like for it to go away faster. we still have tropical storm warnings for citrus, pasco, pinellas, manatee and sarasota. so you could still feel tropical storm-force winds wrapping around the center of circulation. here's what i'm concerned about. we get the feeder bands. look at this band that extends and look where it's going, right into tampa bay, basically north of i-4. and that's where we have a tornado watch as well. the feeder bands have rotation in them so the threat is there. it means that the it's a possibility. that's what a watch means. through 8:00 a.m. for citrus, hernando, pasco and pinellas. and extremely heavy rain leading to a flood watch for our coast through the evening. from hudson down through st. petersburg, we have rainfall rates coming down right now. combined with high tide. high tide actually happened about an hour or so ago but the tides were so far above normal, you combine this with the rain. getting a little bit of a break finally in citrus county although cedar key also getting rain. this is live right now at hyundai of new port richey. sideways, pi

doppler radar over portions of pinellas coastal areas just hammered yesterday. numerous daily rainfall records broken. but now our attention is going to turn to the tides. look at the times here for hudson, crystal river, these are the high tide times that will happen later on today. just after noon at clearwater beach. and as mentioned, now that we have the onshore flow coming later on today, we are expecting that high tide to be stronger than normal for all of the communities. so be weary of. that wouldn't be surprised to see the coastal areas flooding the next couple days. quick check of the roads this morning with leslee. >> thank you. >>> good morning everyone. so far it looks good. we have a couple issues. let's go ahead and look. hillsborough county area, looks like we have two issue, not too far away. the first one is on the veterans expressway. southbound, a little debris reported in the roadway. right around waters aver no. delays. and-- waters aver. no delays. this is hillsborough avenue, this just happened. i'm told it's off to the not tying up lanes. and that's a

. big thunderstorms and strong thunderstorms along the pinellas and pasco county coastline. it is moving its way onshore and these will drop an inch, inch and a half of rain in short order meaning that we may pick up some additional flooding in morning, and that's why the flood advisory is out for those three counties, and they will run through 10:15 this morning. and we will have to watch and wait and see what happens with these storms as they start to move further inland whether they prompt more advisories, whether they just weaken and you have understand the point is a lot moisture in the atmosphere and the rain chances stay up at 60% today and high temperatures in the mid-80s. >>> we are going to tell you this developing story that is happening right now. a 5.6 magnitude earthquake has hit people across multiple states apparently felt the shocks. the center. quake hit near pawnee, oklahoma. oklahoma city experienced a 3.2 quake earlier this week. state regulators have linked the increase in earthquakes to the underground disposal of wastewater from oil and natural gas producti

pinellas county. the hurricane warning would be further north. this is a tornado watch in place. you can see the red area indicating hillsboro county, pinellas county, and polk county northward. but look offshore there. that's a nasty line of thunderstorms. within these areas, that justifies the tornado watch. we can see the wind sheer rotation that may include the you may have seen us on the air earlier. it's bands off the center where you'll find a lot of sheer and potentially tornadoes. that will come ashore here in pinellas county within 15 minutes to a half hour. this is where we're looking for high winds but also the possibility of a tornado. it's always remarkable to see a tropical storm in the gulf of mexico, just west of the bay area. you can see that center of location really coming and now clearly a formed eye as a category 1 hurricane taking aim. we're on the eastern side. we have to watch our high tides coming up at 3:00 in the morning up and down the west coast of florida. about that early morning tide. and then tomorrow afternoon, a southwesterly flow. we've seen tidal

. >>> this pinellas county school is under fire by parents and teachers because they say mold is is a big problem at that school. so bad, that some are pulling their children out and sending them to class elsewhere. 8 on your side was first to break this story last month. and since then, after an quality inspection and several heated meetings, the schools founder still insists that the kids are safe. paul mueller joins us live from the largo campus. and paul, first there wasn't mold, then there was. now it seems like we are back to square one. what is going on? >> reporter: it seems that way here at largo's plato academy, but it depends on what your definition of mold really is. and ... who you ask. >> within the third week of chronic coughs. >> reporter: they are yanking their son out of plato academy's campus. he has chronic upper respiratory problems. doctor's orders. >> there is a major problem they are trying to cover up. >> reporter: they lost their trust when pictures of mold at the school surfaced. parents demanded answers and they were tough to get. >> you said there was no m

water in parts of pinellas county floods cars and makes some rds impassable. we we're going tell you about the other big conorrn f this area tonight. >> announcer: you're watching fox 13 and the 10:00 news starts now. >> good evening. welcome tonight i'm mark wilson. >> i'm kelly ring. we're of course tracking let's get over to paul for the very latest. >> i know some of you this morning were waking up looking at the radar saying it looks like this line is going to stay out in the water and not bother us all that much. by noon it began to move to the coastline. then it gradually moved inland and really got going, producering heavy rain and squalls around tampa bay. wind gusts in pinellas over 70. strong storms into del rico and zephyrhills. now fast moving elements mov north. for this moment most of the bay area is quiet. not a lot going on. but there's another one of those lines kind of lurking right off the coast. it is rotating around the center of hermine which is approaching appalachia cola and way up into big bend. we'll show you the rotation from that storm. this is something

. pinellas county, sre acr completely impassible workers and residents in the area and also retrstricted acce to stell isle. west of alternate 19, south of curlew road in the dunedin area and also flooding reported alternate 19 closer to tarpon springs. that's going to be closed completely with the work around being u.s. 19. flooding reported here along some of the beaches. gulf boulevard, 155th to john's bayshore drive, 143th to 140th. work around here is 75. as i mentioned as we go throughout the morning, we'll check on other flooding spots and other flooding problems. >>dave: we've always known that the west coast of florida prone to storm surge and that is going to be a big issue this morning. it is up in citrus county, too, up around crystal river. we got reports, and i've even seen pictures. you've got stop sign. water up the pole to just below the sign. they just came off the high tide. secondary $ spekt of what's going on is all of the rainfall. a couple of spots i want to touch on is from dade city to zephyrhills on 301, extremely heavy rain and within the rain band

looking for another way home. >> we saw cars and trucks in pinellas county. many had to create their own detours, just to make it home safely. it is the same story all across much of the tampa bay area, even at this hour. we have team coverage for you tonight area. we'll start with steve. give us the latest storm track. we know we get it this time every night. >> it's a little stronger. they've been investigating the system with aircraft, and 60- mile an hour winds, that's a bit of the increase from 50 earlier, but it's in an area before the wind sheer will kickback in, and move this system eventually off very -- upper area will carry it off. just sending out the waves of rain, dragging moisture across the state. 7, 8 inches of rain is fairly common in pinellas county. now forecasting it to be a hurricane thursday at 8:00 p.m. and the track might be shifted to the east, we are still out of cone of air, but tropical storm warning in place nor citrus, fast co, hernando, -- pasco, and hernando. the initial measurement is 60- mile an hour winds, and the forecast to be a hurricane at landfall

roads. not seeing any potential for ponding in the area. as you get closer to tampa, pinellas county, things really start to dry out. we are keeping an eye on this fatal crash, unfortunately that happened overnight. we now know according to authorities that this was a motorcyclist who was killed when he hit a power pole there. so this is still an active scene, a lot of flashing lights. eastbound ridge road still closed at airway boulevard. we'll continue to watch this. i will let you know here and of @tampabaytraffic as soon as that clears. >>> 6:01. to breaking news -- scary moments for a tampa mother who woke up to the sound of a car crashing into the side of her apartment. >> abc action news anchor james tully is live at the scene. you were able too give us a look at the damage earlier. what is that woman saying about what happened? >> reporter: at the apartment complex across the usf campus. bushes. the gutter completely flattened. and look at this, a hole it left in the side of this apartment building. you can see through to the other side. again we mentioned, you mention

lot of rotation. that's why the tornado watch continues for citrus, hernando, pasco, pinellas and hillsborough county until 8:00 this morning. we did have tornado warnings yesterday with those feeder bands. would not be out of the question to see them again today. flood watch continues through the evening because we do still have heavy rain question a saturated ground. but we have seen the worst flooding this morning because it also coincided with high tide. and you know, there's another high tide that happens today later in the afternoon. right now, the heavy rain continues for pinellas county, throughout hillsborough county, northdale, up toward thonotosassa, plant city, zephyrhills. waking up to the thunder and the heavy rain hitting your roof. thankfully citrus and hernando county getting a break as we and roads closed in the areas. look at the wind speed, sustained in tampa at 30 miles per hour. 23miles per hour in st. pete. 25miles per hour in sarasota. wind gusts reaching up close to 40 miles per hour. so here's the latest forecast, 70 miles per hour winds now. 50miles per

in pinellas, right? >> yeah the rain is just starting to really work its way you can see on skytower radar that big mess of rain has been slowly inching its way towards the coastline all morning long. if you're washing good day with dave osterberg it is showing out getting closer and closer we see individual cells that would make its way on shore. now we're getting into that time where we will start to see more and more persistent rain and embedded in that will be some heavier cells. in fact, you can see basically from clearwater down the coastline, there you see some very heavy rain. these tropical downpours individual cells are racing on to the north. then north, northwest right now probably about 30 to 35 miles an hour. down through the south, manate and sarasota, this is just off your coastline. just starting to work its way up towards longboat and anna maria. down towards venice. some of this brushing along the coastline as you get into central sarasota county. but kind of take that big wide view and you can see this is really, been a lopsided storm. that left hand or t

tornado watch that's in effect for areas citrus, hernando, pasco, and hillsborough, pinellas counties. it's coming. it's just moving very, very slowly. sorry. sorry about this. these are also the tropical storm currently in place for our coastline. we could feel tropical storm- force winds now continuing in this feeder band around that area of low pressure that's now tropical storm hermine. there's the tornado yosee it shaded in red there. we can finally get to satellite and radar. heavy rain coming down throughout pasco county and dryer in citrus and hernando. again, heavy rain in new port richey, down through southern portions of hillsborough county, and into bradenton at team 8 meteorologist ed bloodsworth checking on the tide levels out there. >> reporter: yeah, and i'll tell you what, the hillsborough river extremely high. and that's resulting in flooding along the riverwalk and parking lots. in fact, what we have been watching, we want to you right now across the river from the news center, some of the parking lots are now under water. deep uponning and a portion of the riverwal

heavy rain. when these go by, it will look really bad. that will be happening in pinellas county and even into manatee and sarasota counties by about 6:00, and then eventually some of this activity will kind of sit over the bay area tomorrw as the storm begins to move to the north and northeast. let's zoom in. bands of rain coming up from the when this areas of red go by is when the wind and rain really picks up. that's moving rapidly from south to north. now, half of hernando citrus and pasco are dry, but there's more rain heading your way from the south and southwest. we slide south -- look at this solid line of rain. at the put that into motion and you can see it is moving north, but the line itself is slowly shifting to the east and then of hermine, our skytower is powerful enough to look all the way out in the gulf and see what appears to be, i won't call it n eye, but you can see a definite center of circulation -- yeah, that right there is the center f hermine which is spinning about 225 miles or so to the west, northwest. that in itself, i mean, this radar presentation as far

of pinellas park. police are investigating ?four car break- ins... within the past month. and they all took place at a "planet fitness" off u-s 19. and all those cars were ?locked. detectives say the thieves ?smashed the windows... and grabbed what they could. fox 13's crystal clark talked with some the treadmills weren't the only thing at planet fitness that took nicole allen's breath away monday night..she and her husband came out of the gym off u-s 19 in pinellas park to find her car broken into after parking just 20 minutes prior.."i didn't think it could happen that fast. i really think they could hit two cars that fast."allen's ford -- and another vehicle -- were left with shattered windows..her purse and iphone were missing..nicole took to facebook to share her frustration..only to find out..she wasn't alone.."we've heard from multiple people who go here that they've contacted them. they've said, 'hey, the lights don't work.' there are lights everywhere here, and not one of them works." pinellas park police reports show -- there have been ?four? vehicle burglaries in the ?sa

lanee' in pinellas county. and our ryan hughes in sarasota county this morning. we want to start with leigh to get the latest from the tampa studios on the storm. >> it's still a tropical storm and still has winds of 60 miles per hour. but look how big this is. this is the center of circulation and seeing rounds of rain coming in near the coastline from it. and the latest advisories remain. hurricane panhandle and northern portion of the big bend of florida. but closer to home, a tropical storm warning. and that means that we could feel tropical storm-force wind speeds in citrus, hernando and pasco within 36 hours. here's the latest forecast. 60miles per hour sustained winds. one big change, picking up forward speed finally. yesterday, it was basically stationary and now it's moving north, northeast at 12 miles per hour. this afternoon, 65 miles per hour winds, getting stronger. after midnight, it could strength on the a category one hurricane coming onshore in the panhandle west of the big bend and then through georgia and south carolina as a tropical storm before finally heading bac

mostly it's wind and wind gusts. this is offshore of new port richey to the west of pinellas county. together with the briefly violent weather along coastal areas. so pinellas county coastline from palm coast, tarpon springs to st. pete beach. this is about to come onshore. few lightning strikes. but mostly about the wind and the tornado potential. inland areas. you may see a few scattered showers, thunderstorms. but mostly it's this line off manatee and sarasota county coastline headed your way right now moving north at about 45 miles per hour. very, very intense. going to jump over to vipir here. path of that system. storm relative velocity is the way to do that. watch the winds coming to and away from the radar site. when you see the bright green and red, very close to one another. the signature isn't isoclor as 5, 10 minute -- the signature isn't as close as it was 5, 10 minutes ago. it'll continue to race to the north at about 45 miles per hour. beaches, it's clear of you. but just offshore you see that thunderstorms and high wind and very, heavy, squally rain showers. that's h

won't go away. abc action news reporter michael paluska is live with the latest crime trend in pinellas county. >> reporter: the 14 and 15-year- old suspects were going garage door garage door checking unlocked cars until a good samaritan stopped them. >> that makes me nervous. >> reporter: this woman walks her dog early, like 4:00 a.m. early. this morning she noticed something strange. >> i saw like two kids across the street from like this side of the street across the way. i thought that was kind of weird. >> reporter: then she saw a car heading towards her with the lights off. she ran into her house calling 911. >> it was a busy night in seminole. >> reporter: she was calling 911 around the same time she she watched her nissan rogue back out of the driveway. after calling pinellas county deputy, she went outside to find a knife and a flashlight in her driveway. >> reporter: these kids are armed today. my understanding is that parents. >> reporter: the teens are 14 and 15 years old. since they are juveniles, it is our policy not to identify them. the 15-year-old however does have at

an accident southbound before you get the sunshine skyway bridge in pinellas county. that's tying up lanes and around 54th avenue south. and more on that coming up in the next report. that's a look at weather and traffic. back to gene and gayle. >> thank you. >>> a traffic stop turns into a gun battle between a convicted felon and a drug task force officer in lakeland. this went down on a quiet neighborhood street east of lakeland. d that's where we find mary mcguire. mary, were any officers hurt in the fire fight? who is accused of shooting at them is now in a hospital bed. polk county sheriff grady judd tells us that this guys, 32- year-old francis perry refused to roll down the window when four police officers surrounded him. instead, he says perry opened fire. police officers fired back, riddling the car perry was in with bullets. >> we shot back because he shot at us. and we shot at him a lot. >> reporter: again, no officers were hurt in this incident. perry was rushed to the hospital and underwent emergency surgery. inside and perry's car, officers claim they found drugs. pe

right. vo: we asked women in pinellas county to describe congressman david jolly in one word: woman 1: dangerous. woman 2: backwards. woman 3: out-of-touch... woman 4: that's 3 words. vo: david jolly shares donald trump's right to choose and voted to defund planned parenthood and deny women access to basic health care like mammograms and cancer screenings. woman 5: i have 3 words for david jolly... not for women. vo: house majority pac is responsible >> now, to an 8 on your side consumer alert. wal-mart is recalling a tripod school because it can break when you sit on it. it is the maco incorporated. they have three steel legs and a real tree logo pattern with camouflage. consumers stop using the stools an return them to a wal-mart for a full refund. >>> julie, we are watching this storm. we start out thinking it will be fine. but oh, now, it is is a 4. >> really quick. less than 24 hours from a category 2 to a category 4. rapid intensification. very strong storm. it will not affect us this weekend. this weekend, we are in the clear, but as we head through better idea of what it wil

pours now working inlands out across brooksville off shore as you head towards pinellas county. tornado watch in effect for hillsboro, pinellas, sumter, until 8:00 a.m. i think the bt chance for any kind of rotating cells out there, any kind of tornadoes would be close to the coast, and likely a little bit farther north. we'll keep an eye on that. storm surge forecast again for western portions of citrus county. you're talking potentially a storm surge of six feet plus. and then as you head out cedar key that's where we've seen that storm surge already up towards 6, 7, 8 feet at times. tropical storm warnings remain in effect. from inglewood up towards toware suwannee river. and then the walton bay line back towards mexico beach, tropical storm warnings. then back on the other side of the state, tropical storm warnings for marine land just north of daytona beach northward into georgia and on into south radar view. a really distinct eye, and it real doesn't make land fall until that center circulation crosses over land. it should be at any point now in the next, say, 30 to 60 mi

. >>> we're getting word of a crash in pinellas on u.s. 19 and 54th. we're getting more details. great here through downtown, just five minutes from here to the howard frankland bridge. checking the average speeds, so far so good, still early out there, not a lot of cars on the road. we're still in the green on the veterans expressway heading southbound, a lot of the construction has wrapped up. so roads are clearing out now. 275 southbound looking great. i-75 looking great as well. i-4 also looking good from lakeland all the way into downtown tampa. that drive is going to take you about 22 minutes. 15 minutes from county line ad twitter @tampabaytraffic for the latest on the crash we're hearing about in pinellas. >>> it's 5:32. more than $1 billion in federal funds to fight the zika virus still have more hurdles to clear before anyone sees any of the money. congressional leaders worked late into the night monday but a vote was once again postponed. abc action news anchor james tully is live now in tarpon springs where a public discussion on zika prevention is set for today. a lot of people

called a ?chased her, at her bus stop! and as fox 13's haley hinds reports: the pinellas sheriff's office is now taking the case very seriously. shakita bellamy could not have imagined the reason her phone would ring early wednesday morning. 17:52-55i received a call from my daughter that a clown was chasing heryou heard that right.a clown.her daughter and some friends were walking toward their bus stop on trotter road.18:30-40she walked past a bush and she noticed something strange and when she looked again, she noticed it was a clown, they all took off runningshe thought they away, but when they walked back toward the bus stop, the clown chased them again.before they were able to safely get on the bus. 20:32-35if it's a practical joke, it's not funny.19:24-30 you never kn a pedophile. we have tons of pedophiles in this area. the pinellas county sheriff's office is taking the report seriously.1:41-54the clown suit was yellow. it had polka dots on it. <> and it was a white mask with yellow eyes and re

to -- pasco county to pinellas county and everywhere in between. first, we want to show you where the outer bands are impacting us right now. captions by: caption colorado, llc (800) 775-7838 comments@captioncolorado.com. >> ivan, this storm is bumped back down even though it's hundreds of miles away but still impacting us. >> exactly. we have the feeder band. the worst of the we found a lot of times with the tropical systems, a feeder bands is what's happening this morning. that is a tropical storm now. look at the center right across southern georgia here. weather improving in tallahassee. the problem is it's lost its fuel in the ocean. the forecast takes us over to the carolinas in the next 24 to 48 hours making landfall, the 1:30 a.m. winds down to 70. for us, look at that plume of moisture that's been causing problems for us. this is fresh water, a flooding threat, right? additional rainfall in the last 24 hours, several inches of accumulation. we have more on the way today. there you see the moisture has been streaming in, and that will continue because the band is not moving th

pinellas, hillsborough, and northern portions of polk county. the heaviest rain that came through pinellas, hillsborough, and folk county is in sarasota, highlands and desoto and pu this is tropical downpours. huge rain drops. 2 inches of rain fallen already. i do expect to see places that come up with 3 inches of rainfall today. it won't be widespread but there will be areas. that's 2 inches of rainfall that's fallen since midnight. the rain gauges on our cameras reset every night at midnight. the wind speeds have come down already but it's still quite gusty out there. we have 10 that 15 miles per strongest winds now along the coast, 25 to 35 miles per hour sustain and gusting to 30, 35 miles per hour winds as hermine leaves georgia, heads through the coastal areas of south carolina, still able to pull in moisture off the atlantic. it stays a tropical storm through tomorrow, through tomorrow morning. if you did have travel plans to head up to the northeast, look at this. sunday, monday, tuesday, wednesday, the thing is sitting. there it's going to cause rip current problems, that are kind

as tie tower goes, and the heaviest rain with winds between 40 and 50 is right over pinellas county, and that continues to sweep to the north and north east. it's all kind of rotating around the center of hermine, which is out in the gulf of going fast, so the weather may o from good to bad in a few minutes. >> hudson, clearwater, largo, pinellas park, st. pete. if you're watching us in feather sound and northeast st. pete, that weather is heading your way and also by 275, it extends all the way down through holmes beah some rain down by sarasota. i want to bring your attention - we talked about these strong winds. this caught my attention a few minutes ago. this is an emergency action message that requested -- a civl emergency message. this is transmitted at the request of the florida emergency management agency. citrus county, dangerous coastal flooding possible. monitor media county could be as high as 4 to 8 feet later on tonight as hurricane hermine passes west of them, but they're obviously closer to the center. the satellite presentation continues to improve with the developi

last thing you want is more rain. here is another shower too. right over the pinellas part of the gandy bridge and that is moving toward south tampa. so we may have started off quiet. got the sun up on a quiet note, but this is what we are going to have to deal with unfortunately. and i think the best rain chances will be -- let's say if you drew a line, i-4 north where the best rain chances are going to be throughout the day and just more scattered showers and storms at least by labor day. we will knock those rain chances down a little bit and back to 40%. >> jen: thanks, dave. >>> new this morning, pasco county officials are investigating a house fire in port richey. it broke out just before 4:00 on westport drive in port richey. one person was taken to the hospital with burns and we will bring you an update as soon as we get more informing. >>> and sarasota police are investigating a crash involving a drunk driver. th intersection of fruitville road and south tuttle avenue near the sarasota fairgrounds. as you can see two cars are heavily damaged. police say alcohol was a facto

crist, we have a zika crisis in florida, south florida. we have a case in pinellas county now. congress has been unwilling to do anything so far. what would you do differently than david jolly to get relief from washington? >> well, it's a very important issue. thank you adam and the tampa bay times and thank channel 10 and st. petersburg college here. zika is a serious thing. we have cases here in pinellas county and we don't see action out of congress. that's very disturbing, i'm sure to the people. it's very disturbing to the people who have gotten zika. we need to work together in congress to get something passed to do something right. last week, my opponent took mosquitos on the floor of the house and later voted in a vote not to support the zika funding. i don't understand that. i think congress has to work together. we have to do what's right for the people of the state. we have to get a vaccine that, i believe, would be the true answer to cure this thing and move us forwards. >> congressman joly. >> i appreciate you being honest. it was a procedural vote. i have led the effort t

truck tonight. the beach and in another part of pinellas county dealing aw sewage in the street . bubbouof the manholes. tonight ininlas county. >> reporter: lots of activity city workers leaving from this site going out into the neighborhood to try to take is equipped to handle about 10,000,000,000 gallons -- gallons of sewage. d what happened after the storms was aut ,000 gallons of wastewater arrived overwhelming the system and that was one of many problems for wastewater in pinellas county >> there is water everywhere. over the island. >> you can't get through. >> dozens of drivers were taking chances. >> a parade of local residents and rubber necklace made their way on and off the island throughout the afternoon. okay. you keep moving you are if you stop forget it. >> overloaded a treatment pnt causing it to shut down. and wastewater in the streets and streams. i noticed it was >> it makes you a little concerned if it does . >> back at the beach traffic moving as wantinued to spill t on the street. >> if he makes it through you [laughter] >> here in the street right outside

have had issues with drugs. they believe collin either drowned or overdosed. a pinellas county man is hoping social media will help find the owner... of this folded american flag. "ted froberg" says the he spotted the flag on the side of u-s 19 in clearwater saturday. he posted about it to his facebook page -- hoping to get the word out. so far -- the post has been shared more than 12-thousand times! froberg says the flag strikes a chord with him. when he was just 11-years-old -- his mother received one of those folded flags... during his father's funeral. he thinks because of the fold... the flag may belong to a veteran's suarez is following this story throughout the morning starting at five a-m. and he's planning to get a ?live interview with froberg. the last remains of the old st. petersburg pier... will soon be history. city leaders say they finally have plans to remove the remaining structures. the famous inverted pyramid is already long gone... but some of the pier and a lot of concrete remain. the project was supposed to be finished in february. the city says safety issues

at 66th street north in pinellas. and now back to gene and gayle. >> thank you. >>> the clean-up continues in pasco county a week after hurricane hermine sent strong nds and heavy rains into the area. emergency leaders tell 8 on your side more than 2600 homes and businesses sustained some sort of damage and the price tag has gone up as expected. more and more assessments going on out there. and now it stands at a hefty $89 million. >> definitely need some help over there. news channel 8's ryan hughes is life this morning. ryan, good morning. that is a high price for all that damage. how did it go up so much? >> reporter: exactly, good morning to you as well. crews surveyed the area. it was initially lower but the more and more they looked around, the more they found homes and businesses damaged by hurricane hermine. emergency management officials have checked neighborhoods since last week and documented nearly 27 hung homes and properties impacted by the 305 homes and businesses sustained major damage. seven buildings were destroyed. all others had some sort of minor damage from

the northern part of pinellas to hillsborough. that's sinking south. there are more storms developing. it reminds you that the atmosphere can produce strong thunderstorms near the sea breeze there a round lakeland that's all rain the western fort meade. thunderstorms have developed across central and eastern pinellas county. just north of downtown st. pete getting rain. largo then drifting to the east safety harbor area. farther south you can see north port seeing thunderstorms all the way down south. not at severe levels. small hail with thunderstorms that develop on a day like this as well as a lot of lightning and local flooding. >> more in just minutes coming up. >>> well tonight voters will be able to see the presidential candidates goto to toe in the first presidential debate of this historic election. >> earlier today news channel 8's jeff patterson was the only local fig tour to interview vice presidential nominee tim kaine. jeff joins us live in lakeland where kaine made a brief campaign stop. >> reporter: yeah, good evening. this is his fifth campaign stop in flor

developing and approaching pinellas here. so more where this came from, clearwater getting a clip. this will be the pattern today thunderstorms across our interior county. so we are in a wetter pattern than normal with this. now, we have a front to the north out ahead of it is why we have all of the moisture coming in that streams in from the gulf of mexico. temps holding into the mid to upper 80s today with the cloud cover and rainfall. >>> when we hear about a crash, the first thing we do is try to find it on our camera. so far, we don't have a camera right at so i've been checking cameras in the area. traffic seems to be flowing good on i-75 around fowler. i'll keep checking and let you know on twitter if i see anything. here is a live look at i-275 in pinellas county right at gandy. dan? >>> 5:31. happening today, st. petersburg city leaders are helping call city hall this morning. what's happening there today? >> reporter: well, dan, today they will be talking about tougher gun laws. the mayor will be meeting with the group that was founded by gabby gifford. she was the congr

-- even small eastern diamondbacks can deliver a lethal bite. a family in pinellas county is praising a police officer. she went out of rob bachman is a tattoo artist in tarpon springs. his cousin megan lost her son "jakob" in a drowning accident in upstate new york. and this week, megan and her family just drove all the way to pinellas county... with a mirror in their car. they say the morning of jakob's death, he put his messy hands on a bathrooom mirror -- as a joke to his mother. his parents wanted to turn that handprint -- into a tattoo. sergeant "ann starling" with the largo police department actually came in on lift the prints off the mirror... after reading about the story on facebook: along with the prints -- bachman tattooed the words: "your wings were ready but my get ready for a big beach cleanup in pinellas county. after the break... why they'll be picking up something a lot ?worse than trash. and later this half hour... a story that really has people ?buzzing morning it's national ?coffee day. how you can celebrate it... without keep it simple. make every piece

the pinellas county sheriff's office confirms that they are investigating if the child was left in a hot car. this is happening now on castlewood lane which was appear to be a home. we have a crew headed to the scene to get more information and we will bring you updates or you can check our newschannel8 app as well. >>> she wanted her ex-husband to drown. or, burn to death. or, be forced into sex slavery. a bradenton woman paid what she thought was a hit man to kill r the hit man was an undercover deputy. john rogers joins us now live from manatee county. the sheriff's office is there. new details on this sordid plot. we are hearing from the woman for the first time as well. >> reporter: yeah, she spoke out in court giving a sob story describing how difficult her life is. how she struggles to get by and she begged the judge for leniency. rachel lahey was going to stop husband killed. she said she lives on food stamps and is struggleing to get by. >> are you working? >> not currently your honor. >> reporter: despite that, she forked over $4,000 to an undercover deputy to kill her ex

undefeated pinellas park patriots. coming up, do the cougars want to get into between the patriots who are averaging five touchdowns a game? >> we'll have that and more coming up. you're watching newschannel8, the station that is always on vo: we asked women in pinellas county woman 3: out-of-touch... woman 4: that's 3 words. vo: david jolly shares donald trump's backwards agenda for women. jolly opposes a woman's right to choose and voted to defund planned parenthood and deny women access to basic health care like mammograms and cancer screenings. woman 5: i have 3 words for david jolly... not for women. vo: house majority pac is responsible z251cz zi0z >> saturday night live starts a whole new season and it is coming out swing. actor alec baldwin is going to play trump. kate mckinnon will do her hillary clinton and margot robbie will host. you can see it tomorrow night on newschannel8 right after your 11:00 news. >>> it is friday, it is time for the friday night blitz. we are getting pumped up football games. we have a complete wrapup tonight at 11:00. for now, let's check in with anthon

, hernando, pasco, pinellas and hillsborough. and we will continue until 9:00 this morning along with the flood watch throughout the day. you see the places seeing rain will continue to see rain. that's why it's called a train of rain. starts back here and just runs if it's on a train track. drier conditions to the north. the northern areas had more overnight. and now the rain band has pushed to the south, north of i- 4. new port richey, boy, it's been rough there. just starting to see more rain again. downtown tampa getting rain. zephyrhills, polk city, brooksville, crystal river dry for the moment. have flooding conditions and that continues into bradenton. this is new port richey, a live look here from the hyundai of new port richey. 2inches of rain this morning so far. i have seen the rain blowing sideways at times too. the winds are not quite as strong. let me show you the winds, out of the southwest 20 miles per hour in tampa. 18 in brandon. and we have individual wind gusts up to 30 miles per hour. and meteorologist ed bloodsworth up on the roof of wfla to talk about what the w

today. >> ground completely saturated from yesterday's downpours. especially over pinellas, manatee, sarasota counties, you yesterday. doppler radar indicating around 12 inches of rain just yesterday in pinellas. manatee, similar story, about 6 to 8 inches of rain. numerous daily rainfall records shattered yesterday. big concern today and really next couple day, your high tides with the onshore flow. i want you to pay attention to the times. 2:25, crystal river. 1:15 at st. pete. just after 12:00 at clearwater beach. the reason we're concerned about this, the high tides are likely going to be greater than normal here. 12:23 in anna maria. and coastal flooding, beach erosion, don't be surprised to see piers and maybe boat docks going under water with the high tides. a lot of flooding pictures yesterday. pinellas park, david sends us that. and deep ponding of water. and this is tampa. pam sending us that picture. and also as we mentioned, we have been tracking the hurricane hunters in the system. they did find lower pressures again, no surprise here that we're looking at the pressure

, it's okay. no, it's not okay. >> reporter: a spokesperson from pinellas county schools say officers responded but didn't find any clowns. now, in pasco county, they have multiple clown sightings. one parent reported her child received a private facebook message from a clown that goes by mr. wrinkles. his facebook page is complete with the creepiest of clown photos. one teacher received a threatening e-mail about clowns. >> the post said a high school this friday. i will kidnap students or kill teachers. >> reporter: the sheriff asks people to report suspicious activity immediately. >> if something is going on out there and you see something where there are people dressed up like clowns, if you are fearful, notify us immediately. we will go out there. >> reporter: yeah, sheriff added that while they are taking these reports very seriously, if anyone makes a person making the false report can be arrested. keith? >> well, those threats are pretty creepy too. we heard the sheriff talking about. and there seems to be a lot of this copy cat clown business going on. are these related in an

problem. throughout all of pinellas county, 248 million gallons of waste water was released into tampa bay. we are now going to ask mayor kriseman coming up how that happened. what he plans to do about it, and how he plans to not have this happen again. on newschannel8. >> a huge problem. thank you jeff patterson for that update. live for us in saint petersburg. >>> now, just a few minutes ago, the florida department of health released a statement saying that it has continued to routinely test the water at locations in pinellas and hillsborough county, now only one recent test at simmons park beach warranted an advisory. all the other testing locations, the water quality rates as good or moderate. the spill. >>> significant developments in a breaking 8 on your side investigation. mosaic has apologized to polk county for keeping the lid on the big leak at its fertilizer plant in mulberry. a sink hole opened beneath a gypsum stack in august. steve andrews exposed their contaminated secret and he is here with an important update. >> reporter: keith, according to mosaic, it is now all about re

night boarding up their hois is from it kept people indoors. >>> we start in pinellas county, just one of the more than two dozen counties still under tornado watch until 8:00 this morning. ashley yore is live on clearwater beach. what are conditions out there right now? >> reporter: good morning, deiah. we're trying to seek a little bit of shelter here. we are actually on the beach, though. i want to show you what we're dealing with. i think the trees say it all. you look at them. they are just flapping like crazy. i want to take you over this way. we're going to move to the edge of our shelter hereo i can show you. we have intense rain but even more intense than that is the w i have to tell you, we were taking the bridover here to clear water beach and felt our wind. even just walking 30 conds to get here, i am completely soaked my umbrella is broken. if you can avoid being out here in this, that's what you want to do. at this hour it's still early so not a lot of people out haven't seen anyone walking around or out on the beach. that's what law enforcement s to avoid. no one should

gas stations in hillsborough, pinellas and sarasota counties. >>> two residents in a polk county -- in never own animals again. that's the ruling from the judge after deputies seized more than 170 animals from a rescue. what you are about to see is extremely disturbing. this is undercover video from peta at darling darling animal rescue. the owners will facing more than 100 animal negligent charms. the animals are now being treated by vets. >>> happening today, we are expected to learn more about an due to negligence by a pinellas county nursing home. >> this happened back in may at gracewood rehab nursing care in pinellas county. news channel 8's meredyth censullo is in the tampa newsroom this morning. meredyth, what's the latest in this case? >> reporter: well, today we will hear from the man who was appointed as the health care proxy or guardian for wilbert moten. he is frustrated no one has been held accountable for death. the 65-year-old man suffered second degree burns and dehydration when he was allegedly left outside in 90- degree heat for hours. he has no living relative

we do know that troy whitaker is being booked into the pinellas county jail on the aggravated manslaughter charges. right now the sheriff telling us, they have enough to him, but this is still very much under investigation. we should be learning more details within the next week or so. i'm reporting live in pinellas county. abc action news. >> thank you. in the meantime we learned that pediatric heatstroke is the leading cause of death for children in florida. it's 29th in the country. died in cars, 75 of those deaths right here in florida. >>> i'm going to show you how far this woman was willing to go to get her kids. she was arrested in madison county. today we are learning she originally wanted her son kidnapped and sold as a sex slave overseas. she had someone else in mind to kill saying someone money. >>> officers unfolding in the middle of the city tonight. it landed two people in jail. one of them arrested for three counts of battery on a law enforcement officer. we are live in front of the jail with the very latest on this. >>reporter: we are still waiting for those tw

tree fell onto a house. you heard them mention the power outages up there. power outages. pinellas county taking it on the chin, too. 3700 without power in central pinellas county. quick check on peco energy, and they are reporting even more power outages than we reported a half hour ago. the number of customers without power mostly in hillsborough county up to 17,500. >> in addition to our crews in the field, we're getting aoo outages. we want to show you the videos and photos you are sending us. this was sent to us by claudia morales. i know it may be hard to see. i will try to widen it out for you. keep liking. that is a bicycle. you see the water up to the tires right there. this is at the sponge dock. king. the road is closed right now. this was taken at 1:30 this morning. and one more photo we want to show you. this one here was sent to us. this is an apartment complex in cedar key. you can see the water there going right up to the doors of the apartments in moody county. again, we showed you a dock that broke free and knocked erika am are a out as well. we want to sending pi

the wake of the mosaic and the pinellas county sewage spill to now become law. also, one state representative tells us that she will sponsor that legislation in the florida house. republican kathleen peters say it is public deserves to find out about environmental pollution from those in charge. >> they were and, quite frankly f it wasn't for the diligence of the reporters, a lot of that wouldn't have come to light. >>> also, another local community claims it was kept in the dark regarding a sewage release. one of sarasota's facilities dumped $3.3 million of partially treated waste water into the grand canal during hurricane hermine. residents were not notified. release was necessary to avoid spilling raw sewage. >>> we have some new details tonight in the shooting death of a tampa toddler. a search warrant obtained by newschannel8 shows the detectives are searching for evidence to file aggravated manslaughter or murder charges in this case. witnesses at the scene told police that 17 month old amaya scaffi accidentally shot herself. but a dcf investigation shows that her father

what's happening here. that right there, if that were to make it onshore to pinellas, that's awfully close. some have been weakening some have not. that will be the trend for today along with the gusty wind getting us into the 30s, 40 mile-per-hour wind gusts and then again the coastal flooding coming up especially at the time of high tide. we have high tide around 2 1/2 pete. we'll get splashover and and st. pete. the rain falling from the sky is much better this morning. so the commute should be much better today. >> of course you won't have all of the kids going to school, so no school buses on the road, either. tim jones is behind the road there stuck at a red light trying to get back to 275. he's been driving around out there looking for flooded spots. hasn't really noticed anything significant. we do have a out there. i've posted those on twitter, especially in manatee county. if you are headed to the bridges, we're in great shape. if you are crossing the bay from pinellas into hillsborough, it will take you less than ten minutes. checking your drive times on the veterans expre

period of time per hour over a period of time where it will actually stt speed ssf you live in pinellas county, you're in pinellas county getting crushed by now you're getting crushed by thiser, y in and this is moving east. is moving east. so, just moving into the pasco right so, just moving into pascoe, they will be moving into hillsboro after the bay hillsborough county after crossing the bay in minutes. minutes or and this this around hermine. that bond moves through, and -- hermine. he will get a break and a break, another one will come. and as long as comes through, and situation this one will be quite we're in this situation, i doubt the next one will be as -- won't be quite as strong but will pack a punch. the tornado watches in effect strong, but it will still pack a punch. tornado watch still have little doubt that we will probably see spin ups with that band coming through. with the band coming through now. a tornado watch the tornado watch remains in effect until 11 the tornado watch remains in effect until 11 am. -- 11 pm. 11:00. tropical storm warnings, this is right we ar

tampa on i-4. checking the drive on i- 275 at gandy in pinellas county, looking great from the sunshine skyway all the way to the howard frankland bridge. your drive times on some of the major roads not too bad, in the yellow on u.s. 19 southbound between tampa road and eastbay. 11 minutes that is mainly due to the traffic lights. and 4 minutes on dale mabry from fletcher to waters. >>> it's coming up now on 5:32. breaking news overnight -- deputies in hillsborough county are investigating a shooting right now. it happened along east fowler avenue in thonotosassa. they are not releasing very many details now, only that it was drug related and the injuries are not life threatening and they are in contact with everybody involved. >>> deputies found a sebring man dead on his kitchen floor and now searching for the people he recently hired to help him do work around his house. he was 95 years old, name dominick demundo, found dead off his home monday in wellington drive in sebring. authorities doing a welfare check discovered his body. the sheriff has very little information about

steamy. we're tracking a few showers we'll zoom into this storm over pinellas county there. you can see it blowing up. we have lightning strikes there. this is basically just over the northern portion of old tampa bay here. slowly trying to pushback through northern pinellas county here. we have heavy rain along 19. eventually that will work toward area beaches. activity very spotty across portions of manatee county. you'll notice how hit and miss this is. these thunderstorms have had a very difficult time holding themselves out. in fact, that system back over pinellas county is the strongest we've had so far. julia just off the coast of north florida and the carolinas, we have now post tropical ian. it's no longer an official tropical system. and we're also tracking carl way out in the atlantic. that system will hover in the atlantic through the rest of the next couple days here. so again we'll keep the rain chances around through the evening. and that could certainly play a role in some of our high school football games as e expecting temperatures in the 80s as kickoff. can't rule

lakeland. again no delays on i-4. a quick check of the drive, i-275 in pinellas county at 54th avenue north up to speed from bridge- to-bridge. back to you. >>> we're learning some new details about the night that accident. fans across the country including here in the bay area are mourning his death and planning to pay tribute to him. >> abc action news reporter rodney dunigan live at alonso high school. we found out a vigil is planned there tonight. >> reporter: 7:30 tonight family, friends and former teammates of this baseball player will meet here at the baseball field at 7:30 again to remember him and honor him tonight. in the meantime we're learning new details about that accident we've learned that the baseball player jose fernandez actually had a fight with his pregnant girlfriend just hours before he went out on that boat, actually going out on the boat investigators say to clear his head a bit. unfortunately just a few hours later jose fernandez along with two friends were killed when that 32-foot fishing boat hit rocks near miami beach. a friend of one of the men actually u

thingo note out of pinellas county. skyfox took this earlier shot mlk street completely bl off due to lots of standing water you believing 38th avenue south and 47th avenue south. i just saw a tweet from the mayor kriseman saying he doesn't expect it will be passable today. so, you'll have alternate route in meti. ce again mlk38th to 47th. we have a high wind advisory for sunshinekyway bridge. bridge is open take caution as you cross the water here. then out of manatee county state road 62 a county road 39 east and westbound directions blocked by standing water. so avoid here as well. >>> all right vanessa, thank you. >> this was the scene yesterday. flooded streets courtesy of a lot rain. ten inches in parts of pinellas and alcides has been out and about all morning long. looking for, first of all wre not complaining about this. let's don't complain about this at all. yeah so far so od, though? >> so, today, i have on two rait my bo and a rain jacket. and i'm swti. ck we're not going to complain. you're exactly you know what there's people walking along beach here while it's not a be