. >> my understanding is they want to check some culverts, see if the child may be stuck in a culvert. >> reporter: the rain came fast. in a few short hours more than half a foot across parts of alabama, flooding streets in birmingham. 911 operators were busy. >> the bottom floor of my house is under water and the water level is rising. >> reporter: firefighters had to bring out the boats. nearly 100 families were trapped in this apartment complex. >> they were freaking out hyperventilating, and they were trying to make sure that everyone was up and knocking on friends' doors. >> reporter: then it was time for atlanta. flash flooding put nearly three feet of water on several city streets. >> high winds knocked down massive trees, like this giant oak. that fell across this road, missed two homes and knocked out power to this entire neighborhood. there's still the potential of flooding tonight. all the way up into the northeast. new england is already soaking wet from melting snow. steve osunsami, abc news, atlanta. >>> another weather note to the north. the calender says it's april but

gerri: culvert, whatever you can find, definitely. >> but you need to be careful with culverts especiallyif they're covered, when, most of the time tornadoes are associated with storm that produce heavy rain. tough be very careful about the possibility of flooding. the bottom line is if you have to make that decision between riding out tornado in your car and being in a ditch you probably already made the big mistake put your place where you doesn't have a good choice you can make. gerri: harold, thank you. >> you're welcome. gerri: coming up, apple has a fix for the iphone 5 but of course there's a catch. one of our cash challenge couples has gone credit card free for a entire month. they will tell us they continue going all cash. stay with us. gerri: the liz report cash challenge with the one month anniversary of our participants have made that commitment to drop the of credit-card and use cash. ever since the beginning you guys are rock stars except i heard there was a little issue with the trip. what happened? >> we were up in the mountains one week ago and i was ready to get out of t

. >> it is my understanding they want to check culverts to see if the child may be stuck inside a culvertours, more than half a foot in the streets. flooding streets in birmingham. 911 operators are busy. >> the bottom floor of my house is under water and the water level is rising. >> firefighters had to bring out the boats. nearly a hundred families were trapped in this apartment complex. >> they are freaking out. hyper ventilating. and just trying to make sure everyone was up and awake. we were knocking on friends' doors. >> then time for atlanta. flash flooding put three foot of water on several city streets. high winds knocking down massive trees like this giant oak that fell across this road, missed two homes, and knocked out power to this entire neighborhood. there is still potential for flooding up into the northeast. new england is soaking wet from melting snow. steve osunsami, atlanta. >> in the midwest, still struggling to clear the ice-clogged great lakes. blamed for a week long shutdown of the largest steel factory. ice breaking ships have made enough headway for u.s. steel to

the spouse and cats culvert had a pretty man from donetsk on other developments united states has issued sanctions against six of crimea the breakaway leaders including the official who signed a deal with the kremlin to split the peninsula from ukraine was as washington calls on maths got to de escalate tensions in which all russian troops from ukraine's border. brown history of sanctions against russia and against the politicians who helped an ex crimea to russia last month. among the blacklisted this ukrainian politician their kites echo he helped pave the way for the russian takeover. also on the list of six crimean separatists in the gas company. it's now being managed by moscow united states will continue to impose costs on russia for its illegal and illegitimate occupation of crimea. and moreover they were fully prepared to impose additional significant sanctions on russia if it continues to escalate the situation in ukraine. tensions are still running high among ukrainian border the us the eu are working together to try and de escalate the situation the seven men were already on t

and one felony count of brass knuckles is a culvert struck a bicyclist was not seriously hurt and then left the scene of the accident last month. when this followed coloring call please. he thought the brass knuckles and his glove box. earlier 49er linebacker august meth seen here back in february went back to court. this was a status hearing. he's charged with possessing illegal firearms in costs for a party at his home in 2012 smith pleaded not guilty to weapons charges and misdemeanor card for driving under the influence christmas attorneys agreed to come back if court and this month for possible date for trial. new developments and that official corruption case arsenide there could be additional charges an additional defendants agreed to spend at senator leland's and two other defendants heard news today at a hearing and a court must read government said they'll have an updated indictment with the 90 days three in the meantime some defense attorneys are raising questions about the indictment as the stands now. >> : anyone read les the indictment there's no logical connection betwee

authorities say her mother called after seeing the girl get sucked away into a culvert. a water rescue is currently underway. the area has received 4 to 5 inches of rainfall already, and it's still coming down. a u.s. navy ship is on its way back to san diego, after rescuing a couple and their two young daughters at sea. eric and charlotte kaufman set off from mexico two weeks ago, as part of a round-the-world sail. but their youngest daughter got sick, 900 miles from shore. the coast guard received a distress call last thursday. the u.s.s. vandegrift was dispatched to pick up the family. the girl has been treated, and she's getting better. her parents say they are accomplished sailors, and they were on the pacific leg of a trip that started more than a year ago. don't expect any more pictures with the president any time soon. last week the red sox player took this picture with the president with his samsung smart phone. it looks playful enough until samsung said it was a publicity stunt for its product. the white house says it cannot allow the president's image to be us

you have to put back the same culverts in the same spots and build the bridges exactly what the way they weren't that is what we do at fema. we got together with the men said this is crazy. you are giving us hundreds of millions of dollars in federal money to put things back so that we are back here in three or four months with these 100 year storm to seem to come every year asking for the same loot. this is just a waste of money and they said you are right and they change their procedures. they change their reimbursement policies. i think it's an area where they present said i can't get climate change legislation through congress but i can change the way internally we deal with major climate change in the stores and -- storms and they have done it. >> how do you make the argument that hurricane irene in the tropical storm that hit vermont was due in fact to a climate change? >> all i can tell you is i have always said that climate change awareness is going to come first from the coldest states. when you are out in alaska and you see your permafrost melting but when you are in vermont an

officials in maine say a 74-year-old was swept down a flooded culvert.logist joins us now. rick, a lot of people saying, what's going on with the crazy weather? >> i know, mid april and getting snow. minnesota, you know, you see snow this time of year. and there's possibly another storm about a week away across areas of the northern plains again. but this one's been a real significant one. seeing snow across the arrowhead of minnesota and the u.p. of i. snowfall totals have been extreme in minnesota. 19 inches. downtown minneapolis, not that much, around an inch. but just to the north of town is where the snow got very heavy, over a foot. but places in wisconsin, well over a foot of snow. this has to melt. and we're going to have big problems when it does. the snow pack still pretty high there. temperatures on saturday, 39 in marquette. to sunday, up to 55. we'll start to see some pretty quick melting of that and a nice warm-up for sunday across parts of the plains. one other storm we're going to watch this weekend is a storm that's developing across par

police say they found a brass knuckles and culverts glove box.o friday its earnings for 49 linebacker all this missing here back in november back in court. status hearing for smith. it charged with three felonies related to illegal firearms after police called to our party in his home back in 2012. smith pleaded not guilty to web and charges and also driving under the influence did the attorneys agreed to return to court later this month to consider possible date for trial. it >> : no new statements from calling cabinet this morning after defending himself on twitter after we pull you out a police investigation involving the 49 record back. colin cent for tweeds friday calling allegations untrue. this ought for navistar name with other two nfl players and a miami police report occurred in england says among other things that she kissed colin and letter out pass out and walk up in hospital. with no memory of how she got there. turning now to basketball golden state warriors in nba playoffs for 2014. as dubs beat rivals lakers by the score 112 to 9

. >> in november 1974 karen silkwood died when her car ran off this highway and struck a culvert wallnorth of oklahoma city. silkwood had been on her way to tell a reporter about what she believed were serious violations of safety standards at the kerr-mcgee plutonium plant where she worked. the plant is now closed. as a union activist, silkwood had charged workers were being contaminated by plutonium, a radioactive, cancer-causing substance used to fuel nuclear reactors. a few weeks before she died silkwood herself had been contaminated. nervous about her condition, she had taken sedatives. local authorities ruled the drugs may have caused her to fall asleep at the wheel the night of her accident. but some people believe silkwood may have been deliberately run off the road. after more than a dozen investigations no criminal charges were brought in the case, and kerr-mcgee was cleared of most of the safety violation questions. >> despite the suspicions around her death, the company that ran that plant, kerr-mcgee, was never implicated in karen silkwood's death. but her family and her

there's a tornado warning in effect until 4:30 central time and this is for culvert and franklin counties. if you are in muscle shoals or russellville, this is a very, very serious situation for you. so take cover if you are in those counties immediately. there's also tornado warnings still going on, wolf, in mississippi. we have one for monroe county, aberdeen, and amory. you can see the pink boxes that are just lined up across portions of eastern mississippi that he is what we're going to be continuing to deal with for the next several hours. clay and webster counties, tornado warning for you. mantee, you need to take cover. choctaw, the warning goes on until 4:15. this is a very dangerous situation. this tornado watch has been labeled as a particularly dangerous situation. that doesn't happen very often. only a couple times a year. yesterday we saw that in arkansas. today we're seeing that again in mississippi, alabama, this is going to be the target and we're going to have to watch out for very, very dangerous conditions. very large tornadoes are possible. you you they could be long l

heavy rains quickly followed and a 9-year-old girl was killed after flash flooding pulled her into a culvert. by morning, some areas had seen more than 8 inches of rainfall. many in mississippi and new orleans were left with destroyed homes and little to salvage. but for some knowing their families were safe meant much more. >> oh, my god, that's all matters. all this stuff can be replaced to me. it's just a house. that can be replaced. you can't replace somebody if they get hurt. >> reporter: as heavy winds and rain moved across the south, roads in alabama flooded. drivers quickly abandoned their cars, and those who didn't faced dangerous conditions. in birmingham alabama, rescue workers evacuated more than 120 people from their homes and downed trees blocked major highways. the storms also caused problems for people across the country. as many as 6,000 flights were delayed because of the weather. another 500 had to be cancelled. here in belhaven though the cleanup starts this morning. >> thanks. strong winds at daytona beach, florida, overturned a single engine plane last night. the cessna

you can see the culvert that's been washed out, the vehicles that are embedded and the sand and boulders of the riverbed and the riverbed completely rerouted during the flooding and took out the road that's in that particular area. now, the good news is as we look at the potential for additional disaster, we have the power here in congress to confront the disaster before it has the chance to occur, and i want to speak to the history of what congress did. we recognize, the congress did, the importance of stabilizing water banks, preventing soil erosion and clearing debris from waterways back in 1978 through the agricultural credit act. as a part of that important law, congress authorized emergency watershed protection program or e.w.p. for short. and as many of my colleagues know well,s w.p. provides critical disaster relief assistance for families and communities that have suffered severe damages from flood, fire, droughts or other natural disasters. the e.w.p. program focuses on funding critical emergency recovery measures for runoff mitigation and erosion prevention that will relieve i