simply smarter shopping. ♪ ♪ right now at 11:00, a major storm about to rock our region. >> this one sounds like it's packing a punch. >> gusting winds, soaking rains, heavy floods, and blinding snow. >> we're preparing for the worst

and hoping for the best. >> march roaring in with a vep jans tonight. good evening. i'm jacqueline london. >> i'm jim rosenfield. we've issued a first alert as this major storm comes barreling toward us, yuck see it getting closer on first alert radar. >> we are expecting dangerous and destructive winds that could topple trees, power lines, and light poles. this is a live look at the wind in center city tonight. >> the jersey shore is going to see the strongest gusts and they could get walloped with major flooding. will go live at ocean city, the boardwalk's already wet right now. >> on top of soaking rain, we could get heavy snow. the poconos and the lehigh valley could see serious snowfall. in philadelphia the little snow could get blown around, creating blizzard-like conditions. >> tonight we're taking you closer to the storm with storm ranger 10, the radar on wheels

that gives us the most accurate forecast possible. it is scanning the skies in glassbo glassboro, new jersey. >> live team coverage from the shore to the pennsylvania subbushes. aaron baskerville is live. >> we begin with chief meteorologist tammy souza. >> every storm has kind of a different scenario to it. it's not often you see storms like this. i have to say in my career, not too many. doppler radar right now, we're looking at the heavy rain moving across the area at this point from philadelphia back toward allentown. out into parts of chester county. let's go a little closer, pockets of heavy, steady rain coming down. this is going to continue for another four or five hours. we'll pick up 1 to 2 inches of rain overnight tonight. let's go ahead and widen it out. you can see that snow wrapping back around. that's another concern we have for tomorrow late in the day. some very cold air wrapping around this system. you notice this little hole right there. that's what we're watching, the

center of this storm at this point, and it's going to continue to strengthen moving past the area. now it looks like we're going to see perhaps the blowing snow moving in by tomorrow late in the day. what's going to happen is we see heavy snow in the poconos, 6 to 12 inches of snow. the rest of the area could see snow, little or no accumulation, perhaps just on grassy areas. don't worry, it will melt by saturday. because it's coming down through those 50-mile-an-hour wind gusts, we could see whiteout conditions for your commute tomorrow evening. the next concern we have is all of the wind driving water along the shoreline at high tide early on saturday morning. that's where we're going to see the best chance of coastal flooding, sometime between 8:00 and 11:00 saturday morning. the rest of the weekend is going to be breezy and sunny. your first alert is for the entire area at 4:00 tomorrow morning and lasts through 10:00 on saturday morning depending on what neighborhood you live in, you'll see some of these

conditions. 50 to 70-mile-an-hour wind gusts. the jersey shore, the delaware shore, coastal flooding, something you have to watch out for. heavy mountain snow, that's the poconos, maybe even parts of lehigh valley. and then that wet snow that's not really going to stick too much but it's certainly going to blow around and create perhaps whiteout conditions. that's for south jersey, philadelphia, the pennsylvania suburbs, and at least the northern half of delaware. we'll talk more about all of this and take a closer look at your neighborhood when i come back in just a couple of minutes. brandon hudson is live in darby. >> crews preparing for possible power outages? >> that's right, jim. we're by an area that's known to flood with the weather that we're having coming our way. estate rainfall the last hour and a half, but we're right here right by the darby creek. this stretch of the darby creek here, it's right by several businesses and is also a bank on the other side and a septa bus

stop. this area is on high alert the next 24 to 48 hours. a construction crew secures their site ahead of the storm as the city warns equipment, scaffolding and fencing could go flying during the high winds tomorrow. this crew already has to scale back work because of the rain. with heavy wind gusts expected being inside the building will be a gamble. >> it's pretty bad. there's no -- the wind come, it's strong sometimes. even when we are inside. but it's still -- you can feel the wind pretty good. >> reporter: pica will have crews on standby in philly and surrounding counties. as of now there won't be additional utility workers to help with tree trimming and removing downed power lines. >> if it's safe, our crews are going to continue to work. it doesn't matter if it's raining, our crews will go out and do what they can. >> reporter: workers look ahead to the worst of the storm tomorrow. we saw people enjoying tonight.

>> it's a slight damper. any weather you can live through is good weather. >> reporter: the storm happens on the first week of the east passionc restaurant week. restaurant owners believe the bad weather will boost business. >> in this area people stroll around. once it starts raining, it works in our benefit in certain ways. >> reporter: you're getting another look at darby creek at the level right now, it could change over the in ex24 who 48 hours. speaking of the wilds, i spoke to the organizer of a beer festival at the navy yard, they said they have tents up but they'll keep an eye on them tomorrow. if they get blown over or damaged, they will try to fix them before the event on saturday. the lehigh valley, while the entire region is going to feel the effects of tomorrow's storm, crews in the lehigh valley spent

the day preparing for a mix of rain and snow. crews cleaned leaves from gutters before the storm rolled in. penn dot says they will have their eyes on the roads and they are preparing for whatever falls from the sky. >> might be a little snow, maybe some rain, but our northern counties, monroe county, poconos area, might be significant amount of snowfall. >> waste management is asking allentown customers to have their trash and recycling out tonight to help crews that are getting an early start. high tide and storm surges could threaten coastal towns in delaware. crews in delaware city put up barriers and have big pumps ready for surging water from the delaware river. local businesses tell nbc 10 they're bracing for damaging winds and potential flooding here. police say they're preparing for the worst. >> we're always concerned when you're next to the sea level and you have a combination of a full moon, high tides, and then gusty

winds that are a prediction. >> neighbors tell us there are some extremely low-lying spots in delaware city that don't usually fare very well in storms like this. make sure you have weather alerts turned on in the free nbc 10 app. track the storm with our live interactive radar and get updated hour-by-hour conditions with the most accurate first alert forecast. before you go anywhere tomorrow, check in with us first. nbc 10 news today starts at 4:00 a.m. with breaking weather and traffic coverage you need before you hit the road. first let's get to some of the other major headlines we're following tonight. >> a local mayor convicted of selling his office for political gain. we first brought you the jury's verdict against allentown mayor as breaking news at 6:00 p.m. >> this is the mayor leaving the courthouse, going home to await his sentencing. nbc 10's druth smith has reaction.

>> a message sent, people who abuse the public trust will be held accountable. allentown mayor ed pawlowski emotional. his wife okay and by his side after paramedics were called after she collapsed leaving court. along with an attorney, they said nothing about any resignation plans. >> we're extremely disappointed. we thought we presented a case that showed the mayor's innocence. >> reporter: soon the fourth-term democrat will have no choice. city rules will force him from the position once he's sentenced. the trial lasted more than a month but the prosecution painting the mayor as corrupt, accused of trading city contracts for campaign donations. out of the 54 counts, the jury found him guilty of 47. >> all they needed to do was convict him of one for him to lose his job as mayor, and they found 47, so that's a potential for significant time behind bars. >> reporter: caught in the middle of all this, the people of allentown. a city in the midst of a comeback when all this happened. >> the community i think, whatever happened here today, still was pretty well served by

mayor pawlowski. >> reporter: one former city councilman told us he's glad justice is served and the city can rain on. >> the sun is out in allentown. the black cloud has been removed. >> reporter: pennsylvania's governor tom wolf is again asking mayor pawlowski to resign saying he "disgraced his office and cheated the people of allentown." a threatening e-mail closes two school districts in south jersey, and police say a 10-year-old boy was behind it all. he's now charged with making terroristic threats. police say the boy confessed to sending the e-mail, which included the words bullets and guns, to a teacher at the rutter school in franklin township. schools were shut down early this morning as police responded to the threat. both districts will be back open tomorrow. a stunning reversal. delaware's supreme court overturns the conviction of a teenage girl in a school

bathroom attack that left a classmate dead. amy joiner francis was beaten up at wilmington's hower high school of technology two years ago. an autopsy found the victim died from a rare, undetected heart condition aggravated by that attack. a judge sentenced the attacker to six months in a juvenile facility, but the court ruled she could not be blamed for the death because she had no way of knowing the fight would lead to joiner francis dying of cardiac arrest. if you own a home in philadelphia, property taxes could be going up. mayor kenny unveiled his budget proposal to city council, calling for a 6% increase in property taxes to help pay for public schools. the mayor also wants to delay planned cults to the city's wage tax. the goal is to close a looming $900 million school budget deficit. we're going to breakdown this major storm for you, let you know what to expect in your neighborhood, and when it's best

to be out, when it's best to stay in. later, it's picking up, atlantic city is prepared for the storm. first responders had their military vehicles out. how residents are getting ready, coming up. and later, it's lebron versus the sixers tonight, but could it be lebron joining the sixers next season in the king is addressing a new round of rumors coming up in sports.

at the jersey shore people are praising for those wind gusts, downpours, and floods we've been warning you about. let's go live to nbc 10's aaron bass customerville with a look at how they're getting ready. >> reporter: jackie, right now we're along main avenue. weather is starting to pick up a

little bit. you can see some of the rains 20 minutes ago. it was absolutely silent 20 minute ago, no rain. take a look here, you can see some of the rumbling of the water. tomorrow, of course, a far different scene. tonight we spent a lot of time with firefighters, they tell me they have five military vehicles ready for the flooding. >> this is going to be an extraordinary resource, this is something we're going to be able to get in just about any flooding situation that we would have in atlantic city. >> reporter: atlantic city firefighters have their heavy-duty military vehicles on standby. inside, more gear like boats and dry suits. anything they could need for rescues and evacuations. they tell nbc 10 they are getting ready for major street flooding. >> we're used to nuisance flooding. this is going to be a little more serious. this is going to be a lot more water. >> that's the big one that we had about two years ago, came up to there. >> reporter: nick turner knows all about flooding concerns near his massachusetts avenue neighborhood. his family has lost three cars

because of high water. tonight we saw several residents moving their cars to safer areas. >> real serious flooding. just have to take your chances. >> reporter: residents out here tell us it's all about time and tide. in some areas, you can see the beginning signs of what's to come. >> couldn't see nothing out here. >> reporter: for the garretts on west riverside, they will watch the storm from their elevated deck and hope it's not the big one. anything you can do about it? you know a big storm's coming. >> no, there's nothing you can do about it. >> reporter: that's how a lot of people feel, wait and see for this storm to roll in. of course there's going to be a lot of traffic congestion with some of these road closures due to flooding. and this is a very big weekend here. you have the boat show. you also have the state wrestling championships this weekend. for now, we're live in atlantic city, aaron baskerville, nbc 10 news. >> all they can do is be prepared and hopefully they are,

aaron baskerville live at the shore. we're expecting the wind to cause trouble at philadelphia international airport tomorrow. you're looking live there right now. the airport says some airlines are offering to waive fees if you need to change your flight. as always, it's best to check with your carrier. let's go to first alert chief meteorologist tammy souza. the worst of the storm is just hours away. >> we're deteriorating hour by hour. by midday tomorrow we'll be in the thick of it. that will continue through tomorrow evening and into the nighttime hours. let's take a look at some of the impacts that we're going to be looking at and the timing. the heaviest rain is tonight through tomorrow morning. that's about 1 to 2 inches of rain. the damaging winds, they're going to start moving in here friday throughout the afternoon and into the evening. that's when we'll see the highest wind gusts, 50 to 70-mile-an-hour wind gusts. whiteout conditions from wet snow that may not stick but may be falling through the air. philadelphia, suburbs, south jersey, that could create

whiteout conditions for your friday evening commute and any driving around friday night. coastal flooding threat, specifically i think saturday morning between 8:00 and 11:00 that correlates with the high tide. we could see it with the high tide in the evening as well. morning high tide is the one we're most concerned with, especially the back bays. the coastal storm impacts, the wind advisory for the whole area, this is what we're looking at for the coastal flooding. we're going to see it shifting back and forth. the southern beaches of south jersey, then the eastern beaches, and all of the beaches in delaware. finally, we have the heaviest rain expected through the pennsylvania suburbs, south jersey, philadelphia, and that's where we have saturated ground so that's where it's going to be easier to topple the tree with the high winds, bring down telephone poles and so forth. and then up to the poconos, that's where we have winter storm warnings posted for 6 to 12 inches of snow. yes, we could see accumulating snow in parts of the lehigh valley as well. so things that you have to keep in mind, we're going to see power outages, especially

tomorrow afternoon and tomorrow evening. so make sure you've got batteries on hand for your flashlights. property damage, things are going to fly around, so watch out if you're outside. the coastal roads may be flooded come saturday morning. we could see dangerous travel in the mountain snow, evening whiteout conditions tomorrow night. planes and trains, you may face delays. be prepared, especially tomorrow afternoon and tomorrow night. doppler radar showing we have rain across the entire area. some pockets of heavier rain taking place. we have our storm ranger out there. that is our mobile doppler radar on wheels. it gets in close to show us what's going on. it doesn't look quite as ominous as it did, but it does pick out heavier pockets of rain near wilmington, near philadelphia. as we go toward washington, even toward vineland. this is what we watch for. pockets of where there is really no rain right now, a little bit of a break, and that's just to the east of salem. so that's why we kind of watch inside the storm, we move it out there. it's sitting in new jers now, keep an eye on things for

us. the center of the storm moving into pennsylvania. the snow wrapping around it. watch what happens with these very high winds hour by hour. we are in the 40s. we'll be watching those winds coming out of the south, then the west. here we are at 7:30 a.m. with the rain, the wrap-around snow is going to start to move in. look at the temperatures, above freezing. so this snow may not stick. the winds are going to make it blow around by the afternoon. it certainly will stick in the poconos where we're below freezing. then watch what happens in the evening. those winds really pick up. and that's when we could see the blowing snow. still above freezing though, so not expecting much in the way of accumulation across much of the area. by saturday morning the wind's coming in along the coastline. that's where we're expecting problems. look at some of these wind gusts that could happen. we could see a 69-mile-an-hour wind gust in avalon, 60 in philadelphia, 58 in pottstown. 1 to 2 inches of rain generally across the area, heavier in the poconos because that rain and

snow that they'll be having. along the coastline, take a look at this. waves 6 to 10 feet. offshore waves 20 to 25 feet. you can imagine that there's going to be a lot of concern along the coastline.

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wayward pops cause chaos on an arizona freeway. dogs were backing up traffic on i-17 in phoenix. troopers caught one of the dogs but the other pooch was having none of it. the dog evaded its captors for at least a half hour before being lassoed by a neighbor in a trailer park. fortunately neither dog was hurt in all that commotion. nbc 10 inaugural foster care phone bank is in the books. volunteers feeled 290 calls during our phone bank. the city of philadelphia has

more than 5,000 foster kids looking for a place to call home. check the nbc 10 app if you're interested in fostering a child. sports is next. >> here's john clark from nbc sports philadelphia. >> you've heard about this, nba stars lebron james checking out private schools in philly? he responds today. lebron is facing the sixers tonight. wait until you see the love of lebron and joel embiid next. more and more student debt

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i'm john clark. you've heard the reports. nba star lebron james visited the philly area to check out private schools for his kids over the all-star break because he may leave cleveland this summer. he respond today. >> pennsylvania? no. what are you talking about? no.

over all-star break, no. i was on vacation, then went to los angeles. >> all right. but love is in the air tonight. look at the bromance between lebron and joel embiid all night long. something's up here. joel recruiting lebron here? nice. look at lebron's sick pass between the legs of his teammate, gets the basket here and one. now under two minutes to go, joel embiid, tough shot here. and he makes it. and watch him give it to the cavs fan right here. yeah. this is what i did to you, right over you and the city of cleveland. seconds left, sixers have the game won. dario sharric dunking. we have a scrum and lebron is not happy till he sees joel embiid. he lights up when he sees joel, it's all good. sixers win 108-97. big win. they end their 11-game losing streak to the cavaliers. flyers were the hottest team in hockey, they had won 10 of 11. but a tough one tonight against

carolina. how tough are hockey players? look at defenseman ivan provorov, shot off his knee, he's going to the locker room, right? nah, he's tough, staying in the game. all hurricanes and former flyer justin williams tonight, two goals for him. flyers lose 4-1, their first loss in regulation in a month. i'm john clark, we're back after this. new tv, new speakers, netflix. this is going to be the place for binge watching, ladies. is it, ladies? don't get me wrong, you have killer tech mrs. d,

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steve so is sa in the morning to guide you through. the afternoon will be the worst impact time. that's when we could see blowing snow. the highest winds, the coastal flooding. that will take place it looks like early saturday morning along all our beaches. get our app, we'll keep you up to date. this is a rapidly-ranging situation, hour by hour throughout the day. >> depending on where you live, it could be very different. >> that's nbc 10 news at 11:00, thanks for watching. stay safe tomorrow and try to stay dry, good night. [ cheers and applause ] ♪ >> steve: from studio 6b in rockefeller center in the heart of new york city, it's "the tonight show starring jimmy fallon." tonight, join jimmy and his guests --