powerful storm headed towards florida. the main threat will be storm surge. >> absolutely. that usually poses the most >> we expect it to be a major hurricane as it impacts the state. it's extremely powerful. over the turks and caicos heading between the bahamas and cuba. the most dangerous side in the direction of motion of the storm is going to be the northeast side of the eye. that's where we have tornadoes that typically develop from the rain bands. that's where some of the stong he's wind and heaviest rain. that's going to be the southeastern side of florida will see the worst. here's a look at the track if you missed

this is new video and it appears that that biofilm is coming right off.retty incredible considering the grime covered the memorial for more than ten years. at this point, they're only testing the equipment to make sure it works. it couldn't find a cleaning agent to keep the memorial safe. it's like removing a tattoo it looks like. >> i hope it works. >>> there is lin-manuel miranda. you know him. the hit show hamilton. he was posting videos with visitors, staffers and a few lawmakers. they're delighted to be around him. >> otherwise, it's like who train. >> they know. they know he was lobbying to keept national endowment of the arts off of the budget chopping block. always been a huge proponent of arts. >> he has a good voice. so i guess it's okay. >>> we told you stories about hurricane victims who lost everything and the photo of one woman really spoke to a news 4 viewer. >> her name is ann dahms. she made it her mission to replace something for a victim. hines was one of the houston residents who lost her belongings, including mugs given to her by her

visitors may think that the 73-year-old landmark is just dirty but actually it's a substance known as biofilm. made up of algae and fungus. it will clean a test area of a thousand square feet. it's not clear how long the clean-up will take. looks effective. larry: now developments out of new york where the state hit the niagara falls water board with $50,000 fine for a dirty water discharge back in july. it caused a terrible odor and scared away tourists. some thought it was sewedge. but it's just smelly water. governor cuomo says aggressive action is needed to keep it from happening again. alison: the search is over the charging bull statue on wall street. authorities also say they draped a sash over the fearless girl statue that read "draw the blue line" which police call apparent reference to the paris climate accord. the fearless girl faces the bull statue and will stay up until february. larry: new information about the crayola shade of blue. the crayon has a name. "bluetiful." it was picked from 90,000 submissions. i will available in time for holiday season. alison: sounds like how my

a chicago-based company will use laser ablation treatment to remove the biofilm on the iconic landma landmark. the full test will take about four weeks, but we should see the results immediately. >>> we told you about this and now it's happening. behold the pumpkin spice original glazed doughnut from krispy kreme. the fall inspired back for one day only. it's the same original glazed it serves daily with a hint of cinnamon and pumpkin spice flavor. you can buy it at participating stores across thest. >> eun, are you going to try one? >> i am not a pumpkin spice person but that looks good. >> any doughnut looks good. >> is that today? >> today. >> today only. >> you have those hot out of the the box. >> i will say, my favorite doughnut hands down is boston cream. you don't want to watch me eat it. it's one of those guilty pleasures. >> turn away. >>> it's friday. we have a lot going on. tracking irma, also working the weekend forecast too. >> if you think about it, if we were in south florida right now, think about the mass exodus going on currently. a lot of people have been on the r

living micro organisms or biofilm is what that is, that's what they're blaming this on. the park service is trying to figure out how to clean all that stuff off without damaging the marble underneath. news 4 caught up with crews today using lasers to zap away the grime. >> seems to be working. >> isn't it? right now they say they're and they're going to see how well it works. >> nearly half of all americans caught in the cross hairs of that big equifax data breach, but what do you do if you've been targeted? susan hogan is working for you. and she's going to walk us through the process of freezing your credit. >> plus, a big event for bargain ralpand i sponsoredralph northam, canthis adfor governor narrator: ed gillespie says dr. ralph northam doesn't show up? dr. ralph northam was an army doctor and a volunteer medical director at a children's hospice. requiring concussion standards for school sports. the smoking ban in restaurants. and dr. northam is working to connect veterans to good paying jobs in virginia. ed gillespie is a washington dc corporate lobbyist. he show

go to fiosgigabit.com good progress on the cleaning up of that ugly biofilm off the jeffersonorial, and they're using a pretty cool tool to do it. they are actually going inch by inch with a laser gun. you can see it slowly removing the film from the marble. right now they're just testing the laser on a small part of the memorial. the test will last four weeks. if they like what they see, they'll continue on the entire memorial which will take a lot longer to finish. >> bicyclists beware, it's going to be a bumpy ride on the jerry connolly cross county path. part of it is being paved. we saw folks dodging the construction and the construction workers, the equipment while we were out there today. that work is expected to be finished by next may. >>> people in the virgin islands, the british virgin islands say the devastation after hurricane irma feels like armageddon. one the so many zombies to come out. irma pounded much of the caribbean before it hit florida. at least 68 people there are dead. the british foreign secretary is denying claims that britain has been slow to respo