right now on news channel 8 at 5:30. into rivers. this impact of the tropical storm hermine is being felt. tonight we have team coverage from the hardest hit communities. >> good evening. >> thanks for being with us tonight. a state of emergency is in effect as we track tropical storm hermine. thousands across florida and the eastern seaboard are

state of emergency. several parts of florida are feeling the effects. we are feeling intense flooding after one day of rain. more rain is on the way. let's go to steve in the forecast center. what can you expect tonight and tomorrow morning? >> on and off heavy rain and tropical downpours and sometimes little breaks in the rain. the rain continues for the next several days and as we get to friday, especially, and la westerly wind that causes concern for coastal flooding as well as interior bay. we've already seen flooding with the heavy rain fall and 6 inches plus in some areas today. let's take a look what the we see outside. you can see a familiar scene working on two inch of rain at the tinland location. as i mentioned, quiet a bit more than that on coastal spots. that orange strip is a tropical

say trust and pascoe county. friday at 2:00 a.m. would be the approximate time for land fall. it could strengthen into a hurricane land fall still. it's in a better environment in the next 36 hours and could strengthen. tropical storm warning, pascoe, and hurricane watch along the coastal areas. look at the moisture on the east side flowing across the state of florida and that's exactly where we're located and why we'll keep rain chances the next couple of days. there you'll see an organized system and thunderstorm activity as we see the storm close off around the center of area of low pressure. that tells the story. the familiar scene throughout the day. showers and occasional thunderstorms but tropical downpours over areas that have already flooded. that will continue now for the next day and a half on and off.

plus in some areas. >> slow storm. 7 miles an hour. we'll check back in about 15 minutes. thanks. >> as we mentioned right now, the if he cans of tropical storm hermine are felt across the state. this is a live look at a flooded out mobile home park. paul is on the scene right now and paul, what can you tell us from your vantage point? reporter: we're down here in the mobile home park right off state road 70 is the shallow part. the water gets up and into many of the homes and the roads are mostly impassable. as you go back, it gets more and more flooded. i'm going to move over here and talk to one of the residents. sir, what is your name, please? >> david. reporter: david, tell me how bad it is.

totally overcome and the river here has come and they have met together and the water is really up to porch. reporter: you can't get your cars in or out? >> no, we're stuck. reporter: what do you do now? sit and wait? more rain is coming. >> we sit and wait and pray to god, you know, i don't know, we're lost for words right now. our houses are being taken. reporter: good luck to you and we'll be here around check in with you as the reporter: steve, let me take you back over here, this is the worst of the area back down this street. as you can see the water is deep up over my boots and there are officers down here blocking so people cannot get in. what we're going to do is after the live shot, i'm going to see how far back i can get and i'll check back with you later, jenn, back to you. >> certainly, give our best to

voice describing the scene. paul, we'll check back with you later in our newscast. we appreciate it. team coverage continues in polling county where the impact is not expected to be as great as the coastal areas. news channel 8 continues team coverage with why emergency responders say this is a good reminder to be prepared. reporter: good evening. we're told a majority of people experienced hurricane char ily. a good question, are people prepared if this storm would be headed toward polling county. back in 2004 mother nature took aim and hit lake wells with a one, two, three punch. at the emergency operation center in polk county, this map

>> people who were here and experienced it remember how bad it can be. when i go to talk to groups, i say don't take it from me because i'm going to be there to get prepared, talk to your neighbors who lived through it. reporter: back then vfw post2420 was used as a shelter. jerry phillips remembers it like it was yesterday. >> we lost our back porch, trees down. we were without power 15 days. reporter: with every story comes a lesson. you can never become too prepared. >> people can't get to you, you can't get out and there's nowhere for you to go if you could get out. reporter: if you want to prepare, we have a list of sandbag locations listed on the web site. news channel 8.

florida power and light invested billions to prepare for tropical weather and thanks to new smart meters they're able to detect and repair power outages quickly. they've installed concrete poles that are able to withstand the winds. they're now using drones to survey damage to the poles to quickly determine what's wrong. >> our tropical coverage continues throughout our newscast tonight and on latest weather alerts and see pictures and video from storms across the bay area. >> final good-bye. one of tampa's most respected religious leaders was laid to rest today. he founded st. lawrence catholic church in tampa and well known and loved in the bay area. in the pouring rain thousands

carter attended the service and he was joined live at the search that was founded. >> good afternoon. higgins did a lot for the tampa bay community. i think the rain is a metaphor to the sadness people felt. on the flip side there was sadness and also a bit of joy. memorable tributes including his nephew telling the congregation his uncle was an avid sportsman who left ireland and his love for daily football. >> this up and coming sports star was intended to become a priest.

god but god chooses you. >> he was well known to the tampa bay buccaneers. the head coach spoke to great admiration not about sports but the love for the community. >> the governor spoke with me earlier telling me higgins was more than just a priest. >> the catholic religion, he's basking in the religion. he said there's one coach that never last again.

prayed for the tampa bay buccaneers in 2003 before they went on the field and won th super bowl. they have created a jersey with his name and the numb one on the back and that's going to be hanging here. jenn. >> what a wonderfuand worthy celebration of his life. thank you, rod carter live. we areciate it. >> and we have so breaking news now on tropical hermine. we're going to jump back to storm reports. we're getting reports on intense flooding. peter, looks to me, seems like a river behind you. what's the latest? reporter: you might call it a river there, josh but this is 5th street west in bradenton and it's been innovated with rain fall. we drove down here moments ago and i counted at least a dozen cars flooded out. some have their emergency

their batteries and electrical systems aren working. our live truck has a very high area, we were creeping along and worried that the water was going to get into our live truck as well. as we were coming down here, a lot of people were standing around in their cars up to the axle and beyond. if you look real carefully, that's the kind of car that stalls out. i'll be really surprised if she makes it through there. as i say, there's a you saw paul's report. he's about two or three minutes from us. this is an area that's been saturated, innovated and flooded with the rain water. again, on fifth street west. you can see on the background, they start to go slow and the car konks out and there's nowhere to go. that's an expensive repair job. we're going to have more on

tonight. >> you don't want that person to keep driving. that is not good to see that. as you can see a parking lot out there. enough people have tried and failed to get through that area. a great report. we're going to check back with you later. appreciate that update. >> children ripped off. a woman is accused of stealing tens of thousands from the gi

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. welcome back. you wonder who would do something like this. a woman is accused of stealing about $85,000 from the girl outs.

how authorities believe he was able to funnel money meant for the girls. >> good evening. this is just a horrible story. the money officials say this woman stole was raised by these girls and suppose to go towards field trips and community service projects. for the past 10 years stephanie person worked for the girl scouts of gulf coast florida and handled the money earned by the girls. the job was to disperse it to more bay area. >> deputies say for about eight months she put some of those funds into an unused account and paid herself. it totaled around $85,000. >when she realized how easy it was, she kept doing it. it was like an addiction. >> person confessed to the

>> she had to use it for living expenses and was buying scratch off lottery tickets. >> the organizations ceo was blind sided. >> as girl scouts, we're teaching our girls to be honest and fair and it is disappointing that we're upholding a mission and this could occur. >> officials say there were safe guards in place but person was crafty. they've hired placing stricter controls. she was booked at jail and faces multiple felony charges. reporter: the ceo told me the money meant to go to the troops was given back to them and they're working to recover all the funds stolen by this woman. reporting in -- reporting in sarah so at that, john roberts.

since midnight. over 3-inch of rain at freedom plaza. the downpour coming into the county as well. over 2.5 inches of rain. 75 degrees, keep in mind we're going to get more rain. this is piling on top of the already saturated ground. that's where our flooding comes into the picture the next couple of days and of course, the coastal flooding we keep talking about. 80 degrees sitting temperatures. they're dropping quietit a bit of a mud fest or rain fest going on tonight. next radar north to south you can see the rain a little heavier block lifting right now. you can see the bright red in the eastern sections. this stretches up mostly light to moderate stuff. clear patches here too.

county shower activity lifting from the south west to the north. still, you can't see some rain. back to the west you can see how this continues to regenerate. just watching these showers throughout the day carrying its own energy and shooting it on shore with additional heavy rain. that's why we have more rain in the forecast. they'll go on for a period of time. it's likely we'll get heavy rain. estimates, doppler radar 7-8 inches of rain possible. rain temperature showers occur that can cause local flooding. 75 degrees at the airport.

of mexico where the radar can see the moisture streaming across the sunshine state taking aim at the west coast of florida. you can see how far into the gulf this extends which is why we recall for more rain in the forecast. tropical storm warning in place. they go through the big bend. a the record rain sometime friday, 2 a.m. this can change and likely will. we're out of the cone of error. that's going to cause problems with the high tide. it's somewhere about midday or so from 11:00 a.m. to 1 p.m.

saturday and sunday you can see 50-40% chances and we start to normalize and the system moves ai what. tomorrow is the day where additional rain fall is possible and additional flooding and of course, watching the tides thursday, friday and on into saturday too. a lot of war, i think that's going to be the legacy for this one in the bay area. >> that's unfortunate for so many so water logged after this one day of rain. >> exactly. >> thank you. >> two men trapped on a jetty waiting for help. and strong waves to rescue them. >> wow. remember, you can join jenn, julie and me every night from 8:00 to 9:00.

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. a crime of passion and awful random aiding and abetting. a woman was caught on camera setting a man's honda civic on fire. she stuck a rag in a gas tank, lit it and threw paper on it for good measure, walked off and got on her bike and took off. the owner of the car says he does not recognize the woman. investigators are not sure if it might be a case of mistaken identity. if you have any information you are asked to call the police.

lines across america. an amazing rescue. two people stranded on a jetty in new york. high tide in the rocks and breezy point jetty vanishing below the waves. they put a harness on both of them news channel 8 at 6:00 is next. >> here easy live look now at ta we're going to show you how the rain is impacting the whole area. >> plus the water starting to rise. we're going to have a live report where we're getting reports of rescues from flood waters. >> residents dealing with major flooding issues. >> why didn't the city pour the 35 million for the new park into something a little less touchy feelly like storm water

. good evening. >> thank you for joining us tonight. the storm was upgraded to a tropical storm hermine this

getting the brunt of the heavy rain so far. >> penela and a number of other school districts decided to close tomorrow. including usf. we have that information scrolling across the bottom of your screen. let's go to steve. he's in the forecast center. we've seen a lot of rain today and we're going to see more of it. >> and this evening too including the buck's game. additional rain over the areas that have flooded. you can see the rain coming do part of the county. 76 degrees and overcast. almost 3- inches of rain and the coastal areas have seen them added up. hermine was upgraded to a tropical storm at 40 miles an hour. at 5:00 p.m. it had 45-mile per hour winds after hurricane hunter aircraft determined they saw stronger wind gust at the center of the storm itself. still quiet a bit of dry air