spoke with pepco's president. where do things stand? >> we're down to about 310,000 customers. been making some progress. of those outages still in montgomery county. 55,000 out in the district of columbia. >> what is your projection of all the power will be restored? >> we will have the majority of service stored -- restored to 11:00 a.m.rs buy at friday, july 6. wonderingf people are why it is taking so long. were you guys surprised by the storm? >> it was not tracking to our service area. out of the midwest. 4.3 million customers have been of service from ohio, indiana, delaware, new jersey. was unusual, it hit pretty hard, and now we have experienced an extraordinary amount of damage. all lot of trees, and let a snapped -- a lot of trees, a lot snapped poles/ . these are the challenges that we face. the challenges our customers space. temperature has been high, 90, 100 degrees. that is why we are so committed. is why we are bringing from everywhere. the air resources coming in from oklahoma, florida, -- we have resources coming in from oklahoma, florida, as far as canada. >

pepco showing more than 39,000 customers without power. dominion virginia with more than 29,000bg&e has 5300 in montgomery and prince georges county out right now. pepco is making better progress. the utility company said as of today, it's restored 90% of the outages, that is two days earlier than projected and friday is now the goal to get everyone back on paul wagner is live in silver springs where some people are not too sure about that, though. paul. >> reporter: laura, two days ago, we came to this chevy chase neighborhood off of east- west highway and found this. a huge tree down across blaine drive and nothing has changed since friday night. can you see the tree is consuming this home here on blaine and there is even a car underneath all of these branches. neighbors tell us the tree cutters have come and told them that they can't do anything until pepco does something with the lines. they say pepco has come and said they can't do anything until the tree is cut down. this is just one they should, one of many that we found where people are desperate for rel

they have upset with pepco. is there a change to be made? is that a length any process? >> -- a lengthy process? >> i'm not suggesting that. pepco will be our service provider now and will be so in the foreseeable future. we simply need to make certain they respond better. they are making improvements but i'm not sure it is fast enough. i'm not suggesting a change in leadership, i want to make sure the leadership performs at a level we expect and continue to push them to do so. >> is it politically difficult to ask for a rate increase when you are dealing with this kind of public pressure to get the hour on quickly? >> it is difficult to ask for a rate increase even before this. this would be a very difficult case for them to make if a rate increase and i'm not sure it is warranted at this time. >> 90% of the customers should be back online by the weekend. if not, what should the public service commission do? they fined them a million dollars before and we are still having the problems so what else besides continuing to fine, which ends up being put back on the consumer?

numbers you need to call if you have an emergency and cannot get through on 911. >> we just spoke with pepconow let's check with virginia's largest utility, dominion power. ken barker joins us live on the phone. >> good morning thanks for having me. >> you are welcome you guys have been up and at them, tweeting updates we appreciate that. >> well, you are more than welcome we have a lot of work to do. we had over 500,000 customers effected from the storm we have restored about 50%, down to 280,000 customers northern virginia, we are proud of what we've done but have a lot of work to do. this storm ranks in the top 5 of all restorations, we've had, including hurricanes and our hundred year history this is the biggest restoration we have ever done, without a hurricane involved, so, i know that doesn't help customers much as they are sitting in the heat and waiting for power to come back on but rest as sured we have 3,000 dedicated men and women out there restoring power as we speak. >> one thing you hear, people really frustrated, and maybe it is a little premature at this point but not knowin

there's a huge communication breakdown with pepco. pepco just told me yes, in fact, their robocall script is misleading and here's some of the reactions of the people i talked to today at that protest parade. in cabin john residents marched with patriotically themed protest signs during the annual 4th of july parade down macarthur boulevard, give me liberty or give me pepco? >> we just got an e-mail saying that the power had been restored in cabin john. half of cabin john is still out. doesn't make sense, does it? >> reporter: nearby in the green acres section bethesda residents have taken to posting signs to direct crews into the neighbor. >> we've been told multiple times it actually is back on and there isn't a problem and there's never been a work crew that's even come to look at it. >> reporter: the signs may have worked. a pepco scout showed up shortly after they went up. so that's what it's down to this 4th of july. you got people carrying signs and one of the reasons is they just have absolutely. >> confidence that their phone

july two years ago marty drake got so fed up with the utility he crashed a pepco press conference. >>have elderly people with cancer surgery and a diabetic. i would like to talk to the president. >> reporter: how about the president of pepco. >> my apologies for the inconvenience. >> reporter: power was back within a couple of hours of the confrontation. >> we have gas and gas water heater also. >> reporter: this year drake lost power friday night. >> it's here we go again. we heard the announcement that it might be until friday. >> reporter: he got it back sunday night. advice for dealing with pepco? >> you need to stay on top of them. they're a large organization. and you need to criticize work where it's deserved. >> reporter: as we told you, mr. drake was out spou wer two years ago -- power two years ago. he lost it over the weekend this time and i suspect derek will be going to see him again in the not too distant future. >> you know what, pepco wants all of us to believe it is fighting the good fight to get the lights back on. but there are those out there arguing tonight that t

>> i have no problem sharing that information. >> with the company requesting rate increases, a plan for pepco to make documents available or face legal action. >> you can see the entire interview with the president of pepco sunday morning at 9:30. still to come, the president signs a pair of bills to help students and our highways. >> a little something to slow down your commute. where metro is working this weekend. hmm, it says here that cheerios helps lower cholesterol as part of a heart healthy diet. that's true. ...but you still have to go to the gym. ♪ the one and only, cheerios ♪ ♪ the one and only, cheerios ♪ >> we continue with news of weaker than expected numbers on the employment front. >> companies added only 80,000 jobs in the month of june. it was enough for mayor romney to pounce on the president's plan to grow the economy. >> as president obama's bus tour rolls through ohio and pennsylvania his campaign was hit with a jobs report. >> we knew from the start in 2008 turning that around was not going to happen overnight. >> employers added only 80,000 new jobs in june. that kept t

i spent a long time on the phone, brian, with pepco and they tried to explain to me why there is so much confusion. they say the reason is that people taking the calls are looking at a map and there is a feeder line that is restored and that is looks like it's restored but there are small pockets and people taking the calls don't know that and pepco said if you're in one of the pockets, pick up the phone and call pepco and be a pest. let them know you don't have power, especially here. neighbors estimate there are 80 homes without power. >> paul wagner tonight. >> 1776, no electricity. 2012, still no electricity. >> king george of england and we're thinking the independence from pepco as well. >> give me liberty or give me pepco. >> the cabin john form parade had verbal fireworks. many people without power and they decided to turn their annual parade into a protest of softs against pepco and they're calling to the utility to send more crews out. >>> and the holiday had many people home from work. will thomas is live on the mall and who is the big headliner? >> there are two concerts. the

but at this point they are saying folks be patient, we know we are going to work with pepco and you can imagine everyone is anxious to get their power back on. they have opened some rec centers in the area and a cuppal here east of the river, ward 7 and 8. they are opening those up as cooling centers for folks who don't have any ac, or any power at home. so we know there is some help out there for residents, but certainly they are going to be a little frustrated to get this power back on. >> a lot of people spent the weekend taking care of downed branches in their yard. now the question is, what do you do with them? >> we have some answers. dc says break up your debris into bundles four feet in length and two feet in diameter. if you leave it in your front yard they will be picked up by sunday. >>> trash pickups will also be altered this week in the district. once a week service will be pushed a a day later. twice a week service will also be a day late. >>> keep it right here with 9news now. we will be right back. >>> we are back at 6:12 with the latest on our epic storm aftermath. this

be extra careful when they are approaching the intersections. >>> coming up next, we are talking with pepcoupdate on the power situation this morning. >> fox 5 morning news is back in just a moment. stay with us. get the car. hi howard. get in. hi, good to see you. start with an actual written offer when selling your car, no strings attached. carmax. start here. oreo and dunkin' are the perfect match for the perfect moment. enjoy the new oreo coolatta and donut today. america runs on dunkin'. >>> time for our facebook fan of the day. today we say good morning to donna jean paul. donna says a cup of coffee and fox 5 has been her morning retune for several years now. she wants to know julie's secrets for looking young. we'll try to find out. thanks for being our fan of the day. >> i'm sure she'll want to share. >> sure she will. that does it for the 6:00 hour. >> let's send it over to allison and tony. good morning. >> good morning. coming up on fox 5 morning news, thousands waking up in the dark once again. crews are working around the clock to restore power from friday's deadly storm. but i

there is growing outrage from customers upset with pepco over the response. tonight pepco executives were forced to answer questions surrounding their response. brad bell is live with feeling frustration and pepco's response to it. >> there is a lot of anger and frustration and we did see it today. the county council call for a briefing from the head of pepco. the briefing turned into a lecture from the politicians. >> community activist from a number of neighborhoods helped to pack the council chamber to send a message. >> we have a failing infrastructure and we need somebody to respond to this. >> a couple of dozen people showed up for the post storm briefing. the citizens were not permitted to speak but the head of the public service commission and the president of pepco did here strong words from the politicians in the room. >> the problem is pepco's set of values. valley's their shareholders and executives and other customers. >> do not give them a rate increase. >> both men said they understand the criticism but shot back that oversight from the public s

trust back, regain the trust of some members of the public who, you know, who aren't too impressed with pepco's performance in the past. so pepco initially said by friday they will have everyone on board and back up and running, and it appears that perhaps they could be running a bit ahead of schedule. so everyone has been urging folks to just be patient. as you can imagine with the temperatures soaring and maybe even 100 degrees this weekend, temperatures are running high. back to you, andrea, mike? >> delia, we can understand that. >> fingers crossed. >> with 105 degrees on saturday, we need the power back. >>> d.c. police this morning are looking for suspects after four people were shot last night and just learned that one of the victims has died. the shooting was on first street northwest behind a shopping scepter on new hampshire avenue. police say two adult males and two teenaged boys were outside an apartment complex when they were shot. one of the surviving victims had serious injuries. the others were grazed. >>> montgomery county police were investigating a deadly shooting involving t

holiday in dark homes dealing with downed trees, but there is some good news tonight regarding recovery efforts from last friday's storm. both dominion virginia and pepco, the companies with the largest number of outages, have restored power to more than 90% of those who lost it. here are the latest numbers. pepco is down to just 36,800 customers without power, but more than 33,000 of those are in montgomery county alone. over in northern virginia dominion has just over 15,000 outages. as for our smaller utilities, bge still has 4,700 out in montgomery and possible while smeco, potomac, edison and nova have just a handful of outages. >>> continued outages in maryland turned a 4th of july in cabin john into a protest march against pepco. in other neighborhoods signs are now going up trying to get pepco's attention. scott broom is in cabin john with an explanation. >> reporter: people are complaining again tonight there appears to be a complete communications breakdown with pepco. >> we joust got anne mail saying that the power had -- an e-mail saying that the power had been restored in cabin john. half of cabin john is still out. doesn't make sense, doe

we're working with pepco to make sure there are no live wires down and had the urban forestry unit outlice department is out and the fire department with the special apparatus to help and augment the staff that we have doing it. and we're serious and we have been here all day. >> an organized approach and that is what allowed us to clear the 115-tons already. we're not going to rest until we have it completely resolved. >> and that is the case. deputy mayor, thank you for your time this evening. >> and thank you very much. >>> the people in parts of maryland have their work cut out for them and this is some video from chevy case. several trees demolished homes. they took down power lines leaving thousands in the dark and some are taking it in steroid. >> my wife and i are planning to travel next week and hopefully the power is back on before we leave and that is to me, grin and bear it and make the best of it and try to find some, make sure the kids are okay. >> and as you heard, pepco's regional president said it could take a week before all of the power is restored. >>> the coast gua

some residents without power for days cut a chance to vent frustration with pepco. some of them complained about the way they were treated when the call for help. others accuse them of putting profits before people. >> you need to apologize to the people of washington, d.c. >> the power went out at 10:45 friday night. i did not hear any signs around the neighborhood until monday morning. >> their required they will require pepco to come up with a plan. the maryland service commission has set up a meeting on public hearings about how they dealt with the aftermath of the storms in september. >> is scheduled track work on the metro lines. the worst impact will be on the blue and yellow line. they are shutting down the lines between braddock road to pentagon city and replacing them with bosses. this will take place from 10:00 tonight until the system closes on sunday. there will also be single tracking on the orange, red, and greenland so expect delays there. >> how hot? " this heat wave will be 92 mar at lower 90s through sunday and made the middle 90s three or four da

now, they are furious with pepco. >> honestly, i'm very upset. i think they created a very dangerous life threatening situation by turning on power lines. >> i tried to get some answers from a pepco employee that showed up to investigate. >> i would prefer not to say anything. >> you don't want to say anything? >> this could have killed someone. >> pepco is still investigating. andrew has his own theory about what happened. >> they may have rushed things more than they should. >> in silver spring, kristin fisher, 9news now. >> it is just that lapse in communication that has pepco customers frustrated. we heard countless stories of people being told their power is back on, only to be sitting in the dark, or people told they have no power despite the fact it's been back on for hours. andrea mccarren is in silver spring with more on the communications question. andrea. >> derek, you know, after friday night's storm, so many of us down loaded pepco's app to find out when power would be restored. but residents say in many cases, the app as well as pepc

. >> this woman says she is fed up with pepco. they ate out for six days, the family lost over $1,000. >> very on acceptable. it is not something you think about having no power for that length of time. >> here at the airport, we understand that investigators will be back out here. this happened about 7:30 last night. we understand from people at the airport that a flying lesson was going on when the crash occurred. one man was found dead on the scene and another man is in a hospital and we understand he is in critical condition. the faa and the ntsb will be looking into exactly what caused all this and they are expected to arrive here later this morning. >> police in toronto said a person of interest in custody after two people were killed and 19 were hurt in a shooting at a barbecue last night. the wounded included an infant and after a fight at the outdoor barbecue, at least two people started shooting at each other in the middle of a crowd of 200 people. police are looking for other suspects. >> investigators are searching for

may not issue, but certainly we cannot control mother nature. >> i'm not surprised from pepco, incompetent people with antiquated infrastructure that have never, never stepped up to the plate. >> reporter: pepco is once again asking customers for their patience. but on a hot summer night there is no outlet for their anger. >> it's hard, especially when it's 99 degrees. >> reporter: again tonight's headline 90% of pepco's customers will have their electricity restored by friday night, july 6th, at 11 p.m. and efforts will continue throughout next weekend to get everyone back online. back to you. >>> thousands of intersections throughout the region are dark tonight and police are reiterating that the rule is in you pull up to one, as bruce leshan is about to tell us, treat it as a four-way stop. >> reporter: it is one of the most basic rules when the power is out and yet people continue to break it all the time. when you come up to a signal, an intersection, where the power is out, stop, wait your turn, let everybody go by and then proceed with a whole lot of caution making sure you're looking out for t

now they are furious with pepco. >> honestly, i'm very upset. they created a very dangerous, life threatening situation by turning on power lines. >> especially since andrew says he told pepco about the downed lines about the storm. >> we spoke to pepco inspector yesterday afternoon and told him of the situation. >> montgomery county fire crews responded within minutes. it took crews twenty minutes to deenergize the lines. >> if there is somebody near those power lines, they could have been lek tri cuted right away. >> i tried to get answers from a pepco employee who showed up to investigate. >> i prefer not to say anything. >> this could have killed someone. both montgomery fire and pepco are investigating. andrew has his own theory about what happened. >> because of the pressure, they may have rushed things more than they should. i mean, i'd rather that they took more time and be safe about it than submit to the pressure to get people out faster than they should. >> so i am still waiting for a good answer from pepco about what happened here. i

now says when pepco restored power to the lines this morning, his cars went up in flames. >> their power lines were in direct contact with our cars. and when they reenergized the power lines, it started arcing through the cars and we spoke to a pepco inspector yesterday afternoon. and told him of the situation. >> reporter: so they knew this tree had fallen. >> they knew it had fallen and they knew that there were power lines directly in contact with the cars. >> reporter: crow anyone, his wife -- cronin, his wife and 84- year-old mother rushed out of the house rescuing their four cats, thankfully they made it out safely but it could have been much worse. >> there were power lines lying right on the ground down the street. if there was somebody on the power lines when they came on they could have been electrocuted right away. i'd rather they be safe. >> that was delia goncalves reporting. meanwhile, maryland governor martin o'malley just held a news conference in order to update the public on efforts to restore power. thousands of marylanders have been suffering without electricity. the governor says the outage has becom

we will speak with pepco's president in the next half-hour.t washington, jummy olabanji, abc 7 news. >> even those with power this morning still are dealing with the effects of the storm. many traffic lights are out because of the outages. that is making a shower more frustrating than usual. john gonzalez joins us from bethesda with details. >> good morning. we are at the intersection of old georgetown rd. and democracy boulevard. traffic signals are out at this intersection and four blocks in each direction. there are crews here, but this is what drivers are still forced to maneuver around. hundreds of traffic signals out. at last check this morning 250. some at major intersections are still in the dark. and plenty of neighborhood's streets remain impossible. thanks to the thousands of pounds of broken trees and tangled power lines some utility poles dangling above the cars on some of these roads, crews have been working tirelessly for the last several days to try to cut the trees clean up, and repair the downed power lines and utility poles.

. >> clay anderson with pepco. thank you for joining us. >> take care. >> as power crews work it get the lights back on, those without power are suffering in the heat. gary, do we have any relief in site? >> reporter: we have a bit of a break today and not as hot. more importantly, it's not been as humid and this morning, the temperatures in the city and some areas where the power outages are are in the upper 70s and that is not a big break. i want to show you the temperatures and that is better but, you know, it's just a minuscule amount in terms of how much better it is and that is down from where we were in the lower 90s a couple of hours ago. martinsburg, 90; monasses, 91; fredericksburg, 91 and that is a bit of a break from the humidity and we look at the dew points. instead of them being in the upper 70a -- 60s and around 70 degrees, that is coming into the upper 50s to around 60 and that does make's huge difference here and this is a quick look at the heat index and that is up in the upper 90s. i want to sho

. >> these residents have gone eight long days without power and they are not happy with pepco. >> my dad spends so much money for the gas and oil for the generator. about $50 a day. >> home owners say their power has gone off and on three times. >> it was gone again this morning. >> pep co is encouraging customers to report their status throughout the day. many residents say they need a better system. >> will begin on the phone these people do not have the correct information on their computer to send the dispatchers. >> residents still without power, some of them are responsible for their own repairs. that is the situation here on the 2400 block of rich place. >> i am not an animal. i need to survive. my mother is staying in the house. >> he is having a hard time tracking down any by attrition. contractors continue working 16 hour days, many which they could work longer. >> it is hard to pull off. we try to tell the customers, we will be back tomorrow. >>pepco south optimistic they will restore power to those who lost power by tomorrow night. in the meantime they are urging customer

with. we could not have stayed here indefinitely without generator power. >> power company is expected to have 90% of customers restored by friday. >>> updated numbers from the power companies, pepco with 170,000 without power, dominion, virginia has 105,300 offline in northern virginia and bge says montgomery and prince george's county have 19,600 without power. power companies promise they're working as hard as they can to get it back on, but thousands. families are without ac and could be so throughout the week. clay anderson from pepco joins us now by phone. we're getting a lot of reports tonight and a lot of reporters in the area and they don't hear any chainsaws which means they don't feel like anybody is working tonight. >> well, our numbers continue to fall as far as our restoration effort which means we're going in the right direction. right now we're about 170,000 customers. earlier this morning we were closer to 256,000, but again if you are still in the dark, we do feel and understand the pain and frustration. it is a very hot week and it continues, but trust me, brian, we are out there and we will continue in the restoration effort. >> clay anderson tonight with pepco

angered by the lack of attention to their neighborhood, they put up signs sharing their frustration with pepco with cars passing by on river road. >> i saw the signs out on the corner and i thought they were so funny. it's so true. it's so hot. it's like 100 degrees plus with the heat index and it just, it's time for our air- conditioning and power to come back. it's really time. >> autumn says she and her family spent the weekend in the hotel and are now camping out in their sweltering home. >> it's too hot for this. it really is. >> every time we call on the phone, every time, they say we are sending somebody out. they had 800 people helping. where are they? >> two miles west on river road, we found several contractors repairing damaged power lines. that was of little comfort to the folks in green acres. >> i saw those way down there. a couple last night or the night before. they haven't made it this far. >> this is a nightmare. where is compassion, where is empathy for people? >> this is not the only time. every time there's a storm, a tree falls and we are the last ones to get restored. ti

mean you shouldn't put some wires underground and not others, i think. >> reporter: pepco is identifying neighborhoods with overhead wires where other ideas have not worked and next week, maryland's puc is scheduled to decide whether pepco gets the required $68 million rate hike and would not say if the performance during the cleanup would impact the rate hook's decision. >>> following developing news out of prince georges county, a 12-year-old boy is charged with second-degree murder in the death of a two-year-old. it happened in port washington. the boy shared a home with the toddler. the boy's -- repeatedly killing her. >> at this point, homicide detectives are talking with the state's attorney's office about the status of this 12-year-old at this point and show being charged as a juvenile. he was a foster child in the home. the police have not identified the boy. >>> a child drowned during a 4th of july party. the family was celebrating in old overside road in brock lip. they found him at the bottom of the pol when they found him missing. >>> montgomery county police are warning residents about a strin

pepco's website crashed today. and anger toward the utility company grows with each hot, dark passing day. power lines are down. temperatures and tempers are up. pepco may have returned power it its more than 20 sub stations knocked off line friday, but it has not restored the faith of its customers. >> competent people with antique infrastructure that have never, never stepped up to the plate. >> it seems really sad in 2012 the nation's capital, it takes a week to recover from a bad storm. >> reporter: we pressed pepco and asked tough questions. how do you deal with this potentially catastrophic public relations issue right now that? >> its president offered a bleak assessment of the restoration plan. ninety% of customers should have electricity by friday, july 6ing at 11:00 p.m. >> we didn't bring down the wires and the trees. we will restore service to customers quickly. >> it is an e vein outside of our control. if there was a neglect or maintenance issue. but certainly we cannot control mother nature. >> reporter: tonight, even maryland's governor was stepping up the pressure, pushing for at least the major

poles, downed wires, and a neighborhood of 1400 customers who are getting increasingly fed up with pepco's communication failures. >> . >> it's really frustrating because we don't have power. i wish they would get their act together. >> i got a robo call and i got the notification on my app that there were no power outages anymore in my area. >> so pam miller and her elderly mother canceled their hotel reservations for the rest of the week. >> i canceled my hotel reservations and took her back to her house, neither one of us had power. >> they are not communicating properly with their public. >> the residents here are still in the dark. probably because of a secondary outage. one that has since been recorded. in silver spring, ann degree jay mccarren, 9news now. >> thomas graham joined me on 9news now at 6:00 to talk about all this. he says the utility was always clear about when everybody's power would be coming back on. >> what we committed to very early on, we are on track for that right now. again, three out of every four customers out of service, they are back right now. friday at mid

is it kind of the same thing as far as montgomery county with pepco? t the answer, dare i say there's an answer that it's not pepco all the time? >> i have been one that -- [inaudible] -- pepco has a monopoly franchise granted by the state. but they should only have that monopoly franchise if they are performing their service. if they're not performing their service, we should be looking at alternatives. >> council member roger berliner. we appreciate you joining us this morning. >> nice to be with you. >> you as well. a lot of folks don't understand it. the most powerful area in the world, arguably, where is my power? >> frustrating. >>> it's a friday morning. and a special tribute to chuck brown on the national mall this weekend, and you're invited. >> a former first lady celebrates her birthday with some disney characters. details about the theme park's latest exhibits and what it has tonancy reagan coming up after the break. it's 7:39.   ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] what's the point of an epa estimated 42 miles per gallon if the miles

. >> you want to communicate effectively with pepco, don't give them a rate increase. we're not getting the service that we deserve. >> reporter: pepco executives called the surprise so-called derecho storm of june 29th that blacked out more than a half my oncustomers, some as long as six days, a hurricane without warning. >> derecho was unpredicted. it left more damage than hurricanes isabel or irani and left customers without power in -- or irene and left customers without power in 10 states. >> reporter: rate payers were unimpressed and pepco was further embarrassed today when regional administrator thomas graham flubbed twice. >> it's not reasonable for a person to be upset at all when they are without power for a week. >> what? >> reporter: graham who clearly misspoke ended up asking county council members for a mulligan, the golf term for a do-over. he was granted one, but that's about the only slack that pepco got cut today. scott broom, 9 news now. >> now you're about to see a confrontation caught on tape as 9 want to know and tries to get some answers. here's i

. >> you can see much more of our interview with pepco president johnon "washington weekly." another key element is all the damage that will take weeks to clean up. >> this is the start of the problems many still face. we are live in fairfax county to continue our team coverage. >> i have to tell you i've been all over northern virginia the last couple of days. this area is, by far the worst i have seen. we're at that intersection of great falls and virginia and the city of falls church. look at this enormous tree that has crushed this offense and is totally across the road. you -- fence and is totally across the road. i will show you just how close the street got to -- tree got to this home. only inches away from this house. he says he is lucky to be alive. >> armageddon. it looks like a war zone. >> the battle along great falls road was over in seconds. >> it was craziness. >> it toppled a massive tree onto the pavement, and it still blocks traffic. >> it landed only inches from where greg was sitting in his house. >> it fell a foot from its. >> several blocks away, and he

. >>> montgomery county leaders are taking steps to try and fix its problem with pepco. the county council actually plans to ask the state for permission to get electricity from some place else. county council president discussed the plan during a meeting with reporters on his assessment of pepco's response to the power outages. >> pepco's performance on every level was unacceptable. the length of the outages, the appalling communications, the computer glitches and data distortions. >> he also says pepco must hire more linemen. you'll soon have your chance to discuss pepco's performance. public hearings will be held next thursday, july 19. >>> the district is taking a different approach dealing with the power outages. ward 3 council member mary cheh is expected to introduce a bill which would force pepco to begin installing some of its power lines understand ground. she says now is the time to seriously consider underground wires in some areas that pepco services. pepco routinely blames the weather for the outages. they say the downed trees take down the above power lines

he is getting frustrated with pepco. >> we called and friday night. >> two days later -- >> he said nobody had called in a power outage. >> many nearby homes still had electricity. >> it is frustrating. un three other houses do not have power. >> it is like the home is on a power-free island. it is not the only one. >> down the street they have power. >> when the washington's home in laurel is surrounded by areas where the lights are on. >> we are holding up. it could be worse. >> kreuz and trucks with florida plates were working near his home to get the power back, but so far it is still out. >>a third town on route one appears to be doing much better. >> it came back on monday. >> in hyattsville, lights are burning bright, businesses are open, and life is getting back to normal. >> ise let's ever were around here. >> to give you another example -- i see lights everywhere around here. >> that is the east side of route 1 in laurel. on the west side it is like nothing ever happened in this shopping center. the hope is that most everybody will have power back by this weekend. that is the goa

he is getting mighty frustrated with pepco. >> we called in friday night when a transformer was barkingday they told me no one had called in the power outage. >> if there was a crude but no power, even though nearby homes have electricity. >> it is frustrating when you and three other houses have no power. >> it is like a home is on an island. if it is not the only one. >> up the street and down the street they have power. >> his home is surrounded by areas where the lights are on but history is still dark. >> we are holding up. it could be worse. >> cruz and trucks with florida license plates or working years his home tonight to try to get the power back. but so far is still out. a third town on route one appears to be doing much better. >> in hyattsville, life is getting back to normal. >> it is on pretty much everywhere around here. >> looking live in laurel. that way the lights are back on. in the shopping center, things look great, but on the other side total darkness. it is so spotty. it is frustrating to see your neighbors looking fine and they are sweltering in the heat. by this

angry constituents just like the man who has lived here who says he is still locked in a battle with pepco and the county to get this tree removed. this new proposal would force them to get out in front of the next big storm. this time last week mary k. evans was sitting in a 104 degree living room. it was basics of no power for the resident. >> the dogs suffer i suffered. >> is spent the better part of seven days in the dark and without a sea. >> they are never prepared on anything. that is the trouble. >> as pepco recruited response crews from all the run the country, the outages left behind the storm highlighted -- one lawmaker says the utility company is the weakest. >> you didn't know if they were coming or going. the academic reasonable predictions. >> he is one of the two state legislators calling on them to find the company's $100 million a piece. the money would train local people who could get power restored much faster than anyone coming across country. >> you could get people and military police, rescue and get them up to speed. >> fed up customers say they welcome that. >> we

still with no power this morning, pepco reporting more than 120,000 customers still in the dark. ,000 offline in northern virginia. and montgomery county, prince george's, anne arundel, howard counties with over 59,000 without power. >> tucker barnes is here. >> temperatures will be hot again. halfway through the heat wave. more humid than yesterday. the uncomfortable factor will be back with the heat. >> our pool has been closed. >> yeah. mine, too. >> that's been a problem. >> i guess they can't pump -- >> right. i'm hoping today the kids can get some relief. >> i think so. things are getting better near where you live. 78 in washington. 71 in baltimore. north and west of the city, 60s overnight. 60s in winchester. 59 in hagerstown. let's take a look at our radar. did have a few showers pop up. don't see them any longer. we have a warm front working through. can't get much warmer than it's been, so it won't, but humidity will increase behind the front. overnight dew point temperatures on the rise here, and i think you'll notice the humidity back in the forecast today. otherwise,

so we want to talk about what is happening with pepco and i understand there is going to be a hearing. is that tomorrow? >> in fact, it's today. it's one of several hearings that will be conducted both at the county and state level to look at the performance of pepco during this recent power outage. i indicated before that we found it unacceptable to have the amount of outage that we had for such a long duration in the heat and humidity, under these circumstances and conditions i think was pretty difficult, and i think we need to get some better answers from them. >> there are a lot of complaints but what actually do you think can be done? >> well, two years ago i commissioned a task force that laid out an action plan that outlined three things. one, better communications. two, to aggressively address the infrastructure, and challenges and to make sure we have the response, bringing outside crews in a timely fashion. i'm not sure they measured up to those things that are already outlined. so the answers are there. we need to make sure that they performed to that standard. >> if people

. >>> for the first time since that wind storm hit us two weeks ago, executives with pepco come before a governing body to talk about the widespread power outages and the utility's response. tom graham spoke moments ago at a public hearing held by members of the d.c. council. he talked about the damage he went through. >> wires down, trees crushing cars. i saw this in northeast and northwest. i saw it throughout our entire service territory. something through my 26 year career, i had not seen to that extent. so i know it had to be devastating for those families in the communities that experienced that. >> we'll have much more on gram's comments on 9news now at 11:00. >>> luckily, no storms rolling through our area this afternoon, but top, that could change sometime soon? >> yeah, it could change over the weekend. but a nice evening. we're looking at breaks in the clouds and comfortable in terms of humidity. there are a couple showers to the west of us, but for the most part, nothing heavy and nothing in the immediate metro area. they have been hovering along i- 81 all evening. a couple

resorting to other means to get pepco's attention. >> at some point public utility has got to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time. >> reporter: the residents marched with patriotically themed protest signs down macarthur boulevard. give me liberty or give me pepco. >> disgusting. >> reporter: they march past brokenniness laters on the ground and beneath -- broken niness laters on the ground and shattered transformers above, damage they believe pepco is unaware of despite endless phone calls. >> we just got an e-mail saying the power has been restored in cabin john. half of cabin john is still out. doesn't make sense, does it? >> when you caught utility, you can speak with a human beings, you get different answers. >> reporter: residents complain about the website. their residents don't show up on the map or are grossly inaccurate. nearby in the green acres section bethesda resident have taken to posting signs to direct crews into the neighborhood. >> pepco is hiding from us. >> reporter: because they have no confidence the utility even knows about the outage here despite their constant calls. >> we should all go to a hotel and send pepco the bill becau

but we will have also an update of what was going on today with pepco crews. not everybody happy today because some of them still without power. that will be coming up at 11:00. back to you matt. >> surae, thank you very much. joining us now by phone from pepco is my rao pal. the end appears to be in sight. good news for many customers and good news for employees as well. how close are we in fact to the finish line? >> caller: we are actually now fewer than 100 customers out of service. those are all in montgomery county. and we do have crews assigned to each of the last remaining customers so we hope to have this the majority of those restored this evening. >> the last few customers for any utility can be the toughest correct? how tough do you think the last 100 will be? >> caller: there are some time consuming repairs that we have to make. you saw the tree here -- there that surae just showed. some of the repairs can take several crews hours and hours to clear the debris and even get to the equipment and then it can take hours and we get one customer back on

pepco is working to restore electricity to more than 118,000 people. they've already restored power to more than half of the 440,000 who went dark during the peak of the storm. joining us live with the efforts is pepco's president, thomas graham. thank you for coming in. i guess you're hard at work. >> no doubt. >> thank you for coming in. i guess the first thing i will ask you about, and we just got the video, so you probably don't know about it, the fire we were showing there, partnership and river roads. that's a pepco area? >> i'm not sure if that's in the territory. it's getting close. >> all right. hopefully they can get out there and shut those lines down. >> that's the type of situation we've seen. we've had over 1800 downed wire reports. we're working all over the service territory to restore service. down to about 118,000 customers. three out of every four customers were out of service originally, have been restored. we have about 700 mutual assistance crews that have come in from as far away as canada. we continue to work around the clock. >> are you still keeping with the projections you gave over the weekend, most -- i think you said 90% restored by friday night? >>

one area i believe i agree with pepco, the area of tree trimming. we have a debate in our county about whether or not we would have tree trimming in a way pepco believes it's sufficient to reduce some of the outages. i believe a case could be made for that. we have legislation in montgomery county to look at that, that may limit pepco's ability to do so. we need to look carefully at that, because i believe tree trimming would help in some instances. look at the power outages, a large part them was in the old portions of montgomery county, bethesda, silver spring, a large amount of canopy that impacts the power line. >> very good. ike leggett, thanks for coming in. good to see you. >> thank you. >>> friday night's storm knocked out 911 service in many parts of our area. earlier this morning, tony spoke with the director of the fairfax county department of public safety communications. he says an arlington facility suffered damage in the storm in both the main and backup 911 systems failed on saturday. >> is verizon being cooperative and forthcoming an

how fed up with pepco are folks there? the county council plans to ask the state for permission to get the electricity from someplace else. today account president briefed reporters on his assessment of pepco's response to the recent power outages. >> pepco's performance on every level was unacceptable. the length of the outages, the appalling communications, the computer glitches and datadistortions. >> he also said pepco absolutely must hire more linemen. if you have some choice words for the utility, here's your chance. montgomery county will hold public hearings in the pepco's performance july 19th. >>> two people are still recovering from serious injuries tonight after a vicious storm tore through a northern virginia town. in fredericksburg, 15 girls were practicing their cheerleading stunts yesterday inside that building as the micro burst unleashed its fury. the teens say they saw the building start crumbling around them. when the owner of cheer fusion made a decision that may have saved lives. >> i saw the funnel cl

now, with a look at the latest numbers. pepco says it has more than 211,000 customers in the dark, dominion more than 135,000, bge is more than 61,000 in montgomery prince georges and an arunle. . and northern virginia just over 2500 judges still out. >>> derrick ward is in northwest d.y. with more on the efforts to get the lights back on. >> reporter: jim, take a look. that tree is off of the house. that's a major part of the work that's done. the overhead wires there, and it's just like -- that trips a few or circuit breaker back at the substation. now they were starreding to fan out in the community, but just the beginning of a long process. >> it may be an inconvenience, but these overhead crews are like the cavalry. it's a sight that should become more common. >> the utility industry is very interesting in that we help each other out so much, but when everybody has their own problems, so we had to go past where the damage was, so we had to go past indiana, we had to go further south into carolina, georgia. and as far north c

. >> starting with pepco. most of those under montgomery county.virginia, 9800 and change outages there mostly northern virginia. novek, mostly in anne arundel. potomac edison 1153 mostly in allegheny county. >> a number of summer school programs are closed since last week's storms are starting back up and some are still without power and will remain closed. eight schools in fairfax county still have no power. all d.c. public schools except fair view hope elementary and winston education campus will be 0 open. in montgomery county, the regional centers will start up again but other school programs will not restart until monday. ing get a full list of these closings at wusa9.com. >> after hearing howard's forecast, you know today will be another grueling day of work for power company employees. once again, they have to deal with extreme temperatures and humidity as they work to restore power to thousands of increasingly frustrated customers. >> we have a look at how thins are going as crews continue to work out of local neighborhoods. >> well, it's

reliability has -- and their service has been in the lower end of the industry. >> we did speak with pepco region, right turn, thomas graham here is his reaction. >> i am not clear what documents the councilmember is looking for, we have an accountability to public service commit commission we do regular filings and with in a specifies period of time, we are required to file and meet those requirements. >> v dot urging drivers to keep an eye out for buckled pavement extreme heat can make driving dangerous if you are riding a motorcycle be especially careful crews are out this weekend making emergency road repairs. >>> and fox 5 monitoring metro friday's train derailment on the green line investigators say problemle cause was a heat kink most of the system was open a day later. john spoke with a woman who was aboard the train that derailed he has her story. >> reporter: because the friday afternoon derailment occurred in an under ground portion of the system, passengers were evacuated up an emergency stairwell near the west hyattsville station. by saturday morning the train in question had

after four days without power, the neighbors are venting their frustrations with pepco out in public. >> where are we living? we are not in afghanistan. we are not in a third world country. we are here in america and this county is so wealthy. juror what is the problem? we're only a hundred feet away. >> reporter: i think that has got to be the worst part of t where you are so close and yet so far. pope cosays every power outage swaying is different. just because your neighbor has light, perhaps you have a wire down that only goes to your house. that is hand by hand, piece by piecework that will take some time. we did see a couple of pepco crews coming by and at least surveying the overhead lines t doesn't mean they are going to come to work here today but at least we know they are taking a look at it which is more than what we saw yesterday. montgomery county for today wants to let people know they will have the transfer station at shady grove road open so if people want to use the holiday to dump out any of their trash, spoiled food, yard debris, they can do that at the montgomery c

we will take a look at the growing frustrations with pepco even though the company says it has met its >> it has not met its goal in my neighborhood, i can tell you that. we have to say -- we have lots of concerns with the storms that could complicate things even more. >> we are keeping our eye on the sky. >> we were tracking that severe thunderstorm warning earlier but now that is cancelled out for prince william county. it is hot out there, 98 degrees at reagan. 100 degrees in quantico. detroit, chicago minneapolis all over 100 degrees. look at these excessive heat warnings from lower michigan to wisconsin, indiana, illinois. for us, we do have a heat advisory until 9:00 this evening that includes the entire metro area. look at this time lapse showing the clouds pick up a little bit of oomph. we may see some pop up thunderstorms across -- across the immediate metro. these were the strongest thunderstorms, just about half an hour ago the warning is now down. montgomery county into frederick county, in another few thunderstorms beginning to pop. they are not expected to amount to a who