and good evening. i'm jim rosenfield. a lot happening this hour. we'll get right to it. pope francis is touring madison square garden as we speak right now in a golf cart, right now before his final event in new york. and right now, security is set. roads and the ben franklin bridge, closing in a few hours. but we begin in new york. almost a rock concert atmosphere right here, live pictures from inside madison square garden. some 20,000 people packing into the garden. and they had to get in their seats hours before the pope arrived, about 30 minutes ago. the pope will be saying his homily here in about a half an hour. but if it happens early during this newscast, we'll bring it to you live. and this isn't the first time a pope has celebrated mass at this arena. st. john paul ii visited msg back in 1979. and less than an hour ago, the pope traveled in his popemobile through another new york landmark, with plenty of company here.

80,000 people lining central park, watching and waiting to catch a glimpse of the holy father in that iconic landmark of new york city. also up close and personal, children in east harlem probably got the closest to the pontiff. he took selfies with this crowd outside and inside he talked with the catholic schoolchildren. pope francis gesturing there, a little louder, there. the children singing "the prayer of st. francis." and he told them to follow their dreams and they spoke to him about class projects that they've been working on. and this morning, a solemn moment at ground zero for pope francis. he attended a service here inside the 9/11 memorial museum where leaders of several faith prayed for peace. the pontiff also toured the museum, where he stopped to look at an open bible that was discovered in the rubble of the twin towers following the attacks. the pope's day began early this

morning at the united nations. he addressed world leaders at the general assembly. one of the hot button issue, the environment. the pontiff said urgent action is needed to halt the destruction of god's creation. he also said the world's poor had the right to education, lodging, labor, and land. and it is almost time for philly to shine. the perimeter is now set on the ben franklin parkway. however, tight security kept many people out of center city today. nbc 10's george spencer is joining us tonight, live from that parkway. george, how's it looking out there. >> reporter: jim, definitely one of the strangest days i've seen around center city. you have that heavy preparation, lots of law enforcement, just not a lot of people around. that's different, where i'm standing. here at eakins oval, which is going to be the center of all of the activity this weekend. we want to show you what's been going on here the preparations have been underway for hours now, obviously, out here. and towards the front in the

white seats, right now you can see some of the young school kissed who apparently will be singing front of the pope and in front of a national audience when this gets underway out here, the festival tomorrow night. up on the main stage, those young kids will be in the company of some big name musical acts. the vgifray, aretha franklin, andreas bo chellie. the same is not true of how busy this is two or three blocks north. those neighborhoods north of the parkway, it was a pedestrian and bikers' paradise. the cars largely removed, but still the feel of it was just odd lly empty. most of the residents who did stay and law enforcement were really the main people out on the streets. and not everybody thought that was a bad thing. >> i'm glad it's my day off and i can enjoy the city.

what else can you say? >> reporter: so you're enjoying the quiet? >> yep. i like that the pope brought this. >> back at those live pictures now. you can see that colorful background that they have set up on the stage. that's actually a series of l.e.d. screens. that background will change based on the performance, based on what's happening on the stage, obviously, when pope francis getting up there to speech, both at the papal mass and during the festival. we're expecting that that will be an up close hshot of him. and there are also a number of jumbo trons that have been set up lining the parkway, all the way down to city hall. city leaders told us yesterday, the audio and visual setup right here in this area where we're standing, the equivalent of 25 super bowls. we're live along the parkway, george spencer, nbc 10 news. >> and i'm sure it feels like that for organizers right now, too. let's get a bird's eye view of center city.

mitch, not a lot of movement out there right now, is there? >> reporter: jim, we can pretty much echo what we heard from george on the ground. we're seeing from the sky, a virtual security ghost town. this is something you don't see often in a major american city. a military-style blockade. you can see troops as well as some of the security gear and the military-style trucks blockading off just behind the art museum. if we pan over a little bit, you can see how quiet it is, a very rare sight to see the i-76 this empty on a friday evening. we've also seen other block al qaeda indicateds as we pan over to martin luther king road. the blockades are seemingly everywhere, surrounding the city as we prepare for the pope. and as we pan back over to the art museum, all the way down benjamin franklin parkway, you can see the seen is set and the city is now prepared for the pope's arrival. we're live in sky force 10, i'm mitch blocker, nbc 10 news.

>> all right, mitch. thanks for that bird's eye view. and get ready for the tightest security you'll probably ever see if you try to get into center city. those heightened measures begin today. and nbc 10's harry hairston is in center city, usually packed with cars and pedestrians. what have you noticed there today? >> reporter: i've noticed that security is very tight. the tightest i've ever seen. as a matter of fact, i was just saying earlier that the security is tighter than you'll get at the airport. let's take a look at some of the video from today. metal detectors where the screening is being conducted by members from the u.s. department of customs and also from the tsa. and what i thought was most interesting, the you take a close look at this video, is they're just not checking bags, they are going through the bags and actually pulling out wallets and purses and opening those and taking a good look, a real bird's eye view, so to speak, to see if your driver's license is showing or your credit cards as well. and as they are going through that very thoroughly.

then after you go through that, they are winding down people as they walk through as well. and they're reminding you, when you come through there, they're taking out your cell phones, they'll make sure that are your cell phones turn on, so they can see they're exactly cell phones, ipads, anything electronic, they're making sure it absolutely works and it's absolutely what you say it should be. i do want to tell you, just on a couple of notes at the 30th street station today, there were some random searches of passengers there as well. and that was being done by the amtrak police. and also, philadelphia police tell us that they did have some calls about abandoned packages and bags behind, but they've checked those and those all have been cleared. 16 k-9 dogs are in the area. they'll be working over the next few days, sniffing for anything that could pose a problem. so that's it from what's happening right now, the final touches seem to be in place. security is very, very tight, was it seems to be moving fairly

quickly through those lines as well. reporting live, harry hairston, nbc 10 news. >> and the world meeting of families, that's over tonight, but most of the visitors who came to philadelphia, they're not leaving yet. they're staying for the pope's visit, of course, beginning tomorrow. the streets in center city relatively quiet, as you've heard. many only open for pedestrians and bikers. but despite the challenges, more than 1 million people are expected in town this weekend to try to catch a glimpse of pope francis. >> i think it really speaks to our current culture. he knows what we're looking forward to and what we want and he's able to connect to us. i think we all want the see him and get to know him better. >> many parking and travel restrictions are already in place, as you see right there. let's go back to madison square garden for a live look. there is pope francis now, as he prepares to celebrate mass at the garden. entering the arena after touring it in a golf cart, changing into

his vestments there for the beginning of the service. we'll continue to follow the events in new york before his arrival here in philadelphia. and if you're planning to be in philadelphia for events tomorrow, it is going to be cooler, in fact. nbc 10 chief meteorologist glen "hurricane" schwartz joining us for his forecast. >> the cooler weather has come in, the wind has increased. you can see the flags blowing pretty nicely out there. and with the clouds, it feels it. the rain is not that far away, but it still doesn't look like it's going to be enough progress to the north to make it all the way up to philadelphia. so during the day tomorrow, expect a fair amount of clouds around and a breeze of 10 to 20 miles an hour, temperatures getting into the mid-70s during the afternoon. i'll have the rest of the sunday forecast and see when we're finally going to get some

much-needed rain with the seven-day in a few minutes. >> glen, see you then. there are plenty of parking spots available now at camden's waterfront. there's a surprise for you. the city designated 8,000 parking spots for vehicles, but today we learned only 275 people pre-paid for a spot. so you can just show up now on the waterfront and you'll have to pay on the spot. and a reminder for drivers, a lot of main roads close tonight at 10:00 p.m. along with the ben franklin bridge tomorrow. people who park in camden can walk over that bridge. and the pope arrives early tomorrow morning. we'll take a look at the pope's schedule while he's in philadelphia. he arrives tomorrow at 9:30 a.m., where he will go to the cathedral basilica of saints peter and paul in center city for a 10:30 mass. in the afternoon, he'll give a speech at independence mall and he will end the day on the ben franklin parkway, where3? he wi visit the festival of families. and then on sunday, the pontiff's day begins at st.

charles borromeo seminary. and then he has a prison visit. and then a world meeting of family visit, and then boards a flight at 8:00 p.m. and nbc 10 has you covered. starting new york at 6:00 a.m., our team of reporters, south jersey and in the delaware, for all the action live on the air and on our nbc 10 news app. . coming up next on nbc 10 news at 6:00, as we continue to watch live pictures from new york city, madison square garden, mass is the pope's next item on his itinerary, our coverage of the pope's trip continues next. plus, what happens if someone needs medical help this weekend. tonight, we go inside and take a look at this tent city, filled with help.

continuing our live coverage of the pope's visit to the united states, specifically new york city right now, and madison square garden, there he is, live, in the garden, for a mass that's expected to take about

two hours and we'll continue to bring you those events live. and six south jersey high school students are somewhere in that crowd. they're in new york city for that mass. each high school in the camden diocese received two tickets to send students and the kids took this picture before they boarded a train this morning, for the big apple. so an exciting evening for them right then. pope francis is less than two days from his visit to philadelphia. it's tomorrow. thanks to social media, we're seeing the effect his trip is already having on this city. nbc 10's vince lattanzio is here to share some photos and videos people are sharing. >> lots of talk and lots of posts about the military and police on the street. let's head over to our social discovery app, ban joe. this is what dante spotted. a humvee and several guardsmen along 15 street. not a site that you see every day. now, lots of people are buzzing along market street in reading terminal. as you can see, people are using those barricades and shuttling in between all that area.

but moving more free ly. this is not a site you see every day. and as the world meeting of families rolls towards the conclusion, a nice picture of these nuns walking along. look at old city. you don't have chestnut city completely empty. young check out more pope social video on nbc10.com and the nbc 10 app and our special papal visit feature. vince lattanzio, nbc 10 news. >> massive operation underway in montgomery county to gear up for tomorrow's visit. there are no public events set for lower marion township. there's a tent city, though. a community hospital to handle all medical emergencies and nbc 10's deanna durante takes you inside. >> we have 28 radios out there, county radios for communication. >> reporter: it's not a hospital. >> come down to our main area where you'll sit down with one of the nurses or one of the

p.a.'s. >> reporter: at least not in the traditional sense. >> wave not been challenged in this way before. >> reporter: nobody is sure how many will line the streets hoping to get a glimpse of the pope. >> we need to be prepared for more people than the emergency room can handle. >> reporter: and taking lessons from the boston marathon bomb welcome this emergency tent city is stocked with all kinds of supplies. >> we can suture, deal with eye injuries and we have medications to take care of kids. our current setup is for 15 to 18 people, but we have extra cots in the trailers. >> reporter: in the event of an emergency, ambulances won't be able to get through crowds. that's why gators like these are stocked with water, supplies, and equipment to transport patients. >> we have people who are never, in theory, are going to ever get another chance to see them. we want everyone to have a good time. >> in addition to roving vehicles, doctors, emts, and nurses in tents, roving stations will be setup as large crowds build. and despite being stationed right across the street from the

seminary, people here know they will never get a glimpse of him. >> i would like to meet someone here of that magnitude, but we all have a job to do, so everyone wins if everyone goes home safe. >> reporter: deanna durante, nbc 10 news. and it's a good thing we're not going to be getting the weather that the north carolina coast is going to be getting this weekend. it is awful there. we just had these high clouds around. now, we're not going to see the beautiful sunset that we saw yesterday when they were thinner. the temperature is down, compared to yesterday, by a good number of degrees. 69 in pottstown, 68 in millville, and in dover, plus a little bit of wind there. the wind's coming in off the ocean, and we have coastal flood advisories up and down the coast, from new jersey and delaware, delaware bay included. each high tide getting a little bit bigger, so the saturday night vsh sunday morning high

tide may be the worst. these are clouds across the area, but they're just high clouds. we're not seeing the rain until we get down south of washington, d.c. and down into southeastern virginia. but north carolina, he is just getting ripped by 40-mile-an-hour winds and heavy rain. hour after hour of it. this stuff not making a lot of progress. it's moving forward into dry air, even though you see clouds, the atmosphere as a whole is pretty dry. as we've been telling you for a week now, the odds are this rain is going to stay to the south. on this model, it starts drying us out a little bit on saturday night and on sunday. maybe sop peeks of sunshine getting us up to 80 degrees. on monday, we have a little bit more chance of seeing some showers. and in european model for a week has been keeping that rain to

the south. and that's why we keep showing it to you. the most accurate model in the world overall. it does show the clouds, it shows the winds that's going to stay with us. that's going to keep the temperatures down, but that storm is still way down to the south, as we go into next week. now, later next week, that may be making some progress to the north, and then give us some rain that we really need. for the papal weekend, though, it's just a mix of sun and clouds and breezy. temperatures in the mid-70s, right about average for this time of the year. and for the eagles, playing against the jets this weekend, it's going to be partly sunny, pretty nice and comfortable, pretty good football weather out there. now, for the rest of the night tonight, we have those high clouds around, 62 degrees for the low in the city, 52 north and west. tomorrow, a mix of sun and clouds, cooler than today, highs in the mid-70s. now, remember that wind that's going to be there all weekend. city starts getting warm next

week, and by the end of the week, that's when we get the much-needed rain. we have a developing story to tell you about right now. another major event in philadelphia is now canceled. the dalai lama is following doctor's orders to rest for the next few weeks. he's canceling his visit to the u.s. next month. that was supposed to include a stop in philly where the 80-year-old buddhist spiritual lead was to receive the 2015 liberty medal. so far there are no exact details on his condition. well, if only the eagles could cancel the start to their season. i'm danny pommells, we have all your eagles coverage, coming up next. jamie wanted a taste of the real new orleans

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hey, danny pommells from comcast sports net with you once again. the eagles don't need anymore injuries to add to the insult of the 0-2 start of this much-anticipated season. and all eyes right now are on running back demarco murray. murray left practice wednesday with a hamstring injury, but did practice this morning. murray is listed as questionable on the official injury report. one report says he will play. whether murray plays or not, the eagles are still confident. >> we have tremendous confidence in ryan and also in darren if demarco can't go. >> like, we going into it and we thinking murray going to play. so if he doesn't play, he doesn't play. you know what i mean? but we all going to be ready, though. >> the 0-2 start definitely has had a negative impact on the fans' thoughts about the season. however, inside the locker room this week, nothing has changed. >> the situation where we got a

lot of football to be played, you know, took two to the chin already, now it's time for you to just bounce back. >> you know, i don't think it's done anything to our confidence, you know, obviously, there's ups and downs in this league, and we would like to start, you know, 2-0, absolutely. that's not how it went, though. we start 0-2. we can't back down and can't lose confidence in what we're doing or what our system is. >> birds and jets sunday at 1:00. that's sports. i'm danny pommells. wehle wrb.

this time of year, anything's possible, right? hot, hurricanes. >> yeah. >> weather's cooperating? >> when i first heard about this happening in september, this is the peak of hurricane season, but we've been very fortunate with a lack of threats along the east coast. and now we're fortunate we're not getting 90-degree weather and high humidity, it's going to be fairly comfortable this weekend. looks like the rain is going to stay to the south and the clouds will be around. that may even prevent some sunburns out there. >> keep you cool.

>> pretty nice combination. >> all right, glen, for all of us here at nbc 10, i'm jim rosenfield. the news continues now with "nbc nightly news" with lester holt. we'll with back at 7:00. tonight, the bombshell sending shock waves across washington. the house speaker suddenly announces he'll offered to. tonight a republican party divided and a mad scramble to replace him. the crowd goes wild. tens of thousands clammer to see pope francis. a sea of humanity in new york city. a historic journey through central park. tonight his powerful message at the 9/11 memorial, and the un and mass at madison square garden. >> and trump is booed. has the front-runner finally gone too far. and moment of impact on a crowded bridge in seattle. students killed in a tragic collision and federal investigators have joined the search for answers. "nightly news" begins right no