>> good evenening, i'm jennnnifer leigh. >> i'm josh benson. thanks for being with us toninight. a strong storm that may y have been a tornado caused damage in south florida. here is video showing the roof blowing off of a bubuilding in broward college. it picked up a car and tossed it from the florida a turnpike to the northbound lanes.

details of the storms. >> t the showers anand thunderstorms have been heaviest acrcross south florida. a a reported tornado did d some damagege. we have been talking about this severe weather threat during this el nio phase. you cacan see most of ththe cloudy skies around the bay area. that isis a viewew there from new port richey. some of ouour locations have reported over an inch of rarain. a good trail of clouds and showers. you can see it primarily south of i-4. there is a cold front draped across the northern part of the state. we cacan see a wind shift now. the rainin continues to surge up from south to o north as it has been doing. you can see the reports s of a torn, coconut creek is where the touchdown occurred. . it is estimated toto be ef1 strength which is very strong for florida with up to 100 miles an hour wiwinds. typically usual florida tornadoes are less than 100 mimiles an hour wiwinds and don't t stay on the ground veryry long.

that was the assessmement from the miami national weather service. you can n see heavieier areas s of showers in the yellow. not much in the way of thunderstorms but a stray lightntning strike or two o not impossible. i mentioned the northern spotots are drier. that is our better chance of seeing heavierer weather would d be generally to the south. south of sarasosota cocounty. that is the ararea wewe are tatalking abouout here. wewe are looking at a much cooler weekend ththat we will talk about coming up. >> t thanks steve. >> and you can track the weather any time using our storm team 8 weather mack apapp. yoyou can fifind it at the app store. an ex-boyfriend is accused of committing a crime.e. joe panarisi is in jail. we have have an update on this story.

the crimes shook the nerves of the people in this gagated commununity. but they feel better knowing g this accuseded attacker is in the slammer. >> i'm surprised. we moveded hehere to be safe. and now, this happppens. so ... you never know. you just never know. >> reporter:r: tense times s for neighbhbors as they wondered whwhat happened to the hohome. linda phelps say the accused attacker minutes before the e attack. >> it was just a few w minutes later ththat my husband walked past the house and saw them he called 91911. >> repoporter: tuesday afternoon, numerorous 911 calls brought hernando county deputies to this home in a gated d community in silvererthorn. they founund kathlene perkrkins wiwith severe injuries. they learned the attacker idenentified as joseph panarisi ran from the home wiwith the daughter in hot pursuit.

to cross the e sun coast parkway. hehe alalso attacked samanthaha. a medical chopper air lifted both to a nearby hospital. they are expected toto survive. nobody answered d the door at his house. neighbors call him guseppe. >> it was s scary but i knew itit was dodomestic. i knew it wasnsn't somebody coming to rob us all or kill us all. >> reporter: others are acured this crime is ouout of the ordinary. >> i loveve the community. it is a great community. >> it is super great. >> we don't have any of the problems of ththe outside and we have, you know, a lot of great neigighbors. >> reporter: sure of thatat. in about a half hourur, representatives frfrom the hernando couounty sheriff'f's office will meet wiwith neigighbors in ththe community center. the plan is to let them know what will l happen. >> what kind of charges are we talking about for this guy?

is a home invasision robbery and two counts of aggravated babattery with a weapon. so, he is going to be inin the slammer for a while facing s some veryry serious chargeges. >> all right, thank you peter. we appreciate it. . new detailils about what hahappened the night a memega yayacht sank off the coast of fort lauderdale. >> mayay day, we are sinking, we are sinknking. >> the trouble begagan shortly after leavaving fort lalauderdale bounund for the e bahamas. water bebegan flooding ininto the passenger quarters. the yacht was going down fast. >> there was too much wawater. we had a pump. but,t, it couldn't't keep up with it.

no way to get the water out so they abandoned ship with everyone safely in life rafts, the boat sank. . the coast guard d rescued everyone in the life raft and took themem back to store. a driverer is accused of causing multiple crashes headed the wrong way on a divided highway for eight miles in orlando. two drivivers crashed trying to avoid the car. fortunately nobody was hurt. but that 78-year-old's license has been recocommended for re- examination. more troubles for nick carter ofof the backstreet boys who a bar ownener claims he attacked. he pleaded not guilty. >> a florida standards assessments test gogot off to a rocky start and faced plenty of criticism as matt galka explains, one lawmwmaker wants to

>> reporter: there wawasn't much of a honeymoooon phase for the florida asassessments. a rocky start with glitchches and calls to reduce the e amount of testing didn't win many pepeople over. . senator don n gates is proposing an alternative. >> we know we could be eleliminating testing like this. . we have lessss time testing. more time teaching, more validated assessment, nationally respected tests. and, a way, frankly, for student toto be able to use ththose results for cocollege and career readiness in a way that i think is advantatageous. >> reporter: but antitesting critics were noted satisfied.d. ththe florida citizezen's alliance says the proposal dodoesn't fix the main problems. >> this just puts a new caboose on the sasame run away frfreight traiain called commmmon core and itits high stakes testing g and curriculum. > reporter: gates says he

>> if you want to refer r to the fsa, not t your bill. if you don't likeke tests with consequences or measuremenents with results, this isis not your bill. >> repororter: the bill clcleared the first senate commmmittee unananimously. matt galka, newschannel8l8. > gates talkeded to colleagues s in the florida house about filing the bill, but nothing was s filed before this session begagan. well, gambliling at seminole tribe casinos is up for debate at the capitol. it is s uncertain n if lawmakers will take e up a bill but if they dodo, one senator plans to offer a consnstitutional amendment legalizing slots anand putting the money toward rereducing property taxes. >> my plplan is for the revenue ofof thesese addiditional gaming to go toward drastically reducing it and in someme cases eliminating propertyty taxes. i want that question to go in

anand again, local referendndums to be passed within those commmmunities. > the senator's plan wowould relieve the tribe from any payments to the state. also before gambling coululd occur in any one e county, a second vote would have to approve. >> well, a road test scheduling nightmarare. >> why hihillsborough county residents are having to wait longer than other drivers. >> and,d, an unplanned slumber party sesends an elderlrly woman intoto a panic. the e strange creature she found snsnoozing on her chesest coming up. another day, another stray. what they told 8 8 on your side

>> well, a a flororida woman got

up with h a ststrange ananimal on her chest. a crazy story, a kinkajou somemehow made its s way into her home and sat on her while e she slept. it is an adorable animal. but no matter what kind of animal it is, it is the middle ofof the night anand that could freaeak out anyone. >> shehe opens her eyes and sees an animal laying ththere. i guess she thought it was a cat, but once theyey got a a look at each other, both of ththem screamed. bothth of ththem ran. >> i can justst imagine. the animal is ususually found in central and soututh america. but it was being kept as a pet. somehow it must have escaped from i its owner. >> wow. no. actress jamie lynn sigler is talking more about t her battle with multiple sclerosis. shshe appeared onon today y and

battle a secret 15 years and why she is opening up now. >> one of the first t people i told was an industry professional. they said i will prefend you didndn't tell me that. . don't tellll anyone. people willll limit you, judge you, andnd they wowon't hire you.u. and i thought i took that advice. i was 20 years s old, i was s scared and i ththought that was the bebest thing. >> she decicided to reveal her secret now w because she e dodoesn't want her son to grow up feeleling he has to keep a a sesecret for her and also to show him strength. you can n take hohome arnold schwarzenegger's truck.k. it is made by mercedes. nine feet tall and weigighs six tons. no word on how many mile to the gallonon it gets but arnold autographed it before selling it to the texas s auto ship in houston.

wendy's is investigating rereport of ununusual activity on dedebit and crcredit cards used in its restaurants. they warn customers to watctch for any strange chararges on the cards they have used at wendy's. they have laununched a full investigation. hillllsborough cocounty resisidents have to wait longer than other drivers to schedule their road tests. bay area county w with the most drdrivers has the leleast number of testing g lolocations. just one. . newschannel8's g gene ramirez z did sosome digging and d fofound ouout that is by design, but does it work? >> it is just like clock workrk. >> reportrter: heath's son got his license fast, though scheduling the test tooook a long time. >> about a momonth. >> i just checked a few daysys ago. couldn't find anything on the hillsborough calendar through march. then i chececked pinellasas county

within a matter of days. polklk county, a mamanner of weeks. >> a month versus two or three days? >> actually, you know, we arare going to expand the e appointmtments and you will see that when we open back up in august. >> reporterer: they claim a future expansion of the single testing location willll offefer more than the 120 daily appointments now available. third party y vendors are also looked a at but no additional locations. they believe itit is safe tore e keep the tests on this track. still, unwilling to wait, some are heheading to neighboring countieses for these serviceses. polk county's tax collector says thatat accounts for 10% % of his customers. >> it is a concern. the overhehead of the offifice is paid through the commissions we receive.

polk county isis limititing the number of nonresidents served there. as for the newly licensed, the focus shifts when they get what they have been waiting fofor. i'm gene ramirez, newschannnnel8. >> the state gigives them a fraction of the license fees. they agree it would help if they gotot more money from the statate. >> the e view from sun city center looks overcast. got this thing g goining. we have it going now. 67 degreeees the current temp. eaeast wind at 3 mileles an hour. you can see the e overcast conditionsns. and that is still in place, seven tenths of an inch of rain. showers and the possibility of seeing shohowers in the forecast. they will lingnger. not expecting g a lot of clear

on tomorrow, we will ststart to break out the clclearer skies but the rain continues, a good solid streak of it from brevard county all the way down to sarasota couounty on the west coast. brevard county on the east coast. a gogood mix of light, moderate, heavy rain. still some good downpours. we have talked abobout the southern sections getting a better chance of showers.s. there is a cold front t to ththe north here. the drier conditions and the wind shifts hahave already occurs but rain can lift yoyour way. it is the greater amount across southern areas. fofor this evening temperature ins the upper 60s . tetemps just won't change too much. largely becaususe the humidity is too high. when youou go outside, you can feel ththe extra a humidity inin the atmosphere. 68 degrees in the afternoooon for r tomorrowow. mostly cloudy skies. still the possibilitity of rain, especially the first t half of ththe day. 68 degrees nonow, tatampa internationanal airport.

we have 63 in saint petersburgrg. 97% relatitive humimidity. it is not hotterer because it is not summerertime. all you have to do is switch the wind direction in florida and we make the changes quickly. dew points verery close to the air temp. when you get these two together, they have saturation. high above in the atmosphere, that bright grgreen color indicates moisture in the mid and upper levels of the atmosphere. so, , we still have rain that can be gegenerated. the result of an area of low pressure near the boundaryry in the forecast area the next 1 12 hours and the rain shshield goes alall the way across the state and of course we talked about ththe severe weather that occurred across ththe southeast floridida. as for the spc storm, prediction center says a a marginalal risk. the southern areas. bright green spotsts, a better chance ofof seeing severe weather.

the greater chance wouldld be to the south. in the forecast, a few showers still around in the morning hours. rained all night last night in many areas. the front will be moviving south as the frfront continue to push well down to the south. that is when the clearing takes place. it will be chilly for the e weekend. friday, saturday, sunday, especially in the mornrning. beautiful day for gagasparilla and the winds will be lighter. this eveningng plan on the possibility of seeingng a light to moderate shower. 63 degrees fofor friday. morere sunsnshine certainly. but coolerer in the morning hours. 47 degreeses to start the day there fofor saturdayay morning. 50 degrees susunday momorning. 76 on monday. then warming upper 70s for tuesday. so, we contininue to take the roller coaster ride.

expensive tickcket that nenever ends because the tempereratures are e up and down. >> it is for sure. ththank you steve. a moment of heroics may have saved a a truck driviver's life during the massive snowstorm last weekend. >> we will show you the moment caught on camera, plus, a planan to stop niagara fafalls from falling. that's in the works. why officicials want to o halt the

>> n now what is makingng headlines across america? discussions are underway to temporarily turnrn the raging water of niagara fafalls into a a trickle. it is part of a plan to replace 115-yeyear-old bridges n near the falls. it would reducece the flow o on the americanan side of the falls and redirecting ththe niagara river to the canadianan side. intereststing. a fire destroyed a building in downtown new orleans.s. firefighters battled flames to keep them from spreadiding to otheher buildings.s. one personon was in the billing at the time bubut was able to escape sasafely. several blocksks of canal street were closed. cause of the fifire isis still under investigation. locked arm in arm, complete strangerers formed a a human chain n to save a man's s lilife. a truck driver had lost control of h his rig on the pennsylvanania turnrnpike during a winter storm.

his ststruck ended d upup dangling off the highghway. the drdriver was hurtrt. a grououp of pepeople jumped in to help. >> i didn't hearar anyone from the top of the hill say anything. i didn't't hear anyone come up with a plan. i i just saw it happen. looked like just this spontaneous instinctive thing that everyone jujust started hookining their arms together. i knew i had to get t a a picture. i wanted to rememberer this. because thisis is amazing. this is inspiring. >> lolots of good peopople out there. the driver wasas taken toto an area hospital. hehe is expected to be okay. >> good to see ththat. newschannel8 at 6:00 is coming up next. >> stacy and keith are here with w what we are working on. > most of us have pets at home. love them like family. >> butut what about hillsborough cocounty 8 on your side finds ananother case of the coununty refusing to accept stray pets. instead telling the public toto do what you have to do and lelet them go. >> plus, vivictims of the tornado that roared through sarasota

problems in ththeir cleanup. anand ... >> just in time for gasparilla, a new w seservice is launching in tampa bay that works just like ububer and lylyft except for boats. details on how you can use it coming up. >> those stories plus your storm team 8 forecast anand

>> right now on newschannel8 at 6:00. >> ten days after tornadoes ripped apart bay area homes, owners are running into big trouble repairiring the damage. >> plus, pets are e being abrandonned and the county is doing lilittle to nothing to stop it. 8 on your sidede investigates another case.

to move the rays across the bay