right now tracking a dangerous storm. we've issued a first alert because of damaging winds, rain, snow and possible flooding. the storm will impact our entire area today. here's a live look at the jersey shore. philadelphia, the pennsylvania suburbs, all of our area preparing to handle everything from downed trees to power lines to near whiteout conditions. yes, near whiteout conditions. good morning, this is nbc 10 news today. i'm tracy davidson. >> and i'm vai sikehema. we have a team fanned out, meteorologists getting you prepared. this is why it's important to have the most accurate forecast in town. >> this is dynamic storm meaning

it's basically going to continue to change. our main bullet points is the first thing is we're going to experience heavy rain. we'll see another round as we go into the evening. the other thing we're going to watch as this system continues to move away and you start to see this cooler air coming in on the back end, you see the one direction coming in from the north. blowing snow is going to be our next concern. so we'll see some of the rain switching over to wet snow. temperatures in the 30s and 40s, so we are expecting wet snow. but this is going to come down right over the evening commute. our wind speeds are going to be closer to 50, 60 miles per hour. so regardless if it's wet rain or wet snow your visibility is going to be decreased. even after the system continues to move offshore now we're tracking coastal flooding as we go into saturday morn [saturday evening. so those are the three main parts. had heaviest rain has now

transitioned over to parts of trenton. partsf the poconos are already starting to see a bit of the snowfall now. so that's where we'll see the highest snowfall amounts. and we're also watching just near wilmington where some of the rain is slowly starting to switchover to snow as cooler air starts to work its way into the system. we'll do more of the neighborhood by neighborhood break down in just a bit. but right now we want to check in with katey zachary for a look at the roadways. we are seeing ponding and wet roads across the region. right near the delaware state line this is naamans road. speaking of delaware, because we just showed you the delaware line, in sussex county officials

are issuing a power outage alert. 295, new jersey and the 42 freeways are looking good. we just got report of a crash. 5:33 right now. taking a look at the conditions right now. center city, rain not as heavy as it was in the last hour. meteorologists tell aing ing us prepared. conditions are going to change pretty quickly no matter where you are. >> randy, when we saw you last hour the rain had been steady but light. how has it changed if it has? >> reporter: yeah, i mean it's a rare drizzle after hours. pretty heavy rain early in the morning. by the way, we just got our first couple big wind gusts blowing had umbrella around.

that's why we're keeping an eye on the trees here in rittenhouse square. those branches could come down causing power outages. and also a number of construction companies working through the city of philadelphia. the city warning the construction companies the debris, the fencing and such could go flying. we also caught up with peco. they'll be dealing with those winds on the power lines. they tell us stations will be on standby throughout the city. >> if it's safe our crews are going to go out there and continue to work. it doesn't matter if it's raining our crews will go out and continue to restore service. if it does become a point where the winds become too strong, we will and them for their own safety to hold back until it becomes safer. but our crews will be out there and working to restore service.

>> reporter: yeah, it's going it pea one of those days where you're walking to and from work and your umbrella gets turned inside out as the wind gusts start to pick up. if you're working early today, get it done now because those wind gusts will pick up. randy gyllenhaal, nbc 10 news. >> and one of the first parts of our area to experience tropical storm force gusts will be the jersey shore. nbc 10's matt delucia is live in atlantic city to show us how people there are preparing. >> reporter: and you might recognize in the last half-hour i definitely look a lot wetter than i did when we were over closer to the bay. so we moved over to the boardwalk here where seeing a bit more steadier rain and wind here as well. right here along the bard walk not seeing too many people out at this hour. trying to stay inside. but the wind and rain is still coming down here. also we were in sea aisle city

yesterday. take a look at some video there where we saw some folks there boarding up the windows and doors, just being ready for that high coastal flooding. the officers over there also said if you have any loose furniture that is outside, it's a good idea to tie it down or bring it inside. now is the time to do it. we'll give you another live look here along the boardwalk. the flags here blowing just ever so slightly. so we have a light breeze right now. so the conditions definitely expected to worsen here at the shore throughout the day and over the next 24 to 48 hours. so we're going to be keeping an eye on the conditions here, and hopefully we'll see some folks out here milling about trying to endure this winter storm. >> all right, matt, speaking of milling about you'll want to take it easy on the roads out there today. storm force 10 giving us a live look. this is route 1 near the

northeast airport. we've got storm force 10 driving all over the area giving us a better idea of where you are, where you live and what the roads are like. some areas may have some ponding this morning. and people are trying to stay out of the rain this morning. you can see them under the awning here as they wait for the buses at the 69th street terminal in upper darby. many of them have their hoods up. all right, we are under a first alert for the entire area that started earlier this morning. it's going to continue through the entire day until tomorrow morning. the reason why we've issued this is we have the coastal storm that's already moving in. we'll see wind gusts by the afternoon and even late morning anywhere between 50 and 70 miles an hour. heavy mountain snow, coastal flooding, where and the thing we're watching the closest right now is the potential of rain over the area switching to wet snow causing whiteout conditions

when you combine it with those wind gusts between 50 and 70 miles per hour. this is three-hour loop. so you can see within the last three hours we've gone from heavy rain through philadelphia to a lot more snow wrapping around the back end. with the exception of the poke nous already seeing snow coming down. take a look at wilmington. here's the poconos. here's where the rain is coming down if you're closer to lehigh valley and allentown, you're starting to see a bit of this changeover happening as well. this cold air continues to filter in. right now starting to see the rain switching over closer to wilmington. the green is rain. where we start to see the white and even the pink that's more of a mix and the white is snow.

throughout your morning hours we are going to continue to see rain coming down. heavier rain expected by 8:00 a.m., but again we're watching for that changeover. and for a closer look of what to expect in your neighborhood we'll send it over to steve sosna. we've seen a lot of changes just in the last couple of hours. when we came into work everybody was raining but now we're starting to see that change to snow. this is live look from the comcast center looking towards the north and west. the visibility has improved dramatically. so the heavy rain threat now is starting to wind down. so we're going into the second and third part of the storm which is the wind and changeover to snow. if you're in the northern and western suburbs of lehigh valley, that rain changeover to snow this morning, in some cases if you're in the lehigh valley momentarily this morning it'll be changing over to snow. continues overnight tonight, and this evening commute is real

problem. if you're in allentown, the northern western suburbs, if you travel the northeast extension of the pennsylvania turnpike not only are you dealing with snow and damaging winds, your vilt because of the wind and snow combined will be very low. i show you the radar with a purpose. look at this blue line. it's collapsing to the south in the last three hours. that means our storm offshore is rapidly intensifying. and the problem with this, our commuter models do a decent job, but with storms this intense they all say different things. so we have to track this hour by hour. so philadelphia you're looking at the changeover to snow midday athrou through the afternoon. we'll break down the jersey shore through delaware the next go around. about 20 minutes before 6:00. i'm katey zachary with a check on the roads.

now we have things going on in new jersey and delaware. i want to start things off with a closer look at the new jersey turnpike. we're seeing a car fire. so this is affecting traffic headed northbound. it's just south of exit 8a. it's on the inner drive. it is slowing things up a bit. i'll let you know when it clears. but the 295 and 42 freeway are looking good as is the garden state parkway. this is the schuylkill expressway at girard avenue and drive times are looking good despite some of the ponding we're seeing. costs and challenges. why railroads say they're struggling to install a lifesaving system on the rails before a deadline. picking up patients. we want to tell you how you soon can get a ride to the doctor for free. ♪ we buy any car dot com ♪

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it's a quarter to 6:00 on this friday morn, and take a look at this. we are in a first alert this morning because of this major storm. the conditions will be different depending on where you live. and meteorologist steve sosna has been telling us conditions will change every hour with this storm. and this morning you'll want to be careful on the roads. i mean really take it easy. here's a live picture from storm force 10 on route 1 near ben sa salem. in new england residents are evacuating. and the national guard is preparing for storm rescues and recovery as they prepare for this storm. >> yeah, and boston, workers there filled sandbags and set them up in areas that are prone to flooding. in milford, connecticut, crews there raced to clear storm drains. and officials there, their concern is storm surge and a high tide could cause a repeat of flooding that they saw back

in october. all this week nbc 10 has been showing you the effects of medical debt on the lives of local families. more than 1 million people in our area struggle with bills they can't pay because there is no way to erase that debt. >> nbc 10 responds harry harriston is here to tell us how. >> it's a big, big problem. as a matter of fact, nbc universal owns television stations, the parent company has teamed up with rip medical debt, a non-profit charity started by a former debt collector. now his goal is to abolish a billion dollars of medical debt this year. here's how it works. rip buys medical debt for pennies on the dollar. instead of hounding people for the money rip forgives the debt. nbc 10 is doing our part by donating enough money to

eliminate $2 million worth of debt in our area. you can join the effort if you would like to by going to nbc10.com or our nbc 10 app and click on nbc 10 responds, erasing medical debt. scroll down and follow the steps, and you're currently in medical debt we also have resources on our site to help you manage that debt. >> all right, harry, what if someone out there wants to sign-up with debt relief. how does that happen? >> the thing i have to tell you is you cannot sign-up for it. the process is anonymous and the process is also random. and privacy laws also restrict us from even knowing who's going to get their medical debt erased. >> so how does anyone find out if they've been helped? >> so this is easy. right here, this yellow envelope. on the envelope it says rip medical debt. if you get one of these then you know your debt has been erased. and, folks, if you get one take a look at it.

it's not a bill. this is help for you. we would love to hear from you. >> thank you very much, i appreciate it. moving on positive train control or ptc is a main concern for a senate panel right now. >> it is investigating why some passenger railroads may not meet their december 31st deadline of getting the system installed on all tracks and held a hearing on the issue yesterday. senators took the opportunity with industry experts to hurl tough questions about the status of ptc. it's a safety measure designed to prevent train accidents caused by excessive speed. while experts say there is some progress about half of commuter railroads will probably fall short of that december 31st deadline. experts cited costs and other challenges. >> even after the deadline if you assumed every railroad complied with the rule, we are still going to have significant sections of passenger rail operations without ptc.

and i think that is a level of risk that we shouldn't be prepared to take. >> experts say that this deadly 2016 crash at a hoboken train te terminal could have been prevented if the ptc system had been installed. it could have prevented at least 145 rail accidents dating back to 1969. let's talk about our major story this morning, getting you prepared for this major storm. >> hey, brittney. >> well, the action has already started. we saw a lot of the wet roads when we were coming into work. our wind speeds are closer to 40 miles per hour, but the damaging wind speeds will get into the afternoon evening through saturday morning. next we're tracking whiteout conditions as rain switches to wet snow.

and the final piece of the puzzle is the coastal flooding saturday morning into early late morning, i should say. so let's talk wind gusts. friday 8:00 a.m. we are going to see wind speeds right around 20 miles per hour for philadelphia, wes chester 26. now we're seeing wind gusts close to 40 miles per hour if you're near rehoboth beach. 55 in rehopeth beach, 60 in avalon. we could see downed power lines leading to power outages. we are expecting coastal flooding. it gets close 67 mile per hour wind gusts. 62 in atlantic citych these are dangerously strong wind speeds. so that's our first concern. next we're already dealing a lot of the precipitation.

so we have rain in philadelphia. the heaviest rain has shifted to the east a little bit now over parts of trenton and even new york. we're also watching rain filter into as it continues to push offshore. that's going to bring us more of a changeover. right now we're seeing rain in the poconos and also right now watching rain switchover in parts of wilmington. for a closer look at your neighborhood break down we're going to send it over to meteorologist steve sosna. >> that's right, brittney. and i've been checking our neighbors to the west. our sister station reporting thousands of people this morning without power. so that core wind is working in our direction. but let's take a look. live outside at the shore you can see it's not a pretty picture out there. and we were concerned about this morning's high tide cycle.

but first if you're getting out the door right now, we're looking at areas of the pennsylvania turnpike, the northeast extension, 202 there, the boulevard, i-95. not saying every way along this stretch is flooded, but give yourself some extra time. you don't want to be in a rush with this. that continues through tonight. then we have the minor to moderate coastal flooding and then moderate to potentially major here by the time we get into saturday morning. so that's really a concern there. and as you can see the high tide times we're concerned about here are 7:15 to 8:15 this morning. then 7:45 to 8:45 tonight and finally to 8:00 a.m. tomorrow. that's a big deal.

>> this is complex, but i want you to keep it simple so even i can understand three parts of this. heavy rain, coastal flooding, snow, right? >> and high winds. >> thanks so much. and let's talk about the roads because we've had multiple crashes already this morning. and now is about the time it really picks up. and we have a crash on 95 in delaware to talk about. >> katey zachary, bring us up to speed. it's in the northbound direction and right where 295 and 495 split from 95 in delaware. so there is a crash. it's affecting three lanes of traffic. so three lanes of traffic are closed off because of this scene. only one lane is getting by, so it's really causing some serious delays northbound if you make your way towards that 295, 495 split. but it looks like it's going to be out there for quite some time. officials there are issuing a

power outage for sussex county. tracy. nbc 10's inaugural foster care phone bank is now in the books and thank you so much because you helped make it a success. volunteers fielded almost 300 calls yesterday. the city of philadelphia has more than 5,000 kids looking for a place to call home. you can look at your nbc 10 app if you're interested in fostering a child. health on the highway. why uber could soon be offering you a ride to the doctors.

three before 6:00 and we're tracking a major storm that will impact everyone across our region today. our entire area will experience damaging winds that will get stronger as the day goes on. plus we have rain, and you see the snow. meteorologist brittney shipp and steve osnu wisosna will have upn a few minutes. they'll hold education sessions to help guide patients through the process of applying to be a part of the state's

medical marijuana program. there are hopes that to open on april 20th it will join three other dispensaries in the pennsylvania suburbs. they are in devon, southersville and bethlehem. now if you need a ride to the doctor was office uber is now an option. >> a new service called uber health is now offering to take patients to and from their medical appointments. it's accessible to those who don't own a smart phone or who may not be an uber customer. the passenger is contacted by text or call with their dest nagsz details. uber will then build a health care facility directly for the service not the patient. this is in cleveland last night. check this out. a little brotherly love between joel embiid and lebron. between the legs of his teammate

there. lebron james, philly finally getting one over the cavs in cleveland. they win 108-97. by now you've all heard reports lebron visited the philly area to check out schools for his kids. now he respond today the claims yesterday. you've got to take a look for yourself and you judge. >> pennsylvania? what are you talking about? no. we're on all-star break now. i was on vacation and i went to los angeles. >> yeah, he's playing it coy. i think he's playing it coy. >> really? because his eyes were darting back and forth. >> that's a tell. that's what they call it. now to more of the stories we're following for you right now at 6:00 a.m. a major storm is bringing us a quadruple threat this morning.

damaging winds. you've got heavy rain, snow and then the there's flooding. and no matter where you live this snnasty weather is going t impact your neighborhood. good morning. this is nbc 10 news today. i'm vai sikehema. >> i'm tracy davidson. we have you covered. we have a team of meteorologists tracking the storm's path and impact. our reporters are showing us cessions you can expect and traffic troubles, we've already had them. we begin with meteorologist brittney shipp. >> lots of moving parts with this system. it's going to last all the way until 10:00 a.m. the reason we issued this is we have wind gusts between 50 to 70 miles per hour today. the one thing we're watching on the coast is the changeover from rain to wet snow that could cause whiteout conditions when you couple it with our