megan mcgrath just arrived on the scene of a water main break causing big problems for drivers in montgomery county. megan? >> reporter: we have quite a mess on rockville pike. take a look here. we've got water gurgling out of several holes in the roadway here. the street, rockville pike, all lanes have been flooded because of a broken water main here. take a look at this over here. we even have a miniature whirlpool. if we can walk down the street a little bit here, look at this hole in the pavement. the water just swirling around and going in. in fact, it's gotten bigger since we've been here the last ten minutes or so. quite a situation, icy conditions here. rask pike closed in both directions in front of white flint. we're not seeing crews on the scene. they haven't even gotten down to the business of trying to shut off the water and starting the repairs here. this is going to be an absolute mess for the morning rush hour. we obviously have erosion that's occurred beneath the roadway here. even when they shut off the water and fix the pipe, we'll have issues with repairing the road. this

megan mcgrath, news 4. rbara, back to you. >> thank you, megan. >>> flakes are flying in prince george's county. people can expect to see between four and six inches of the white stuff today. melissa mollet is live in college park with a look at the conditions there right now. getting any more snow than when we saw you last? >> the wind is whipping every which way. you can see the accumulation here. when you look in grassy areas. as megan was mentioning, listening to one of her earlier live shots, it's not that great snowman making snow. it looks pretty. at least when it's on the grass. not the roadways or your sidewalk or driveway, of course t looks a little wet. no major issue there. look there at route 1. again not an issue. that road again was treated earlier this morning. so when you hit roads like that, not going to really be a problem. you do want to prepare, though, if you have to go out. do what my friends here across the parking lot has done. put those windshield wipers up. when you come back to th

. >>> news4's megan mcgrath just arrived on the scene of breaking news in manassas. eporter: well, you can see all the police activity behind me here at the 90 degrees sports bar in manassas. we have officers here at the parking let. we also have investigators inside the club itself. if we can zoom in here, you can see that the front door of the club has actually been shot out. the glass is broken. it was a little before 2:30 this morning when police received the 911 call. the report of a shag here at the club. when they arrived, they found four people who had been shot, all of those victims have been taken to an area hospital. there's no word, though, at this point on their condition, how serious their injuries are. but four people have been shot in this incident. police have located a possible suspect. that person is in custody. they are talking to that individual. but few other details are known at this point. we're on the scene. we'll be asking some more questions and will have an update later in the show. reporting live in manassas, megan mcgrath, news4. back to

news4's megan mcgrath riding the beltway in tyson's. megan? >> reporter: we are just right now getting on the express lanes in tyson's corner. we are on the inner loop side. and you see as we come off the ramp here, take a live look, the end of the ramp here not the greatest shape. as we're merging over into the lanes themselves, we are seeing improved conditions from what we saw early this morning. when we began at 4:00, these were really snow covered. you were seeing a lot more white than you were the black of the asphalt. at this point, we are seeing improvement. we are seeing slushy conditions rather than snow-covered conditions. earlier i was saying i would not recommend using the express lanes because they just were not in great shape. at this point i would say it's okay. just slow down and take it easy out there. slushy but improve d i still sa the main lanes are in wet conditions. the main lanes are probably the best bet if traffic allows. keep in mind at that secondary roads, neighborhood streets, many were not treated. they haven't g

news4's megan mcgrath was there it is a baby panda was put in its display for the first time in front of the cameras. >> reporter: the clicking of camera shutters. bao bao, the giant baby panda, was introduced to the press. but the national zoo's biggest celebrity seemed unfazed by all the attention. >> a ball of cuteness she is right now. >> reporter: at times a little wobbly on her feet but anxious to explore. >> she has gone from crawling to walking and she is so playful. she is so energetic. she is a great little girl. >> she spends about 20 hours or more asleep. that's typical for a panda cub. she is spending her early energy what she gets from food and getting bigger sxroyp she is bigger. once the size of a stick of butter, bao bao weighs almost 17 pounds. >> she's great. she is really healthy. when she was first born she was as long as round. we always think of her as our little girl. she continues to do really well. >> really magical time to be here in the giant panda house and to watch her grow and to spend every day, seeing her and realizing not just our time with bao bao bu

reporting live along rockville pike, megan mcgrath. >>> 4:17 now. as the winter storm made its way into the area thousands of people rushed to make sure they had the right supplies. make sure your home has a couple of things, working flashlights, fresh batteries, a first aid kit and at least a gallon of water and nonperishable food. make an emergency plan in case the water doesn't come back on for several days including the possibility of staying some place else. >>> this morning a state of emergency is in effect for new york and new jersey. the new york tri-state area is preparing for as much as 10 inches of snow. a blizzard warning in effect for long island. new york governor andrew cuomo closed the expressway at midnight. it is expect ed to reopen at 5:0 this morning if the weather conditions improve. trying to avoid another traffic disaster on the long island expressway when they were stranded in a snowstorm last year. this morning once again crews will clear the heavy snow from roa roads. cuomo is urging everyone to stay off the roads. he close

news4's megan mcgrath is at the salt dome in the alexandria section of fairfax county. megan, good morning. >> reporter: good morning, eun. the crews here are reportedly working very early. you can see the activity here as they load up with salt here to go out and hit the roadways, get in place and just standby and wait for the snow to start to come down here. we have 4,000 pieces of equipment in northern virginia ready to tackle whatever mother nature throws our way. keep in mind, folks, that when you are out and about, when all of the snow begins, you're going to want to give these plows plenty of room. 100 feet is what they are calling for as they start to spread the salt and the chemicals down on the ground. now, of course, as things really get going later on this afternoon and we start to see the heavier snow, you are advised to get off the roads altogether. give these plows room so they can do their jobs and get the streets cleared as quickly as possible. if you can stay home, do that. a lot of the school systems are closed, a lot of the governments are closed toda

in event awe have megan mcgrath, what are -- in vienna, we have megan mcgrath. what are you seeing out there? >> reporter: well, we're moving around, and yeah, we're in vienna at this point. take a look here. we're at the intersection of chain bridge road, 123, at germantown road. 123, i'd call that sort of mediocre rd conditions here. we've got a lot of slush on the side of the roadway here. very slick. take a look at germantown road. really not in great shape at all. very much snow packed. we have seen a number of plows go through just in the few minutes that we've been here. but you can see still not the greatest conditions out here. very, very slippery. let's take a look at video that we shot on the outer loop of the beltway a little while ago. at the express lanes. another trouble spot. we saw plows in the area, but take a look here. even with the attention that those express lanes are getting, they are not in great shape. if you're traveling through tyson's corner, on the beltway, my recommendation would be to stay in the main lanes. they're in much better

eun, back to you. >> megan mcgrath in ashburn. thank you. >>> 4:34. today the fate of your child's make-up snow days may be decided. the alexandria city school board will vote on the issue of whether to make up snow days tonight at 7:00. currently the alexandria school system is set to add on days through the end of the year. tonight's vote will decide whether or not to use planned professional development days which have been scheduled for several upcoming fridays. that way would not interfere with the summer break as much. you can find critical weather and traffic alerts with school closings and delays on your smartphone with our "news4 today" app. you can download that from our app store, set your alarm to aaron's voice maybe. >>> 4:35 the time now. several streets will be closed in upper marlboro to allow for final respects to be paid to fallen prince george's county police officer james "doc" brooks. sorry, this is -- right. brooks was a 20-year veteran of the force. he suffered a medical emergency while on duty a little over a week ago. he was w

news4's megan mcgrath is in leesburg now. what are you finding now? >> reporter: we are in historic downtown leesburg right now, driving along south king street. take a live look here at the road conditions that we're seeing. you can see we've got some frozen slush here along the side of the road. down the center of the road, though, looking good. that white that you see actually is not snow. it appears to be the -- the salt and some of the chemicals that they've put down when the storm was going to keep the roads clear. that's good. that's going to help keep the things from freezing up. but not much you can do along the side where all of the slush and snow accumulated as the plows went through. all of that is now frozen rock solid. so we do have very slippery conditions. the side streets, the smaller roads, that's why loudoun county has canceled school, not just for today but for the rest of the week. we've got a lot of really slippery conditions in the neighborhoods. i want to make sure -- they want to make sure that everybody is safe. if you're hea

report reporter megan mcgrath is at the scene with more. megan? >> reporter: good morning, brian. mall will open for business again, that's just roughly 48 hours after shots were fired inside the mall, leaving two employees dead and sending shoppers scrambling for cover. police are still trying to figure out the motive behind all of this, why 19-year-old darion aguilar brought a shotgun and a backpack with homemade explosives to the mall. so far, investigators have not found any connection between aguilar and the two victims, brianna benlolo and 25-year-old tyler johnson. while the motive is unclear, we are learning more about the gunman. on saturday, the day of the shooting, aguilar's mother reported him missing. there was a journal found at his home. police aren't releasing much information, they will only say that aguilar expressed general unhappiness with his life in that journal. we are also learning that the shotgun used in this was bought legally about a month ago. now over the weekend, police used canine units to sweep the mall. no other explosives were found, so the all-c

news 4 megan mcgrath is live with how to keep that bill down. how cold is it out there in dupont circle? >> reporter: it is brutal. it is brutal. i'm not exactly looking very stylish today. style doesn't matter. i'm in gortex. you just have to wear what you have to keep warm out here. very, very cold, which means that a lot of people, their furnaces are getting quite a workout here today, trying to keep up and keep their homes warm. that, of course, means that their bills are probably going to see quite the spike this month. now, there are some things, some easy and actually cheap things that you can do to keep that heating bill under control. and if you do get into a jam, there are a number of programs out there, if you qualify, that can help you out, even perhaps pay a portion of your heating bill. you can tell by the way people are bundled up. we've been hit by another arctic blast. and when the mercury dips this low, the furnace works overtime. >> oh, my gosh, my heat didn't turn off last night actually. >> that can mean higher heating bills

. >> news4's megan mcgrath has been traveling the roads in northern virnia. we're going to talk to her in a few minutes. >>> and students knew it was going happen eventually. the move happening today that could determine exactly when some schools put make-up days on the calendar. >>> well the left, you see -- >>> on the left, you see the thermometer in northwest washington. on the right, current windchills from storm team 4, and both tell the same story. it is bitterly cold outside right now in the d.c. region. >> you can feel it, boy. >> you can. good morning, everyone at 4:30. i'm aaron gilchrest. >>>. >> i'm eun yang. we have school closes and delays. d.c. public schools will open on time. in maryland, prince george's, montgomery, howard, charles, and frederick county schools will open two hours late. as will anne arundel and washington county schools. calvert and st. mary schools are closed today. >> in virginia, fairfax, loudoun, prince william county schools. arlington county and alexandria will open two hours late. falls chur falls church city schools

megan mcgrath is on the scene off north harrison street. megan, what's it like out there now? >> reporter: barbara, within the last 20 minutes or so they were actually able to get the fire truck out of the hole. i'll step out of the way so you can see here. right down there the asphalt just gave away and the fire truck which was in the area responding to a water main break, that truck simply broke through the asphalt and fell down into the hole and got trapped this morning. so it was quite the scene here. this is a picture that was tweeted out earlier when the truck was stuck inside that hole. basically the entire problem was caused by a water main. it burst. there was a 6 inch pipe underneath the roadway. that pipe broke. lots of water began to gush out and it basically eroded the earth from beneath that asphalt. the engine, engine 108 was sent to the scene just to check things out to make sure that there wasn't any kind of danger. you can see as it's being taken from the scene here. residents are clapping. they've been watching this all unfold all morning long. they are now

news4's megan mcgrath has more on a possible moat enough this case. >> reporter: it happened here inhe parking lot of the 90 degrees sports bar in manassas. four people were shot. police say that the gunman was angry about being asked to leave the barbie security. police use a hammer and a screwdriver to pry a bullet from the wall. the glass door of the 90 degrees sports bar shattered in the hail of gunfire. the bar's manager didn't want to give his name but says the whole thing happened outside of the bar after closing. >> we were closed. we close at 2:00. >> reporter: gathered out front the bar's security guard and lee other people. also will, the gunman. police say was angry about being asked to leave the barbie security. as he drove away, the police say he opened fire on the group standing out front. two men and two women were shot. >> where were they shot? >> the leg. that's what the police told me. no-life threatening -- >> reporter: witnesses called 911 and gave a description of the car. a manassas city police officer pulled it over just a few miles away. three of the people w

reporting live from columbia mall, megan mcgrath, news4. back to you. >> thank you. >>> this morning, we know more about the two victims shot and killed at that mall. 21-year-old briana ben lolo worked at the zoomy's and has a 2-year-old son. she came from a military family who moved from colorado to maryland. we discovered she lived in college park, blocks from the suspected gunman. she worked with 25-year-old tyler johnson who was also gunned down. his aunt, sidney petty, says he was a caring young man who helped others deal with their drug problems. >> he had his struggles in life. and he struggled very hard to overcome his problems, and then he reached out to others. >> johnson graduated from centennial high school in ellicott city. he was taking classes at montgomery college. >>> coming up at 4:45, we take a look at the suspected gunman, 19-year-old darion marcus aguilar. he graduated from blake high school in rockville last year. new this morning, the school released a statement. also we'll hear from his mother in an emotional phone c

megan mcgrath live on the beltway near tyson's corner. what are you seeing? >> reporter: by and large, we're seeing decent conditions on the major roadways. we are injury count-- we are en the express lanes on the outer loop. you see conditions are far from perfect here. we just had a plow go through about five minutes ago. we, as you can see, have a lot of snow in all of the lanes. you see areas where you sigh down to the asphalt. there's a lot of still white stuff on the roadway here. very, very treacherous especially as we're going over an overpass because it's very, very cold out there. what i would recommend, if you're traveling on the beltway through the tyson's area, is to use the main lanes. the main lanes are by and large just wet. they're looking a lot better than the express lanes. same situation for the express lanes on the inner loop of the beltway. we have seen similar snow-packed conditions there. so certainly bake in extra time interest your commute this morning. we are still seeing a lot of trouble spots out there. back to you in the studio.

news4's megan mcgrath has been there all morning long and joins us with an update. >> reporter: barbara, they had an eight-inch water main that broke on the corner here overnight. that's been repaired, but they thought the water gushing from that broken pipe had eroded the ground beneath the road causing this enormous hole that you see here beside massachusetts avenue. now, we've had a new development just within the last couple of minutes. if we pan over here, you can see the folks gathered at that manhole, just a little bit ago they pulled open the manhole cover, and when they looked down, they still saw flowing water, something they did not expect to see, because they actually fixed that eight-inch pipe. so they're still trying to identify potential sources for this hole. we also have involvement of some of the utility lines in the area, and we are now being told that this repair job could take as long as a week. >> 20 1/2. >> reporter: ddot crews measure the cracks that have formed on massachusetts avenue in southeast. >> inch and a half. >> reporter: there are concerns about the st

reporting live in gaithersburg, megan mcgrath, news4. barbara, back to you. >> thank you, megan. >>> right now, people in atlanta are being asked to stay home if possible. all of georgia is under a state of emergency right now. about an hour ago, the national guard started helping people pick up their cars that they had abandoned on the side of the highway on tuesday. the country's nilaescity was paralyzed after a winter storm dumped less than three inches of snow and sleet. the storm forced more than 10,000 students to sleep at school. mayor kasim reed told the "today" show this morning that the traffic nightmare was the result of not only bad weather but poor planning. >> we made an error in the way that we released our citizens. so the state made a judgment to release state employees, private businesses made their judgment, and i made the call, and aps made the call. >> police responded to nearly 800 car crashes at the height of the storm. fortunately, there were no major injuries. >>> and here we are dealing with our coldest morning o

news4's megan mcgrath is live in ashburn, virginia, and she has more on the icy impact on all of us. good morning. >> reporter: good morning, barbara. yeah, we're still seeing ice in some of the neighborhoods. not so much on the main roads but on the neighborhood streets, take a look, on small branch place in ashburn. and this froze solid overnight. it didn't get plowed up, and now it's really, really slippery. we are also seeing another impact. look at all of the kids that we have in this neighborhood. the kids, the dogs, they've been building snow forts. a little while ago, they were actually sledding, and the dogs are even joining in. they're grabbing some of the snowballs and having a grand ole time. this is because loudon county public schools are closed because of the snow. closed not just today, but for the rest of the week. they just want a little extra time to get their maintenance crews out there, to continue cleaning up the sidewalks, the parking lots and everything, so that it's safe for when the kids return to class on monday. in loudon county, folks are chipping out the

news4's megan mcgrath is live with more on that. megan, good morning. >> reporter: well, barbara, the mall is set to open to the general public at 1:00 this afternoon, but a short time ago, the press was allowed in. they gave us a tour of the mall, the area wherest shooting occurred, as well as the two memorials that are now here at the mall. take a look at the video here. zumiez, the store where the shooting happened, is boarded up. the names of the two employees who were gunned down -- brianna benlolo and tyler johnson -- are written on the white plywood. customers in the message there, they're encouraged to write messages of hope and encouragement and condolences book in the mall's center court. now, nearby, stores still seem in a bit of disaay. clara's, for example, a couple of doors down from zumiez, has merchandise on the floor that hasn't been picked up. there's also a salon nearby where you can still see hair on the floor, because when the shooting went down, people just ran for cover. they got to safety, some cases they left

in manassas, megan mcgrath for news4. >>> and president obama is the big talk around washington today. his comments on marijuana and drinking alcohol next. >>> and she is ready to hand over the reins. queen elizabeth now 88 years queen elizabeth now 88 years old, delegates more a another by an intruderht by the reservoir... who forced his way in through her bedroom window... and for so many, traumatized again by facing the criminal in court. i'm jennifer wexton, and as a prosecutor i put vit offenders in prison. in the virginia senate, i'll fight just as hard against tea party republicans who would take away a woman's healthcare and her right to choose, even in cases of rape and incest. on election day, help me stand up for her. >>> new questions this afternoon about russia's relationship with the nsa leaker edward snowden. t the head of the house and the senate committees suggested yesterday on "meet the press" that snowden may have been working for the russian spy services when he disclosed hundreds of thousands of classified government documents. congressman mike rogers said that s

news4's megan mcgrath is near tysons. how does it look out there? >> reporter: things are starting to get better. we've seen quite an improvement in the last two hours or so. take a live look. we're on the inner loop of the beltway, just passed the dulles toll road, and you can see we have wet pavement here. the plows have come through, they've gotten all of the slush, it's not even on the shoulder any longer, so just wet pavement. which that was not the case earlier this morning. we were seeing a lot of slush. we were also seeing shoulders that were covered in slush and snow pack in some places. the continuing problem is going to be those neighborhood stre s streets, and they may be a problem for a few days because of how cold it is. this fender-bender on the dulles toll road, one of many this morning. slick spots tough to see in the predawn darkness. these are the express lanes at 4:00 a.m. in tysons corner. and here they are four hours later, still pretty bad in places. just look at the ramp to the toll road. most drivers have been sticking to th

news4's megan mcgrath has made her way back to leesburg to check on conditions. megan? >> reporter: we are in the potomac station neighborhood in leesburg. and we are seeing some pretty lousy conditions here. we're on silverwood terrace. take a look at our live camera. you see for yourself, absolutely snow packed. really, really slick. all of the stuff here is frozen. we even have a little ice on the side and in spots. we're really not on this street seeing any of the pavement really showing through at all. it is completely white. so it looks like they need some serious plow action going through here. maybe some chemical. but this is the challenge here. this is why loudoun county schools are closed. not just today but also tomorrow. these neighborhood streets, this is all frozen. so it's very, very difficult to get up at this point. and we've got really, really cold temperatures. we need it to melt in order to make a difference here. a little too slippery, treacherous for school buses and people walking. we've seen some sidewalks that have been shoveled. others have not