our brittany morehouse is on the phone and live at suburban. set the scene for us. have you seen a number of emergency ambulances coming into the hospital? what do you know? >> brittany, are you there? >> we do have some ground video just coming into us that we want to show you and we'll bet back to brittany. >> there it is. right at the accident. >> this is some unedited video. >> this is, as we say, raw video footage of what had been going on there at the accident. this is not live, this is on tape. >> this is on tape. and this is a shot of what was happening there right after the accident occurred. there is the sky ramp right there. and then as you look down, that's the 45-foot drop. >> and you can see the -- the triage area there where somebody is being cared for by the ems technician. >> and do you see the children. >> it looks like the children do not seem to be badly hurt. >> right. but again there is an effort to treat some children and some other people. maybe we better come off that video for a second. >> and then the yellow area there and as he described,

reporting live in arlington, brittany morehouse, 9news now. >> like that meet me halfway, brittany.nk you. >>> tonight the u.s. supreme court is the only chance a virginia woman has to avoid execution. virginia governor bob mcdonnell denied clemency. she is the only woman on virginia's death row. she is the first woman to be executed in nearly a century. they convicted her to carry out the 2002 murders of her husband and stepson. her execution is scheduled for next thursday. >>> we just made some calls and the capitol hill police have not yet released the name of the man killed right near the u.s. botanical gardens today. but officers say the man pointed a gun at them and when they ordered him to drop it he didn't do it so they shot him dead. no word on what sparked the whole thing. >>> and a heart-breaking accident in silver spring has left a toddler strangled to death. the 18-month-old's father found the little boy all entangled in the drapery cord inside their apartment this afternoon. a police officer rushed the father and the child in thinks police cruiser to a nearby hospital,

reporting live, brittany morehouse, 9news now. >> we also know more about the company involved in theent. wolf bus lines out of york springs, pennsylvania. the company runs a lot of charter trips to new york city, dc, atlantic city and other locations. back in 2008, a charter crashed along route 15 near gettiesburg, pennsylvania. a group of students was on that bus headed to washington. three kids and a principal was hurt and hospitalized in that wreck. >> anitta, we should know you were reporting on the scene live, reporting thoughts and actions. >> we were at montgomery county high school for another event. even at that, it took our news crew a long time to make it through the traffic grid lock like everybody was experiencing. what we're seeing there was the state police chopper that was giving investigators a bird's eye view of the bus wreckage before it was hauled away. you can see the windows that were cut out to get inside to get the people out. dozens of fire and rescue teams were there and of course the ntsb was coming in because it was a commercial vehicle involved. derrick,

brittany morehouse went to find out how long that would be. brittany. >> reporter: well, anita and derek, that news comes from a panel of economists so say it's their job to study the recession. it lasted 18 months. but the good news is, they say we're in recovery, which means we should be seeing more signs like this. >> why do i feel like we're still in a recession? >> reporter: people were over the decline and many don't buy it. >> when you hear they said, hey, guess what, the recession is over, and it's ending in 2009. >> i say huh? right. no. >> of course it did. that's why we're all still sort of struggling. >> oh, yes. i figured the number crunchers could do that, just like the number crunchers claim that all of the school has been reformed. they always can crunch the numbers, but we go by how it really impacts us. >> reporter: how does it impact you ? >> well, we have less going out. we have to be a little more cautious with our money because we don't know whether we're going to get laid off. >> reporter: some already have been laid off,

as brittany morehouse reports, neighbors say the woman was in the midst of a new beginning in her life. >> sad because i knew her. she lived hee for a long time. >> reporter: no name, no picture but people who knew are still grieving the woman found outside of her apartment on greenbelt road are remembering her with fondness she was specially sweet to young people. >> especially when you have kids. >> this is some scary things. >> reporter: many people were frightened when they saw the woman hanging outside of the front door of the apartment complex. they say she was lying down in the ground in a pool of blood. >> it looked like she probably fainted and one hand was out halfway where the doors are. >> reporter: police will say very little with the woman, except that she was in her 40s and suffered some blunt trauma but the friends she made describe her first as a proud grandmother who was so excited to have just bought her first home. >> everybody was so excited. that's all she talked about is she got a house and is moving. get a roof for my grandbaby. her grandson was her world. >> no

our own brittany morehouse has been live all afternoon long where she's watched as many try to come to grips with what went down. brittany. >> reporter: coming to grips after seeing flames 20 feet wide and 50 feet high shooting out of the houses behind me. so powerful was the fire that it carried embers this size 300 yards away. now threatening houses in this area as we just heard from a young lady that at 8:45 tonight the bushes in front of her house caught fire and this is after they watered their lawn for four hours. it burned one house to ground level, ripped through two more next door and if not for firefighters arriving within two minutes was on its way to destroying eight more houses now damaged. >> it was like a domino effect and we were next on the line, but they saved us. >> reporter: her house was in direct line of firefighters powerful water blast. >> and my mom was actually in the house and she says she heard a loud noise. and so she gathered herself and my nieces and went outside and she said she couldn't see anything but black. >> reporter: behind the black, this house.

brittany morehouse picks up the story and joins us live from greenbelt. brittany. >> reporter: anita, this is one of those stories where it just goes to show you don't have to know someone's name to really feel like you know someone. all of the young people in this apartment building off greenbelt road which is right near the nasa building talk about this woman who was killed found dead outside her old doorstep. she apparently was coming back here today to collect some belongings. >> it's sad because i knew her. she lived around here for a long time. >> reporter: no name, no picture. people who knew the woman found dead outside her old apartment are remembering her with fondness. she was especially sweet, they say, to young people. >> it's scary. in a neighborhood like this. especially when you have kids. this is some scary things. >> reporter: many people were frightened when they saw the woman hanging outside of the apartment complex. they say she was lying down in the ground in a pool of blood. >> it looked like she probably fainted and one hand was out

tonight dozens came out to talk about the potential traffic disaster and our own brittany morehouse was there who joins us live now from alexandria. brittany. >> reporter: well, that meeting was held at a military school -- at a middle school right off seminary road. and that defense building it's required by law, passed by congress in 2005, so it has to be built. where it was going to be built, that was under question. they looked at several spots. they looked even at delmar. this spot fit the requirement. when he said that, everyone in the room just laughed. >> to put it in anyway to this situation is an insult to intelligence. >> reporter: and that is just speaker one standing in a group of people. this is a military building at the marxen ter in alexandria. it will -- marks center in alexandria. many people in this room are asking what will it do to our traffic? >> that is a huge, huge problem. because there is really no easy way to get in there. >> reporter: tonight's public hearing held by congressman gen moran allowed people to ask questions. >> have those who participated in pas

brittany morehouse, 9news now. >> and as of right now, we have no idea what caused that fire. the fairfax county firefighters are still investigating it. >>> new at 11:00, mother nature caused some problems for one montgomery county family tonight. take a look at this. high winds blew this tree down on a home in wheaton. you can see the branch is dangling over the deck. the power has been flickering on and off all night long. >> but things have calmed down a bit as of now. so for a quick look at what is going on, let's go to topper shutt. >> we're not talking about any watches or any warnings. we will start with live doppler 9000. there are still some big storms on the delmarva. these are the same storms that prompted all of the warnings earlier tonight. they're headed south of dover. some more showers back to the west in the mountains, but these are going to diminish as they move east. lets me show you titan, because we had some hail damage around leesburg. we showed you pictures earlier. there is video on our website. if you go to our website wusa9.com, go to the forecast pa

reporting live, brittany morehouse, 9 news now. >> thank you, brittany. >> now to virginia where familiesrying to salvage their belongings after a fire tore through homes in me nasa. >> firefighters say it will be days before they can figure out what caused the fire that destroyed three homes. the next question, why did the flames spread so quickly? >> we're looking at about, i think, 10 to 16 feet maybe between these houses. >> certainly if you were on lots larger than a quarter acre and the houses staggered, you wouldn't see the spread you see here? >> reporter: the fire official says the homes were built to code, but home's exterior walls made of vine anymore siding over particle board. the fire marshal also says, if the homes had been required to have sprinklers, that would have held flames down. >>> bob mcdonnell says there will be no confederate history month next year. he was widely criticized when he declared last april confederate history month. he left out anti-slavery language in his proclamation. he later apologized. he declared civil war in virginia month. >>> the military's

. >> reporter: brittany morehouse, 9 news now. >> dr. jordan says all examples should be considered seriously but he says the ultimate message of the event maybe more about nuclear arms rather than aliens. >>> howard is up next with the forecast. >> pretty nice right now. we had beneficial rain yesterday and this morning. potentially threatening rains are heading this way. i will talk about that and thening ative tropics when 9 news now is. >>> maryland's first casino is up and running. the crowd turned out despite the fact the casino's early opening was announced just 12 hours ahead of time. >> the minute we opened the doors the customers started to file in and a has been a steady build all day. it tells you people have been waiting for a casino in maryland a long time. 40% of the casinos business in delaware has come from maryland so they are anxious to spend money their own state. >> the casino is expected to generate 350 jobs and millions in tax revenue. the official opening is thursday. >>> we have good news for the motorcyclists wh

our team coverage begins with brittany morehouse in lusby, maryland. >> you can see a lot of the homes don't believe in basements. that's a shot of the basement, or the foundation completely wiped out by their own front yard. the rain fall is so heavy out here, meanwhile, less than a mile away, you have a whole neighborhood that is just by the water and tonight is just a waiting game for them. >> you have to drive through water to get to your house, take off your shoes and socks to walk through your front yard. >> exactly how people in calvert county say while chesapeake bay washes away their stress, the rain brings it right on back. >> like on the other side of lighthouse boulevard very damp, wet. any time we have a lot of rain, there's always an accumulation of water. it always floods. >> so the waiting game begins for high tide tonight, expected at 8:30 and many people are anxious. >> so it's dark and you really can't see what's going to be happening. that's the scariest part. >> another concern, neighbors driving through pools of water on lighthouse road, the main stretch of this p

brittany morehouse has more on the fire and its emotional impact. >> it burned one house to ground level, ripped through two more next door and was on its way to destroying eight more houses. >> they saved us. >> her house was in direct line of firefighters ' powerful water blast. >> my mom was in the house and she said she heard a loud noise and so she gathered herself and my nieces and went outside and couldn't see anything but black. >> reporter: behind the black, this man's house. >> my wife called me. i'm in dc. >> he said his wife arrived from wal-mart just in time to see the flames and people evacuating. >> i was asleep an they woke me up and i came outside. >> no one was hurt and no one was inside the three houses destroyed but a few people suffered smoke inhalation in the area. he says his house didn't stand a chance giving the proximity to the house that caught on fire. >> the rate of spread when houses are this close is a concern to us and we attempt to provide coverage as best we can. turnly when you look at the lightweight construction it presents a unique challenge for us.

. >> brittany morehouse standing by live now at the board of election. brittany, i thought the whole idea of a new system was to be faster. >> reporter: that's right. you know what you get when you have all of these new machines in here. if you look behind me, there is a board of elections buildings. right there you have a bunch of reporters and you have some voters in there gathered around. most of them circled around computers actually looking on the internet checking for the updates for the results. gone are the days when someone runs down the stairs and hands over a piece of paper. i was told that shortly after ten here, some trucks arrived with the actual ballots in hand. there were about 25 teams that went around with police escorts to gather the ballots. they came back here and now they're looking into it. each had three car trijs. all of the car trijz are being loaded into an electrical system here and as the results come in, they're putting them on the website. now, we're told they're only counting today's votes. not the early votes. and i'm hear

. >> reporter: brittany morehouse, 9 news now. >> the executive director says in the election businesswords, accuracy, speed and expense. he said we were cheap and accurate, we'll be

our own, brittany morehouse, is live on the scene with breaking news and the latest, britney? >> reporter: well derek, we're in a sprawling development in the center of the city of manassas. before we roll to the video, which shows the kind of impacts here, i want to show you that behind me, the community center. the families that are displaced, they are being helped by the red cross right now. i also want to show you the layout of the house that is here. if you could look behind me, these houses are so closing together and they are very large. for that, you could only imagine, tells you how fast the fire could spread, which clearly might have been what happened here today. around 3:00, witnesses say when they heard a loud explosion, we don't know what that explosion was. and they say that they saw two of these houses here go up in flames. and they spread fast and furious. they didn't have much time to think. we did interview one gentleman who was sleeping. and he is okay. he was staying in the neighboring house. and we also interviewed one family where all five of the people,

. >> as brittany morehouse explains, the city took an aggressive overhaul of the election process, something that may not have been quite ready for prime time. >> we're taking the long way around. >> reporter: as if he didn't have enough on his hands, he takes us room by room. >> person by person, click by click behind the scenes of the board of elections, where he is chief of technology and where, yes, they're dealing with some speed bumps. >> we all know there was a lot of anxiety last night about the speed of election results. >> reporter: part of the problem, outdated web site software that just refused to import voting results last night. >> we have come up with a much more streamlined process we're using today and will use in november. >> what is that? >> now i'm going to talk geek speak. >> reporter: one step board of elections members learn about in the rehashing. the executive director said video was the launch of an election overhaul. speed was not an option. >> every election across the country, when you implement technology for the first time you'll see stories like you saw yeste