. >> reporter: it was harrison okene, the ship's cook. he had been in the bathroom when a massive rogue swell capsized the ship. as the tug sank, he scrambled into a cabin and found an air pocket, just a few feet of precious air. in utter darkness, fearing sharks, praying, subsisting on six sodas until the dive team found him. like jonah in the bible, harrison okene had gone down to the dark depths of the seas and lived to tell the tale. >> even his ordeal is believed to be the longest anyone has ever survived after being trapped under water. terry moran, abc news. >>> and it is official tonight, detroit is now the largest american city in history to declare bankruptcy. in a landmark ruling today a judge called it a chance at a fresh start for the once proud city now facing $18 billion in debt. the judge clearing the way for bankruptcy and for cutting pensions for city workers, and as a result, this was the scene outside the courthouse. protestors with a message about the spirit of detroit and a plea to keep the pensions intact. >>> and w

in harrison okene, there's a story about ice. in fact, we have been seeing accumulations of ice and harrison okene, anywhere from a tenth of an inch to half an inch. this has been causing all kinds of problems. bringing down branches and a number of places that recede in the rain and the warning in place are having accidents. >> this is a dangerous situation that we have, developing here. as we look at the storm reports there's a number from the ice, not in this map, but the green is for flooding and flash flooding and the orange is for the wind reports. gusting 60 to 70 miles per hour. then you have the powerful winds out of the thunder storms, and this is an impressive storm creating weather, warm and muggy and it's adding to the rain coming in, almost six inches since friday. rain, flash flood warnings and winter storm warnings. we'll track through the morning hours. baton down the hatches for some of the places in the south-east. this storm is packing a punch. >> children who want to fly alone will have a turer time. the carr

highs for harrison okene, 66 degrees.we are seeing a drop in temperature for the north of that as a gold front pushed down and temperatures will drop as well over the next couple of days. dallas drops though 44 degrees. we are your shorts on wednesday, put them away on thursday. rainy and snowy over the next couple of days. new york is not looking too bad. we'll see rain showers coming into play by the end of the week. >> i want to take you to the grand canon, a once in a decade event where you see this much fog in the grand canyon, it's beautiful. many saw it in a whole new way. that's a look at your national weather. have a great evening everyone. welcome to al jazeera america, i'm john siegenthaler in new york. here are the top stories. detroit has officially become the largest city in the u.s. to go bankrupt. a federal judge cleared the way for officials to deal with $20 billion in debt. pensions of city workers and retirees could be on the chopping block. that possibility sparks protests. >>> federal investigators sa

you can see in texas and harrison okene, the combination of rain and icy conditions. as it comes to saturday afternoon, we expect to see wet weather. across the north-west - look at how the moisture came in on shore and we are getting a lot of snow, cascading into the rocky. if you have a ski holiday anywhere in the rockies, we'll look good there. unfortunately it will be rainy over the next couple of days, especially in seattle. heavy rain saturday and sunday. it's looking decent as we go towards christmas eve and christmas. let's hope the trend continues. to the south-west, look at the rain. that's staying across los angeles and san day ago. it will get out of the way with temperatures of 64 degrees and conditions will not be better. we are seeing sentences staying into the low and mid 70s. look at the rain and moisture. big problem as we go towards saturday morning, especially because of the slick conditions. until continue through the afternoon, we think. worse to the east. temperature wise dallas with a cool down as a cold front comes through, temperatures of 48.

harrison okene managed to find a small air pocket. he is returning home in good health if you can believe that. that heengineer admits caught himself falling asleep before the train started to veer off the track and ultimately derailed. he says he caught himself, but it was too late. four people died. dozens were injured. they interviewed rockefeller, but they say it is too soon to say if he was fully conscious at the time of the right. -- accident. a new campaign aimed at showcasing metro half reliability. instead, some are accusing them of being sexist. they responded. i corresponded has more on the controversy and why it is upsetting some people. >> some people think it is sexist. some people say that the ads don't make sense. in the hectic world of metro commuters, this raised a few eyebrows. >> it is obviously sexist. >> the ad features two women. bus travelstro about 8000 miles between breakdowns. you didn't know that, daniel -- didn't you? then the other ones have, can we talk about shoes? >> and makes the second woman to silly

. >> back in america - 9 are dead after a powerful storm bought flooding in harrison okene and a tornado in -- oklahoma and a tornado. >> if you start to register for health insurance at healthcare.gov, you can complete registration tomorrow and be covered by january the 1st. the extension was granted because of long waits and problems on the website. those are the headlines. i'm tony harris. see you back here at 11 eastern. "consider this" with antonio mora is next. you can get the latest information on the website - aljazeera.com. >> u.s. troops are photographed shuttle more -- poised to shuttle more americans to safety. does the evacuation put america at risk of being caught in the middle of another country's civil war. >> a holiday gift - an unpopular legislative year. if you think this year was bad, wait for 2014 - an election jeer >> december 25th - a sweet idea to get some folks home for the holiday tripled in size thanks to real-life santas. >> n.a.s.a. set for a spacewalk, but space suit issues left the astronaut with cold feet. >> i'm david shuster in for antonio mora. welcome

harrison okene was working when a heavy swell caused the boat to capsize and eventually sank. his 11 colleagues drown. but okene survived for nearly three days after being found by rescue divers. >> what's that. you found one - he's alive! >> okay. keep him there. keep it there. all right. >> all right. just hold him there, keep him there. >> all right. just keep him there. keep him calm, okay. >> you know why they're so shocked because they were on a recover mission. they did not expect to find anyone alive after three days. okene survived on a single can of soda for three days. this all happened this past june. >> remarkable. i wonder how he kept his hopes up. >> when you look at the video, and you see his face when they found him. he must have been prepared for the worst then there are people, not sharks coming for him. >>> 18 minutes after the hour. two sky divers were killed, witnesses say they were descending with their parachutes collapsed. >> wow, terrible. >>> so, it is official, detroit will become the largest u.s. city ever to file for bankruptcy. a judge handing do

>> catherine: they say 29- year-old harrison okene was amazingly calm under the circumstances. >> catherine: he had to spend a couple of days in a decompression chamber.and later went home to nigeria in good shape. >> catherine: still ahead. >> pam: how new video of the crash that killed actor paul walker and his friend, is sheddding light on what happened moments after impact. >> pam: a dump truck came barrelling >> pam: a dump truck came barely into a house in cupertino this morning. the crash happened on foothill boulevard between stevens creek boulevard and ross ave. >> pam: in addition to slamming into the garage. the crash brought down power lines. creating a traffic jam on foothill bouldevard. the truck driver suffered minor injuries. no one else was hurt. >> pam: an unwanted animal was left outside in the cold sunday night at contra costa county animal services in martinez. >> pam: this is the pitbull found over the thanksgiving holiday weekend tied to a fence outside the animal shelter the manager of the facility tells kron4 that pets being dumped by their owners. is not uncommon t

. >> reporter: that's harrison okene.found an air pocket under his boat after it capsized in heavy seas in nigeria. and he stayed there in the four-square-foot air bubble for nearly four days with no food and no water. only darkness. >> just keep him there. keep him calm. >> reporter: his 11 colleagues drowned. in his air pocket, he could only listen as the boat sank and various sea creatures swim past, all the time, waiting and hoping for a miracle. >> and then we're going to bring you home, okay? >> reporter: and a miracle he found, as the divers gave him air and lifted him to safety. i wouldn't believe it if i hadn't just seen it. the man told his rescuers that he was the cook on that boat. interestingly, his rescuers. those rescue divers do this for a living. they said for some reason cooks always find a way to survive. >>> and a bizarre rescue in santa ana, california, to show you. a woman got stuck between two buildings. she was trying to jump from the roof of one commercial building to another when she fell. firefi

this is a problem across texas, and kansas and through harrison okene. we are looking at freezing fog there as the temperatures are below freezing weaking un to fog. lipry roadways. the storm across the north-east clearing out. there it is quiet weather until this weekend. then things will change a little. right now there's a freezing fog advisory across oklahoma. it could be slippery on many surfaces in this area. take a little extra time on the roadways. >> the deadlines came and gone. some americans will get a chance to sign up for insurance under the affordable care act. people who couldn't register on time due to problems with health care.gough will be able to file an appeal. >> good morning, it will be another day full of a new set of changes to help ensure that they are covered. reaching out for people especially the young invincibles who missed the deadline. >> this morning it's not entirely clear who will receive health care from the federally run exchange and when. a healthcare.gov twitter post told people who missed the deadline they'll be con

where it's colder we have freezing rain across much of harrison okene. icing will be a big issue.vel will be slow. leave yourself time, across the mid west dry, but the rain is heading in your direction. >> movie director is known for films like "the sixth sense", and is out with a book called "i got school", and talks about closing the education gap between inner city and white suburban schools. >> everyone says america is behind in education. technically we are behind poland and ahead of lip ten design. that is where we land in the list. that's not the truth. the truth is black and white. which is if you pulled out the inner city schools, pull out the inner city low income schools out of the united states and put them to the side and took every other public school in the united states, we lead the world in public school education by a lot. and what is interesting is we always think about finland. finland is white kids, and they teach them well. we teach ours better. we beat everyone. our white kids are daughter the best publicity for education on the planet. those are the facts.