funnel cloud as it developed this afternoon. meteorologist john ahrens is in severe weather center 9 where things are a lot calmer now, but the threat of strong wind is still out there. >> that's right. and some showers as well, scott as we look at the one that's coming through now in southwest charlotte into belmont and up through gastonia, live early warning doppler 9 showing you a big pocket of rain and gusty winds out of this. i don't want you to get scared. but this is packing strong winds and very good rain right now. just south of the airport as you travel passed through the white hall communities of steal creek as well. let's peel this back. and look at the winds coming out of this. this is not a severe storm and not showing any kind of rotation. but menacing as the wind speeds are going up to 50 miles per hour in southwest charlotte. tracking it for you now on live early warning doppler 9. cornelius will be involved with this between now and 6:30 this afternoon and evening. denver, and certainly spots across mooresville and troutman. the rest of us, the strong winds, i'll let you know when these subside coming up. sadly, this dangerous storm system is to blame for three deaths so far in virginia tonight. eyewitness news anchor allison latos is in our breaking news center with more on the serious damage that's ravaging the area. >> in the last hour, the national weather service said a reported tornado hit the town of waverly virginia killing three people. we have a look at the incredible video. this is the damage the storm left behind. you can see debris scattered everywhere. the national weather service says that radar had indicated a twister there in waverly. one man says he and his uncle got caught in that storm. >> the wind actually picked the car up and shifted us to the side. and all we could do was hold on to each other and pray. >> that witness says a trailer, to stand in that spot. today's fatalities bring this powerful system's total death toll to 6. three people were killed in louisiana and mississippi yesterday. dozens of others were injured. more damage east of charlotte in wayne county, a mother and her three children raced to get out of this mobile home when the wind took the roof right off. and in forsyth county, heavy winds pushed around huge trees knocking some across roads there. we have a slide show of the damage from across the charlotte region. find it on wsoctv.com. new tonight at 6:00, local advocate groups say immigration officers are targeting charlotte area students while they're trying to go to and from school. eyewitness news reporter mark becker dug deeper into these claims and then took the concerns straight to local immigration officials today. >> reporter: a spokesman for the immigration and customs they do not go after students or people in what they call sensitive areas like churches or schools. but a mother we spoke with just a little while ago here told us they had in fact arrested her son on his way to school. it's something terrible for me she told us through tears. almost a month ago her 19-year- old son jeffrey had walked out of their home in west charlotte to get on his school bus when immigration officers moved in and arrested him. >> when she saw that from the window, she saw the bus and she saw the lights for the ice agent. >> jeffrey is one of dozens of teens who came to the u.s. without documentation who are now turning 18 and advocates say are being targeted for deportation. of the latin american coalition. it's created panic because they've been detained on their way to school. >> in a statement, an immigration spokesman told us today a judge ordered jeffrey's deportation and officers picked him up outside his home not at a school bus stop. >> they say not but we know yes, they are. anna works with families like jeffreys and she told me that as many as 200 other latino students here have left school afraid they'll be next. >> they don't feel safe any more. because it happened with jeffrey. >> and jeffrey and at least one other teenager here from charlotte are being held at a detention facility in georgia. their fordham ris families are reaching to anyone who will listen for help and they're hoping for a miracle. mark becker channel 9 eyewitness news. thank you. now, just in the past five minutes, charlotte mecklenburg police sent us new pictures as they're searching for the men who kidnapped a pizza delivery driver. come and take a closer look at the screen so you can see this photo. police want to catch this man. he and another man kidnapped a delivery driver yesterday morning. they forced him to take out money at atms before finally letting him go in arch dale north carolina. new this hour, a left leaning political group is accusing our right leaning governor pat mccrory of using his reelection campaign to influence a state bond package that he supports. they've filed a complaint with the state board of elections asking for an investigation into support of a 3 billion- dollar bond package that will be on the ballot march 15th. it will provide funding across the state. pat mccrory campaign of directing the efforts of the bond campaign which it says is a violation of state election law. nc progress files ethics charges against the governor last year. the state ethics board investigated but decided not to take action against pat mccrory. tonight cmpd is investigating a child's death at an apartment off dr. carver road in west charlotte. police were out there for hours this morning collecting evidence after a five-month-old baby died. the child had previous medical issues and police are now trying to determine if the death was of natural causes. police say the baby's mother and grandparent were at home at the time. new at 6:00, a former accounting manager at a huntersville company has been sentenced for embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars. 38-year-old amy dayton was sentenced to a year and a half behind bars. prosecutors say she embezzled $400,000 from poly tech industrial. house and a bmw. it's crunch time for the seven remaining candidates who want to be in the white house. as democratics focus on south carolina's primary saturday, republicans are gearing up for super tuesday. today eyewitness news reporter joe bruno found out it could be a gop candidate's last chance to stop donald trump. we weren't expected to win too much now we're winning, winning, winning. >> another victory for donald trump as he won nevada. senators marco rubio and ted cruz didn't come close. >> almost by definition, the things that he does and says that would kill other candidates are just proof that he's not your ordinary politician. >> his rise surprised political experts across the country. he says at this point it will tough to slow trump's momentum. republican party elites that he's unelectable rings hollow because he's winning. >> his supporters are extremely loyal. is there anything trump could do for you not to support him? >> there's really nothing. >> super tuesday on march 1st maybe the last chance for trump's rivals to stop him. trump has 81 delegates now. only 1,237 are needed to lock up the nomination. north carolina's primary is on march 15th. according to the most recent pole, trump has had a solid lead over his competition. >> it's trump's race to lose at this point. joe bruno, channel 9 eyewitness news. the democratic candidates are trying to drum up last minute support in south carolina. and right now hillary clinton has an 18 point lead over bernie sanders in south carolina. but sanders is hoping gain momentum after falling short in count on channel 9 for complete coverage on air and online at wsoctv.com. tomorrow we expect to get an update on the number of plumps cases in mooresville. there are 12 cases across mecklenburg, cabarrus, and iredell counties. the department of health and human services reports that three of the cases are confirmed two of them are in iredell county, one in mecklenburg county. it's not stormy in charlotte but we have 30 miles per hour winds coming out of the showers. coming up, team coverage with christine rap and when the winds will finally ease up. a man is behind bars for drug trafficking and it's not the fist time. when authorities mo (donkey sound) (elephant sound) there's a big difference between making noise, (tapping sound) and making sense. (elephant sound) (donkey sound) when it comes to social security, our next president needs a real plan to keep social security strong. (elephant noise) hey candidates. enough talk. give u this is channel 9 eyewitness news. covering the carolinas. tonight this 64-year-old man is in jail accused of moving shipments of marijuana, loads as big as 60-pounds into the area. eyewitness news reporter blake hanson obtained court documents that say that investigators arrested the man right before a potentially dangerous confrontation. and blake is live right now at the federal courthouse uptown. blake? erica, investigators say they arrested that man on his and they found duck tape, a machete and zip ties in his rental car. but investigators and an undercover agent was walking every step of the way. 64-year-old james alexander brown is behind bars tonight facing federal charges resulting from a more than yearlong investigation. investigators say an undercover agent met with him back in 2014 to discuss the purchase of large amounts of marijuana. last month the undercover agent said he was interested in buying 48-pounds. according to the affidavit, brown said he currently had 60- pounds. the dea says brown would ship the drug through postal services from the west coast. experts say it's a common tactic for moving drugs. >> it's a relatively moderate sized drug operation. >> brown planned to threaten a confidential source and potentially their 12-year-old son to get marijuana back. agents arrested brown in with a large machete, zip tie, duck tape, and a pair of black leather gloves in his car. >> the scenario happened over and over again where threats are made to third parties. and undercover agents and sources are able to get that information to the dea or the fbi or local law enforcement. and they can actually prevent bad things from happening. >> he told me the name branded strands of marijuana that were allegedly involved in this operation might indicate the drugs came from a le jet mat grow operation on the west coast. in 2011 we reported that brown was arrested in rowan county, allegedly with 35-pounds of marijuana. we checked records, and it's not clear if the charges were dropped or if he was ever sentenced. live from the federal courthouse, blake hanson, channel 9 eyewitness news. cmpd officers and haz-mat crews have been out on the scene of a suspected meth lab in northwest charlotte for most of the day. the home on mount holly road. cmpd says officers served a warrant there this morning, detained several people and found a meth operation. we're asking if anyone will be charged. >> tonight police are warning residents about callers posing as the irs to rip you off. yesterday six people complained about callers offering a tax refund but you had to send money first. one person sadly fell for that and sent $2,000 to india to the irs by western union. the irs says it'll not call and ask for money over the phone. home improvement store lowe's met wall street expectation for the fourth quarter earnings. $11million in earnings in the last three months of 2015. that's a period of profit of 1 cent per share. 13 and a quarter billion in revenue for the year. stocks are down 8%. hopefully it's calm after the storm. ahrens. >> not yet. sorry. we still got some more rain we have to go through. and some heavier winds as well. check out the down pours. it's moving so fast. i mean right through uptown in about five minutes, in between commercial breaks really. virtually. up in university right now. it goes up into highland creek, the communities of newel and hickory grove. it's on the way to harrisburg, roberta mill through china grove later on. at 6:32 or so and salisbury and faith. they need to get ready for it by around 6:45. live early warning doppler 9 can track the wind out of this guy. and it's still pretty breezy in addition to these showers. and with the ground the way it is, please, i still really think the tree damage threat is possible the next couple hours. right now at 21 to 30 miles per hour coming out of that. the rest of us may not be dealing with rain per se but there's still more showers coming out of the upstate and all of us will have to deal with these strong winds through and they've all ready been responsible for a lot of damage ask some incredible storm images. for more on that, here's meteorologist christine rap. i was out in the storm cam on the roads when the worst of the storm hit earlier this afternoon. we saw a lot of this, heavy rain and powerful wind. take a look. this was video sent to us by channel 9 viewer. you can see the tree shaking in the background, the heavy sheets of rain. we had images like this all over. area known for flooding during heavy rain saw just that during the afternoon. another viewer showing us tree damage that came in. this is in south park. this is a really big problem with this storm. the downed trees. you can see it. it crashed on to part of that house. you can always send in your photos on our facebook and twitter pages. john? as we look at the threat tracker for tonight and tomorrow, the top issue will be strong winds. when you step outside, just log on to your weather app with your phone and you'll find tracking the strong conditions, damage for tonight. watch out for that. over night tonight they'll subside a little bit but fire back up on thursday. that's according to the future cast. we'll tweet out about it. it'll be hectic out there along the roads. if you're in a high profile vehicle or suv, hold on both hands to the steering wheel for sure. that plus snowfall in the appalachians, we'll see more snow probably adding up to an inch to four inches, pretty much all day long. and we'll get up into blowing rock as well. table rock, something we'll be watching. up through parts of the lynnville gorge, lenoir, we'll take a break on that. your neighborhood forecast up in boone, we'll continue with that snow and temperature about 32. but it'll not be able to breakthrough up through matthews. it'll be sunny and windy though with highs in the mid 50s. still fairly mild outside for tomorrow afternoon. but i want to show you that five-day forecast, and focus on what's going on friday morning when you're getting ready for and then starting out the weekend, any 5ks going on will be about 27. for the rest of the ciaa tournament, things will finally settle down and it won't be as stormy as the beginning of the tournament. >> as activities with ciaa pick up, the weather will cooperate better. thanks john. tonight frustration, confusion, and fear growing over the opportunity assignment plan for cms. right now we're taking your concerns straight to the superintendent. tonight at 10:00 and 11:00, what she has to say about a plan that will impact thousands of families. a quick day on wall street, e, the dow cl steve: today is your lucky day. woman: (surprised) oh, my goodness mark: you've just won - a thousand dollars! woman: that'amazing! that' amazing! (shrieks) maria, that delivery felt alittle forced. and steve, steve: yeah? woman: i am still missing that raw emotion. woman: pretty awesome for atuesday, but tomorrow is hump day, so let's really bring it! lucky for life. win a thousand dollars a day, every day, for life. the charlotte hornets have won five straight games but the big test to see where this team is after the all-star break is how they will battle the eastern conference leaders, lebron james and the cleveland cavaliers, the hornets have looked nothing short of a team 27 games to play. charlotte has won 7 of their last 8 and find themselves in 7th place in the playoff standings. charlotte will have to shut down james and the calves. cleveland is coming off a loss at home to detroit. the hornets release a rendering of what the new scoreboard will look like next season. they'll install the new board if july. the new center hung scoreboard will be one of the largest in the nba and it'll be all high deaf led panels the square footage will be 180% larger than the current one. the ciaa tournament marches on. second quarter, that's crystal white giving the bulls a ten point lead. the panthers come back with an answer. the pass to johnson, she knocks down the three. giving the panthers the lead. but right were the laugh, johnson smith hanging in there. that's ashley porter with a tough two. but the bulls have their soon come to an end. will play tomorrow night. now breaking news coming into the news room, we're hearing that charlotte city manager ron carly's contract will not be extended. we have reported before that city council would make a decision during a closed session. his contract was set to expire at the end of march. he may stay until an interim is named. we're making calls to find out more information about this decision and we'll bring you the latest on eyewitness news at 10:00 and 11:00. all right john. >> windy conditions outside right now. the gusts continue up to 40 miles per hour. i think that's going to be the headline for a while. even through the night tonight. still capable of producing damage out there. the winds will relax over night tonight. then they get back going again for tomorrow. you have to take it easy on the roads. even though it's going to be nice and bright outside. it'll be breezy. highs in the 50s for tomorrow. it'll cool off by friday morning. the weekend very nice. eventually it'll be in the mid 60s. >> look forward to that big time. thanks for making us your news is coming up next, join us breaking news tonight. we're on the scene of a deadly tornado outbreak. several states, homes destroyed. a dangerous night ahead from south carolina all the way up through new york. also breaking tonight, the race for president, and donald trump, now marching to super tuesday. his landslide win in nevada. and the major republican now predicting a trump surprise. the abc news exclusive tonight. my one-on-one interview with apple's ceo, tim cook. for the first time, cook on why apple is refusing to help the fbi break into the iphone used by the san bernardino killer. new details tonight on the pilot in that deadly chopper crash. what he was trying to do. and the famous sports reporter, the "dancing with the stars" host, erin andrews, suing her stalker and a major hotel tonight. did they put the stalker right next door? down. good evening tonight from san francisco. and we are here for our exclusive interview with apple ceo tim cook. for the first time, answering questions why apple will not help the fbi break into the iphone used by the gunman in san bernardino. but first tonight, the horrific scene playing out across several states. deadly tornadoes and dangerous weather ahead this evening. from the carolinas, all the way up to the northeast, stretching across 1,000 miles already. an ef-3 ripping through this apartment complex in pensacola, florida. in north carolina, sending school children into the hallways. and in virginia, at least three people have been killed, just this afternoon, because of the weather. and behind all of this, blizzard conditions moving in, blowing this truck onto its side in indiana. more than 2,000 flights canceled, coast to coast. abc's linzie janis leads us off from the tornado zone tonight.

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