somewhere in the carolinas during the early morning hours of saturday, and then the official track takes the system up toward new england. anywhere in this large area, later in the day on sunday. here's a look at some of the spaghetti models. there will be a trend western, then a hug as it tries to head out to the sea. heading off into new england, or offshore, everything is still in ay heather: thank you. at least seven deaths are blamed on matthew, and its current track puts millions in the danger zone. jc monahan is here with new information. j.c.: florida's governor rick scott not hesitating to order evacuations. meanwhile, matthew marches northward toward the bahamas. haiti, taking a direct hit from hurricane matthew. the monster storm, now the strongest hurricane for this

continuing its deadly path hour, through the caribbean. we've already seen -- >> we have already seen deaths, people who were out at sea. there are people who are missing. there are people who did not respect the alerts, they've lost their lives. j.c.: with winds reaching 145 miles per hour, powerful enough to wipe out parts of haiti, jamaica, spared a devasting blow. but the storm still dumped more than a foot of rain in some areas. abc's gio benitez is there, gio . reporter: out of the woods yet. the clouds you're seeing are from the edges of hurricane matthew. jamaicans are looking at this with guarded optimism. j.c.: meanwhile in cuba, the forecast is calling for up to 40 inches of rain possible in parts of the island, enough to wash away entire villages, so cubans are keeping busy boarding up buildings and filling sandbags, . preparations also underway here in the u.s., with the category 4 hurricane on the move, now tracking west, threatening the

catastrophic and deadly. we are preparing for the worst and hoping for the best. j.c.: florida's governorj.c.: urging coastal wet -- residents to have at least three days worth of food, water, and medicine. south carolina governor nikki haley says she is preparing to issue an evacuation order to more than one million people along the coast. ed: here in massachusetts, we have many ties to haiti. and keeping lines of communication open is difficult. our rhondella richardson is live in brockton where there is help. rhondella. reporter: this main street boutique is like a community center. brockton has about 15,000 local patients. they come here to transfer money, buy from cards, putting minutes on the phones for family mentor -- members on the caribbean island. communication is very tough right now. many people are not getting information. this place is a gathering spot to share news.

, into the brockton shop. it's her city in haiti. people are evacuating from flooded homes. local haitians are on edge. >> i feel like crying. i'm sorry. it is very hard, because it was almost 4 a.m. when i lost contact with everybody. one person is already dead, and another one disappeared. reporter: she lives in randolph, but threw herself on, she has all the images of what she fears is her demolished homeland of haiti. this is the situation when they could go out in the streets. it is so much worse right now. we will continue to watch from here. we will have more on what unicef and other local organizations are doing to help. ed: you can track hurricane matthew any time on our wcvb mobile news apps. if you don't have them yet, download them in the app store on apple and android.

in wellesley at this hour, recovery teams looking for a body in morse's pond. this all happening after a canoe overturned. our david bienick is live in wellesley with what we know right now. reporter: we are standing on the beach here. the search area was just on the other side of the lake. you might see some of the last recovery crews coming out of the water. they tell us they have recovered the man's body, about 50 feet the first two officers on scene. one went into the water wearing his street clothes, to look for the man while the other used a , kayak. police say the drowned man with a landscaper, who had been working at a house on the shore. while he was out on the canoe, his co-workers noticed he was in trouble and called for help. >> upon officer's arrival, they located the canoe that the party

some of his personal belongings floating in the water. reporter: one neighbor tells us that morse's pond is relatively low because of the drought, but the water is still quite murky, and a lot of weeds. that made the search quite difficult, lasting for three hours. the man's body has now been recovered. authorities have not yet released his name. in wellesley, davidee nick, wcvb newscenter 5. heather: to wareham now, where police are investigating a deadly hit and run. it happened around 8:30 last night on cranberry highway. witnesses say the victim was trying to cross the busy road when he was hit by a white ford pickup truck. >> the guy was crossing the road. one pick up came down, nailed him. the guy flew about 70 feet in the road, and slid, and the truck didn't even stop. heather: the victim has been identified as 54-year-old ernest raddatz of wareham. friends say he was trying to walk to a their house for dinner.

has ruled that a gay woman has the same parental rights to two children as the biological parents. the ruling came in the case of karen partenen, who helped raise two children born to her lesbian partner via artificial insemination. the two women split up but partenen wanted full parental rights. family court ruled against her, but today, the supreme judicial court overturned that ruling saying a gay person may be established as a parent even without a biological link to the child. heather: commitment 2016, and for the vice presidential candidates tonight our ben simmoneau is here with a preview. reporter: that's right. with vice presidential debates, it is not really about who wins. instead, you just don't want to make any mistakes. the stage is set at longwood university for the vice presidential candidates. tuesday night's event will be their one and only debate. indiana's republican governor mike pence. gov. mike pence: i'm looking forward to that debate on

sen. tim kaine: i'll look forward to seeing you down there on tuesday. reporter: have spent days preparing for their showdown. cbs news's elaine quijano is the first asian-american to moderate a national debate. she'll start each of the nine segments with a question. the candidates will have two minutes to respond. that format is similar to the presidential debate, but there's one big difference onstage. the v.p. candidates will be seated at a table, rather than standing at podiums. peter eyre: when the candidates are seated at a table, it facilitates a different kind of conversation and that's something that we haven't always done. reporter: presidential debate, but there are more modest expectations for the v.p. contenders, who are tied when it comes to favorability. a cnn-orc poll found that 38% of registered voters view each man favorably, 30% unfavorably, and 30% have no opinion at all. a lot of people looking forward to the next debate between hillary clinton and donald trump . the second of their three

at washington university in st. louis. channel 5 will be there. ed: new hampshire senator kelly ayotte backtracking after calling donald trump a "role model for her children." the comment came during a debate last night with democrat maggie hassan. listen. >> what you tell them to be like donald trump? would you point to him at several model? --as a role model? >> i think that certainly, there are president, and absolutely. we should do that. ed: that is what she said during the debate, but less than three hours after the debate, ayotte issued a statement saying she misspoke, adding that neither trump nor hillary clinton have set a good example. senator ayotte has avoided officially endorsing trump for president but has said she will vote for her party's nominee. heather: a wild scene when an apparent gas leak causes two homes to explode as firefighters and utility officials looked on. it happened this morning in paterson, new jersey, two multi-family houses were instantly reduced to rubble

arrived to investigate a reported gas leak. amazing, no one was injured in the explosion. >> they could hear the gas coming out. obviously, they did a rapid evacuation, as safely and efficiently as they can. they called for public service to respond to the scene. at approximately 9:24, the service was oe says the exact cause of that last is under investigation. -- that blast is under investigation. ed: pope francis making a surprise visit to a region of italy devastated by a massive earthquake last august. he spoke with residents and prayed silently amid the rubble. the pope said he wanted to come sooner, but didn't want to interfere with rescue and recovery efforts. nearly 300 people were killed, thousands left homeless when the quake struck central italy. just getting started now at 4:30 now. a fallen tennis star gets a bit of reprieve. an update on the case of maria

wildfires continue to plague the west. the evacuations in colorado. ed: and a health scare for actor ben stiller. the medical test that he says saved his life. a.j.: all eyes are still on matthew. we will be talking about this for the next several days. the impact in the caribbean is profound, but here, big questions remain. heather: newscenter 5 for up-to-the-minute on hurricane track on hurricane matthew.

>> wednesday morning on newscenter 5's eyeopener, locking in the holiday plans for less. >> experts reveal the best time to book the getaways. >> tracking the impact of hurricane matthew and our improving forecast wednesday at 4:30 a.m. fios is not cable. we're wired differently. so we wired the wagner's house with 100 meg internet. she can use fios to download the movie "up in the air" to watch while she's...up in the air. that's the power of fiber optics. and right now get our best offer ever, super fast 100 meg internet, tv and phone for just $69.99 per month online. cable can't offer internet speeds this fast at a price this good.

announcer: you're watching newscenter 5 at 4:30. ed: let's check the traffic. the bridge going through town, let's check drive times. we will begin at the split. 31 minutes from mass avenue. 128 south is slow into wellesley. slow to the polls, and -- the tolls. 495 south is a little slow. heather: wildfires continue to wreak havoc out west.

than 1,000 people have been evacuated from their homes. strong winds, and bone dry conditions fueling the fire that covers more than 3,000 acres. ed: every time i look at that storm, you can see the intensity and the size. it is incredible. a.j.: it is. we focus a lot about the center of this. i want to put this into a little perspective, for anyone interested in this area. past 12 hours or so. you will see some colors in here. this inner circle indicates the radius of hurricane force winds around the center. still down toward port-au-prince. the western tip of haiti, still getting hurricane force winds, which will be subsiding slowly over the course of this evening on the south side of the center of circulation. this yellow line here is

bahamas already. this is a large storm, and it has a wide breadth in terms of the rain and wind impacts from the system. even though it doesn't necessarily make landfall in florida, as the current thinking may be still some pretty decent impacts going on throughout the ? state -- sunshine state. hurricane matthew with winds of 145 miles per hour any minute now for the 5:00 advisory. it is moving north at 10 miles per hour. the track takes it through the bahamas, into south or north carolina by saturday. then toward us potentially on sunday. i want to draw your attention to the fact that this is a very wide expanse. this could be down here, and could also be up here. more than likely, my gut is telling me this might be a little bit on the eastward side

don't hold me to that, but i'm thinking that perhaps we may see a recurve to the south of new england. i don't want to write anything off at this point or discourage you from monitoring the forecast, because we will still have an impact from the system. here's a look at the model runs from early this morning. you can see an orange, they were clustered pretty well moving into north carolina. let's take a look at the yellow lines. these are the morning runs. again. for the past 24 hours, the whole storm has trended west. for the daytime runs, that westward cluster taking it up into the carolinas, and up toward new england. watch the spread appeared. anywhere from new york, out to the sea. anything is possible at this point. right now, it is 59 in worcester, and we have had

we are looking at a storm system in the pacific northwest. this is some of the energy that will try to take the storm out to sea, or try and grab it and move it up the eastern seaboard. there are so many moving parts to the forecast, that it is impossible to tell with any degree of certainty how this will pan out. most tonight, 40's inland. 50's classic attempt town. partly cloudy. tomorrow, high-pressure moving southward, that should equal out to another nice day. seven day all week long, little bit of patchy fog or low cloudiness tomorrow morning. we go back to sunshine a little more quickly than today. it will be equal near the coast line. thursday, same story. partly to mostly cloudy skies. friday looking good. we continue to watch the potential impact from matthew later this weekend. i will have updated numbers since the 5:00 advisory is due any minute.

months today. this means the russian tennis star can come back in april and return to grand slam play at the french open. sharapova, a five-time grand slam champion and former no. one player in the world. she appealed the suspension imposed by the international tennis federation. a tennis panel had found that she took a substance for the purpose of enhancing her performance. the suspension is now down to 15 months. heather: now to your health. october 2 through the 8th is mental health awareness week. it is a time to shine a light on the struggles, and to replace stigma with understanding. government health data shows one in five americans live with a mental illness. that is 50 million people. a mental illness may result from a traumatic experience, genetics, a life event, or a stressful job. and they can impact thinking, feeling, and behavior. the most common disorders are depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety, dementia, and schizophrenia. researchers say about half of people with chronic mental

by the age of 14, but teenage behaviors can mask traits of various conditions. experts say early signs can include, pulling away from family and friends, feeling extreme highs or lows, sleeping too much or too little, feeling helpless, substance abuse and suicidal thoughts. these disorders can be serious and require medical treatment. the key to getting better is getting educated, getting proper care, and fighting the stigma. revealed he was diagnosed and treated for prostate cancer. he credits his doctor with saving his life because he gave him the prostate specific antigen test, or psa test, during an annual physical. that test has its critics with some doctors questioning the results. stiller, however, is a big proponent, and wants more men to know about the test. heather: apparently, it was quite an aggressive form of prostate cancer, so it is very

and for u.s. retailers, 20% of the entire year's sales happen during the holiday season. heather: how many days until christmas? usually you know it by now. so how are things shaping up this year? coming up, the new prediction just out today. but first let's flash forward to 5:00 with ben and j.c. reporter: at 5:00, a convicted murderer making his third attempt at parole. j.c.:j.c.: the man serving a life sentence in the murder of a salem woman goes before the board. em shellfish harvested in maine. the toxin discovered that can cause brain damage. j.c.: preparing for the playoffs. the red sox back at it at

ed: checking your economy now at 4:30. southwest airlines offering up some round-trip fares under $100. heather: but you have to act fast on this one, the sale is only up for 72-hours. the lowest fares are on some of

for instance, a round-trip, boston-to-baltimore for $82. the sale covers travel from november 30 to december 20, and january 4 to february 15. and yes, there are restrictions. ed: i noticed the holidays are not in there. americans traveling to great britain are going to get more bang for the buck. the pound hit a 31-year-low against the dollar today. economists putting the blame on brexit. since the vote to leave the european union, the pound has dropped 15%. 81 days. the upcoming holiday season -- shopping season is expected to be a solid one. the national retail federation is predicting a 3.6% increase in sales. the figure is much higher than the 10-year-average of a 2 1/2% hike. -- 2.5% hike. if the prediction is right, that would mean consumers would be spending nearly $656 billion on holiday-related items.

coming up, a story we're still trying to make cents of. heather: we will take you to north carolina, where a man has decked out his suv, in pennies. we promise you'll be be-dazzled. but first, let's check the

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ed: look very closely at this video. you could say this suv is money, because it is. a north carolina man covered his 2000 chevy blazer with pennies. 51,000 of them. heather: you can see a couple of them popping up. apparently it makes perfect , cents to larry hall, the owner. better than keeping them in a

ed: there's another one. i will spare you the math. 51,000 pennies sounds like a lot but it is $510. heather: that's it? we need to get rid of the penny. ed: now that we have ended that on a mutual note, we have newscenter 5 starting. >> we will talk about the potential impact and the timing. heather: the overturned canoe sparking a massive search. ed: tom brady's message for david ortiz as the red sox get ready for a playoff run. >> from boston's news leader, this is wcvb newscenter 5 at 5:00. ed: off the top at 5:00, tracking hurricane matthew. the category four storm not weakening after hitting haiti,

heather: this satellite photo of the storm captured by nasa shows matthew as he made landfall earlier near les anglais, haiti. good evening, i'm j.c. monahan. ben: i'm ben simmoneau. stormteam 5 is keeping a close eye on matthew tracking the potential impact on us. aj burnett has the latest. aj? aj: the 5:00 numbers just came out about 30 seconds before we went on the air. it has ten i mean minuscule change, down to 140 miles per hour. the pressure is holding steady. basically this has not lost a whole lot of steam. it's possible that it loses a little bit more power as it moves over the eastern tip of cuba but there is not much landed to weaken the storm system. one hundred 40 mile-per-hour wind is moving north at nine miles per hour.