Big story. We have Team Coverage of the storm this morning. Youre tracking the tropics. Lets start with lee. Leigh. In the last 2 minutes the information came in. It is Getting Better organized, the wind strength hasnt changed too much but you can see how big the sy these are the current advisers. The red shaded area from panama city toward the big band of florida, those are hurricane warnings. Inning this could feel Hurricane Force wind in 36 hours. Locally we had Tropical Storm warnings that actually now extend into our offshore water. That is that brandnew update. You will fill Tropical Storm force conditions. Within 36 hours that is the official meaning of what the warning is. In a tropical cents. I believe its going to be Even Stronger winds come in because look at the forecast. Still 65 Miles Per Hour winds moving north northeast at 14 Miles Per Hour. Its continuing to get a faster Forward Motion as it heads toward the big band of florida. P. M. Tonight 75 Miles Per Hour winds. Category 1 hurricane coming onshore late tonight. Around midnight. Anywhere from 11 pm2 am. By 8 am on friday morning is in georgia. As a Tropical Storm. Finally she out into the Atlantic Ocean and moving the southeast. We are sending a Hurricane Hunter into it. They left out of tampa, actually out of mississippi i apologize, and have been flying around, that is high up in the air. Not at the service. That is an indication the system is getting stronger. Where do we think the winds are is this yellow shaded area, noticed by 6 pm tonight, a yellow area includes coastal areas of citrus hernando and pasco. The other thing happening is winds are coming out of the southwest and will pile the water up in places like lakes and rivers and bays. When you have rain on top of that it doesnt have anywhere to go. The Tropical Storm force winds will continue for our Northern Areas into tomorrow morning. Rounds of rain had to come in hasnt come yet. They will continue to saturated ground and high tide, more flooding problems. Rough surf, gusty winds and isolated risk of tornadoes. The rain is just offshore with the flood watch continuing. Ed joins me now to talk about how bad it will get. We are concerned about the coast line. The coastal flood advisory. The winds start coming onshore later today. That will stick around for at least 24 up to 48 hours. The ground already saturated. Some folks yesterday reporting record daily rainfall amounts. In fact anywhere from 47 inches. Sarasota picking up nearly 8 inches. As we continue on we are expecting not too much over the next few hours. But then as we go to friday we could get an additional search of rain. Generally and other 3 to 4 inches of rain for the area. Also the tides. These are your high tide times. These aware were going to see that onshore flow. We could see the tides running high for today. Also for today and for the next couple of days. Will talk more about that coming up in full weather in a few minutes. Back to you. The impact of Tropical Storm hermine already affecting us here in the bay area. Several roads still impacted in pinallas county. Water continues to rise in a doctor Martin Luther king street. That blocked off between 38 and 47th. That is where we find our live team. What does look like right now . Reporter not only is this roadway blocked off because its flooded. Let me show you, we found a gator right here behind us. In the middle of the roadway. That is why officials are saying it is so important for people to stay out of flooded areas, do not walk in these dr neighbors say they will couple around 4 am to find water from the lake overflowing into the streets. Neighbors say they spotted an alligator. Swimming down the middle of the street which is common when it floods. City leaders tell me this neighborhood is a lowlying area so whenever there is a high tide or heavy rainstorm, the street typically floods. The city is dealing with a lot of storm water. And to prevent rot or dilated 90 of the discharge is expected to consist of rain or storm water. Neighbors around here say theyve never seen flowing this bad. Last week was the 1st time ever made it across the street. It always makes it up to the Center Median and then stops there. This time it worked its way. Last week it worked its way up. And this time of course. I walk ross and you can see the lot line. Reporter again it is just starting to rain out here. We are expecting to see this water on the roadway for a long while. There are a number of people whove been coming out to take pictures. Not just of the flooding but trying totcthe gators. Again, officials warn people watch where youre stepping. Not only made a be alligators but snakes as well. Thank you. Also be careful in other areas. Lets check in to see what else is happening. Have gators and stakes on my mind. One more reason not to go into the waterways. You dont jakarta get stuck. Lets keep folks focusing. This is right by allegory. 30 avenue and south javad jazmine. They said 37th avenue south. The Police Department originally put a dent. Its a couple blocks f the 45th. Its actually to jazmine way. This is where it is closed due to flooding. What i want to talk about is the different areas in different counties in general. Lets say if it rains everywhere, this is where Martin Luther king, further to the north another hotspot. Its not letting here now but i this is a hot spot. The shore acres area. Shoreacres boulevard. This is, it happens to rain everywhere. It will get very flooded especially down to the businesses. We see water coming across as well. And heading over here lets take a quick look at the port richie area. And the river that comes through. Anywhere where there is water, that is where it tends to get flooded. You see a lot of water here wh and of course in south tampa. Bayshore boulevard. It gets to be a mess in south tampa. South of swann. Any roads off of mcdill. And manhattan condo way that out. In sarasota reds fruit field road that tends to get flooded as well. Keep those in mind and use Sarasota County residents are still bracing for the worst. They spent the night dealing with high water in the streets and neighborhoods. Take a look. So far this morning they have been spared but we were at whitaker by you bayou and things were pretty bad 12 hours ago. You can see water levels have returned for now. Emergency crews are monitoring the bayou and plans to warn residents. In Haskell County concerned about flooding can get sandbags. People did stand in line to fill more than 7000 sandbags yesterday. This is the Emergency Operations center of little road in newport richie. We have a list of sending locations for you. This is throughout the bay area. Go to wfla. Com and you will see location scrolling at the bottom of your screen. New information in the hospital overnight. More than 200 patients at Regional MedicalCenter Bayonet Point had to be moved out. Now were learning that storms could be to blame for the power outage. Reporter there are no patience here today at Regional Medical center in bayonet point. That is because last night in the span of 6 hours every single one of the 209 patients here including some that were critically ill were evacuated. Today we learned that were brought in to evacuate patients and staff to other hospitals in the area. That after staff used cell phone lights and flashlights to locate patients and had to carry some of them downstairs. That included 12 critically ill patients on ventilators. A fire broke out around 6 15 in the generator room. Today the ceo of the hospital said it appears lightning struck the roof and hit a line into backup power source. The emergency generators tried to click on and try to said powered on the line but it created a life safety issue. We had to shut the generators down. What that did is create a completely dark powerless environment in the hospital. Reporter that emergency backup power is required and although power has been restored here, without the emergency backup online, the hospital cannot accept patients. It will likely be one day before there are some ambulances in case anyone does go there to use the er facilities. Other hospitals are in trinity and oak hill and brooksville. Turning now to school closures. 6 Bay Area School districts are closed. You see them there on your screen. Were waiting on those districts to make a decision will let you know. You can go to wfla. Com to find a conference of list of all closures. The rec centers in the city of tampa are open. They are located all over the city. They are open until 6 pm for kids ages 517. You dont need a recreation card to get in. Parents or guardians will need to fill out paperwork before dropping off the children. There is no word on whether those centers will be open morrow should schools be canceled. Will stay on top you. That maybe one of the only options. Some of our area attractions are closed. That includes bush gardens, florida aquarium. Also the south florida museum. The childrens museum, parks all over the bay area closed today. Sunset each concert has been postponed. Esor your area on plete list of wfla. Com. Spacex falcon 9 rocket exploded on the launchpad at Cape Canaveral just a more than an hour ago. It happened during a test firing. The test was in advance of a planned saturday launch for an israeli satellite. The dark smoke coming from their, links several miles away shook from the blast. The explosion continued for minutes. There were no injuries reported. Donald trump from seeing it again, mexico will pay to build border. Its part of his immigration policy. Coming up, how his opponent is reacting to his speech. And how mexicos president feels about his claim about were tossing over to schools are closed. People are wondering where the rain is. Its offshore. Its wrapping around Tropical Storm hermine and it will take a few more miles pushing east to where we would be inundated with rain. Or it will stay just offshore. Already people are saying flooding. They dont want to rain to come. Any rain that comes will cause flooding because of the amount we had ye we going to see wind . We are. Willow forecast coming up. I want tshyou . . Onshore wind throughout the afternoon. Pushing the water farther inland. The tides are higher than usual and starting high the next hour depending on where you are anywhere between and between lunchtime and 5 him. This is what i am talking about. This intense rain is just off our sure. The screen area is the flood watch that remains in effect. I will zoom in and show you a few places seeing rain. Rain along 19 into clearwater. I will widen this view. If this were to just be 50 more miles to the east, not only would you see heavy rain, it wouldnt stop. It to train over you. Were watching this carefully to see how for east this moves because the center of Tropical Storm hermine is a sickly moving north northeast. Its going to creep closer to our sure. Once it comes onshore it will be like yesterday. Not stopping. We hope to keep it for the most part offshore. Once it does movies, all of that will start raining and raining and raining. More wins more wind will start. Especially near the coast. The wind is tt this is what stacy was asking me about. The winds be. These are wind speeds in Miles Per Hour. 2 30. 29 Miles Per Hour in st. Pete. 27 in tampa. Up to 30 or 35mph during the evening along the coast. Lighter winds inland but even there 25mph. It is going to be quite gusty during the afternoon, evening and look this, by about 2 30 the system is making landfall. Especially in citrus, hernando and pascoe county. Dealing with strong winds at possible Tropical Storm force. The other question i get asked, in more than higher average tied search. Focusing on our northern counties, 35 feet higher than normal. If youre lucky enough to live near the water, its going to be 35 feet closer to you than higher. Farther south its about 13 feet higher. Look what happens. We see these rounds of rain coming in as this tropical system heads up toward the north. It could make landfall tonight into tomorrow morning. As a category 1 hurricane. The sad thing is even as it moves into georgia, it is still drawing in all of the tropical downpours. It may not be raining as mu possibility is there for them to see the heavy rains for tomorrow as well. Keep in mind flooding is going to be an issue anytime the rain starts to fall. We will continue to bring updatesthe weather throughout the day. Donald trump is dominating your full coverage. A meeting th d a fiery speech and immigration has drawn praise and criticism. Trump kept his hardline stance saying his administration will build a wall on the us southern border. He added mexico will pay for it. They just dont know it. Hours before that mexicos president insisted that he made it clear that that will not happen. The wall as part of a broader 10 point plan where trump outlined his immigration policy. You cannot obtain legal status, become a citizen of the United States you cant do it. People will know that you cant just smuggle in, hunker down and wait to be legalized. Its not going to work that way. Several of his latino surrogates quit after the speech. They feel disappointed and misled according to reports. Hillary clinton responded choked then lied about it. She also tweeted trump field failed his 1st foreignpolicy test. Clinton said it takes more than trying to make up for your insults and insinuations by dropping in on our neighbors for a few hours and then find them again. We will continue to follow Tropical Storm hermine. Reports of damage and flooding in our area. Havertys furniture helps your home look perfect even when life isnt. Pretty hey. Umm. Sign here . Sure, you got a pen . I do thanks sweetie. The labor day sale is on now at havertys. Breaking news. A glimpse at the damage we are seeing. We do life in tampa on heinz avenue. Hi paul. Reporter morning. Take a look at this. The rain it couldnt take it and it came over. There is the branch. One goes this way and the other is over here. The good news is it did not fall onto the street. So it is out full a and not causing anything other than a visual delayed delay. You can see how big this branches. It reaches all the way around. Good news, it did not fall onto any vehicles or the str right now its a big visual mess. This is the kind of stuff we will see m in our area cant handle all the rain. And with any stronger wind, this could happen. Be reful oure ouand see stuff this these can also pull down power lines. Back to you. Li. Weve not even seen a lot of when. This is at this point just a rain event. We waiting to see how much more we will see. Tropical storm hermine getting closer to floridas coast. We are 13 hours away from landfall. Were going to see rain and flooding throughout the day in the bay area. Team covege of Tropical Storm hermine continues in a few minutes. Getting stronger. Not quite hurricane strength but we expect it will be a hurricane before it makes landfall. Coming up, the very latest and what it means in the bay area. For suppliers survivors of the deadly shooting in the Movie Theater in colorado now owe thousands of dollars. A Major Medical breakthrough. Strides in the fight against alzheimers. We will explain the findings coming up. Thank you for joining us. 1st things 1st, Tropical Storm hermine. Lets get the latest from leigh. Its moving quickly to the north northeast. Its wrapping around the western side. Morbid indication the system is getting stronger. There is a hurricane warning for the coastline. Hurricane force winds are expected within 36 hours. Locally, citrus, hernando and pascoe are under a store morning. It is now been extended for our offshore waters off of pinellas county. Heres the latest. Its headed to the northeast. 75mph making it a category 1 hurricane by tonight. Humming on land around through south georgia before passing through charleston and heading back into the atlantic. No longer affecting us locally. But it will for the next 48 hours. See this yellow area, that is Tropical Storm winds. By this evening it could be on the coast line. Plus winds coming from the south piling up the water. When the rain comes it doesnt have anywhere to go. The Tropical Storm force winds will continue. If this makes landfall as predicted as a category 1 hurricane, one in florida to make landfall in 11 years. Previously, the last hurricane 2005. E landfall was wilma in look at the rain just off im sure. At joins me now. Watching this rain slowly inched its way toward the shore getting a couple of showers across southern pinellas county. Pinallas got slammed yesterday. The ground is exit extremely saturated. These are the totals. Yesterday morning. Radar was estimating about 10 inches of rain across portions of southern pinallas. Some areas in sarasota and manatee. Around 7 inches. Look at these daily rainfall records that we are breaking. We had just over 4 inches of rain at tampa international. Sarasota getting nearly 8 inches of rain yesterday. How much more will be see . I dont think we will see that much is a go to the rest of today. Perhaps 12 inches. As we get the onoris when wcan rain. Also we have to watch out for high tides. The onshore flow, the tides will run higher than normal. Lets send it to leslie. Look at traffic. This is what i want you to know in st. Pete. We have a closure by lake a lot of flooding in this area. I want to remind you that it rained everywhere, im going to talk about the hotspots the tend to flood. Martin luther king, to the north its also known as 9th street. Also it floods around 54th avenue north. And Martin Luther king. Another hotspotthe shore acres area will usually see closures. It is not flooded now but i want you to keep an eye on this. Prepare for tomorrow if we get a lot of rain. The seaside can deftly get flooded. As well as we will see water stretching over the causeway. Heading out to port richie have the water coming out of the cody river. That runs along grant and stretches out to little road. We have some closures in rowan. Flood all around the waterways and river. South tampa, we know bay shore is a big problem when it rains. You see a lot of closures along bay shore. The water comes into south tampa. Dont forget that by manhattan we see some flooding. Remember this, . Around mcdill. And in sarasota. Back to jean. Im to show ground several roads are impacted in pinallas county. Water continues to rise in this neighborhood. This is in st. Pete along mlk. That road blocked off between 38 avenue south. The roadway remains flooded and it looks like the water is continuing to go up. Has going to. We have been here for about 3 hours in that area. The situation is not getting much better. Especially with garsg ound. Some have been spotted. We have had that happen before. We see the gators occasionally going up there when its dry. Even down the street, they will sun themselves. Florida living. We do have a crew there right now. We are told by this crew that there are a number of we remind safety you do not want to be walking in the water. You don or what else is in the. There could be snakes and gators. You are probably very aware of the school closures. 6 Bay Area School districts are closed. You see them on your screen. Right now we are waiting to hear about the School Districts decisions for tomorrow. As soon as we hear we will let you know. You can also go to wfla. Com , there is a conference ures. Citoday. Theyre located all over the city. They are open until 6 pm. Kids ages 517. You dont need a wreck hard to get in but it parent or guardian will need to fill out paperwork. There is no word on whether they will be open tomorrow we are waiting for decisions on schools and that. The rec centers maybe one of the only places your kids can go today because a lot of the bay area attractions are also close. Busch gardens, the florida aquarium, the childrens museum, all closed. Parks all over the bay area are also close. Sunset beach concert has been postponed until next thursday. You can find a complete list of all closures in your county on wfla. Com. Breaking news. Weve just learned that 3 positive for zika virus. According to the department of agriculture the mosquitoes were trapped in one of the areas where the department of health is tracking transmitted cases in miamidade county. There were 95 other samples set for testing, those can back negative. New information just in. For survivors of the 2012 colorado Movie Theater thicker now the theater chain 700,000. The shooting killed 12 people and wounded 70. More than 2 dozen survivors sued the cinema claiming it did not have enough security measures to prevent the shooting. Inmate the jury ruled cinemark was not liable. Most of the survivors took a small settlement. 4 of them refused and the judge has ordered those for to pay legal bills. Month for chicago in 20 years. 90 fatal shootings. The city has expense more homicides this year the bigger cities of la, new york combined. There been more than 2300 shootings and 471 shooting deaths in chicago. In august alone there were 384 shootings and 472 shooting victims. That is an average of 15 per day. A medical alert. Researchers say a new experimental drug could be a game changer wh treating alzheimers. Patients with earlystage alzheimers given the drug once a month for a year. A cleared some deposits of toxic plaques from the brain. Experts believe the plaque is what plays a crucial role in triggering the disease. After one year patients on the highest those had virtually no detectable fat deposits. There is no doubt a lot of talk about the epipen maker mylan and the price of their drug. Same epipen sells for about 300 in the us can be bought for one third of that price in canada. Without a prescription you can buy to epipens for about 100. Why so much less expensive in canada . Dedication prices are regulated there. Canadian pharmacists a canadian pharmacists says that is fair. Im always concerned about the price of medication. Its not fair to people for wealthy people to stay healthy and happy and poor people should die. There wont be any trouble crossing back into the us should you venture to go to canada to buy them. The u. S. Customs and Border Control issued this statement. A person who purchased a personal quantity of epipens may travel across the border into the us with them. New this morning a big congratulations to liquid firefighter matt brown. He was recognized by the American Legion as a National Committee members explain he was selected for his high level of involvement conserve it service and dedication while off duty. Only one firefighter is give the award each year. Congratulations. Lows is bringing Home Improvement into the 21st century. Coming up we will show you what this does and where you can find one. All this tropical weather, today its officially september. That means fall is not far behind and neither are th one is coming very soon. Team coverage of topical it is the news of the day. Were talking Tropical Storm hermine. Im looking at social media and seeing people are saying, why my kids are outside. There is a good answer. 1st, the ground is saturated. Instead of sending the buses out in the morning where we work sure how much rain was falling, lets keep everyone safe. The other thing is rain is so close and if it moves another 15 miles, to the east, were going to deal with the exact same situation as yesterday. Let me show you what im talking about. That is an impressive amount of rain. Just that its heavy, but rain without stopping. Its just creeping east. Its not a fast mover. But it is creeping. It will continue to and once it starts raining is not going to stop. The coastline is going to get this 1st. Look at the rain. These green shaded areas are under a flood watch. Be super careful thatveryone it looks like its going to as it progresses. We are starting to see spotty showers. We have rain along the manatee coastline. Were talking just a few miles from away away from what would be consistent heavy rain. This is worrisome. Again, this moves 15 or 20 miles this way and we will have ourselves another intense flooding situation. The system itself is moving it will never get into the inland this far west, but just a few of our counties seeing this intense rain train if you will, where rain continues to move over the same spot would be a big issue. That is why school is canceled. Notice it is moving north northeast at 14 Miles Per Hour heading for the big bend of florida. He p. M. Tonight, 75mph wins. Tropical storm force winds. We are already seeing winds get stronger. You just saw 30 minutes ago, we have sustained 1520mph winds under these white numbers. The individual blue numbers, those are wind gusts. Now over 25mph. Heres one model with all this rain offshore. Its going to make it at least to the areas west of i75. And continue to rain in the same spots. That is a real possibility through 4 pm. As we head toward 6 or 7 pm, more heavy rain right on our shoreline. We could pickup more reaches inches of rain. Saturated ground plus the addition of high tide will lead to more flooding. That is what i am concerned about. The wind threats, they are obvious bigger threat is terrain. We have seen the tree come down on heinz avenue. Wind could be an issue for isolated areas but between today and tomorrow, flooding high rain chances and high amounts of water on top of the water that has saturated the ground would mean flooding could be a potential problem at any point. Ground, trees topple over because roots dont hang on. Even if its not a big window event, you could see downed trees. You said it, if how big that watch is, its going to hit. Especially along the coast. Its not moving right toward us. That is good news. But if we get under one of these rain trains where it its not fastmoving. In our consumer watch this morning, little bite snacks under recall after complaints the pieces of plastic were discovered. At least one injury is reported. The recall affects little bites fudge brownies and chocolate chip muffins with a best buy date of october 8. And variety packs with best buy september 24. Today we can all get a popular can spice latte drink. The coffee shop chain says its officially kicking off all tuesday with the introduction of a new fall beverage. Its called a chilly mocha. Hot got iced or as a frappuccino for a limited time only. Hard to compete with the psl. Who may moving on hubers turf. Uber turf. If it successfully could be expanded elsewhere. Ways aims to make fairs low enough at most to discourage drivers from operating as taxis. Like they do with uber. This fall lowes employees will share Customer Service duties with robots. Better yet, lobot. The Home Improvement store says lobot will help customers with simple questions so the human delivering budget expertise as well as personalized service. It can also scan inventory and capture realtime data. You may not see one in our area, they are rolling out over a sevenmonth period to several stores out west in the symphysis go bay area. Can ask it to pick the favorite 3 colors to pay my dining room . No. You can ask it to pick to tell to astronauts were outside the International Space station on a spacewalk. The 2nd one in less than 2 weeks. This is a live look from the International Space station. Those are the National Nasa astronauts. They are currently on board the iss. There retracting a thermal radiator that is part of the stations cooling system. There also installing the 1st of several enhanced high def tv cameras. Its expected to last until 1030. 10 30. You have to see this video. Youre looking at the scene over africa about 5 hours ago. This is an annual eclipse. In th e moon is congwe get the ring of fire effect. A lot of pictures being shared on social media. All eyes here on the gulf of mexico and keeping an eye on the kids as they are out of school and enjoying the calm before the storm. Look at the radar. You see this rain just offshore and it will continue to wrap around Tropical Storm hermine. Unfortunately now creeping a largo had flooded areas history. Right now seeing rain creeping toward i75 farther inland. However, at the top of the show we told you about the spacex explosion. It happened after 9 am. Using radar we can see the plume of smoke right when it exploded. The spacex rocket exploded at its interesting we can pick that up with radar. Weve had this break fr, as tro storm hermine heads to the north and east. We will see it wraparound the system coming onshore. Any place of the tees the rain on top of that yesterdays rain and a top of tomorrows rain could see flooding. This is not just a oneday event. Were looking at even friday having heavy rain. It might be a good time if you can go out and get sandbags. Those. Have a full list on wfla. Com. Stay safe. Introducing carrabbas new family bundles. Choose one of six favorites plus a large salad to make a carryout dinner for the whole family starting at 34. 99. Its carryout without the compromise. From nbc news, this is today with Kathie Lee Gifford and hoda kotb. Live from studio 1a in rockefeller so glad youre with us today for thirsty ursday, the first day of hold your breath, september. Is that crazy . Its too crazy. Crazy. It makes you want to spend your summer differently than you did, just not waste any of the time you wasted. Right. This is the new song make me. .