>> ♪ >> live from the cbs broadcast center in philadelphia, this is cbs3 "eyewitness news." >> what began as a beautiful 70-degree day quickly turned chaos as rain thunder even hail went through the southeastern pennsylvania area. parts of luzerne county left

in ruins. a look at storm scan3 shows us that the storm is moving out to sea but it's what the storm left behind that has some homeowners rattled tonight. this is certainly not something that we're used to seeing, no the in february. good evening everyone, i'm natasha brown. thanks for joining us. the thunderstorms came fast and furiously. this video sent to us from cbs3 father will ken worthy from perkiomen montgomery county. you see the rain pouring, lightning flashing and the storm also roared through philadelphia as well. this time lapse video shows spring garden street as the sky grew dark and the rain and lightning quickly moved in. there are scattered reports of damage across the area tonight. we do have team three coverage on the severe storms. meteorologist lauren casey pin points the hardest hit areas. alexandria hoff takes to us one pennsylvania community where investigators try to figure out if a tornado touched down. >> wind damage, wind gusts, hail and also in some lightning damage reports across the delaware valley

from these severe storms that roared across the area today. check out all of these storm reports. toms river, new jersey, lightning hit a home and blew the chimney apart. does not make for a good day. walnutport lehigh valley roof damage wires trees downs, wires down in northampton county in bush kill township pennsylvania, fleetwood berks county barn roof blown off same in wernersville in berks county where we had some of the strongest wind gusts reported to 65 miles per hour in reading, concorde township in delaware county 60 miles per hour, turnersville, new jersey, 60 miles per hour wind gusts and a wind gust of 51 miles per hour in mount pocono. and then we saw a lot of hail across the area as well. in berks county quarter size hail in bernville, allentown quarter size, lake harmony maribel size hail but consuming up to an inch in height because we had so much hail coming down in parts of carbon county. severe storms moved off shore, residual showers along the immediate coastline an few

snow showers trying to work into the mostly cloudy notice and we could see an isolated shower down the shore, ma ebb a snow shower towards the poconos. continuing with gusty winds plummeting temperatures and yes, wind chills in the 20's by morning, a big difference from our 70-degree highs and i'll let you know how much you'll have to bundle up throughout your sunday coming up in just a few. >> lauren we'll see you soon. thanks so much. philadelphia of course saw thunderstorms as well this afternoon but the weather really hasn't been kind to the folks in luzerne county. "eyewitness news" reporter alexandria hoff is live in the sat center tonight on a potential tornado that may have touched down there. alex. >> reporter: well, yeah, natasha, officials with the national weather service are going to survey the damage tomorrow. once they do, they will be able to determine if a tornado did indeed touchdown. for now residents in counties north of us are and tasked with picking up the pieces. 110 miles northwest of philadelphia images like this followed the storm. a car crushed and a home brought to its base as a result of high winds.

downed trees littered neighborhoods throughout luzerne county and blocked already swamped roadways. emergency personnel attempted to close flooded routes that some drivers pressed on despite dangers. >> people try to go into it and don't realize it that if you don't have good wires your car is going to dime many vehicles were indeed paralyzed by the flood waters. this driver hit such heavy rain and winds on the road that her windshield wiper flew off. >> well, here it is . >> [laughter] very crazy weather. >> reporter: for those who lost far more it was a devastating blow. while residents in luzerne and lackawanna counties were warned of the dangerous possibility, the national weather service will have to examine the path of this damage to determine if a tornado touched down. as of right now the red cross is assisting at least six families in luzerne county. reporting live in the sat center alexandria hoff cbs3 "eyewitness news." >> alex thank you so much. meantime tonight a young

girl is flown to children's hospital of philadelphia following a very close call in the pool at indian valley family ymca in harleysville montgomery county. according to franconia township police, officers responded to a near-drowning just after 6 o'clock this evening. we're told the girl was conscious when she was transport odd and lifeguards at the pool acted quickly to try to save her. police are looking for answers tonight following the death of a woman in port richmond. it appears that it happened on the 3200 block of mercer street yesterday afternoon. a 57-year-old woman was found by a family member lying unconscious in a pool of blood inside her home. she had suffered blunt force trauma to her head. the vic time died minutes after medics arrived and police found that the second floor of that home was ransacked. however, they didn't find any signs of forced entry. also tonight, protesters filled the streets of philadelphia and cities all around the country speaking out against president trump's plan to get rid of the affordable care act. trump spoke at the annual conservative political action

conference yesterday repeating his plan to repeal and replace. >> millions of people were very happy with their healthcare. they had their doctor. they had their plan. remember the lie? 28 times. you could keep your doctor. you could keep your plan. over and over and over again you heard it. >> well, this map shows all of the cities other than philadelphia where healthcare rallies were happening today. "eyewitness news" reporter cleve bryan spoke with protesters earlier in center city. >> we have to vote. >> reporter: the movement to stop president trump's agenda focused on preserving the affordable care act saturday. hundreds rallied at thomas pain plaza in center city at an event organized by the women's march pennsylvania. >> we have to keep holding these events and giving people opportunities to have their voices heard. >> reporter: the crowd included doctors and nurses. >> healthcare providers feel that everyone should have access to care independent of income level. >> reporter: for some

protecting president obama's healthcare plan is that personal. >> my brother got healthcare under the affordable care act. >> reporter: they're concerned republicans and trump's promise to repeal even place would negatively impact the elderly and poor. >> in 2012 they found a hole in my lung the size of a dollar piece. >> reporter: denise major says she didn't have health insurance for several years before the aca. >> i was making too much money to actually qualify but because of the medicaid expansion i was able to get coverage and go ahead and get my issues addressed. >> reporter: the rally included speeches from democrats like congressman dwight evans and senator bob casey trying to apply pressure to their gop colleagues that control the house and senate. >> one more demonstration that people know that this means life or death to them. >> reporter: many of the people we spoke to today say they'll continue to raise their voice after the rally on social media by calling members of congress at their offices and also by showing outpatient whenever there are town hall meetings. in center city, i'm cleve

bryan, cbs3 "eyewitness news." >> also in richmond virginia senator tim kaine rallied to support the nation's current healthcare program. >> since the aca passed the number of private jobs in the country have grown between 10 and mean scene million so there t-, it's been a dramatic period of increase in private sector jobs since the aca passed. >> well, kane resumed his had that u.s. senatorial position after serving as the democratic nominee for vice president. protesters took to the streets of chicago today to defend the affordable care act as well, a group of chicago health professionals gathered outside of a government building to express outrage over attempts to repeal the affordable care act. they say if that happens millions will be without healthcare coverage including hundreds of their patients. the votes are in. the democratic national committee elects tom perez as its new chairmen. it took hundreds of state party leaders and activists two rounds of voting to pick tom perez as chair today.

the fight for the new leader was the focus on the final day of the dnc winter meeting. perez won over keith ellison in a 235 to 200 vote. as the new chair perez made his first motion and delivered a message of unit. >> to appoint keith ellison deputy chair of the democratic national committee. i know we can win the battles ahead. i know we will win the battles ahead when we put our values forward, when we lead together. >> perez is the first latino leader of the democratic party and he also served as labor secretary under president obama. we are saying happy birthday times flee olde city to a very unique set of triplets. let's introduce you. this is betty wolf mina passman and joseph hockey. they will be 90 on monday. a party was held for them at the penn's view hotel. joseph says their arrival was a complete surprise to their

parents and their doctor but he says what's really surprising is that all three of them are still celebrating together. >> and we'll be celebrating our hundredth you know in just 10 more years so just stick around, woo we'll stick around if she stick arounds. >> between the triplets they have nine children, 19 grandchildren, 11 great grandchildren and dozens of cousins. lots of family. 100 middle school kids learned a lot today while they were playing with hot dogs. that's right, hot dogs. straight ahead on "eyewitness news" we're going to take you to the hot dog launching competition that's getting kids to think pretty critically. also, luzerne county wasn't the only place hit hard by the storms today. we're going to take you to lancaster where that people are also picking up the pieces as well. lauren. >> the cold front that generated those thunderstorms is also putting an tend to our 70-degree streak. a much colder sunday in store. i'll let you know how many layers you'll need if you're

heading outbound in your "eyewitness news" forecast straight ahead. >> hockey outdoors under the lights. the flyers and penguins in action at heinz field. could the flyers defeat their cross state rivals? w

>> welcome back. flying is one of the safest forms of travel but there are dangers involved. the federal aviation administration reported more than five dozen emergency evacuations on u.s. flights since 2010 and this monday at 11:00 our greg argos gets access to frontier airlines

flight attendant training facility in denver. where the latest class of flight attendants train for any type of emergency. >> public has this perception it's coke or diet coke. we're first aid responders of the we have to know cpr we have to be able to name every part of the aircraft. in some ways we're mechanics right. the wings of the aircraft we have to know every component. >> monday you'll learn what you can do in an in flight emergency and you'll also see why you may never look at flight attendants the same way again. more than 100 middle school students meantime in camden county they put their technical skills to use in a competition today to win the title of grand champion. the groups of four teams from that different schools worked together to build hot dog launchers at the camden county technical school's gloucester campus. the day long event is part of national technical education month. students learned to read blueprints, use power tools and assemble the parts themselves.

they rotated firing them. >> students are learning math science technology all the things they'll need that are very important not just at our school and in our county but throughout the country. >> folsom middle school walked away with first place and second place anne mullen middle school. third place raymond kershaw middle school. congratulations to all of the winners. we're updating our top story. severe storms raced across the region earlier today. some of them were damaging especially to the west of us. let's take a look out there in lancaster county where the storms toppled trees blew over buildings even and knocked power lines down and funnel clouds were spotted near the town of columbia. that hasn't been confirmed. wind gusts reportedly reached 60 miles per hour but they're trying to confirm whet that was a tornado that may have hit that area. crazy. >> absolutely crazy. february weather very uncommon for this time of year but we know that the temperatures have been so uncommon as well but now we're going to get things back to common.

>> okay, we're going back to the norm. >> we're going back to the norm. if you've been missing the chill, maybe you have, maybe you haven't, it is return, but no chill today. we had sunshine and 70's. then that cold front dropped in and fired off these severe thunderstorms that roared across the area. this is a time lapse of center city philadelphia from our library cam. you can see the lightning flashing there. nearly continuous lightning impacted a large portion of the area as it was embedded within that squall line that stretched across the delaware valley and then raced its way eastbound. of course with the strong wind gusts, wind gusts in excess of 60 miles per hour and many places seeing hail as well. but now february our typical definition of february system going to return and already doing so right now. taking a live look at center city philadelphia, a much quieter scene right now on our roof cam. 49 degrees the temperature, hard to believe we were in the 70's, low 70's today. winds have shifted out of the northwest on the backside of this cold front. winds at around 60 miles per hour so feeling more like --

16 miles per hour so feeling like 43. we'll deal with blustery conditions throughout the overnight period. storms did bring us severe weather. don't want that. we're in a rainfall deficit and picking up more than an inch of rainfall in macungie southwest of allentown little creek in dover over an inch of rainfall chester springs picking up over .6 of an inch of rain. storm scan3 showing us a few residual showers coming to an end along our shore points. a couple of rain snow showers trying to work into the poconos. yeah, snow showers, a little flake or two flying through mount pocono area over the last three hours. after today spend, the day in the poconos with a high temperature of 61 degrees. we're in the middle 70's in the lehigh valley. same case in berks county. northern delaware we topped at 70 degrees in philadelphia today. and as we head into the overnight period, temperatures are going to continue to drop on that like a rock. we're already down to 46 degrees in wilmington, 44 in allentown, at the freezing

mark in mount pocono but feeling more like 20's at this hour because of the blustery conditions winds out of the northwest up about 15, 16, 17, 22 miles per hour with those higher gusts as well. we're seeing wind gusts up to that 20 miles per hour range but unfortunately these winds will keep up as we head throughout the overnight period and those temperatures continue to drop all the way down to 37 degrees in the city, windy conditions and still blustery as we head throughout our sunday. temperatures much closer to average at 46 degrees. mostly sunny conditions with a few patchy midday clouds looping in. tomorrow will be chilly getting a little taste of some canadian air. lidgeing can will return into the jet stream. monday, tuesday, wednesday, temps will be climbing. wednesday marks the start of march and we'll have a very mild day in store before we head towards the end of the week. you no he is that canadian air creeping back in and that will start to move into the delaware valley as we head into the end of the week and start of next weekend but

tomorrow will be a chilly day especially since we've been dealing with 70's over the last several days a high of 35 in the poconos breezy conditions windy down the shore with high temperatures in the middle 40's. and we'll top at 46 degrees in philadelphia. 41 in reading and near 40 degrees in the lehigh valley but things quickly warm up as we head into monday. 55 degrees, we're up to 62 by tuesday with some scattered showers. looks like the best day to have the umbrella will be on wednesday. showers around into wednesday night as well and we could see a few thunderstorms once again. showers corny thursday morning before that colder air returns. kind of like a rollercoaster goes up and then back down. >> okay, yeah, thank you so much, lauren. appreciate that. okay. so, flyers out of my old stomping grounds pittsburgh. >> this is interesting. flyers dominated the penguins in pittsburgh but would that dominance continue when the game is played outside? and the sixers going for the sector straight win. this game

>> little outdoor hockey action. >> that's right. since many of the players grew up in canada they grew up playing outdoor hockey. tonight way a trip back to their childhood as the flyers played the penguins in heinz field in the stadium series. over 67,000 fans watched the flyers and pens play their first outdoor game of their 50 year rivalry. sydney crosby scoring his 36th career goal against the flyers and the defending champs take the lead. second period the flyers down two-nothing. voracek goes to the front scores. flyers down two to one. third period the flyers down two goals again on the power play. shayne gostisbehere scores his first goal since november 25th. three months. they trail three to two. but later off the faceoff pittsburgh will score again to beat the flyers four to two.

the dust has settled for the sixers. after the trade deadline. they took on the knicks at the madison square garden. tracy morgan checking out the action court side. fourth carter sixers down four. saric with a pass to t.j. mcconnell. three is good. sixers cut the lead to one. next possession the knicks respond. carmello anthony hits the jumper. knicks take a three points lead. we have under 15 seconds left. sixers down by a point. jahlil okafor drives into the paint and manages to hit this jumper. the sixers take the lead with nine seconds left. big jah with 28 points. so, the knicks get the ball and who do you think, carmello strikes again. his jumper hits the bottom of the net with .3 seconds left. the sixers losing a tough one, 110 to 109 the final. college hoops winning the big east title is nothing for

thevillevill villanova i would e cats. senior day on the main line. they'd never lost consecutive games in their career. second half cats up by a point jalen brunson find jenkins alone in the corner. three pointer good. cats took control from there. nova up by eight. dante divincenzo to the misses. josh hart with the follow-up. villanova wins with a 16 points victory. the fans treater to some bonus basketball. temple up by three in overtime tulane with a chance to tie the game. malik morgan shoots, the three pointer good so that will go into a second overtime period. the owls took over. slam home two of his 14 points. temple holds on to beat the green wave 86-76.

saint joe's on the road against saint louis. hawks went into the contest with a seven game losing streak. saint joe's hanging onto a two-point lead. ball goes to mike crawford sinks the three. later on the hawks down by three, crawford misses the foul shot but then look at james demory goes for the layup instead of shooting the three. hawks lose by a point. ivy leaf action. penn at columbia. fighting for a spot in the league tournament. mike anderson steps back, the three is good. lions with a five-point lead. quakers did have a chance to tie the game but jackson donahue's 3-pointer will miss. 70 to 67 the final. grapefruit league action. yesterday the bongs bombers beat fightans. bottom of the fourth game is tied michael franco at the dish. this pitch is headed to the

tiki bar in left. franco's first home evident are the spring. in the sixth franco at the plate hits a line drive into center feel. the ball will roll under the ball padding. tyler wade asked for a ground rule double but it was denied. franco will score on a inside the park double. the fightans win their first game of the spring season. >> feeling like spring. thank you so much. celebrate love. it's not valentine's day but we'll take you to

>> ♪ >> welcome back. america's day of love fell last week valentine's day was it last week? okay. but in other parts of the world love is celebrating a little bit differently. drago beat is celebrated in romanian. at the seaside people released dozens of heart shaped balloons and they have lots of fun but it's more than just kisses hugs and gift. it's also a celebration to welcome the spring season as well.

>> welcome back. the votes are in for the title of miss philadelphia 2017. >> miss philadelphia 2017 is

nia ann. [cheers and applause] >> well, that is kneian andrews a students at west chester university. the 96th miss philadelphia pageant was held at drexel university's mandell theater. 15 contestants vied for the crown. andrews has now won $4,000 an spot to compete for miss pennsylvania coming up this june. congratulations. another sign spring is coming early. take a look at this cherry blossom tree in full bloom in japan. visitors are flooding the botanical garden to get a glimpse. i'm thinking sunny springlike thoughts. >> that's what we've had the last couple days. not tomorrow. 46 degrees sunshine blustery but back into the 60's by tuesday. >> lauren thanks so much. i'm natasha brown. if you're up early join our morning team starting at 6:00

a.m. have a great night everyone. >> ♪ did you grow up? >> i grew up in detroit. >> that's where i'm from. i'm from detroit. were you from a tough neighborhood? >> i was from the west side of up to. pretty tough. >> there are some characters there. i love detroit, but there are some characters there. >> they know it, too. there are some characters there. ♪ ♪ >> byron allen coming to you from entertainment studios and this is "the american athlete." get ready to hang out with some of the world's greatest sports super sars. ♪ ♪ >> sugar ray leonard. >> it's great, but where do i go from here? >> baseball legend mike schmitt. >> babe ruth and i never met. >> and jerome bettes. >> in this day and age you have to commit yourself. if you