Sloane heffernan. We begin with meteorologist Elizabeth Gardner with the latest on the storms intensity and track. Well get the next update coming up at the top of the 8 00 hour. Most of of the rain is on the northern side of center. While the center may not arrive until tonight, we are already feeling the effects. You south. The skycam in fayetteville looks very wet there. We have this little cell that has developed south and west of sanford. The radar estimates are up to 2 inches already. We are going to have some heavy rain that stick around here and ease hi starts to really pile up some rainfall totals in the aint gauges. If you are traveling to sanford on highway 1, you will run into that particular cell. We do have more rain down to for us today. Winds at 70 Miles Per Hour with hermine moving northeast at 14 miles per this just tracks the center of circulation and doesnt tell the whole story of all the [ no audio ] there is that Fayetteville Skycam and it looks messy there. Has the rain moves northward, our days are going to look like temperature remain in the low 70s all day long. Well talk about all of the advisories in effect in just a few minutes. Brian is here checking out the road weather index. Your eye is really drawn to what is going on over there in lee county. One little spot there where we are seeing some very heavy rainfall. You can see on the road weather index, it has a pretty large blue blob right there which indicate road weather index. That indicates it is raining pretty heavily there. Something to keep in mind as you head south out of sanford in moore county. Also lets take you to fayetteville and the camera out there indicating the wet conditions and seeing some spray getting kicked up as well. So conditions for driving really deteriorating on the area. Well see conditions dote rate later today in the triangle. Your evening commute could be very wet so you need to keep that in mind this afternoon. Lets take a look at the map. Raleighdurham, cary and chapel ill, not really running into any problems. A crash street. On fordham boulevard, from 54 up to i40, about a sixminute ride. 40 eastbound right now to the durham freeway, delay free at nine minutes. Hurricane hermine made landfall early this morning on floridas gulf coast. The states first hurricane in over a decade. Damage this morning, the east coast up to new jersey is bracing for the fastmoving storm. Georgia is now in the path. Jay gray is in savannah where the effects of hermine are already being health. Reporter driving rain, severe winds and a violent surf, the storm continued to build as it rushed towards the coast and thousands in its path rushed to get ready. Get rid of things down, move things inside. Outside, conditions intense identified and so did the warning from Florida Governor rick scott. Put this in perspective. This is lifethreatening. We have a hurricane. Reporter hermine, a category one storm with sustained wind of 08 Miles Per Hour, gusts even strong are, made landfall overnight in the big bend region of floridas gulf coast, the first hurricane to hit the state in more than a decade. This is the first one weve had as far as a hurricane. New to people. Reporter for those in and around the strike point, the storm surge pushed water into places it is not supposed to go. Flooding is already an issue inland. There are growing concerns about tornadoes and widespread Power Outages as the system cuts across florida, georgia and the carolinas. Hermine is expected to the path of destruction up the eastern seaboard through the Holiday Weekend. We are also tracking how crews along North Carolinas coast are preparing for hermine. Sloane heffernan is live in wrightsville beach. Reporter good morning. You can call this the calm before the storm. The surfers feel the same way. When a storm like this is coming, usually the surf picks up and they came out here hoping to catch some big waves a little bit disappointed so far. The storm is expected to come in later tonight. We are expected to get an increased amount of rain as we go throughout the day. The bulk of the storm is going to hit around 10 00, 11 00 tonight and it will be a lot of rain, possible flooding, wind and a chance for tornadoes. But as we pan over, can you look at the houses on the beach, storm is coming, the homes usually bet all boarded up. But looking out here this morning, you can see there havent been a lot of preparations to the homes. The windows are not boarded up. There is still time to do so. The good news is by tomorrow afternoon, the weather should be improving. The sun will be coming out if you do have plans to come to the beach and you can wait until tomorrow, that is probably best bet. Duke energy is ready to respond to hermines impact in the carolinas. The use utility utility will start staging the so shore is closed as of noon today. Island Ferry Service will start running today and tomorrow. And the campground reservation and great island and long point cabin sites are canceled. Visitors will receive a full refund. Mikaya thurm has more on the preparations. Reporter we are here at the learned that governor mccrory will be speaking later this morning in about two and a half hours. What he is going to be focused on is preparing the public for hermines incoming impact. We do know that neighbors in west raleigh apartment complexes are always concerned when there is talk of a relentless rain storm. This was the scene if july when heavy rain forced this creek over its banks. The flood waters damaged more than a dozen units at brook hill apartment complex of Jones Franklin road. For this storm, North Carolina has issued a state of emergency for 33 eastern counties, very heavy rain, wind and Power Outages expected to pick up in the triangle. We will hear from the governor at 9 30 a. M. Along with several other state officials. I can tell you weve been here out in raleigh all morning long and the skies are alady beginning to get very dark. Precautions today. Lets begin with Cumberland County schools. They have canceled afterschool activities today as well as a stuff the bus event. Duplin county schools are planning to release early at 1 00 p. M. Edgecombe county schools will close three hours early and Robeson County schools are calling for an early release. Schools letting out there at 130 67 89. Now is a great time to download the wral weather alert app if you it uses gps tracking to sent alerts wherever you are. Trump may be changing his tone following his speech on immigration. And democrats continue to push their argument against the president ial candidate. We head out on the campaign trail next. Hillary clinton and donald trump are off the campaign trail today. As tracie potts reports, donald trump is backing off one key part of the tough immigration speech. Reporter one day after insisting all undocumented immigrants must be deported, donald trump seems to be backing off. The killers and drug dealers and all of them, theyre gone. Then well make a determination as to what were going to do. Mate tim kaine is questioning why trump didnt insist in private that mexico pay for a wall at the border. He kind of chickened out and choked when he got right to it. Reporter trump also catching heat after the New York Times published an up terrible document showing questions and answers for an appearance at a black church are all scripted. Vice President Joe Biden is addressing Hillary Clintons ties ho her familys foundation. I think the Clinton Foundation like all foundations have found themselves in a po changing and i think she will change. Reporter an ap review of clintons public schedule as secretary of state found dozens of meetings with foundation donors. The state department has confirmed they will release the rest of her public schedule by october 17th, before the election. Fur. And beginning on monday, clinton will travel on her press plane. She has been criticized to shunning the media. Conference all year. Colin kaepernick is no longer alone in his protest of the national anthem. How the quarterback plans to continue and expand his protest this football season. We continue to track this football season. We continue to track tropical i never shop without a list. And at publix whats on the list also happens to be whats on sale. Stuff you actually want. On sale isnt that something . Thats how i save at publix. How bout you . Kick, scream and beg for any food you want baby belly its not a problem. Cause with the help of a blue shirt you got the samsung family hub refrigerator with four door flex from best buy. It switches from freezer to fridge to store whatever food you want whenever you want it. Bring home the win at best buy. Up to 35 off major appliances top deals. Bring home the win at best buy. When we shop it is kinda like a competition. It is exactly like a competition. Whoever finds the most bogos wins which is usually me. Thats how we save a lot at publix. How bout you . Publix. Where shopping is a pleasure. That is myrtle grove down near wilmington. You like this song, dont you . I do. We are playing this because alicia keys will object the today show today. Performance. Will be on the today show today. Not looking too bad. Sloane heffernan is down at wrightsville beach. Hasnt looked bad yet. But that will change. Lets talk about what is happening around here. We are starting to see some rain related to hermine. Check it out on the radar picture. You can see weve had this interesting little cell that is not moving very much. It is starting to creep back into moore county. We dont want to see areas of heavy rain that arent moving. We call this training. This is really just one cell but a lot of times you will have cells that develop in the same place over and over and over and it just kind of rolls across the same spot like the boxcars on a train and that is what really produces some flooding. Well be watching out for that. This is an area that has already seen a radar estimate of 2 inches. And at seven lakes, you will run into that heavy rain. We head back down to the south and seeing showers from fayetteville to clinton over toward wallace and up towards goldsboro and that all will continue to spread northward as we get through the morning. Here is a look at our local impacts. The big one here is going to be flooding 2 to 7 inches possible. We will see some gusty winds sustained in some spots especially closer to the coast at 35 Miles Per Hour with some gusts to 45 and isolated tornadoes possible as wel overnight tonight. Those will be weak and usually dont last very long. They just kind of spin up quickly and spin down quickly but can do some damage and knock down trees and that sort of thing. Our wilmington skycam, not looking too bad. No heavy rain bands in wilmington at the moment. We have had some rain there at the moment. It feels very tropical. Our temperatures are in the down soaght. Dont expect temperature to change much from where they are right now. Down south. The bulk of the rain of hermine is on the north side of the center of circulation. We talk about tracking the center of the storm. But that is only part of the story. Of course, once the center of this storm gets over to wilmington, will be almost done with the rain. The storm is arriving in our area right now and will have big impacts on us especially this afternoon and overnight tonight. Here we ar showers pushing on up into our area. We should have a decent amount of rain near lunchtime in the triangle. It will get heavy this afternoon some many maces. Look at that. Heavy rain around the time of our evening commute and into din are time. That will cause a lot of problems for anybody trying to get out of town for labor day. Horrendous. There will be a lot of accidents. I recommend you leave before lunchtime or wait until tomorrow. Our severe storm risk is mainly down towards the coast where the center of circulation will be. That is where we have the best chance of isolated tornadoes. Later today, our Flash Flood Watch goes into effect and ends saturday morning. And 2 to 7 inches of rainfall with this. Wind at 70 Miles Per Hour mo up along the northern outer banks, we could see gusts 40 to 50 Miles Per Hour and 4 to 8 inches of rain. Gusts 45 to 55 with rain totals at 5 to 8 inches. How about rain around here . Specifically if our area, from the triangle area west looking at probably just 1 to 2 inches add up from the triangle area. These are just generalizations. We could have isolated pockets of lighter or heavier rain in any part of the viewing area. Sunday and monday still look like theyll be dry. We wont be talking about anything dry in the next 24 hours, brian. Some of us are already seeing some pretty wet conditionsment well take a look at the cell over lee and moore counties. Seeing some pretty heavy rain just south of sanford heading down into the central part of moore county. That is what the blue means means, that we are likely in the triangle, not seeing any problems with weather. That will change later today and your evening commute will probably be very wet with heavy rainfall. Right now, we do have a few crashes showing up here on the live commute map. They are all minor accidents. They are not causing any problems on major routes. No delays in garner, very light Traffic Volume all over the triangle. No delays through south west raleigh. Heading from wade avenue out, you are looking at 40 minutes. Colin kaepernick received a less than warm reception during san franciscos preseason game in san diego against the chargers. He was boo as he kneeled during the national anthem. Kaepernick said he wants to bring attention to racial kaepernick said he will donate im lets get straight to our top story which is Tropical Storm hermine. It is already bringing some rain to our area. Lets take a look at the dual doppler radar. We are seeing showers mainly down south pulling up to the north. Havent had too much rain around the triangle yet. We have the peskile cell right around sanford and stretching back into moore county and that has produced on the radar estimate up to an inch or two quickly. Weve had some steady rain down in fayetteville so far. That will continue to push northward. Our tim are in the low 70s and our temperatures are in the low 70s and we will see the rain picking up. Temperatures remain cool. Flooding a big issue for us. We could see 2 to 7 inches of rain by the time it ends on saturday. We to have a Flash Flood Watch in effect. Stay tuned continue to follow whats happening. We take a look at wral traffic. You can see the cell that elizabeth just showed us on the radar leaving behind standing water very likely between sanford and carthage. Also in fayetteville, seeing wet roads all over Cumberland County and through a lot of samson county this morning. Dont forget to turn on the headlights whenever your windshield wipers are on. Afternoon and your evening commute could be especially wet. There are crashes showing up on the live chute map. Not causing in a problems on major routes. Our coverage of Tropical Storm hermine continues next on fox 50. We are live outside the state Emergency Operations center in raleigh way message from we are coming up on 7 30ment im bill leslie. Jack kemp a lena tillett. We are monitoring everything about this Tropical Storm. The storm made landfall on floridas gust coast around 1 30 this morning. It then became the first hurricane to hit the state in 11 years. The storm has moved on to jim moran and its sights are set on the North Carolina coast next. We begin our Team Coverage with meteoroligist Elizabeth Gardner. We are watching the storm. It is a north of the center of circulation. We have abeen following forecast track of this storm talking about the timing of when the center of circulation would arrive in a particular place. The important thing to remember is we are already starting to feel the impacts of the rain in North Carolina. By the time the center of circulation arrives, well be seeing a lot of that rain ending. So well take a look at what is happening there and the forecast track continues to North Carolina. Winds at 70 Miles Per Hour now moving northeast at 14. It is 500 miles southwest of raleigh. Here is that forecast track but keep in mind, by the time the center of circulation has passed by, most of the rain will be ending. The strongest wind will come along with that center of circulation. At 2 00 a. M. Tomorrow morning, well see winds along the coast at 45 Miles Per Hour. Our winds inland will be less than that but we could have some patchy Power Outages. By 2 00 p. M. Saturday, the center of circulation is exiting off outer banks and continuing to move out into the atlantic. Flood possible in the triangle but more likely to the east. Two to seven inches expected. We had showers and storms last night related to a front. That front is stalled here and starting to interact with some of the rain that is coming up our Fayetteville Skycam looking very wet. This is what we can expect around our area coming up as we get through the middle of the day and into the evening. Hurricane hermine is the first hurricane to hit florida in more than a decade. It made landfall as a hurrice. Now downgraded to a Tropical Storm. The storm made landfall along the northwest coast of florida overnight just east of st. Marks. Joining us this morning from the National Hurricane ce director rick nabb. Thank you for being with us. Good morning. Thank you for having us on. So this storm is the first storm like this that has hit florida in a decade. I know when there has been a long period of time that people have not seen a hurricane, they are not oven prepared. What have you seen happening in florida . Well, im gratified to the collaboration that we have had in the National WeatherService Levels in advance of the landfall in the florida big bend area earlier this morning. We had a number of Emergency Managers call for evacuations to get people out of the storm surgeprone areas along coast and i know folks inland were taking it very seriously as well. We had our eye on the ball in florida before hermine came ashore. And now, we have to turn our sights farther to the north. This is going to be a longterm event we think over several days and affect a large the eastern u. S. Weve been concentrating on what is going to happen here in North Carolina. We know flooding is our biggest threat. I know, years ago, the statistics had changed from the most death as long the coast to the most deaths being inland from flooding. We certainly try to really stress that. What would you say to people about that real threat from flooding from this storm in particular . Right. Event. Weve run the numbers very recently. Storm surge in coastal areas has taken the most lives overall but in few are big events. The most frequent cause of loss of life in the last a50 years has been inland flooding. One out of four people who die die due to inland flooding. It is still a very wet tropical potential into the carolinas over the next couple of days is substantial. It could be lifethreatening if you dont take precautions. Especially dont drive your car over a water covered roadway. Turn around down drown is a cliche that works really well to get the message across to keep people safe. That is something well be very concerned since were in raleigh and not on the coast. We appreciate all the great at the National Hurricane center. Thank you. Thank you for helping us get the word out. Appreciate that. Sure. Brian is here talk bath roads. The biggest threat from this storm will be water on the road. We are already seeing some of that rainfall moving in as youve been telling us this morning. We want to show you the road weather index. Weve been keeping a careful eye on this this morning. It is starting to move into parts counties and wayne county. You need to allow extra time as you head out. We will be seeing rainfall through daylight hours. It is state law in North Carolina and good common sense that whatever your wind shield wipers are on, your headlights need to be on. Weve been watching that rainfall in me and moore counties. The blue indicates ponding water on the road weather index. Rain has already fallen between stanford and carthage so could see a very wet ride in lee and moore counties. This will all be moving closer to the triangle through the course of the day. Before you leave work being check in with wral. Com or mobile apps or on television. You can watch us streaming our news at 4 00ment well have the latest on the weather and the traffic conditions you are seng evening. Lets take a look at the live commute map. One thing working in our favor for the morning commute in addition to not having any rainfall in the triangle is that it is a friday before a Holiday Weekend. Very light volume. We want to show you the ride on 40 westbound leaving raleigh heading out to the airport. Also looks good out by the airport exits on toward 540. Busy out there in spots but overall not a bad ride from six minutes. We showed you the impact hurricane hermine it was a hurricane when it hit florida, had on the state an now we are getting a better idea how the affecting places like georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina. Sloane heffernan is live wrightsville beach. Tell us what you are se quiet, very pleasant out here. You can see behind me some surfers came out and they were hoping to catch a few waves before the storm comes in. I spoke with a few of them and when a storm comes, they really look forward and hope for some big waves obbut viously, as you can see, the waves arent very big this morning. As we pan right, you can just beach. We were talking about the fact that school is back in session and the Holiday Weekend hasnt technically started yet so it may not be surprising that the beach is so quiet and it is gray. It is not raining. When we got out here this morning at around 4 00, there was a monsoon and lightning and we thought we are in for a long, long morning. But then by the time 5 00 happened, the rain had stopped and weve had a environment out here. It has been quite pleasant nsidering we are out here covering a Tropical Storm. If you look at the homes here along wrightsville beach, can you see that people arent really preparing all that much as far as their homes are concerned. When we have hurricanes or big Tropical Storms that people will board up the windows or put tape on the windows. We are not seeing any of that at this point. That could change because the until around 10 00, 11 00 tonightment Emergency Management officials tell us that is a current because even though this isnt expected to arrive vrk the storm isnt expected to arrive as a hurricane, we are expecting a lot of rain, possibility of some tornadoes possibly and all some strong winds. They are concerned that when a corm moves in overnight, that people are sometimes caught off guard. They want people to be tuning into the local newscasts aptdz making sure they are up to date and making sure great news is that the weather is supposed to improve tomorrow and tbloarious as glorious as well on sunday and monday. Maybe just come tomorrow after the storm. State officials are working hard trying to get ahead of the storms arrival here. Wrals mikaya thurman is live in raleigh with the plans the statewide scene. Good morning. Reporter good morning. We are here at the state Emergency Operations center where governor mccrory will be speaking in just about two hours. Our big issue here in raleigh is going to be downed trees, Power Outages as well as flooding. A lot of what state officials are doing this morning is coming together to go ahead and construct a plan. There will abby service for bill law. He served as the durham bulls pa announce fore 15 years. He continued as the teams Community Ambassador after his retirement in 2006. Week. He was 88. We expect to find out toda that is nags head with an extra g. Dont mean to nag the person who put the spelling in. Not looking too bad there. It is 7 45. It is all right. Your plate has been full today. It has. This has been very interesting to watch over the last several days. Up until now, it has been what is the next forecast track going to look like. This has been a tough one to pin down because of the upper level pattern and waiting on a front to see whether the front would do. Whether it would kick the storm out or whether it would come in. We are looking at some of the first rain coming up from the south. This is interacting with our front that brought us some showers and thunderstorms last night. That is what is going to help to give us so much rain. Instead of just tropical system, we have the tropical system plus the extra energy from this stalled front. That means heavy rain for our area. Well start off taking a look at what is going on over here in lee and moore counties. Watch the radar loop and notice this is not moving very fast if at all and that is bad news because the rain here with this tiny little cell is heavy and it will put down a good bit of rain. So far, we have radar estimates if this doesnt pick up and move or just fall apart. This is an area that well watch first off for flooding from sanford over towards carthage. Down south, we have steady rain that has been falling. It is messy around fayetteville and clinton right now. Starting to see the rain in goldsboro. Weve had a few sprinkles around the triangle area but not much rain yet. That will change so far the next self hours. Here is flooding. Two to seven inches of rain. There may somebody isolated tornadoes mainly closer to the coast. Those with tropical systems tornado to spin up and down really quickly and dont tend to cae a lot of damage. Taking a look at wilson, it does for the look like there has beenmuch rain falling in wilson yet. Radais not reflecting any either. It is coming your way definitely gray. 74 with a northeast wind at 10 Miles Per Hour. You step out the door and it feels like you have run into a brick wall. Very tropical feeling. Upper 60s in the north to mid 70s down south. Our temperatures will not climb much. Here is the center of circulation producing a lot of the rain down in georgia and all of the rain is north of this. While we may continue to talk about the path of the storm and the forecast track and the center of circulation and when it arrives, that really has nothing to do with when the impact of the storm arrives. Once the center of circulation comes in, we are almost storm. So as we head through the morning, the rain continues to push northward. It will be heavy at times. It should be fairly heavy by lunchtime. From Mecklenburg County back over towards person county, we may not have very much rain but raleigh eastward, 2 to 4 inches and even more as you head few scattered showers in the afternoon. Our best chance of tornadoes will be closer to the coast. That is a better chance for damaging winds and heavy rain. We do have a Flash Flood Watch that goes into effect across the viewing area up until saturday morning. We have a wind advisory down south fayetteville over to clinton and goldsboro. This is where well have a better chance of some Power Outages. Here is another look at that storm and hermine currently a Tropical Storm with winds at 70 miles per ho Tropical Storm warning all up and down the coast again for gusts up to 50 Miles Per Hour and up to 8 inches of rain. Biggest threat will be flooding, isolated tornadoes and wind will be a moderate i think it will be a real mess. Well have heavy rain and people trying to leave for their vacations and that sort of thing and i think it could be a real disaster. Check wral. Com before you leave the office or mobile app or tune in on television. You can also watch us streaming on those apps or starting at 4 00. Wral news at 4 00, well let you know what is going o right now on the northbound side of the durham freeway, one of our twitter follower says a wreck just happened on the northbound side of the Construction Zone right around glover road. Take a look at the cameras out there. You can see already on northbound 147 around alexander starting to back up. That delay continues through the ellis road interchange this morning. By the time you get up towards briggs avenue and into downup to durham, traffic flowing more freely. To downtown from the i40 incidentre change. Nine minutes to make that trip overall from i40 to mangum street. Well watch the drive times very like l. A. Increasing over the next little while as they get the crash cleared up around glover. Want to show you the road weather index. Elizabeth showed us the radar and you see where the rain started to come in from the south. We are looking at wet conditions from wayne, johnston, heavy rain between sanford and carthage. Back to you. Septa this is something not advisable during a storm this. Guy was caught wake boarding on a flooded street in florida utah video is posted on twitter. Conditions are expected to get worse on up the east coast today. So folks should not try to emulate this person. Dont do that. Not smart. I abso rk apartment, but the rent is outrageous. Good thing geico offers affordable renters insurance. With great coverage it protects my personal belongings should they get damaged, stolen or destroyed. [doorbell] uh, excuse me. Delivery. Hey. Lo mein, szechwan chicken, chopsticks, soy sauce and you got some fortune cookies. Have a good one. Ah, these small new york apartments. Protect your belongings. Let geico help you bill leslie here. We are tracking the top stories and nothing is bigger than Tropical Storm hermine. Here is Elizabeth Gardner. It is pushing area. Weve had a little cell develop near sanford and back over into moore county. That one has produced some heavy rain so far an isnt really moving very quickly. 1 to 2 inches of rain has already fallen. That is just the beginning. We so much more rain coming out of this system. Starting to see some showers that started to pop up around holly spring this is morning and all of this continug push up to the north. Our teeratures in the upper 60s to low 70s and they will well see heavy rain through the afternoon, overnight tonight and into early saturday and flooding is a real problem. We are under a Flash Flood Watch for the entire viewing area startingher this morning or later this afternoon in the north. And well be tracking that very closely. We will have the latest information. We have the 8 00 advisory from hermine that well talk about at the top of the newscast on fox 50. We are watching that rainfall on the road weather index as well. You can see a lot of areas in some spots as you mentioned, it is coming down pretty hard including parts of northern samson county and that cell between samson and carthage very likely. Lets talk about traffic around the triangle. We have an accident on the northbound side of the durham freeway around glover road. It has been moved over to the delays. 13 minutes from i40 to mangum street. Our coverage of Tropical Storm hermine continues next on fox 50. We are live outcyd the state Emergency Operations center in raleigh with how North Carolina welcome. Its me the extra crispy colonel. My extra crispy, twenty dollar fillup feeds a family of four. Its crunchy juicy and oh so tasty. Kfc. Its extra crispy good. Right now on fox 50, Tropical Storm hermine is moving across georgia right now with wind at about 70 miles per a hurricane and landfall in florida overnight. We are monitoring the storm along our coast and inland to see how people here are bracing for hermines arrival. Thank you for joining us. It is friday morning. Im lena tillett. Im bill leslie. We do have life Team Coverage of the storm. Sloane heffernan is wrightsville beach. Mikaya thurman in raleigh where Emergency Management officials are telling storm seriously. We begin with meteorologist Elizabeth Gardner with the latest on the storms intensity and track. So we start off with the satellite and radar view of this storm. You can see what is most interesting about it right now is that most of the rain with this is on the north side of the system. We continue to talk about its track. However, when were referencing the track, it is all about where the center of circulation is and that does not give you a