this is 9 news now. hello. i'm bruce johnson. we've got some big storms passing through the area this evening, heavy rain making for dangerous driving on some roads. you're looking at a waterspout that formed over the potomac river in cobb island in charles county this afternoon. tornado warnings were issued for the southern part of the county. what's on the way this evening and tomorrow morning for the first day of school in d.c. and montgomery county? let's go over to anny hong in the weather center. >> we declare today a yellow alert day because of the unsettled weather. this was hoping to give people an idea we could still see showers and storms much of today and through tonight. we are under a flash flood watch this evening for the d.c. metro area, also points east until 10:00 tonight where we can expect some areas of

flooding, flash flooding on the roads. here's a picture sent in from bob hooker of colonial beach in maryland of that waterspout. also we got a picture from jamie in germantown, maryland, of a funnel cloud. we did have a severe thunderstorm warning for parts of montgomery county earlier today. a look at your live doppler 9000. we still have a lot of the showers and most of the heavy rain toward the east of town once again out toward basically the bay and eastern shore. all this stuff is heading up north, annapolis, now towards the east. you're getting really hammered. also around the district we're getting some showers as well, some of it coming down just around the college park area and that, too, is heading north. here's a look at the doppler where you can see most of the thunderstorm activity again to the east. they've been getting hammered with lots and lots of rain, most places getting up to an inch, maybe some spots 2 inches. we're looking at still some showers around the beltway as well, out toward walker mill,

alexandria and also clinton getting some rain. the clean green indicates lighter rain north of silver spring, gaithersburg and germantown getting light rain. the reds and yellows are the really heavy rainfall we've been seeing. tonight if you're out, don't forget your umbrella. cloudy conditions, mild, kind of humid, showers and thunderstorms, some heavy rain possible. the heaviest rain will continue to be east of interstate 95. lows will bottom out around the mid-60s in the suburbs to lower 70s in downtown with southeast winds at 5 to 10 miles per hour. i think back to school tomorrow you better pack an umbrella. i don't think it will be as wet and stormy tomorrow, but we could see a few spots for some showers and maybe a couple thunderstorms. back to you. if you've been out, you know the rain has been heavy at times across the region. drivers are being warned to watch out for flooding.

matt jablow has been in some of those affected areas and joins us live from bethesda. what do you see out there? >> reporter: you'd never know it by the partly sunny skies in bethesda now, but just about of area in the region was affected today by -- about every area in the region was affected today by the very wet weather. a miserable day today throughout the washington area, except perhaps for umbrella salesmen and farmers. as much as an inch of rain fell in parts of the area. the section east of 95 saw the heaviest rainfall. fortunately there have been no major accidents reported, but drivers say the roads have been extremely difficult to navigate. >> you could see the water was about 2 inches deep even where it wasn't accumulating. >> reporter: have you seen any accidents? >> no. i was going slowly because otherwise i'd drive through water and i've been told that will short the car out. >> reporter: larry has

obviously learned his lessons well, very good advice. never drive through large puddles of standing water. >> let's move down south where airlines have canceled hundreds of flights as tropical storm isaac lashes southeastern florida battling the keys this evening expected to gain strength as it moves over the gulf of mexico. the storm could make landfall somewhere along the gulf coast. >> reporter: isaac is now barreling towards the gulf coast and they have issued a hurricane warning that includes new orleans. the mayor of that city is telling his citizens to get ready and get ready now. here in key largo they are breathing a sigh of relief. they really feel like think dodged a bullet on this one. one-- they dodged a bullet on this one. isaac is bringing 60 mile-per- hour winds, rain and sufficient refer to the florida keys.

in key -- surf to the florida keys. in key largo some surfers aren't getting it ruin their weekend. what is making you feel safe? >> we put up all the industrial grade shutters. >> reporter: karla and steven pritchard aren't taking any chances. they woke up early to head home. you guys just got married and you're getting out of town. >> we are. >> reporter: the newlyweds refused to let the storm ruin their beachside wedding saturday, but isaac canceled today's plans. >> when we saw what the weather was going to be like, we told everybody in the morning please get up and head out. >> reporter: in key largo they had to latch down the boats behind the buildings to protect them, officials a 23,000 visitors heeded their warnings and voluntarily left the yes. isaac is expected to gain threaten in the -- keys. isaac is expected to gain strength in the gulf of mexico and could make landfall

anywhere between louisiana and the panhandle of florida next week. the pritchards say they'll never forget this storm. >> here's my question, your first born isaac? >> i think so. >> possibly. >> reporter: they plan to come back to the keys for a delayed honeymoon but without the cans and their uninvited wedding guest. the pritchards say if it's a girl, they would name her izzy. in the north things are much more serious, in fact, mandatory evacuations expected for some parts of florida and louisiana tomorrow. in fact, the national hurricane center says wherever this makes landfall they can expect hurricane force winds for six to eight hours and a storm surge of up to 10 feet. reporting live in key largo, florida, i'm karen brown. gop officials in far a are scrambling to rework -- in tampa are scrambling to rework their convention center. tropical storm isaac forced the cancellation of monday's events.

randall pinkston with the latest. >> reporter: workers are putting heavy barrels in place and setting up tents to keep gop delegates dry. even though monday's convention schedule has been postponed thousands in tampa are in for a wet and windy day. volunteer patricia chandler is taking the dark skies in stride. >> it's florida. we've been through a tropical stm already this summer. >> reporter: four days of convention speeches and events will have to be squeezed into just three. >> this hall was supposed to be full of delegates monday to nominate mitt romney. instead the gavel will come down and then the convention will immediately be suspended until tuesday. >> we are the 99%. >> reporter: anti-gop protesters got in some demonstrations before the wet weather arrived. this group brought their message of economic equality to the faith and freedom coalition's preconvention gathering. linda and bruce gilbert waited in line for the event. >> those two issues are big issues and important to me, faith and freedom in this

country. >> i believe in this. i want to be part of it and just to keep my folk us where it should be. >> reporter: mitt romney also had -- folk us where it should be. >> reporter: mitt romney also had his focus on faith sunday. he and his wife ann went to a local mormon church near their vacation home in new hampshire. the republican white house hopeful spent the rest of the day working on his thursday night acceptance speech. 9news is reacting to isaac by joining a team of reporters headed to the gulf coast to meet isaac when it reaches shore. we're deploying some new technology to better track the storm and scott broom joins us live from our mobile newsroom. where are you and what are you doing? >> reporter: well, i'm driving right now on interstate 10. this is an example how this technology, we can racket and move as the storm moves. i am moving westward down the florida panhandle more towards the alabama end of things as we sort of prepare as a team to cover the entire gulf coast

here. moving in on pensacola, florida, now we may end up in alabama or mississippi before this is over and, of course, we're flexing with this storm and the live view storm chasing vehicle so that we can bring you the latest from the gulf coast because you may remember even if isaac misses tampa and slams into the gulf coast and becomes a major disaster down here it, may yet affect the convention. you'll remember back in 2008 gustav hit the gulf coast and the republican national convention all the way up in minnesota had to cancel a day just out of an acknowledgement of all the emergencies that were declared on the gulf coast, the politicians and governors that had to function down there. we'll continue to track this storm with this live view mobile newsroom technology. time in florida now, could end up in any state depending which way isaac turns. so stick with me throughout the track of this storm. until then, scott broom

reporting from i-10 in momes county, florida, back to you. >> -- in holmes county, florida. >> scott, good information and godspeed. you'll be seeing a lot of that in the days to come. coming up on 9 news now this sunday a local man got an unpleasant surprise walking into his own garage, that story when we come back. >> and, of course, keeping a close eye on tropical storm isaac. stay with us.

poisonous snakes, they may be more common around here than you might think. a herndon man found out the hard way when he got bitten a copperhead snake in his garage. surae chinn has the story and how you may want to protect your home. >> reporter: jon hanna was taking his dog out when he stepped on the snake in his garage. the bite sent him to the hospital last week and he spent three days in intensive care. >> i didn't turn the height on when i went out to the garage -- light on when i went out to the garage and the dog went running out and i followed him and after a few steps didn't look down and the copperhead was on the floor. i stepped on him. >> reporter: the snake sunk its teeth into his heel. >> i felt excruciating pain up my leg. >> and he's like it's really painful! >> reporter: his foot swelled. doctors gave him anti-venom and kept a close eye on him in icu. >> get me something to kill him. so i grabbed a huge knife from the kitchen. >> after knocking it

unconscious i cut off its head and wrapped him up in a bag and took him with me to the hospital. >> reporter: he still has the snake that could have killed him. >> i was surprised how small it was. i thought it would be bigger. >> reporter: but he learned the smaller the snake, the more venomous. >> any place that mice can go snakes can go behind. >> reporter: jeff jacobs is a wildfire certified technician. he's been getting more calls of snakes because of the mild winter. he says keep wood piles off the ground. >> that's fine here. >> reporter: but this one isn't. >> right by the kids playground. >> reporter: keep play areas clean. >> this is a perfect habitat for snakes. another thing, for example, see this how the bake is open and you have some set -- the back is open and you have some setting water. >> reporter: the lan hannas left had dog food in their garage -- the hannas had dog

food in their garage. ahead close eye on storms in the area and what to expect heading back to school tomorrow morning. stay with us. you're watching 9 news now.

welcome back accident everybody, want to mention a -- back, everybody, want to mention a tornado warning in effect right now out to the east in dorchester county. here's a look at the live doppler 9000 hd where we do have some severe storms going through the area, again a tornado warning for dorchester county, maryland, until 7:00. please alert anyone you know living in the area to find shelter. it's mainly a rural area, so the expecting a lot of people to be really impacted, but again a tornado warning in effect for dorchester county. we also have a flood watch in effect until 10:00 this evening for the d.c. metro area. a lot of these storms are

coming from the south heading north. the eastern shore, delmarva really getting hammered. now in the d.c. metro area we have some light rain, the green is the light rain for college park, silver springs. also watching tropical storm isaac, a little better organized as it passes through key west, even seeing a better definition, defined eye as far as tropical storm isaac is concerned, gusts up to 70 miles per hour and the track basically heading west, northwest at around 60 miles per hour. it's expected to become a category 1 hurricane according to this model as early as tuesday morning, maybe even a category 2 or 3 according to some other models, so we are definitely watching isaac. a lot of kids are heading back to school tomorrow. grab the umbrella, still a chance for showers and storms, highs mid-80s, but i'm calling it code green because it won't be as widespread tomorrow compared to today. tuesday in the upper 80s, a chance for a stray storm.

wednesday temperatures will be cooler, around 83 degrees, redskins game looking pretty nice for football and we heat things up for friday and saturday into the mid-90s as we're heading into the holiday weekend. back to you. what about the nationals losing? so unusual. >> not a good weekend for them either, but they've lost four straight now. they may or may not be in panic time mode. you can decide that. davey johnson reacts to his team's defeat today. >> plus rg3, andrew luck, who won round 1? we'll hear from both quarterbacks coming up next in sports.

now 9 sports with kristen berset, the best sport in town. sports in town. >> in what's becoming a reversal of roles the washington nationals went into philadelphia looking to maintain their division and the phillies got to play the role of spoiler. jordan zimmerman on the mound

looking for his 10th win of the season, bottom 5 phillies up 1- 0, jimmy rollins at the plate. he adds two more with that shot 361 feet over the right field wall. an inning later tom gorzelanny in to pitch, phillies up 4-0. cliff lee solid today. he allowed seven hits in seven innings striking out five. he allowed one run off a tyler moore r.b.i. double. phillies win, 4-1 the final. >> don't underestimate this ballclub. they got a fine ballclub over here. they came in and had a little momentum going their way and we got a little banged up. it happens. >> so a rough weekend for the national. they get swept by philadelphia. cliff lee picked up his first win at home in over a year. over the three-game series the nationals were out 4-12 to five and it decreases their lead in the nl east by a game and a half. right now they're five ahead of atlanta.

the braves face the giants tonight at 8:00. the orioles making some moves acquiring left-handed pitcher joe saunders from arizona in exchange for righty matt lindstrom. today's orioles match-up with toronto was postponed because of rain. you can debate about who won saturday's match-up between andrew luck and robert griffin, iii. yes, the redskins won the game, but both rookies had a pretty solid final dress rehearsal. andrew luck threw the ball a lot more than rg3, 14 of 23 for 151 yards. griffin had just 74 total yards, but a vast improvement from what we saw in chicago. he showed off his cannon of an arm, despite not being able to connect. not surprisingly his speed just too much at time for the colts defense. both guys know there's a lot more work to be done but feel pretty good heading into the regular season. >> for me last week he had some

learning experiences, put haven't had any overall bad -- but haven't had any overall bad performances for myself personally. >> not happy, but i realize preseason game is a chance to learn. so i'm glad it's just a chance to learn, but not completely disappointed. coming up tonight on sports plus redskins beat reporter graham pahlsson joins me live in studio, take a closer look at rg3's weekend and who can get the axe tomorrow. teams must cut their rosters to 75 players. final round of the barclays, another bad weekend for tiger. hole 1 had his number all four days, yet today not any different. woods shot a 5-over 76 in the final round it finish tied for 38th. sergio garcia, the clubhouse leader heading into today, shot plus-4 finishing tied for third with justin johnson. the winner nick watney cruises home to the finish, takes the lead in the fedex cup by

winning the barclays. another great exciting weekend out there. >> the starters don't play in the final preseason. >> kind of a last ditch effort for those bubble players. >> you got some serious weather. >> still looking at showers and storms mainly east of town, flash flood watch until 10 p.m. and tomorrow is not as unsettled, but for kids heading back to school pack the umbrella just in case, a little more sunshine, temperatures in the mid-80s for monday. >> thanks for watching. we're out of time. see you back here at 11:00. bye.