rail crossings. despite rtd's claims to 9news that there were no problems in the testing phase, a 9wants to know investigation revealed the a line was plagued with problems long before passengers ever boarded. for the first time in 11 years a hurricane will make landfall in florida. the last time a hurricane hit the sunshine state was october 24th, 2005. then it was wilma. tonight it's hermine. counting by days 3,965 of them since a hurricane has come ashore in florida, the longest in recorded history for that state. a lot of people have moved there since 2005. so for them this is a first. hermine has sustained winds of about 80 miles per hour and the eye is headed for the panhandle in the next couple hours. state leaders are calling it a life threatening situation and warning people not to take this storm lightly. tornado warnings have gone out across several counties extending southward towards tampa and orlando. center of the storm. broncos final preseason game of the year started just the way team and fans wanted, strong moments for the backups on offense and defense . we'll have the final minutes on channel 20. drew will have highlights here in a bit. you will notice some changes outside the home of the broncos. it's still sports authority field for now, but there are huge new banners outside the sod end zone the south end zone for the broncos game coming up. two months ago a man on the western slope got to witness the birth of his son. aaron has stage 4 brain cancer. doctors say he only has a few weeks to live. veronica learned her husband had three brain tumors in mid- august just weeks after his son was born. summer has left him unable to operations he wanted his son named after peyton manning. his family wants to help him fulfill his final wish to meet his son's namesake. >> that's really huge, to know that there's people out there willing to help from little things all the way to big things. >> thousands of people have been sharing the family's story and hopes it will reach manning. aaron wants just one photo with peyton manning he can leave his son after he's gone. cinemark is offering the survivors and families of the theater oo deal. if they agree not to appeal their failed attempt to sue the theater under the shooting, the theater will not collect their legal fees under the law. >> marcus is not involved in the state civil case but recently dropped out of a federal civil case filed against cinemark. he said both cases have >> until we get to a place where justice can be justice we need to boycott these theaters until they have safety precautions. i don't want to have to wear a bulletproof vest to take my 1- year-old daughter to a movie theater. >> marcus weaver had two surgeries. he was shot in the theater. he lost his friend, one of 12 who died that day. weaver is no longer involved in any lawsuits with cinemark but has been following the closely. earlier this year cinemark won a lawsuit. since then it's asked the nearly $700,000 to be covered in court fees and says it will waive those fees if victims agree not to appeal. marcus weaver wants the discussion to turn to safety, not money. >> for them to backtrack and say you don't have to pay the fees, that's all well and good, but at the same time i think there's another level because you haven't done anything >> weaver still thinks cinemark is partly to blame for the theater shooting. he believes certain safety measures could have prevented the violence that day. he says he won't go back to a theater until some changes are made. yesterday a judge issued an order in arapahoe district county court. cinemark and the shooting victims have to reach an agreement in two weeks. 9news legal expert scott robinson says he believes cinemark asked court repaid to discourage future lawsuits against chains for injuries. boulder police are getting phone call after phone call from reporters around the country to talk about the jonbenet ramsey case. december will mark 20 years since her death. police don't often talk about open investigations and this investigation is still open decades later. boulder police are refusing interviews. they're offering a video statement instead. attention and there continues to be speculation as to who committed this crime. publications and movies offer many theories on how this crime occurred and who is responsible. facts have been surmised and often distorted which has led to many conclusions. >> investigators have processed more than 1,500 pieces of evidence in the ramsey case and received more than 20,000 tips, letters and e-mails. a gas ak explosion in winter park this afternoon and the homeowners had just called xcel and crews had just gotten there when the explosion happened. one person had injuries described serious to critical. that person was flown to university hospital in denver. xcel crews are working to repair the source of the leak. take a moment tonight or tomorrow and read some of the articles written by colleen o'connor who loved to tell little known stories of our community. night while walking across downing street. her colleagues at the denver post said she was kind and of caring and someone we could use more of in our community. >> she was a brilliant writer, a very diggy reporter, a very graceful writer, somebody who could do literally everything in term of writing and reporting a story -- terms of writing and reporting a story and, would but it's sad for our community, too because she different community groups out there. >> the driver was arrested on suspicion of vehicular homicide. you can find lengths to some of o'connor's articles on -- links to some of o'connor's articles on the next facebook page. this story comes with a reassurance and explanation. first no one was seriously hurt. secondly, we're showing you this for a reason. it comes from austin, texas. crosswalk. the student was able to get up and walk away. another a driver hits a student while a bus with signs and lights warns drivers to stop. that student, too was not seriously hurt. the videos were released with one goal in mind, to make drivers think and use extra caution around school buses, school zones and crosswalks. >> we'll continue enforcement. we have all the officers and all our school officer as signed out watching school to try to enforce, that but we need our parents to make sure they're having conversations with our children. just because you have the right- of-way doesn't mean you should just cross without watching. >> in just the first week of school in austin 900 drivers have been cited for illegally passing school buses. supreme court justice sonia answered questions. she declined to talk about pending cases or the death on the high court since the death of judge skal squarely -- scalia. she did talk about the political environment. >> the understanding that people are making statemen that something is wrong. >> sotomayor will give a lecture tomorrow at university of colorado law school, the improve's program bringing current and form -- the university's program of bringing current and former justices to campus. cdot was expecting heavier than normal traffic to start tonight. rain on i-70 this evening from idaho springs to the eisenhower tunnel may have prompted a few through the tunnel each day through the weekend. mountain express lanes will be open for the trip back home. cdot also plans possible metering at the tunnel. the rocky national park the two first come first serve campsites will probably fill up by tomorrow. parking lots will probably do the same. park rangers say those who want to hike bear lake should get there before 10:00, leave their vehicle in estes park and take the hikers shuttle. events for the nfl season open are and a 9/11 tribute concert are coming up. 9news reporter nick mcgill looked at the layer of preparations. >> reporter: sometimes in the middle of plaidness it's important to find a little you -- madness it's important to find a little you time. >> they're doing their job. i'm just chilling here. >> reporter: her weekly rest stop is quickly transforming into a traveler's paradise, and have already -- i've been here only an hour and have already seen how fast they're putting up decorations. >> reporter: starting this weekend with a taste of colorado quickly followed next week by the 2016 nfl kickoff celebration and colorado remembers 9/11 featuring memorials and musicians like john fogg john fogarty. -- fogarty. >> reporter: part of the challenge is coordinating logistics. >> judging the needs of the events versus the needs of the public and really coordinating the schedules of the setup and takedown. >> reporter: part of those needs include keeping the public safe and preserving the ramirez says dpd will handle security while they have additional plans for maintaining civic center's parking nests. and plans for those kind of things. we're working very closely to protect the park and infrastructure within the park. >> reporter: in the end ramirez says the experience should be a fun one, if not extremely busy. basically don't plan on parking nearby any time soon. >> colfax to 14th avenue will be closed the next two weeks or so. >> reporter: the setup continues here tonight. i'm told they'll actually be setting up throughout the entire night for tomorrow. taste of colorado officially kicks off at afternoon 30 and runs until monday. three days after that says the nfl kickoff -- that is the nfl kickoff experience party and concert. >> thank you, nick. on the 9news facebook page we have a guide to help you plan out the big events coming to civic center park. times for each of the main stage concerts during taste of colorado and the concerts ahead of the broncos season opener next thursday night with remembers 9/11 event with john fogarty on our facebook page or on 9news.com. spacex calls it an anomaly. everyone else calls it an explosion on the day when the rocket wasn't scheduled to even launch. >> an an animal once believed extinct has found a home at rocky mountain arsenal. >> and a few storms for us out there as we also watch th and hawaii tonight. >> and the broncos get their . the rocket scheduled for launch later this weekend exploded on the launch pad in florida this morning. the spacex rocket was unmanned going through a test when the top of the rocket blew up shaking people and buildings miles away. no one at cape canaveral was hurt. the rocket was loaded with a communications satellite into orbit for facebook. the satellite would have improved internet connections across africa. when one military helicopter ran into trouble east of houston, another one flew an apache helicopter with the texas national guard landed in a field this afternoon with a mechanical issue. a chinook helicopter went out and picked up the first helicopter and carried it back to base. no one was injured. there are about 20 new visitors tonight at the rocky mountain arsenal. blackfooted ferrets were released into the arsenal in north america. the ferrets have a purpose in the circle of life. they're being brought in to help control the prairie dog population at the arsenal. they will be tracked and monitored this month to make sure they're adjusting to their new homes. oh, hail, no. pumpkin brew is in danger this year. it's sad for the 6 to 10,000 kids who come to pick the patch each year, sadder still for all of us who look forward to proceeds benefit the farm. for this year the brewery is looking for a backup plan. a beautiful summer evening in the 9news backyard. i'm meteorologist kathy sabine. we had a lovely quiet day in denver, no reports of hail for a change. off to the west did you see those dark clouds? they were pretty, but they did bring wind and lightning all west of i-25 and over the 87 degrees on this 1st day of september and that's actually about where we should be for this time of year. a monthly preview does show this is the month we can expect the season's first snowfall typically and record high temperatures in the 90s. we don't have 90s in the extended forecast, but it's comfortable, 70 outside the studios and at dia. wind have decreased out of the southeast a bit. you're almost to the holiday weekend. tomorrow will stormy, but the weekend itself looks pretty dry all because of that tropical moisture streaming up from the southwest coming back in full force tomorrow. the storms today had a hard time moving off the foothills, win -- wind and lightning. speaking of wind we'll go closer to chandler, it's a haboob. nasty dust storms. it didn't affect the broncos game because 3 got that stadium stadium covered, but speaking of covered, the city covered in dust today and then rain on the radar coming into that area. but too much rain, oh my gosh, hurricane hermine, oh, my goodness. we've been struggling with saying hermine all day. hermine is moving onshore as a category 1 storm, tornado watches posted from tampa to jacksonville and we also have flood advisories across the carolinas. wind speeds have hour. it should go extra tropical over the weekend but will certainly bring a lot of heavy rain, wind and surf to those vacations across the carolinas and up across the northeast. we can really see that bull's eye for the heavy rain spreading between jacksonville and south carolina as we move through the afternoon hours. the tropical plume of moisture comes back tomorrow interacting with a weak front. the best chance of showers and storms will be tomorrow afternoon and the heaviest rain 80s even with the low clouds and fog and thunderstorms that developed early in the day. not a lot going on, all the activity west of the continental divide, but by 9:00 tomorrow morning fog on the eastern plains, cloudy in the city, a couple thunderstorms move through and blowup between 4:30 and 9:00, a line of storms late in the day along that front that moves out. heavy weather on the eastern plains. if you're traveling, factor that. in tonight 50 in vail, 63 the low in grand juncti greeley, 57 in trinidad. tomorrow 83 in grand junction, mid-80s in denver, no record highs here, comfortable. tomorrow is stormy with wind and lightning in the foothills before lunchtime. that means i-70 for those getting an early jump on the weekend and heading into the high country where highs will be in the mid-60s. tonight partly cloudy, mild, our low 55, thunder to our west and fog to our east. mid-70s early afternoon, mid- less than than today and a little more rain. the weekend forecast looks great, a warming trend, close to 90 sunday, dry day monday, first full week of september looking just terrific. we love weather like this! wow, the pictures in the high country are amazing, purgatory, very excited about the ski season this year and how about estes park? that looks like my kind of fun, leaves starting to change up there. if you're sniffling and from colorado's sports leader here's drew soicher. >> hi, everybody. it's packed to the max tonight. paxton lynch got his first career nfl start in the preseason finale at arizona and his very first pass was completed to jordan taylor who touchdown. lynch and taylor connected for another td in the 3rd quarter, this time in a nice rollout, but lynch made a terrible mistake in the 4th intercepted by gabe martin who returned it for a pick 6. broncos trail the paxy bowl 38-17 with about a minute remaining. regular season kicks off one week from tonight. ?[ music ] ? the 88th rocky mountain showdown tomorrow night at sports authority field in denver. 9news sports reporter aaron matas tells us that colorado versus colorado state is the perfect way to start the colorado football season. >> reporter: after months of buildup this is exactly how you should kick it off. >> it's one of the funnest games of the year. you get to play in front of 60, 70,000 people. guys on both teens know each other. so yeah, i definitely like playing cu first a lot better. >> reporter: a year ago the two teams waited until week three for this game. >> last year getting here the first game for both teams talked about as much, brought up as much, talked about as much all the time. i think it's great for the state. i really do. i think it's great for football for the state. >> reporter: the buffs are trying to make it two wins in a ai collins. >> we just want to win game by game and hopefully our fans don't talk too much smack if we win, but if they do, so be it. >> we've heard that they didn't really care about playing us too much. they acted like they cared when they won the game. so i think that's a rivalry game. we're excited about playing the game. the fan bases are there. the student body's there. they sent a lot of the excitement. >> reporter: centennial state >> the fact that we're in the same state is like i want to win, you know. if i ever go down to boulder, i want to be able to hold my head up high and look you in your eyes and give a little smirk. >> reporter: and those bragging rights can last a while. >> it's a game that lasts 365 days a year. >> reporter: that is a long time to listen to the other guys talking. aaron matas, 9news. still of the night comes from san diego where 49ers quarterback colin kaepernick did it again, refused to stand during the national anthem before the 9ers game with the chargers in the still of the night. we are going to play drew's clues. clue no. 1, born september 1st, 1966 in chicago, illinois, celebrating his 50th birthday tonight. clue no. his career. no. 3, he only played 14 games for the nuggets, just long enough attorney both an ejection and then suspension for throwing a television monitor onto the court. the answer is former nuggets guard tim hardaway. ironically hardaway after his basketball career ended immediately went into a television career. you wouldn't think so from his reaction to that tv, but he was a basketball analyst for a while. he shared a birthday with former broncos running back clinton portis who is 35 today, still has those grass stages on his pants. some of you have already made it through the week. them all. >> it's going to rain during the rocky mountain shutdown? >> a chance, always a chance, drew. >> tonight show next. >> you really went out there.