Im gene ramirez. The big story this morning is Hurricane Matthew. We want to start with lee leigh to see what is going on this morning. Reporter 145mile an hour winds, and its just minutes away or a few hours away from making land fall in haiti, and the latest forecast, even though and cuba, not enough to bring it down through category 4. Unfortunately it makes the westerly track towards the east coast of florida, and this is friday morning. Still a category 3 hurricane with places like polk and Highlands County in the cone of uncertainty before the system heads up north to the carolinas as a category 2 storm this weekend. The shift to the west before it area, and i will focus obvious two of the computer models, the reliable ones to show you how they have come together. Yesterday the gfs and european models, greatly different, but now theres small differences in timing, but both take it off floridas east coast, and then up through the carolinas, and out into the upper portions of the atlantic, and what does that mean for us here in florida . It looks like the will increase. That is where the Tropical Storm force winds will expend. Eastern florida, and even portions of Highlands County by the afternoon on thursday and then by thursday night into friday morning, it it. This area means at least 40 mile an hour winds and the western portion of our viewing area, it will be a 20 to 30 mile an hour wind speed. We will still get a round of about the forecast in a little bit. Gayle and gene . Matthew is blamed for four deaths, and risk to life and property is high in the caribbean. Meredith has the latest on how they are preparing. Reporter according to the Weather Service in haiti, some areas have winds up to 145 miles an hour, and some of the preparation underway in the country. Its the poorest nation in the western hemisphere. Downpours up to 40 inches, and theres the threat of deadly mud slides, and eastern coup barks some of the bahamas, and jamaica could see up to a foot of rain. Fema is deploying officials to state Emergency Operation centers here in florida and georgia, and south carolina, and north carolina. Declared a state of emergency just in case. If matthew impacts florida l will be massive destruction we have not seen in years. Comparable to what we saw after hurricane andrew. Reporter hurricane warnings are posted in haiti, eastern cuba, and the central and southeast bahamas, and jamaica is downgraded from a hurricane warning, and of course all eyes are here on the track shifted closer to florida as leigh has been telling you throughout the morning. I just saw information from cuba. 180,000 people will be forced to leave their home there is as they evacuate certain areas there. To stay on top of the latest, you can download the news channel 8 app. Its a free download. Now lets to to leslee lacey to see what is going on with our. I want you to be aware of this. No delays anymore, and thats good news. Awhile ago, i saw it changing color in the area. Looking good as far as congestion. Be aware of that. Hopping over here to palm harbor at klosterman road. U. S. 189 looking great, and quick travel times for you. Good drive on 54th and new port richi, and 19 despite the traffic, and back to gene and gayle. A university of south florida student has been arrested for sexually assaulting a 16yearold girl while she was unconscious at a party at the greek village. Brian, the party was sponsored by a fraternity . Exactly, gayle, good morning. Usf police say the party was place in this fraternity house. Students were shocked and saddened to hear the news. Its a shame. Honestly, i mean you join a fraternity to improve yourself as an individual, and you go and take advantage of girls who are under the influence, thats a shame in general. Reporter and this is a mug shot of 18yearold dillon lagamma. U. S. Police say he had sex with a 126yearold early sunday morning, and she was unconscious at the time. We tried to get comment fr answered the door when we went by last night. Hes a student at the school, but the victim is not. The suspect posted a 7,500 bond and left jail yesterday afternoon. Now the fraternity is suspended as the investigation continues, and of course the status of the frat at this point, gayle, is in limbo. We know you will stay on top of this. Thank you, ryan. Two children are hospitalized after a car were riding on in st. Petersburg. Reporter for hours fhp troopers had no idea who the victims were or the names of the parents either. Mary mcgwire is live this morning. We know more about them, and what exactly do we know . Reporter late last night florida Highway Patrol troopers were able to identify those children and also the parents of the children, and they are just 6 and 9 years old, and all of this afternoon in st. Petersburg on 54th avenue north in st. Pete. Troopers say the crash happened when traffic westbound on 54th was stopped, and one boy was riding the bicycle while the other was on the handlebars. At a nearby drugstore, an employee said she sees the pair in the store often. I watched them cross the road the other day, and im looking, and im peaking and thinking they was going to get hit. Them claims they didnt see the boy. The impact threw both of the children into the street. The case was complicated by the fact that for hours afterwards, troopers couldnt find the parents of the boys and didnt know their names. We checked in with all Childrens Hospital this morning, and one boy is in stable condition here, and the other is in critical condition, and we are trying to work to get more information from the florida Highway Patrol as to whether or not the parents of these children could possible charges. Gene . Such a terrible situation for these boys. Glad to hear one of them is stable, and we hope the best for the other. Thank you. We will check back with you. Now lets go to the weather. Ryan hughes at usf had an umbrella, and that surprised me because i have not seen any rain on the radar, and i had to zoom in your close to find any rain. Sorry, ryan, youre the one spot right there between i75 i had to zoom way in to find that. Generally dry this morning it will not last long. 82 at 11 00 a. M. 88 at 4 00. Heres the rain fall potential, and it may be a stray shower or two as we have seen between now and noon. The better rain potential is later today. Most of the area will see less than an inch of rain, but there could be spots, and you can see the purple color, a heavier downpour, now the rain fall potential over the next several days, and but as we watch Hurricane Matthew off floridas east coast, the mel burn area could see 4 inches of rain, and heavier rain from polk and Highlands County. Temperatures upper 80s, and windier wednesday and thursday as matthew passes to the east, and once it is north of us, it will draw in the comfortable 8s, and again, theres a spot of rain around usf, and it was literally like this big on the map. Fortunately no accidents there either. We have a good drive, and a couple of issues. Apollo beach area, a heads up here, and a little to the north here, im seeing slowdowns as well. Keep that in mind. They dont last very long, but they do last for quite a few blocks. Fowler avenue, ramp to northbound i75, fhp says a disabled vehicle out there you can get by, but be aware if youre headed up to the interstate with fowler. Klosterman road, an accident, but no delays on 19. Back to gene and gayle. Thank you. The future of the toll lanes on the Howard Frankland bridge. Decision that could affect your commute. Showdown in virginia, the Vice President ial candidates debate. Whats at stake as they work to whoo the voters. Youre watching news channel 8 marco rubio has the worst attendance record of any florida to but its even worse when he shows up. Hes voted for a plan that would cut Social Security. And has said Social Security is bankrupting our country and has weakened us as a people. He wants to eliminate the department of education. And has voted for billions in education cuts. Marco rubio. Its bad when he misses work. Its worse when he shows up. We are back, the city of st. Petersburg may face a lawsuit over the red tide and how r release of waste water. You can see the red tide from tampa bay to charlotte harbor, and florida wildlife officials explain red tide is a natural occur answer, but sun coast water keepers believes nutrients in the sewage makes the red tide last longer, and the group is considering suing st. Pete over the waste water release. Stay in your lane, for now anyway. Its back to the drawing board frankland bridge. Transportation officials nixed the plans to use one of the general lanes for a toll road. Officials are considering adding tolls in hopes of reducing congestion on the busy bridge. Final preparations are underway right now for the first and only televised Vice President ial debate. Mike pence will face off with tim kaine, and much of the debate is expected to focus on recent cont debate is happening in farmville, virginia, and you can watch the showdown here on news channel 8 at 9 00 p. M. Democratic president ial candidate, Hillary Clinton is using big names to sway voters in florida, and tomorrow president barack obama will campaign at usf, yesterday joe biden spoke to supporters, and jennifer lee caught up with him heres a snippet of what he told jen about the race. Reporter is it possible after an election like this to see a return to bipartisan politics politics . I think you will see the public so sick of the vicious division, they will say, whoa, produce something for us. You can listen to the entire unedited conversation with jen lee and Vice President biden on wfla. Com. A new clinton with a 5point lead over donald trump. In the cnnorc survey of likely voter the, clinton got 47 support compared to trumps 42 , and the poll shows big gains for clinton versus trump in support from men. A fight during the ravens raiders Football Game leaves one man on life support. It happened in baltimore. Joseph bower, a raiders fan. He was hit, fell to the ground and hit his head. Two men have been arrested and charged from new york. Friends, fans, and family members will honor arnold palmer. It will take place at st. Vincents basilica in pennsylvania. Thousands are expected attend. One of palmers colleagues and challengers, Jack Nicklaus will speak. He died last month from heart complications at 86 years old. A smoky and fiery scene in southeast colorado where a grass fire is burning. Flames have burned 3,000 acres and destroyed seven buildings near pueblo. People living in the area are being told to leave before the flames get too close. And happening today, its time to freshen up your resume for a new job. Employers are currently jobs at a Community Career fair it will happen at the George Steinbrenner field at the event pavilion there. It will kick off at 10 00. More information on wfla. Com. Dont forget you want to make sure you look good, look professional, take a lot of copies of your resume. Practice a good q and a with a good friend. That works we are just seconds away from 5 48 on this tuesday rn we will talk about matthew. Thats the first question you will all give me. Unfortunately just about to make plannedland fall on the western tip of haiti. Its been bringing torrential rains, and terrible video of that throughout the day today unfortunately. The interesting thing with the latest forecast, moving north at 9 miles an hour, and it almost threads the needle, and it will not weaken because of land interaction from now until wednesday afternoon when its a mile an hour winds, and unfortunately it takes the westerly turn towards floridas east coast, and this is friday morning a category 3 hurricane, just miles off the melbourne coast, and polk and Highlands County this is the cone of uncertainty. Any deviation of the central track it will be west or east of this, it will drastically change our effects before it moves up the carolina coastline. Let me show you with the current thinkingwh to happen. Not much of an impact between now and thursday morning, and the storm will be in nassau thursday morningnine oclock a. M. On the west coast, relatively dry. We will see possibly flooding on the east coast, and heavy rain through friday morning in our interior communities like polk and highlands community, the western portions of our chances dont go up all that much with the current thinking. Today, 74 degrees at 8 00 a. M. , 88 at 4 00, and scattered storms that dont have anything to do with matthew, by the way, and 30 chances as the wind speeds increase. Leslee . Traffic on the 8s . Holding on to a good drive on the bay area interstates. The apollo beach area, folks, big bend road, looking like it has pretty much cleared here, and earlier. Fowler avenue at northbound i 75. Just built the map, and fhp said it has already cleared up in and out of pasco and hillsborough. This accident, its cleared from the roadway, and thats good news. More to the north of it here. Grand boulevard and sunray drive at holiday. Thats a look at weather and traffic on the 8s, back to gene and gayle. A heart warming story of and hitting the breaks at the drivethrough. How much time do people really spend waiting for their fast food . We will tell you. Youre watching news channel 8 today, and its 5 50 on this tuesday morning. Closed captioning brought to you by im Hillary Clinton and i approve this message. Id look her right in that fat ugly face of hers. Shes a slob. She ate like a pig. A person whos flat chested is very hard to be a 10. Does she have a good body . No. Does she have a fat [expletive] . Absolutely. Do you treat women with respect . So chew on this, fast food a survey by qsr maigre veals the average time spent in the drivethru is 226 seconds. Dot math, thats a little more than 3. 5 minutes, and thats 5 seconds longer than the previous year, but you may not mind the extra wait time. The survey found fast food restaurants are getting orders right. Order accuracy jumping to 90 . What about that, but its National Taco day. Many restaurants will have deals in honor of everyones favorite tortilla snack. Yelp voters, lolis on benjamin road in tampa, its the most popular place tacos. Those are cheap pasco county deputies are receiving praise for going above and beyond the line of duty. Someone stole a bike belonging to a 10yearold boy. He used it as physical therapy after leg surgery. Corporal meadow was so outraged, he worked with other deputies to buy the child a new bike. I love that. Just in holidays, new hightech toys will hit the store shelves. And art with a purpose. I will show you amazing work from unlikely artists and tell you why you want to get your hands on this. A live look outside of our window, beautiful downtown tampa. The Hillsborough River looking like its lit up. The cars are zooming over the bridge on kennedy. We will have weather and traffic coming your way in 3 what makes a woman feel beautiful . Its about her presence. A radiance that shines, deep inside. A je ne sais quoi. A youthful aura. Advanced g . Nifique by lanc . Me. Every serum drop infuses youthful radiance throughout the skin. Patented until 2029. Advanced g . Nifique. Lanc . Me. Receive a free 7piece gift. Its 5 58 on this tuesday. Time for weather and traffic on the 8s. Patchy clouds, and generally low to mid70s across the region. Warming up to 88 degrees, and a little steamy. 40 rain chance today. And thats a 30 rain chance on wednesday, thursday, and friday. Then the rain chances down to 20 on saturday, and all eyes will be on Hurricane Matthew, just moment land fall as a category 4 hurricane in haiti. I will track how close it will get to us. Pasco county holiday area, grand boulevard, a collision, and theres a little bit of a delay on u. S. 19 coming away from the apex of 19. Could just be a lot of red lights people are hitting. Theres an accident on u. S. 41, good throughout the suncoast area, and a quick live look here, skyway bridge, great drive moving across the water on all the bridges. Wife our electric bill just keeps going up and up. Were doing everything we can. But it looks like duke energys not doing theirs. Husband paying for a plant thats never going to be built is just ridiculous. Narrator the duke utility tax is costing florida families. Yet congressman david jolly does nothing. Hes taken thousands from duke but has not stopped them from collecting for a power plant that could never be built. Ntent of this advertising. Tracking Hurricane Matthew. Its pounding the caribbean. Its inching closer to florida, and the governor takes action. Two small boys suv. One was critically hurt. We are live with the latest on their conditions and why police had a hard time finding their parents. Googles big day. The Company Unveiling a treasuretrove of new products. We look at their smart phones and something that google claims could change how we listen to music. Good morning, and welcome to news channel 8 today. Im gayle guyardo