Schools and some workplaces closed today due to the rain yesterday and the possibility of seeing more today. You can see how large the system is. From the yucatan peninsula up through jacksonville, florida getting some impact from Tropical Storm hermine at this point. The official advisories, see this red area here along the panhandle . Thats a hurricane warning meaning hurricaneforce winds within 36 hours. Closer to home, you see that we have citrus, hernando and pasco in the orange shade. Thats meaning you could feel Tropical Stormforce winds late tonight and in through the Early Morning hours of tomorrow. Heres the reason why. Notice the forecast, just came in about an hour ago. Finally the system is picking up some forward speed. It was stationary yesterday. 60Miles Per Hour sustained winds and notice by 2 00 this afternoon, stronger at 65 Miles Per Hour winds. During the afternoon and evening, this is going to race toward the panhandle of florida and may make land fall as the category one hurricane, 75 then continuing into georgia and south carolina, possibly holding on to Tropical Storm status before it gets into the Atlantic Ocean and finally moves away from us. Weve been tracking the Hurricane Hunters as they track the center of circulation here. Flying out of tampa, in and out of the storm. They found a flight level wind of 75 Miles Per Hour with where the plane is. They didnt find that strong wind on the surface, not yet. Thats why they didnt make it stronger. This whole yellow shaded area here, that is where we expect the tropical notice on the east side, not on the west side. Due to the counterclockwise wind flow. For us, notice by this afternoon, 3 15, the strongest wins are offshore but an onshore and southerly, southwesterly flow will pile up the water on the coast, into tampa bay, the area rivers so that the water, the rain doesnt have anywhere to go. And then the threat turn mrs. To wind. Citrus, hernando county, in that Tropical Stormforce wind field. So in the meantime, flood watch offshore. Thankfully not seeing a lot onshore right now. But storm the team 8 meteorologist Ed Bloodsworth has what we can expect. Yeah, now looking at the Coastal Flood Advisory. And already getting some showers there. Getting close to shore. Bulk of the rain going to come later on today. And boy, yesterday, it added up in the southern counties. We had portions of maybe 6 to 8 inches. This is estimated by Doppler Radar over portions of pinellas coastal areas just hammered yesterday. Numerous daily rainfall records broken. But now our attention is going to turn to the tides. Look at the times here for hudson, crystal river, these are the high tide times that will happen later on today. Just after noon at clearwater beach. And as mentioned, now that we have the onshore flow coming later on today, we are expecting that high tide to be stronger than normal for all of the communities. So be weary of. That wouldnt be surprised to see the coastal areas flooding the next couple days. Quick check of the roads this morning with leslee. Thank you. Good morning everyone. So far it looks good. We have a couple issues. Lets go ahead and look. Hillsborough county area, looks like we have two issue, not too far away. The first one is on the veterans expressway. Southbound, a little debris reported in the roadway. Right around waters aver no. Delays. And waters aver. No delays. This is hillsborough avenue, this just happened. Im told its off to the not tying up lanes. And thats a look at weather and traffic. And now back to gene and gayle. Thank you, leslee. Six Bay Area School districts are closed today due to Tropical Storm hermine. They are hillsborough, pinellas, pasco, hernando, citrus and manatee public schools. Hillsborough district offices are also closed. All usf campuses are closed this morning. Hillsborough Community College campuses and st. Leo hernando state college. In the midst of this Tropical Storm, the Bay Area Hospital is evacuated overnight. Yeah, it took most of the night but around 200 patients have been moved to other hospitals after a fire broke out and knocked out the power. News channel 8s Meredyth Censullo is live at grand at Regional MedicalCenter Bayonet Point hudson. How scary this is for the patients and hospital workers . A lot had spent the full day here. And finally, emergency crews from five area counties diverted from their operations to come here and help out with this mass evacuation. It is quiet right now. All of those patients were moved by 1 00 this morning. But staff and security are still here, have been here all night trying to get back to again, this was a mass evacuation. More than 200 patients. It began around 9 00 last night. Lasted until 1 00 in the morning. There were 12 critically ill patients. They were taken first. Those were the patients that were on ventilators in the icu. Each of those patients was accompanied by a physician or a nurse. And again, crews from five counties including the city of clearwater where you know theyre having mass floatings in the area, they floodings in the area, they came to asy. This started around 6 00, they came to assist. This started around 6 00. And the backup power couldnt support everything that needs to happen here so Regional MedicalCenter Bayonet Point made the decision to evacuate patients ifer their safety. And now we dont have word on when patients will be returning. We do know that surgeries for today have been canceled and canceled. We are expecting another update from Regional MedicalCenter Bayonet Point early this morning and when that happen, we will get that back to you. And theres a phone number for patients to call. Gene, i know you have that number and will pass it along and its also on the wfla Facebook Page and our website as well. Yeah, you can imagine, it was unsettling for the loved ones trying to figure out where is the well, that number, 877344 1313. Thats where you want to call to find out where your loved one, a patient from Regional MedicalCenter Bayonet Point was moved to in all of this. 8773441313. Once you call the number, select option 9. Meanwhile, pasco county, those concerned about flooding can pick up sandbags. Theyll be available through the storm until the storm passes. People stood in line to fill more than 7,000 bags yesterday. This is video from the we have a complete list of sandbag locations throughout bay area on wfla. Com. Go check those out. Hours of releaptless rain caused the Whitaker Bayou in sarasota to overflow, forcing some residents to seek higher ground. News channel 8s ryan hughes is there live this morning. Ryan, what are you seeing now . Reporter well, gayle, good morning to you once again. The water here in the bayou has gone down significantly since we came to you at 11 00 last things looked terrible. Look behind me. You can see the retaining wall. The water is probably two feet below the top it so that is a good sign. We saw light drizzle around 4 00 this morning. It has since stopped completely since then. Lets go to video of neighborhoods. At least seven residents had to be evacuated when water got too close to their homes late last night. And now some pets were left earlier in the day, streets all over sarasota flooded. Some drivers simply rolled the dice. Only to get caught on the flooded roadways. Residents at this point are bracing for more rain today. Where im concerned at is when its high tide. Right now, its low tide and were getting these backups in certain areas and ting storm water system is overload key word here in Sarasota County today, concerned. Theyre concerned that things could get a whole lot worse than they were yesterday. Gayle, but again, the rain has stopped. Dont be fooled, we are expecting it to begin within the next couple hours again. The reprieve is a good thing. Thank you. Lets turn things over to leigh spann because people might be waking up feeling relief but more rain is on the way. Thats a real possibility. Not just today but also tomorrow as well. And saw at least the rain had stopped momentarily. We can let some soak into the ground and some subside before more rain is on the way. The flood watch continues through tomorrow evening. And now i want you to notice around the pinellas, hillsborough coastline, manatee, sarasota, theres a Coastal Flood Advisory that was just issued and it will go into effect at 1 00 today through 1 00 friday. And the difference between that is its not necessarily issued because of rain, its issued because of an onshore wind where the coast will see higher an gulf circulating around Tropical Storm hermine. Thats what im concerned about, that that rain will continue to wrap into our area. And an easy equation, the saturated ground plus high tide, more flooding problems. What about the wind threats . Rough surf, high risk of rip currents, gusty winds, not necessarily extremely strong but with the saturated ground, trees could come down with threat for tornadoes. Rainfall potential, i dont think we will see what we saw yesterday where it never stops raining but pockets of rain give us an inch to 2 inches today. Another inch to 2 inches tomorrow. And this could end up being a threeday flooding concern for us. And lets check on the roadways where were seeing things subside from yesterday. Thats good. Certainly good news out there. The roads look good. We have a great drive on the bay area states. We have a couple issues but not due to water. Lets take a look at the Howard Frankland brid. Seven on the other side. Courtney campbell causeway, looking at 10 minutes to cross. And that talks you between memorial highway over to Pinellas County. So great drive there as well. And lets talk about Hillsborough County. A couple issues going on and this is what they are. We have a crash here, hillsborough avenue right at hanley road. And also a little bit of debris on the roadway southbound on the veterans expressway at waters. Thats weather and traffic on the 8s. Thank you. Our storm coverage continues. Heavy rains cause flooding now. Youre watching news channel 8 Team Coverage of Tropical Storm hermine. Heavy rain impacted Pinellas County yesterday. Certain areas will definitely see more today. Situation for drivers as many streets had to be blocked off because of flooding. News channel 8s a jamel lanee is live in largo this morning. And you spoke to the driver this morning that got pushed into a ditch by flood waters. Reporter yeah, it was a very crazy day here. And actually [ breaking audio ]. The car sitting in the ditch. He and his wife barely made it out. Rescue had to rush in to help the two and it wa cellphone video. That was 8 30 yesterday morning. He was trying to make a turn in largo when the flood water carried his vehicle into a ditch. Now you can see how high is water is. Almost completely submerging the suv. And the man found the way out but his wife was trapped inside. A woman who lives on the corner, she and a friend woman inside the car. The husband was out. But the wife it was an old cup and will she was stuck in there and they were trying to help her get out. As they were helping her get out, the car was sinking really fast. Reporter again, another reason to stay off of the flooded roadways. Gene weve got to be careful. Jamel lanee reporting live. Thank you. Lets check in with leigh because more rain could be coming our way. Were so lucky that we have the repriero and look in the gulf of mexico. I mean, obviously this is going to generate more rain as Tropical Storm hermine heads north. Current advisories still a hurricane warning for the panhandle. For us, including citrus, hernando and pasco. A Tropical Storm warning. That means that you could feel Tropical Stormforce winds within 36 hours. Really within 24 because i expect you to start feeling about this time tomorrow. Flood watch for the green shaded areas, everywhere close to the coast, thats until this sort of greenishgray color here along the coast, thats not necessarily flooding from rain but higher than average tides creeping farther inland than expected and. Notice rain offshore and that could continue to rotate in. So the good news, just spotty rain this morning. Light rain too which is good news. Gusty winds, the winds will get stronger through the day, 81 degrees at noon. More rain, more rain through the afternoon. Heavy at times and 82 de and i dont think that today is going to be like yesterday where you never get a break from the rain. But you still could see the pockets on top of the saturated ground. So the good news, the brief break from the downpours with the counterclockwise wind flow. The highest totals would stack up near the shore with less rainfall totals inland. However, you will still get rain inland, just not the the coastal areas is where we had intense flooding yesterday. Rounds of rain tapering off overnight. And thats when the system is expected to make land fall around midnight into friday morning. Heres the problem though. As this heads up to the north and east and you think, okay, were done with it. The same counterclockwise flow keeps drawing in deep tropical moisture so we could be seeing heavy downpours on friday. Now saturated the ground yesterday, more downpours today, and more downpours land fall as forecast to be a category one hurricane in the panhandle, it would be history in the making because its been 11 years since a hurricane made land fall in florida. You may remember that one, hurricane wilma back in 2005. Thats the current forecast. 80 rain chance today and 60 rain chance tomorrow. And again, still heavy downpours on friday. Finally though, i know a lot of people have been asking about the labor day weekend, its going to get better each day and hotter too. Leslee, how about traffic on the 8s . Well, a good drive in the lakeland area. Looks fantastic. No video stream. Hate it when it does that. U. S. 301, panther trace, looks very good out here on 301. Hillsborough county, we do have a collision so just heads up. On hillsborough avenue right at hanley road. And it is off to the side of the roadway. Thats a look at weather and traffic. Thank you. Start your Christmas Shopping yet. Yep, christmas. But walmart wants to change that. How they plan to sell you on can i being off your Holiday Shopping starting today. Plus, a popular snack food could be contaminated with sal Melanie Michael la. The recall with salmonella. The recall information you need now a check on sports. The bucs are looking ahead to the regular Season Opener after a soggy conclusion to the preseason last night. The bucs hosted the Washington Redskins in front of a nearly empty stadium thanks to the rain of course. Most of the starters sat the game out as well to avoid injury. And the backups didnt hand it will wet conditions that well, fumbling time after time. The redskins won it 2013. The bucs regular Season Opener is against the falcons. Florida power and light invested billions into the power grid statewide to prepare for tropical weather. And fpl claims they are now able to detect and repair outages faster than ever before. Thats good news. They say the new concrete poles can withstand hurricaneforce winds. And they are using drones to survey damage to the poles to quickly determine what is wrong. And now an 8 on your side consumer alert. Salmonella con a. T. M. Nagles. They recalling bags of diamond of california macadamia nuts as well as halves and pieces. You can contact their consume area fairs department for a full refund. Beginning today, customers of away with a 50 minimum basket. Our Team Coverage of Tropical Storm hermine continues. Were going to show you where the heavy rains are already causing problems. Plus, a pasco county hospital forced to evacuate in the midst of this Tropical Storm. Why and where the patients were taken. First, lets look outside. This is downtown tampa. Looks slick this morning. Weather and traffic on the 8s just waking up, still under a flood watch along the coast but not a lot of rain right now. Thats so much good news. However, a Coastal Flood Advisory for pinellas, hillsborough, manatee and sarasota goes into effect for wind. And i expect the rain chances to go up. So about a 60 rain chance at noon. 80 rain chance by the time the day is said and done. Watch for the flooded streets. Theyll occur later today. All right, we will keep an eye on that one. Meanwhile, a look right now at whats happening. And this is in Hillsborough County. We have a collision here, hillsborough avenue at hanley road. Off to the side of the roadway. Lets head over to Pinellas County. We have a collision on mcmullen booth south of sunset point. And then over in Sarasota County, a