Panhandle, big bend region of florida, expected to make land fall later tonight as a category one hurricane. You can see hurricane warnings posted for areas north of the tampa bay area. And then as we head into friday, it will continue to move away from us and then up the east coast as we head throughout Labor Day Weekend. So at this point, its looking like this could be the first hurricane to hit florida in over 10 years. Hurricane hunters were out investigating this storm the today. And thats why they were able to upgrade it hurricane. They found wind gusts up to 86 Miles Per Hour. So it has strengthened in the gulf over the course of the last 24 hours. And now its moving more quickly as it heads towards the panhandle of florida. The other big story is, with this tropical system, we have to be mindful that we could see quick spinups or isolated tornadoes. We have parts of the tampa bay area under a tornado watch. Polk county, Citrus County, hillsborough county, up through county, tha
This is you first at 4 00. This is first at 4 00. And we are tracking the trommics for you. Heres storm team 8 meteorologist julie phillips. We are looking currently at tropical depression number 9. A lot of problems in the tropics. Current winds at 35 miles per hour, as of the 11 00 a. M. Advisory. Currently moving off toward the west, at 7 miles per hour. Can you see it on the satellite imagery, during the southern portion of the gulf. Hurricane hunters are actually inside this area, righ what they find. You can see theyve seen some peak wind gusts up to 41 miles per hour. So well see what the results of this are, probably within the next hour or so. Heres a look at the current track of tropical depression 9. Continuing to move towards the west northwest, over the next day or so. Picking up a little strength. It is forecast to become a Tropical Storm, within the next 24 hours. Still waiting on that. At this point, its still a depression. And then as we head into the quick curve back
Charged with filing a false report. He was caught up with a scandal involving a confrontation at a gas station. He has since apologized for his misleading story. Our other big story of the night, will we see some Tropical Weather in the bay area in the next few days. Steve jerve joins us live. Everybody wants to know the deal. Its tough to answer that, jen, because this is not a tropical depression. Weve been talking about it for a couple of days because the computer models have suggested and the system does continue to drift to the northwest portion of florida. It is invest 99l. It lowered today. We still have gaston well off to the east of us. Now, the center of this to try you could find the center. What we could tell from the earlier satellite it would be just north of haiti, but most of the activity far on the outside of the center of what appeared to be the circulation. Were seeing quite a bit of wind sheer associated with this system. Hurricane Hunter Aircraft flying out of mcdi
And thunderstorms. Some of those are other the western part of pasco county. And the atmosphere has a lot of moisture in it so when it rains it produces a whole lot of precipitation. You can see thunderstorms there around New Port Richey. Most of pasco county all the way up to dade city. Areas that have been saturated with previous rain the last 24 hours are continuing to get more. And that tends to lead to more flooding. Further south, things are relativeui have rain set to move on shore. So we can still see a few showers. The worst of it is over. The winds are still from the southwest. Gusty. So watch for coastal flooding but the high tide is coming down now. Parts of Pinellas County are still coping with parts of flooding. You can see the streets turned to streams. Mark douglas has been wading through the flood waters from clearwater to Saint Petersburg and he joins us live from shore acres, a flood prone area. Reporter absolutely. All you have to do is sneeze in this neighborhood a
No. Reporter when i spoke with 81yearold robert walker, he told me the teen who attacked him had done it before. Well, i was robbed once before by him. Reporter you were robbed by him before. He tried to kill me. Reporter the attacker may have succeeded this time. Walker identifying him as 14 yearold alexander perez. Shortly after i spoke with walker he was carted away ambulance. Pasco Animal Services arrived to retrieve his dog. Deputies put up crime scene tape and will now work with prosecutors to determine if walker died of Natural Causes or if injuries he received during the attack contributed to his death. Perez is facing charges of Home Invasion and battery on a person over 65. Depending on what detectives find, perez could face additional more serious charges. Passed away. Reporter people who live in the neighborhood are beside themselves. Nobody should die like that. Nobody should actually get hurt like that and if it happens to him, it could happen to any of us here. Reporter