good morning. breaking news. hurricane hermine slams into florida overnight bringing pouring rain, driving wind and violent surf. now a tropical storm passing over florida and then heading straight up the east coast just we're live inside the storm zone. >> explosion. investigators trying to figure out why that spacex rocket blew up on the launch pad incinerating a $200 million facebook satellite. this mng why the accident isn't just a major setback for facebook but for the future of

controversial release. outrage as brock turner is set to be freed from jail in a matter of hours just three months after being convicted of sexual assault as we get an exclusive first look at photos taken of turner the night of his arrest. and star spangled controversy. nfl quarterback colin kaepernick refuses to stand for the national anthem again this time during a tribute to the military. the crowd reacting instantly. but kaepernick isn't backing down and you might be surprised by who's standing by him, "today," friday, september 2nd, 2016. >> announcer: from nbc news, this is "today" with matt lauer and savannah guthrie live from studio 1a in rockefeller plaza. good morning, everyone. welcome to "today" on this

a lot of people. we're going out in style with great concert out on the plaza. >> if you have to say good-bye to summer, this is the way to do it. alicia keys will be on our plaza. >> we'll get music in before the weather turns bad. that's our top story. hermine slamming into the florida coast making landfall overnight. watches and warnings extend from e the east coast this morning. we've got you covered from all angles and we'll get to al's forecast in just a moment. but let's begin with nbc's gabe gutierrez in the storm zone. gabe, good morning to you. >> reporter: matt, good morning. the water here much calmer than it was a few hours ago as hermine roared through making landfall to our east. many parts of florida's gulf coast are flooded this morning and almost 200,000 people are

states. overnight hurricane hermine slammed into florida's panhandle packing winds of up to 80 miles an hour. this morning storm surge and the possibility of isolated tornadoes even as hermine is downgraded to a tropical storm. >> this is life threatening. >> we're going to lose a power line here. >> the system knocking out power to tens of thousands. and flooding neighborhoods along florida's gulf coast. >> he's got it. >> reporter: near appalachicola -- >> it's hard to pack up and leave. this is home. >> reporter: the last hurricane to strike florida was in 2005. a powerful category 3 storm that killed five people.

parts of georgia and north carolina under a state of emergency. dangerous rip currents expected through the holiday weekend. >> we're always worried, sure. yeah. you do what you can do. hope for the best. >> reporter: hermine is weakening as it's downgraded to a tropical storm. authorities in florida are assessing the damage as other states brace for impact. matt and savannah? >> gabe gutierrez, thanks a lot. >> let's find out where the storm is headed from here and al is at the weather wall tracking the latest path. good morning. >> good morning, guys. let's look live. st. simons island, georgia. the storm moved into southern georgia. the core of it. you can see the effects right now. the winds are howling. waves have come up and the rain is getting stronger and stronger there as well. look at the scope of this system right now. you can see the rain bands. we have tornado watches stretching from western florida

here's the latest on where the system is. hermine is 50 miles northeast of tallahassee. it's 70-mile-per-hour winds moving north-northeast at 14 miles per hour. the path of the system right now looks like this. we will see it continue inland through saturday afternoon. it comes off somewhere along the cape right along saturday afternoon. 45 miles per hour. here's the rest of the track. we're going to be talking about this system into the middle of next week. to the new jersey/new york shoreline. 60-mile-per-hour winds. it's just below a tropical strength system. we'll look at winds, rain, coastal beach erosion into next week. in the meantime, storm surges today, six to nine feet in the big bend area of florida. two to four feet around tampa and along the southeastern atlantic coast one to three-foot surges. we have a risk of tornadoes stretching from the carolinas

smaller in scale. we also have the risk of a lot of power outages. 12 million people at risk to lose power from florida into the carolinas and of course the rainfall is going to be a big issue. we're talking about some areas picking up five to ten inches of rain from georgia into southeastern virginia but the eastern carolinas, guys, could see rainfall 10 to 15 inches. rip currents are going to be a big problem up and down the eastern seaboard right said, beach erosion is going to be a big problem because the system will sit offshore into wednesday. >> we'll catch up with you more in a bit. >> doesn't it come at just the wrong time. people going on vacation. beaches closed up and down the east coast. let's go to morgan ratford. good morning to you. >> reporter: things are looking

long. we're expecting a double whammy to hit this weekend. you can see the red flags here behind me. this is here at point pleasant beach and along the coast where authorities are asking swimmers not to get in the water. they're also creating sand barriers along the coastline and here in point pleasant they're actually draining the lake just to keep the streets from flooding. i want to show you this map here. you can see these red arrows along the east coast from savannah, georgia, in the south all of the way up to nantucket. thiss extr careful if you are in fact planning to get into the water this holiday weekend because frankly those waters are dangerous. to give you a sense of just how dangerous, 36 people have already been rescued this week alone in this region and this is the same region that was devastated by superstorm sandy back in 2012. that's why people here are saying they are taking no chances this holiday weekend. matt? >> morgan, thank you very much.

major setback for spacex after its rocket exploded on the launch pad. this particular rocket was on a space book mission. nbc's tom costello covers all things space for us. good morning. >> this is a significant setback not just for spacex but for facebook. this was going to be a satellite inside this unmanned falcon 9 rocket that would bea access to africa. both companies are now trying to regroup. a jaw dropping sight. a spacex rocket exploding on the launch pad on thursday being swallowed hole in a matter of seconds. a series of explosions and massive plumes of thick, billowing smoke. the blast could be heard and felt for miles. even caught on weather radar. urgency on police dispatch radio. >> it's a rocket segment that

there's a pretty noxious smoke plume heading toward the beach. >> amazingly nobody was injured during this routine test going bad. the rocket was destroyed along with a special satellite. the mission was to bring the internet to parts of africa. mark zuckerberg said he's deeply disappointed. saturday morning. the cause is still unknown. >> wow. >> asspacex investigates what went wrong. the blast caused major damage. major damage to the spacex launch pad at cape canaveral. that could serious impact the company's upcoming satellite launch schedule. this is also a concern. this is the same type of rocket that will be used on futured manned missions.

tom costello, thank you. let us turn to politics now as donald trump heads from ohio to new york for a classified briefing from u.s. intelligence officials today. replacing him in that battleground state is vice president joe biden who is there stomping for hillary clinton and taking trump to task on a wide range of issues. hallie jackson has the latest. good morning. >> reporter: after the second intelligence briefing in a windy manhattan here, donald trump will focus on message to minority communities reportedly reaching out to african-american voters in philadelphia before that trip to detroit to a black church over the weekend. that trip is raising eyebrows with word it is scripted. all of it. as trump seems to shift on immigration yet again just a couple days after his tough talk, a softer tone. his new overtures now underfire as donald trump promises he can help african-american voters. >> give it to me.

>> reporter: ahead of his first ever trip to a black church in detroit this weekend, a new report paints a picture of a nervous campaign. a leaked script for trump's q and a session with an african-american pastor published by "the new york times." trump's answers apparently prepared in advance by advisers to keep him in check. hillary clinton's camp calling the trip a gimmick. trump working to win over more minority communities like hispanics and after dismissing speculation he would soften up on immigration, seeming to do just that, on whether to deport undocumented immigrants living here who haven't committed other crimes. >> we're going to get rid of all of the bad players that are here. after that takes place we'll sit back and assess the situation. we're going to see where we are. >> reporter: earlier this week at his big immigration speech -- >> you can't just smuggle in, hunker down, and wait to be legalized. >> reporter: trump's stance

founder of latinos for trump who raised eyebrows with this on msnbc. >> my culture is a very dominant culture. it's causing problems. if you don't do something about it, you'll have taco trucks on every corner. >> reporter: trump's 12th public event since mid august. six times as many as hillary clinton holding just two public events in the last two vice president joe biden on the trail instead pitching clinton but passing up the chance to vigorously defend her family foundation with nbc's kasie hunt. >> has the clinton foundation always been 100% ethical in your view? >> i think the clinton foundation like all foundations have found themselves in a position where changes are changing. i think she's going to change and adjust to the realities of how complicated it's all become.

quickly taking aim at that response from vice president biden arguing that it speaks volumes about what they call hillary clinton's terrible judgment. matt, savannah? >> all right. thanks very much. by the way, a look ahead next wednesday i'll sit down with hillary clinton and donald trump. it's part of our special commander in chief forum. it will be the first joint candidate event of the general election season on september 7th, 8:00 in the evening right here on nbc. simulcast samsung is recalling its galaxy note 7 after reports of the device catching fire while charging. the company says the batteries are to blame. that comes just a couple weeks after that phone's launch. samsung has told 2.5 million to date. it will take about two weeks to get replacements ready. now to growing outrage in

morning as former stanford university athlete brock turner is released from jail today having served just half of a six-month sentence for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman on campus. nbc's gadi schwartz has more on that. gadi, good morning. >> reporter: brock turner was eligible for release after midnight but it's most likely that he'll be released at daylight, first daylight here on the west coast just like everybody else. we're getting our first look at photographs of brock turner that were used as evidence in this case. exclusive pictures of brock turner obtained by nbc news show the former university swimmer disshelfled. his shirt torn after being tackled by two college students who saw him on top of his unconscious victim. these pictures taken four hours after turner was arrested for

female near a dumpster on the campus. if you saw her again, would you recognize her? turner responds, probably not. later in the tape turner says my intentions were not to try to rape a girl without her consent. i was just trying to hook up with a girl. after being asked if he knew where he and the victim were at the time of the incident turner simply says we were so drunk we didn't even know what we were on or where we were by. turner faced up to 14 years i prison for felony sexual assault but the judge sentenced turner to six months, which in california means three months for good behavior. the sentence caused a national firesto firestorm. over 2 million people coming out in support of the victim signing petitions to remove the judge from the bench. since then the judge has recused himself from criminal cases but has launched his own campaign to keep his position with a website asking for donations for his

he should stay. >> we need judges that are not making decisions based on fear or based on public opinion. >> turner is expected to return to a small town in ohio where even there some are concerned about his release equally outraged about the sentencing. >> quite frankly i think it's ridiculous that he didn't get a longer sentence. it's insulting to women that our judicial system doesn't take rape seriously. >> now 21, tr register as a sex offender for the rest of his life. turner will also be on probation for three years. most likely in ohio. we're also told he's been banned from swimming competitively as well as stanford's campus for the rest of his life. protests are scheduled here a little bit later today. matt and savannah? >> gadi schwartz, thank you. san francisco 49ers quarterback colin kaepernick is standing firm this morning in his highly controversial refusal

anthem. kaepernick's knelt during the anthem prompting both criticism and support from fans including veterans. >> reporter: good morning, savannah. the 49ers have just returned here to levi stadium after pulling off a win against the san diego chargers in a preseason game that was very tense because it was an annual salute to the li that did not change colin kaepernick's mind. he took a knee during the national anthem. ? and the rockets red glare ? >> reporter: a chorus of loud boos inside a packed stadium thursday night all directed at colin kaepernick as the national anthem began. kaepernick continuing his protest against racial injustice and police brutality by once again not standing during the

this time joined by a teammate. >> we have a lot of people that are oppressed. we have a lot of people that aren't treated equally. aren't given equal opportunities. police brutality is a huge thing that needs to be addressed. ? for the land of the free ? >> reporter: his statement in a stadium filled with military personnel and their families. >> for the troops that for to protect this nation, i think it's disrespectful. >> reporter: kaepernick says his critics don't understand his message. >> i realize that men and women of the military go out and sacrifice their lives and put themselves in harm's way for my freedom of speech and my freedoms in this country. >> reporter: kaepernick drawing criticism from the head of a police organization after photos surfaced of him wearing socks

pigs. kaepernick responded to the controversy on instagram saying he wore socks during practice last month because the rogue cops that are allowed to hold positions in police departments not only put the community in danger but also put the cops that have the right intentions in danger. and the quarterback says he plans to highlight the issue of racial injustice off the field as well. >> i'm currently working with organizations to be involved and making sure that i'm activelyn donating the first million dollars i make this year to different organizations to help these cni a help these people. >> reporter: kaepernick did stand during "god bless america" before the fourth quarter but he insists he'll continue not to participate in the national anthem until he sees what he calls substantial change and there may be a ripple effect happening here. another player on the seattle seahawks sitting out the

we'll have more coming up in the orange room. >> busiest guy on the set is this guy right here. what else do you have? >> there's a lot of parts of the country that are looking at decent weather. very nice in new england. in the northeast, we'll start off nicely. sunny and cool throughout the great lakes and into the mid mississippi and ohio river valleys but wet through southern texas into the southwest. we're also looking at showers in the pacific northwest as well.

>> that's your latest weather. coming up, melania trump fighting back. why she's filed a lawsuit. >> we'll find out what life is like for the infamous menendez brothers after 20 years behind bars. first on a friday morning, this

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good friday morning. >> it is 7:27. and we are track tropical storm hermine. it made land fall as a category one hurricane. >> yeah, but right now, it's downgraded to a tropical storm. and we want to check in with leigh spanfor the latest. >> that's right. it still a monaster storm. rain as far north as virginia and as far south as the central gulf of mexico. you mentioned the land fall. it made land fall at 1:30, 80 miles per hour which makes it the first land falling hurricane in florida since 2005, 11 years ago. and now we are dealing with the effects. even though the center is in georgia. it's this rain band that extends out into the gulf of mexico that is rotating through

rain band associated with a tropical storm, there say threat for tornadoes. just so much rotation in that band. and there's a tornado watch. until 8:00 this morning. for another half hour. citrus, hernando, pasco, pinellas and hillsborough and pass counties. and that's again still as the system rotates through. let me zoom in and show you where the rain. just getting some in citrus county. and now zephyrhills, wesley chapel, a lot le pasco county. and now heavy rain in downtown tampa through macdill air force base. and spotty showers in pinellas county. and now the heavier rain in hillsborough county has pushed into polk county. and now bartow, willow oak, lakeland, auburndale, not only heavy rain but gusty winds and lightning as well. and then farther south into bradenton, spotty heavy downpours and strong lightning strikes just offshore. and again, this is all rotating on shore.

2.3 inches of rain since midnight. and cloudy skies and wet roadways as we speak. wind speed, they'll play a big role in the forecast today, not only because they're strong coming out of the southwest anywhere from 15 to 20 miles per hour and gusting up to 30 miles per hour. but that strong wind coming off the gulf of mexico will push tides into the bay along the coast, higher than normal. and even low tide, it wi higher than normal, andser baiting the threat for flooding, especially during this afternoon during high tides and cup that will higher than average tides with more rain and flooding will be an issue today. 60% rain chance. about 60% chance tomorrow. and seeing more sunshine tomorrow before drying out towards labor day. >> all right. the roadways, a look at downtown tampa. got to say, school is out and also a lot of people aren't going into work. traffic is light, just dangerous because it's wet.

a good drive through downtown. not quite the same on the howard frankland bridge. very dark and also congested here. and just there's a travel advisories. you can see the water crashing up here on the side. be careful. and also the sunshine skyway bridge completely closed down. you have to take 75 instead. also southbound 301 just past 75, a collision in lanes. and no delays. not that many vehicles on the roadway. and bay shore boulevard is closed between plat and bay to bay. and then restricted on fell isle and shore acres due to flooding. that's a look at weather and traffic. and now back to gene and gayle. >> thank you. we want to check in with meteorologist ed bloodsworth. >> yeah, he's up on the roof top of the news center bringing us incredible images of downtown tampa and the tide is really high. >> reporter: yeah, no doubt about it. and right on queue, the rain started and we heard thunder and seen lightning off in the distance. so we are going to break it down for you. what's happening on the hillsborough river, now i'm

on the bridge over kennedy boulevard there. if you look at where the level is, this morning, it was sitting above that 12 marker. but it has now come down over the last couple hours so now we're getting into transitioning into the low tide cycle but the tidal flooding is going to be an issue into the rest of the day. a couple times i want to point out, 12:48 p.m. that's the next high tide on clearwater beach. and that's going to be followed at 3:18 p.m., th high tide that will start working through tampa bay and hillsborough bay and that could end up flooding bay shore this afternoon. and also, 3:19 p.m., that's when we will have the next high tide in st. pete along the pier. so again, as leigh was mentioning w the strong onshore flow, all tides, low and high, are going to be running above average here for the afternoon. that's going to lead to flood ago long the coast, flooding along communities near the

not the day to take the boat out. and keep an eye to the water rise. and make sure you take it easy. and stay inside. and make sure you listen for the alerts. and if you are told it's time to get out, heed those warnings. guys, back to you. >> absolutely. ed bloodsworth, thank you. and stay tuned to news channel 8. we will bring you updates all morning long. >> now back to the "today"

far as delays later on into the weekend. atlanta, windy. wet weather. tampa, of course, windy and storms. charlotte may see wind and rain. reagan national wind and rain and winds will pick up this weekend in new york city for the three major airports. we've also got another system out in the pacific and it is a powerful storm. this is hurricane lester. it's a currently it's 515 miles east of hilo. 115 miles per hour winds. it's moving west-northwest at 14. it stays to the north of all of the islands but it's still going to cause big waves, rain and possible beach erosion as well.

>> with everything going on, make sure you get your latest weather. go to the weather channel on cable. >> all right, al. thanks very much. still to come, second chance for second month if you let your new year's resolution fall by the wayside. an update on the notorious menendez brothers 20 years after one of the most sensational

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we're back now at 7:40. this morning an mendendez brothers. in 1989, their parents were murdered. >> a lot of us remember this case. the trial of the mendendez brothers was must-watch television at the time. they've been in prison for 20 years as they each serve life sentences. we get more now with their lives behind bars. >> what's the problem?

>> it was an instant headline maker. >> were they shot? >> yes. >> they were shot? >> yes. >> a beverly hills mansion turned into a murder scene. shot and killed in their family room. >> the first thing i noticed it was just eerie quiet. >> the detective called to the house in 1989. the case that would dominate his life for the next sevenye beverly hills. on top of that, two sons that murdered their parents. >> lyle and eric would be convicted of murder but in the hours after the shooting it was a true unsolved mystery. >> lyle didn't seem upset to me at all. he was matter of fact. he wanted to get things out of the house. >> did his reaction strike you as odd at the time. >> it struck me very odd,

responsible for this? >> at first i had no inkling at all. >> as for the mendendez brothers, a journalist interviewed them two months after the murder. >> they were full of stories about how loving and close knit the family was and how much they missed their mom and dad. >> at the time nothing seemed suspicious to you about them? >> no. >> soon detectives shifted their focu spending money like it was water. >> seven months into the investigation lyle and eric were arrested. prosecutors argued they killed their parents to get the family fortune while defense lawyers said it was self-defense motivated by a lifetime of abuse. >> my client, eric menendez was sexually molested by his father. >> the first trial in 1993 was a

trutv. the second trial starting in 1995 featured no cameras and one jury and this time the abuse evidence was not allowed and for six months they were both convicted of murder sentenced to life without parole served in different prisons. >> eric and lyle menendez have not seen each other since the day they were sentenced in 1996. they w other and they've been playing a chess match together where they make moves by mail. >> old fashioned mail, right? >> yep. >> he says he keeps in touch with the menendez brother and their families. eric has been maried to wife, tammy, for nearly 20 years. >> he started a hospice program. he's well liked by fellow prisoners. >> lyle is in his second marriage. >> you can get married over the

judge nancy brown performed a wedding ceremony over the phone. >> neither has children. eric's wife, tammy, explained in 2005. >> a kiss when you come in. a kiss when you leave. you can hold hands. that part of it is very difficult and people don't understand. >> during that same interview eric continued to defend himself on the i never was. it's not who i am. >> you killed your parents? >> that's true. but i'm not a murderer. >> the brothers who were 21 and 18 when their parents were murdered are now 48 and 45. the family home where the murders were committed has sold a few times. much like the o.j. simpson trial, the case of the menendez brothers endures and fascinates 27 years later.

a pair of rich kids that killed ozzy and harriet. everything ended in a terrible tragedy. >> you remember watching that trial on court tv. >> it was one of those cases that launched court tv and people became so fascinated with watching those trials. >> up next, nfl controversy. the one we told you about courting all kinds carson is in the orange room with responses to colin kaep ? when is your flu shot more than a flu shot? when it helps give a lifesaving vaccine to a child in need. ? thanks to customers like you, walgreens "get a shot. give a shot." program has helped provide 15 million vaccines through the un foundation.

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we're back at 7:50 with both sides of a controversy we've been covering all week. carson is over in the orange room. >> ahead of the matchup between 49ers and chargers. all eyes on colin kaepernick as he refused to stand for the anthem yet again. kaepernick is protest anthem to take a stance against racial injustice and police brutality in our country. his decision has many people on social media quite divided. here's a take from bradon who says there are more ways to address a problem than being disrespectful to your country. i have no respect for kaepernick. on the other side of the fence, julius says it means he cares enough to say something is

offensive for veterans. but there is a lot of support from troops like mike when they write after a lot of thought i wrote this is the same thing i swore to defend freedom. kevin makes a broader point. we would have watched the game last night but kaepernick taking a knee is accomplishing more than he's being given credit for. we're all talking. 49ers regular season game kicks off september 12th. kaepernick does plan to hold strong with his protest. >> i think -- interrupt. that last tweet you mentioned is true. it's everybody talking about this and discussion is healthy. >> there are more than two sides. a lot of nuance. a good conversation to have. carson, thank you. coming up, the definitive guide to social media don't and we will find out how many we have broken today. what's the best way to deal with pain? new reasons you may want to ditch the meds. have we mentioned how

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good friday morning. i am gene ramirez. >> and i am gayle guyardo. we are tracking tropical storm hermine. it made land fall as a category one at about 1:30 this morning.

was downgraded to a tropical storm. and we want to check in with meteorologist leigh spann. >> yeah, good morning, guys. the center of circulation now in georgia. but look at the scope of this thing. we're seeing rain from it in virginia, all the way through north carolina, south carolina, obviously into georgia and right back here to the tampa bay area. and then extends into the gulf of mexico. so a big system. and let me focus on the what it's causing for us. we have been under a tornado tc pasco. and that should expire in three minutes. at this point, spotty rain throughout the hernando county area. zephyrhills, you have heavy rain and notice other spots in pasco county where it's been flooding rain. finally coming to an end. at least momentarily. and we have some rainfall through inverness and sugarmill woods. and to the south, brandon, plant city with lightning. again, this is quickly moving. it's wrapping in that feeder

hermine. and pushing into polk county at this point. so lakeland, you will continue to see rainfall. and we have heavy rain downpours throughout haines city, strong gusty winds and then to the south. now look at all the lightning strikes here along the sunshine skyway bridge. that just happened. so please, we know the sunshine skyway bridge is closed. but anywhere around that right now, it's probably constant thunder at this point. and intense which means it's an intense thunderstorm. d well. and then off of sarasota and manatee coast and you see the rain that's going to circulate in. this is very close to the sunshine skyway bridge. this is the loews don cesar. and i wanted to show you a few things. first of all, almost an inch of rain, about .87 of rain. but the onshore wind, it's going to be with us all day. and that's going to reek havoc on the flooding potential. because it pushes the water, that southwest wind, even

on st. pete beach. and when high tide happens this afternoon, that tide will be even higher which will keep the rain from being able to the drain off the streets and things like that, causing a flooding issue. and the low tide is going to be higher than normal. winds speeds at about 15 miles per hour. but we have wind gusts up to about 25 to 30 miles per hour at this point. it's all because of the counterclockwise winds around the tropical storm. which is going you see the yellow area here, tropical storm-force winds to south carolina this afternoon. but for us, it's continuing that wind off the gulf of mexico which leads to the threat, again for the higher tides and flooding. 60% rain chance off and on, heavy downpours. and tomorrow while we will see more sunshine, still a lot of rain in the tropical atmosphere. not until sunday and especially labor day when we dry out. the roadways, well they

howard frankland bridge. you can see the water over here to the right. and there's no delays on the howard frankland bridge. that's raindrops there. but it's wet and slick. and you will want to use caution across it. and as mentioned before, the sunshine skyway bridge is closed down both directions. you need to take 75 if you are going to head out in this bad weather on the roadways. and also, bay shore boulevard is closed. and getting reports of flooding, i saw pictures u.s. pasco county area. flooded there and 19 around ranch road. and access restricted to snell isle and shore acres. that's weather and traffic. back to gene and gayle. >> thank you so much. well, while tropical storm hermine made land fall in the panhandle, in the bay area, we are really feeling the impact. a lot of folks seeing serious flooding issues. >> yeah, it's been the biggest problem with the rain in the bay area. and our meredyth censullo is joining us now live in port

you there. >> reporter: yeah, leslee just mentioned, u.s. 19 and jasmine. and that's where we are. honestly my photographer and i were driving down 19 and he was like, look at that. this is a parking lot at the jasmine plaza. and as you can see, it is completely flooded out. several inches of water here. and then across the street, it's the first baptist church of jasmine lakes. th with water. we did just see a pasco county sheriff's officer come down, scope out the situation and then turn around. obviously not safe to go past the point where that truck is right there. also, we've been hearing a lot this morning about power outage, duke power customers. these folks just pulled up, duke emergency is out here. and they are checking on a lot of power lines. and we actually passed a

that was on flash. so obviously some traffic signals affected. earlier this morning, we were in hudson beach, a lot of folks flooded out of their homes. we will continue along u.s. 19 and more updates later this morning. back to you. >> meredyth, thank you. and now we want to check in with jamel lanee'. >> yeah, she is in indian shores with breaking news where there's a fire call. what do you know right now? >> reporter: good morning. we're here on gulf boulevard in indian shores where there's a working condo fire over in the building. she said she woke up about 6:45 this morning to smoke. she came down stairs and saw smoke coming out of a unit and they all got out. and we tried to get information from firefighters on the scene but they're still very busy putting the fire out. again, we are waiting to get more details about this fire. >> we don't know if anyone else is inside the building but once we get more information, we will pass it along.

enough with the storm and now this. all right, i know we will check back with you. and stay tuned to news channel 8 as we continue to bring you updates all morning long. >> we will be back with another update. and now back to the "today"

seven travel related cases. most cases are in puerto rico. coming up, say hi to the chilly mocha. the new drink starbucks hopes will become the hot flavor for fall. >> don't mess with a comedian. you have to see how amy schumer shut down a heckler during her show. we'll talk to alicia keys about her music, her makeup voice." voice." that's after these messa hi, i'm the honorary real trix rabbit. general mills wants me to let you know that we use real stuff like honey, cinnamon and cocoa to make these cereals tasty. and these guys for awesome colors. that means no artificial flavors or colors. nice. and that's my personal guarantee. i love this new guy! he's amazing! so convincing. big improvement.

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that'll cause a lot of problems. hmm. totally unnecessary and it triples the budget. we'll be totally behind schedule, right? (laughs) schedules. schedules. great, okay. wouldn't it be great if everyone said what they meant? the citi? double cash card does. it lets you earn double cash back: 1% when you buy, and 1% as you pay. the citi double cash card. double means double. we are back with a new take on an old problem. dealing with every day pain. instead of reaching for that medicine cabinet, you may be able to ditch the pills. good morning. happy when the doctor is in. this is really interesting and the study looked at which therapies worked for which problems but before we get into that, i know you feel very

you do need to figure out what's causing the pain. >> that's right. i love talking about alternative therapies that we'll talk about today but pain happens for a reason. before you start thinking about treating the pain before your back hurts and you get a massage and hip hurts and get acupuncture, it's important to figure out why that pain is happening. we're going to talk about alternative therapies but it's important for people to know that pain happens for a reason. until you figure out what that reason is, it's not a good idea to treat the pain because in my office sometimes i seeea someone i saw yesterday training for the marathon with an achy hip. getting massage therapy for a month and a half and had a stress fracture in her hip which was the problem. you have to figure out why the pain is happening before you can treat the pain. >> before you go to the wrong alternative therapy you could potentially make something worse. do you feel like medical schools and your area of expertise, are they embracing these technologies. >> slowly. the nice thing about studies like the one we're going to talk

of using ways to treat different issues. medical schools are starting. at cornell we started a new program thinking about yoga for back pain are things we are doing now. not many people are talking about it. >> i like the study that they went by condition and what works best. said for back pain, acu and yok and yoga are the best. >> we see that in my office five or six people come in with an achy back. figuring out why the back pain is happening is step one. my approach is to try to figure out how to reduce the pain and keep people moving so yoga is important. it builds core strength and can relieve symptoms.

keeping joint moving you can reduce symptoms. we want people with arthritis to move. >> massage therapy was good for neck pain. >> that's often related to muscle spasm and tension. some people are tense and massage therapy can loosen that up. >> for migraines, deep breathing and meditation. >> probably stress related. this is a safe way to think about treating the problem. >> sometimes can be used as a >> always good to see you. thank you so much. let's take a turn and get a check of the weather from al. >> tree pose over there. >> you don't want to see my downward dog. okay. so here's the latest right now. we are taking a looks at hermine. i'm sorry. the tornado watches moved to the north now. hermine gradually pushes north

west-southwest of savannah, georgia. 60 miles per hour winds moving north-northeast at 14 miles an hour. the path brings it off the carolina coast by saturday afternoon with 45-mile-per-hour winds. look at what happens during the week and into early next week. the cone of uncertainty includes boston, new york city and down to cape charles. long island, delmarva peninsula, 2 to 5 feet. we have tornadoes stretching from the carolinas all of the way down to jacksonville and the rainfall amounts. heaviest rain now is going to be along the eastern carolina coast. 10 to 15 inches. 5 to 10 inches from georgia to

>> that is your latest weather. guys? >> all right, al. thanks very much. are you ready to trend? let's do it. one of the shore signs of fall, mo returning -- >>al complaining about pumpkin spice latte. >> it returns. this year starbucks is introducing a new fall flavor that's supposed to be just as big. it's expected to be the new it drink. it's called chilly mocha. we have them here in front of

>> it's like pouring sugar on your tongue followed by cayenne pepper. >> it's not my favorite. >> why are you so anti-pumpkin spice latte? >> it's annoying. >> way too sweet. >> i taste paprika. maybe it comes out tomorrow. do you like? >> not bad. >> good in a milk shake. just a thought. another great thing about fall is a fresh start and new york magazine says september is your second chance january. i like the way they put that. no matter what age you are, september has that back-to-school vibe. new schedule, new routine so we come up with new goals. i like the idea of a reset. >> remember when you were starting school you had fresh notebooks and binder looked

out there. this is going to be your year. >> it is better than january because you have fall to look forward to opposed to being in the middle -- >> crispness in the air. >> chilly mocha. >> pumpkin spice lattes. to social media andet. never like someone's photo that shows you were stalking that person. you were going through their page. next rule, do not foods gram. teens say nobody cares about food photos and only old people do it. >> guilty. >> there's my turkey from

>> another rule, don't be selfieish. al you're the king of selfies. never hold up your entire group of friends to capture the perfect pose. >> what? >> like at a game. don't make everybody stop to get your favorite selfie. >> i thought you meant don't pose with your friends. >> don't stop them. >> other than my daughter, i don't care what teens say. >> another rule, don't post two selfies i savannah, you are guilty of this. >> come on. >> they say it's only admissible if one is awesome and let's face it dolly parton is awesome. i found out in researching this, my last post was 67 weeks ago. that surprised me. i thought it was 167 weeks ago. >> and it wasn't a picture.

>> what's not trending -- >> my new start in september. >> let's do pop start. >> let's get to it. amy schumer being applauded online for the way she stood up to a heckler. she was in sweden when this happened. >> okay. wait. it's too good. everybody point at him which one. ay. don't shy. what do you do for a living? sales. how's that working out? is it going well? because we're not buying it. if you yell out again, you're going to be yelling show your [ bleep ] to people in the parking lot.

was escorted out of the show. don't mess with amy schumer. we know marvin gay's family won over a dispute over whether the pop hit resembled gay's song. more than 200 musicians filed a brief with the court of appeals. the video is distracting. they said the ruling could have an adverse impact on the music industry. we'll keep an eye on that and ellen degeneres announced she signed onto "magic mike" featuring an all-star female cast. have a look. >> honeydew.

and ellen degeneres as magic michelle. >> it's magic michelle coming to a theater never but that's funny. for more, go to "today's" facebook page. >> you have taken this "pop start" thing in a new direction. i like it. >> you're really the pumpkin latte of "pop start." >> that's not a compliment. we're getting ready to close out our citi concert series this morning and w alicia keys to do the honors. we'll talk to her in a moment but first a look at her journey to stardom. fans fell in love with alicia keys 15 years ago with the release of her debut album which sold over 30 million albums worldwide. ? this girl is on fire ? >> since then the singer, songwriter and superstar has earned 15 grammy awards and collective 60 million followers

now alicia keys is ready for her new role as a coach on nbc's "the voice" with miley cyrus, blake shelton and adam levine. beyond music, alicia is at the helm of a makeup free movement. her message of beauty and empowerment making waves. >> alicia keys is so refreshing in social media obsessed celebrities. appearing publicly without makeup. asking fans to put their phones away when she's performing. none of this undermines the fact that she has one of the most music today. >> alicia keys has proven there's nothing she can't do in her wildly successful career. >> lovely alicia keys joins us now. how are you? >> i'm so good. i'm so glad to be here with you. good morning. >> good morning. >> we're happy to have you. >> i want to talk about what's going on. can i ask you what the vmas were like? even for you. was that just a great

a lot of love. >> you have been doing so much. i know you're working on new music. so what's your process? are you singing in the shower? are you writing in your journal all the time? >> the process is really this album is so much about life. it's about new york city. it's about my city. it's about us as people. it's about all of the stories that i saw growing up. sonic sounds like new york that i know. it's aggressive. raw. it's me being my most truthful honest. it's such powerful music. you are going to go crazy. >> it's interesting to hear you describe it and it makes me wonder how you would have described your earlier music. when you look at the person you are today versus the person you were 15 years ago when you burst on the scene? what's the biggest difference? >> the biggest difference is probably just my knowing of myself and ability to really be comfortable exactly as i am, who

i think that's something we battle with through our whole lives. i think that's the biggest difference for me right now. i love it. i feel powerful and feeling clear. >> and you look gorgeous. part of that is internal but external too. you started a movement here. i don't know if you meant to but you are not wearing makeup. first of all, you don't wear it so well. did i say that right? you look gorgeous. how does it feel though inside? >> really really freeing. you know, i think the thing is that it kind of came from because we put so many limitations on ourselves. i think we put limitations on each other. society puts limitations on us. a lot of ways i'm sick of it. i'm over it to be honest. as well as what the music is about it's our unique own selves and embrace each other how we are. >> it's freeing.

when i cut my hair off, i never had to worry about covering the bald spot anymore. >> that's a very relevant -- >> it's true. it was freeing. >> i think the most important thing is do you what feels good for you. it's really not about anything else. you do what feels good for you as opposed to what we think people want to see us like or we think -- if i show my bald spot one is going to think i'm old. whatever. just be who you are. >> you're not anti-makeup. you don't begrudge other people >> i love my lip cross and blush and eyeliner. i don't want to feel i have to do it. i want to be honest to myself. we should be honest to myself. have a great time and do what makes you feel good opposed to trying to please everybody. >> we're super fans.

doing the voice. you had been a mentor before. what's it like to be a coach and be part of this crazy crew? we know carson. we know what you're dealing with there. >> it's hard having to deal with carson every day. i don't know how y'all do it. between carson and blake. carson and adam. two of you all are driving me nuts. no. it's actually really fun. i'm having great time. it's very powerful on set. we got a lot of on. the first two female judges on one season is really a lot of feminine prowess going on there. they're very afraid of us. it's in a cool way. also being the first woman of color on the show and absolutely as a producer, a writer, a musician, artist, able to give all of the things i know and have learned to these artists on the show who are so good.

>> we'll let you get outside. we'll hear from you all next half hour. alicia keys, great to have you here.

>> good friday morning. i'm gene ramirez. >> i'm gayle guyardo. hermine is causing problems around the state of florida.

span for the latest. >> good morning, guys, and it's not just florida but causing problem from tampa bay all the way up to virginia, a tornado watch was just issued for portions of south carolina and georgia. the tornado watch that was in effect for us did expire at 8:00 this morning so that's really good news, although you see green shade counties. a flood watch continues through the evening. we continue to see heavy downpours. this is a rain band wrapping around the center of hermine so rains, very heavy downpour, pushing over to the south shore, adamsville. here's apollo beach, ruskin, 94 lightning strikes in this. this was the area just over the sunshine skyway bridge when i was talking to you and 200 lightning strikes. this is an intense storm, strong wind gusts embedded as well. you go further south, strong wind and heavy rain along i-75 through manatee and sarasota counties, plenty of lightning strikes and again, the rain

through eastern hillsborough into polk county at this point so this rain babb band could be with us most of the day today. unfortunately as this area of low pressure, this tropical storm hermine, pulls north and east, it's going to continue to draw in tropical moistur . we have a 60% rain chance off and on throughout the day, combined with high tides, which happened in the early afternoon, and sand raiched ground. be prepared for quick street flooding. tomorrow with tropical moisture around, 60% just in the afternoon, before we finally get to dry out for sunday and labor day, lesley. all right, we have street flooding in pasco county, heads up around u.s. 19. we had meredith dmeredyth c ensullo near jasmine. i'm sad to tell you you have to take i-75 and loop around because the skyway bridge is

edge of it and the water, not a pretty drive. we have the howard frankland bridge, a vehicle down here and water coming in on the bottom. i'm not sure why the camera is showing this. looks like an emergency vehicle, maybe monitoring what is going on. we have a good drive on the howard frankland bridge. it's only going to take you eight minutes to cross it. use some caution. there's a travel advisory and a bit windy but still no delays. let's go to the maps and move over and talk about we see flooded streets. bayshore boulevard is closed between platte and bay-to-bay so keep that in mind through this particular area. earlier we saw a little flooding in the channelside area. look like that has actually gotten a lot better but, again, bayshore boulevard closed, also a little bit of manhattan, flooding in northbound lanes coming from macdill to gandy boulevard there. we saw flooding and also around

know, south tampa is deferent lay hot spot when it comes to the roadways getting flooded but bay shore is closed to take macdill and if that's sketchy, pop over to dale mabry highway. it's a bit higher than macdill and usually doesn't get as messed up. let's talk about pinellas county now, access has been restricted, folks, in the snell isle area, as well as shore acres. now, let's go back to gene and fay let. >> rick kriseman will talk in a couple of minutes. we have a lot of damage in the area of snell isle and shore acre. >> lesley has been talk about that. it's famous for flooding any time there's weather but when you work in so much rain, what's happening is the water is going up to people's homes and they shut down several roads and they're warning people to stay in place if they

can't navigate streets. if you're going to go outside, be careful because you don't know if there are downed power lines and also tree branches. st. pete police is reporting at least 62 trees down in the past 24 hours so even though we didn't get the brunt of the storm, there was definitely lots of rain creating the flooding and some wind in parts of pinellas county as well. >> all right, let's go to st. petersburg mayor rick kriseman -- >> i want to thank you guys for being he from joint oopation center that we convene at the main fire station during the storm. they're working to provide services to our residents throughout the night. these folks have been busting their humps to try to make sure that we're doing everything we can for the residents of this city and not only police and fire but all city departments, parks and rec, water resources and storm water, pretty much

make this storm as easy on our residents as possible. division chief dean adameda is here and led this group. in addition to getting us through -- hermine and zika concerns, i couldn't be more proud of his leadership and confident in his leadership. i will turn it over to dean in just a minute -- wanted to make a couple other comments. while we prepared as much as we could for this storm, quite candidly, this i in a long time and unfortunately it's not over yet. we have lost a lot of trees. there's a lot of power line that are down. homes are threatened by flood waters, and our infrastructure is clearly stressed right now. we are no different than any community in the tampa bay area and the gulf coast, but our geography makes us vulnerable on almost all sides, especially

weather. you think about it. we've had three state of emergency in the past 13 months and that used to be highly unusual. thankfully what we haven't lost yet are people and that's something we need to keep. we need to keep it that way so i cannot urge you all enough, if you don't have to go to work, please, don't go. stay off the roads. don't drive into flooded areas. if you have to get on and drive, realize you're creating a wake that could drive into someone's home. keep out of the water. don't let your kids play in the water. there could be power line in the water. there could be snakes, and in this area, there could be alligators, and the water could be contaminated. we don't want sucked anyone into a storm drain. we don't want to deal with

everything we can to be safe out there and, finally, i want to thank our residents for their patience in their understanding and your resilience. we know it's been a tough couple days. now, i'd like to give the chief a chance to give a more detailed rundown of what is going on and then we'll take some questions. chief? >> gorge. i am good morning. i'm the chief of emergency management. we have been work over the last 27 hours to staff up our joint operations center and still continuing to address, uh, calls from our citizen from that center. we are still up and operating. the operations center coordinator response from our citizens in need downed trees, downed power lines, flooded roadway, and intersections with power outages.

received came during two periods of very heavy activity overnight. the first was during the 6:00 hour with heavy rain, wind, flooding, plaguing the streets. the second wave came with activity came overnight as the high tide approached at 3:29 a.m. our operations center worked well with the key response personnel in the same room. we were ab to one another, address issues as they came up, and mitigate situations while along our police and fire departments continue to answer their calls for normal service. if you have any questions, please -- >> reporter: you were talking about 3 million extra gallons of storm potential -- looking

about what, what happened and -- >> almost 9 inches of rain between all three treatment facilities on the southwest plant alone, near 11 inches of rain and that's just on wednesday, not counting the rain that we had on thursday. you know, we certainly have utilized all the additional pa the quantity of the rain we've had, it certainly wasn't enough and, you know, we did everything we could to drain those tanks to get ready for this to inject what we could inject down and do everything we could to minimize having to discharge, but with the quantity and the volume of rain, there was nothing we could do. our main concern has always been trying to make sure we don't have sewage flowing down our street and, more importantly, packing up and

perfect, but we have done a pretty good job in that respect. >> reporter: do you have any guesstimate at this point how much -- >> we know it's been millions of gallons but we don't have the figure yet. i think you will find that it's across the entire region where all of us, all of our systems, have been completely overwhelmed by this storm. as bad as we've had it and as i mention those figures, i know our neighbors seen rainfall amounts greater so all of us have been impacted significantly by this incident. >> we have been watching live here, st. pete mayor rick kriseman and emergency managers talking about some of the issues and preparations. the mayor said this is "one of the worst we have seen," talking about hermine. >> he pointed it to the geography of where the city is

north american front cities, absolutely beautiful but with hermine a slow-moving, massive system, it's causing damage for the entire city of st. petersburg, you know, specifically mentioning shore acres, pictures. it's unbelievable, the flooding, and how close it's coming up to people's homes. >> starting to get to people's homes. you may want to see the news conference as they do questions and answers there. we will have all of that -- we have it right now -- minutes. we take you back to nbc and

better and with the suggestions and working together, they become even better. it's amazing the elevation we have inside of us. >> no one's career is a straight line. everyone has dips. what do you tell them about getting through those low points? >> the low parts is part of what makes your story. it makes your character. it makes you strong.

it's all part of the journey. >> they are so competitive on that show. are you getting the competitive fever? like the blake and adam thing. >> first time we've had two female coaches going at blake and adam. the balance is awesome. this season feels like season one in a lot of ways because of what alicia and miley bring to the table. >> it's definitely new. like i said before, they're intimidated by us and they should be. >> we're going to hear more what are you going to play? >> you know what i'm going to do? i like to do different styles of different songs everywhere i go. so my new song in common that just recently came out, i want to do it in a way that's different than you ever heard it. >> we're ready. ladies and gentlemen, alicia

? ? said i'd be gone by five ? ? but it's sunrise and i'm in your bed ? ? good night usually means good-bye ? ? me replaying memories in my head ? ? look at you, look at you ? ? look at what you made me do ? ? how do you, how do you think know my every move ? ? who are you? who are you? you look so familiar ? ? i know you, i know you, baby,

common ? ? if i'm being honest with you ? ? we got way too much in common ? ? if i'm being honest with you ? ? who wants to love somebody like me ? ? you want to love somebody like me ? ? if you could love somebody like me ? ? you must be messed up too ? ? who wants to love someb ? you want to love somebody like me ? ? if you could love somebody like me ? ? you must be messed up too ?

? ? we got way too much in common ? ? if i'm being honest with you ? ? we got way too much in common ? ? since i'm being honest with you ? ? who wants to love somebody like me ? ? you want to love somebody like me ? ? if you could love somebody

? who wants to love somebody like me ? ? you want to love somebody like me ? ? if you could love somebody like me ? ? you must be messed up too ? ? >> lots more music from alicia keys on a friday morning but

>> we are back once again with alicia keys. here she is with "you don't know my name." >> you know it's t summer and we're feeling so sad but what we can do is just dance it off so wave your hands in the air. say bye-bye, summer. don't cry. come on. like i said, we're here in new york city. when you are feeling kind of crazy, you just wave it off. you just dance it off, you know.

yourself be free. so it's feeling so good out here outside and i want to just be able to say to you -- ? baby, baby, baby ? ? from the day i saw you ? ? i really, really want to catch your eye ? ? there's something special about you ? ? cause not a lot of guys are worth my time ? ? ooh baby, baby, baby ? ? it's getting kind of crazy ? ? cause you are taking over my mind ? ? and it feels like oooh ? ? you don't know my name ?

oooh, oooh, oooh ? ? you don't know my name ? ? come on ? ? oh baby, baby, baby ? ? i s us on our first date ? ? you're doing everything that makes me smile ? ? and when we had our first kiss ? ? it hapd ? it set my soul on fire ? ? oooh baby, baby, baby ? ? i can't wait for the first time ? ? my imagination is running wild ? ? it feels like ooooh ?

? ooooh ? >> you want to dance the summer away with me? put your hands in the air. everybody don't ? >> thank you so much! i love you! >> hear more from alicia keys and our summer concert artists

>> alicia keys, thank you so much. a lot more from her coming up in our next hour. we're back in a moment. this is "today" on nbc. now at havertys s furniture, it's our labor day sale. where you can create the perfect home. from now until september 5th, you'll find huge savings on stylish pieces. get free delivery, off every thousand-dollars you spend. with havertys, your home can be perfect, even when life isn't. mom? have you see my iguana? the labor day sale is on now, at havertys.

>> it sounds so good on our plaza this morning.

we have birthdays to get to. >> alicia keys was a great birthday present for all of our smucker's fans out there. let's start off with elaine white of indiana wells, california. she's 100 years old. she's been on over 100 cruises. nicely done. and george is celebrating 100 years. a proud world war ii vet who loves having coffee with friends every morning and we salute your service. thank you, happy 100th birthday to mary alleys from columbus, ohio. the secret to longevity, don't worry about things you can't fix and victor mormon, happy 100 birthday to you, sir. when he was 85, he shot his own age in golf. that's not easy to do. that's pretty impressive and naomi is from palm coast, florida. she loves to sing. a member of her church choir.

from tulsa, oklahoma. a great fisherman. he'll go wherever the fish are biting. if you know somebody turning 100 years old, head to today.com/celebrates and tell us all about it. >> you know what's really cool? watching alicia back here. alicia keys saying hi to the fans in the crowd and they are loving it. >> it's like she's seeing family like she hasn't seen them in a long time. >> this isn't a quick grin. spending time. so sweet. >> we're excited that she's going to be back chatting with us in our next hour. she has another song for us too. >> more music. >> and we're going to be cooking a vegetable dish from our garden on the go. embarrassing health questions. we'll answer those.

good morning. i'm gene ramirez. >> and i'm gayle guyardo. it is 8:59. excuse me. we are tracking tropical storm hermine. it made land fall in the panhandle area and boy, it came in as a category one hurricane. and we are starting to find out that it caused significant damage. >> and it was downgraded to a tropical storm but still leaving damage along the way. rs current track of this storm with meteorologist leigh spann. how is it impact us? >> well, significantly. first of all, look how big the system is. it extends from virginia back down to the yucatan peninsula and mexico. it made land fall as a category one hurricane. that's the first hurricane to make land fall in florida since wilma in 2005, 11 years. hard to imagine that. now it's a tropical storm. but it's a tropical storm? georgia. and it should remain a tropical

hours as it heads into the coastal communities of south carolina which is why there's a tornado watch in effect for the area. how is it affecting us? an easy way to see, there's the center, counterclockwise spin and drawing tropical moisture. and this rain band into the center. and that feeding band has pretty much parked itself right here in the towards port manatee and anna bay area along -- right here in the tampa bay going to the continue to lift to the north. just meandering in the general area. notice rain starting to pop up in hernando and moscow county. we have a -- and pasco county. the heaviest rain starts in the lakeland area over towards lake whale, back toward fort meade. and you extend to the south and west through manatee and sarasota counties. now starting to see more rain in southern pinellas. and thankfully it's not an

don't need more in this area for sure. embedded in this band of rain down through venice, strong wind gusts, especially. and this is pushing toward the south and east toward manatee, excuse me, toward hardee and desoto counties and i wanted to show you southern pinellas county, this is st. pete beach from the loews don cesar. almost an inch of rain since midnight. and the southwest wind continues to gust up throughout the day. and that is the wind that comes off the gulf of mexico. sot gulf and it pushes it farther inland. normally there would be a beautiful beach on st. pete beach. that's not the case. this isn't even high tide. so later today, we will see high tide come back in and with that onshore flow, the tides will be higher than average again. just wanted to show you when to expect the high tide. crystal river, just before 6:00

watch for more flooding. and almost 1:00 in clearwater beach, another high tide coming. st.pete beach, 3:19 this afternoon. bay shore boulevard, 3:18. and it's going to flood in south tampa when the tide. could say back in for sure. port manatee, anna maria island around 2:30. sarasota and venice, around 1 :00. those are times when exacerbating the flood conditions will not only be the heavy rain but with that, high tide. herminll but only loosely through georgia. our flooding concerns continue today. tomorrow actually, tropical moisture lingers around. and we will see more sunshine but still a good coverage of afternoon rain. finally though, getting to dry out sunday into monday. here's the eight-day forecast which includes your labor day. and look at labor day, looking like a perfect summer day 1 with a 30% rain chance. just have to get through the next couple days. and leslee, this interesting picture.

actually a good drive across the howard frankland bridge. as far as congestion. there is none. but it's wet. and this is the access road underneath it. closer to the tampa side. and this work truck, we have lights going on, so i imagine they are monitoring what is going on. i showed you this 20 minutes ago and we didn't have as much water across the barrier. and now we have it coming all the way in. so definitely rising in the area. and then you can see a couple gentlemen walking up to the truck was on this side. and it has been moved. a lot of water coming in the area. and let's talk about the sunshine skyway bridge. it is closed. now the howard frankland bridge, courtney campbell causeway, they are open. you can still get across with no delays. also, the gandy, and the bay side bridge are fine. sunshine skyway bridge closed, tough take i-75 instead. also bay shore boulevard is closed between bay to bay and also up to plat. and also u.s. 19 around jasmine and also around ranch and mood

authorities that mood road is blocked at pinehurst. so remember that. and in tampa, flooding now, busch boulevard at 26th street. and also 26th right at -- at ramona circle. >> thank you. tropical storm hermine came in as a category one making land fall around 1:30 with high winds up to 80 miles per hour. and now that the sun is up and people are out and are starting to see how catastrophic the damage really is. >> yeah, our ryan hughes is live in cedar key. we were there as the storm went on through. and now that the sun is up, getting a good look at the damage, ryan. >> reporter: exactly, good morning to you both once again. the destruction here is widespread. although it's mostly contained to the gulf side which is behind me. if you come 20 or 30 feet up to dry land right here, this is

roadways and then these homes were spared by that storm surge. 11feet at the height of this. according to residents around 1:30, 2:00 in the morning. let's go to video of a local motel. this is the beach front motel. and you can see how the waves, the storm surge crashed against the retaining wall. the wall is ruined. the pool at the motel is partially collapsed. we actually stayed the night on the second floor. and as you can see in the video, the first fl are destroyed. beds, furniture, chair, refrigerator, all tossed around. and then down the street, a block or two away, you can see the damage done to the two- floor condo complex. you can look in through the front and see the backyard of the condo complex. right now, residents are surveying the damage. many people here of course are in tears. and they have told me all morning long, they really didn't think it would be this bad. but they say the number one

surge. back to you, guys. >> yeah, difficult for the residents that are now just getting a clearer picture of what happened there. ryan, thank you. and we posted pictures on our wfla fact page and our personal pages as well. >> and we have been trying to push the images out. feel so bad for those people because we couldn't tell in the earlier hours. >> yeah, you saw the wind and the rain but it was too dark to see the damage. keep it here on news channel 8. we will keep bringing you up it tsa all in minutes. and you can follow all the breaking news of the day on wfla.c. and orinase eight app. it's bril -- and our news channel 8 app. . no room on my dvr. . i'm deleting. i'm a "game of thrones," "walking dead." i don't go for this kind of show. it's one of the most beautiful creations i have seen on tv.

i directed a scene. >> you left that little note out. wow. i clapped that thing. i was eva's intern in new orleans when she shot it. it's brilliant. eva is going to be on next week. >> fantastic. >> here's a love story. let's get a love story as we go into this beautiful weekend. victoria beckham told "vogue" the moment she fell for her husband, david, and says it was love at first sight. they met in manchester united players lounge. david was standing with his family. he asked for her phone number. still had the plane ticket, the boarding pass that she wrote the number on. he's kept it 17 years, four kids. >> love at first sight for you and sidney? >> for me. not for her. it takes a little -- and then

satisfying. >> because it worked out. >> what about you and deborah? >> i was in the friend zone. we were just friends. >> you told me about the refrigerator. >> she was doing an assignment and asked me to look after her apartment. like most single women had nothing in the fridge. nothing in the pantry. still had the original cardboard on the i thought -- she had been in the place a year and never used the oven. >> what did you do? >> i immediately went and stocked the fridge and stocked the pantry. and i used the oven for sweater storage for her. >> you moved her sweaters into the oven. >> that's how to get out of the friend zone. signature move. >> all guys out there, do you hear this? >> beckham, for real. this happened.

one were in the same class. we have a birthday party at my house. they call and say david wants to come but he needs to bring the other boys. beckham, look at this guy, if everybody brings the other kids it's going to be a mob scene back there. she said he'll bring whatever he wants. beckham came to the house. he was playing with the kids in the backyard. rolling around on the ground. all the moms, me, and only two dads, you could hear was out there. >> all falling in love at first sight. >> he goes to school and serves hot lunch. he's that guy. >> he's the perfect -- >> you want to look five inches taller? i do. >> then i would be 5'2". >> the shoe that holds the secret to longer looking legs.

take." i didn't know that. >> we'll show you how to get a pair. and this girl is on fire right now. music powerhouse alicia keys. we'll talk to her about the new music and vma speech that blew everyone away. >> a moment of solidarity. >> and tamron's makeup is coming off. >> mine too. enough is enough. >> this girl is on ? when is your flu shot more than a flu shot? when it helps give a lifesaving vaccine to a child in need. ? thanks to customers like you, walgreens "get a shot. give a shot." program has helped provide 15 million vaccines through the un foundation. it's that easy to make a difference. ? walgreens. at the corner of happy and healthy. the honey in honey nut cheerios

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>> back now with a new heel. it's the secret to longer looking legs. "daily mail" went with this one. makes your leg look five inches longer. why is that? >> so it doesn't matter the brand. this happens to be my favorite brand of shoe. look at the difference here. these shoes i have on. this is what i wore in today. look at how much longer t >> i figured it out. the black strap right there says that's the end. >> if you buy a -- you can get it in black. it's hard for brown girls to find nude shoes because it often is a lighter color nude. the bottom line is i noticed that kim kardashian has three pairs of shoes. watch her shoes on the red carpet. it's almost always just because she's short. >> you don't want to wear a flat.

that's the shoe. >> she looks like she's long legged. >> don't long pants make your -- >> that's my trick. i had on some yesterday. my pants i get them all of the way past the heel. it makes your leg look long. >> people see you walking down the aisle to the movie theater to reserve seat and everybody, goes, wow, look at that. >> you can do that in new york starting this weekend. >> this is exciting news. if you're going to the movies amc theaters in new york reserved seating starts today. will you do it? >> i have done it. there have been theaters that do it already. >> in new york? >> in new york city. >> l.a. has been doing it for a while. >> they just got rid of it but there was a theater where you could go online. they closed. they're making it something else. it was great old theater in new york. you could get reserved sitting. >> what's your favorite spot? >> i sit in the middle kind at the back.

was at a movie theater where they were fighting over a seat. >> nobody wants to be in front. >> they made adjustments for the front seat now that you can have a decent experience. i think you should be able to reserve it. >> fandango has a function where you type in the zip code and they show you where your nearest people to move over a seat? >> sure. >> i don't think i do. >> who's calling? >> is that your date? >> the frittata i'm going to be making has bacon. james corden, my hero, took it one step further on "the late show."

a new cologne. bacon by bacon. >> what's the smell i lot of the most in the morning? >> bacon. >> crazy bacon. smart bacon. wild bacon. >> frying pan of your mind there is only -- >> bacon! >> pancake of your soul, there is only -- >> i'm confused. does it smell like you or smell like bacon? >> we smell exactly the same. >> funniest man. >> how many places can you -- i can't stop. >> i could eat eight splilices. >> i have not told this story publicly. just before i had gastric bypass. we were in salt lake city in

every night i was making grilled cheese with about a half pound of bacon. i'm either going to lose weight or have a heart attack. what a way to go. >> how are we doing on hermine? >> we're watching. it's inland right now. it's going to affect the east coast and then look at this thing. it's right now in georgia. you can see the feeder bands come again back into florida. so we're going to watch this. right now hermine 60-mile-per-hour winds moving northeast at 14 miles an hour. west-southwest of savannah and will come off the coast by saturday afternoon but then continue. here's the thing. we're going to talk about this into early next week. it just kind of sits off the northeast coast. we have a storm surge potential from new england to delmarva peninsula. a heavy rain upwards of 10 to 15 inches of rain and we've also got the danger of tornadoes stretching from the carolinas

rainfall amounts as we said are going to be really catastrophic for some spots. that's what's going on around the country. here's what's happening in your

higher than average tides could mean more flooding later today. crystal river, one of the latest tides, your high tide will happen at 5:49. and it will be higher than normal leading to the possibility of seeing street flooding with the rainfall. hudson at 2:15. clearwater just after noon. just before 1:00, you high tide. st.pete beach, around 3:19. bay shore boulevard, basically the bay itself has a high tide just after 3:00 p.m. and that's going to cause more flooding. port manatee, after 2:30. sarasota and venice, between 1:00 and 1:30, dealing with another high tide. this is all as hermine weakens but slowly weakens it continues our flooding threat. tropical moisture higher than average tides today.

had it for kids, a longer weekend but looking forward to labor day. saturday, i think we will see get sunshine. not much. but there's still tropical moisture around so i expect a good coverage of rainfall on saturday before things dry out as we head into sunday and monday. the forecast through the day today, again, just notice the trend of it, not necessarily pin pointing where the rain is. pockets of rain right through 1:00, 2:00. and after that, we do begin to notice 60% today. some sunshine with 60% tomorrow the. 40% sunday and 30% rain chances on labor day. all right, well, looking at the roadways. we've got a good drive across the howard frankland bridge. meaning there's no congestion, of course, terrible weather out there. definitely want to use caution. right now, the howard frankland bridge is and this is an access area underneath it. and now earlier we saw like a

here. there's cones left in the roadway. my guess is, under this access area, they're going to go into the water. but we have water coming in. an interesting shot underneath the howard frankland bridge. all right, let's talk about the other bay area bridges too. we're up to speed as well as the bay side bridge and the courtney campbell causeway, no delays. bay shore boulevard completely closed down here. folks, we do not have traffic traveling between plat and bay to bay. and that's flooded in the area. earlier, we had flooding in the northbound lanes around manhattan away from the base. and then also i just want to remind you, the sunshine skyway bridge is closed. southbound 75 to the brandon exit, we had flooding at the exit. be careful, not closed down. when i come back, we will talk about other road closures on the surface roads. now back to gene and gayle. >> thank you. and she just mentioned flooding, that's been the biggest problem throughout our

port richey. reports of flooding there. >> yeah, our meredyth censullo is in new port richey right now at imperial courts mobile home park. and there's serious flooding where you are. >> reporter: you know, we were talking about tides, leigh was, and that's something that the folks are really concerned about. in fact, some folks just stopped and asked, when is the next tide? because that means big problems for them. let's show you what's going on here. so you can see these folks that's the only way they can get out of their homes this morning. so a couple things going on here. there is a small retention pond off here to my right. it now looks like a palatial lake. it's not. it's just a small reservoir. but it has filled up and spread down. in the meanwhile, on the other side of the trees, that is the gulf. and so when you get a high tide, you get all of that water

and these poor folks are squished in between it. on the other end here, it's nearly impassable. we tried to walk down it. and the water was up above my knees. so definitedly not something the average person wants to drive through. and we talked to folks down there and they certainly had water coming up into their homes. and there are some folk, you guys finally were able to get your car out. >> yeah, i'm going to the doctor very slowly. >> good. i'm glad you were able to get your car out. please drive carefully. >> you guys be safe. >> reporter: we will. thank you. we were talking to them earlier. and i want to show you up here on one of the homes. this is where the water line was. just a couple hours ago. you can still see where some of the debriefs. so coming on to people's homes this morning. again, they are really concerned about the tides because that's just going to push more water into their

get in and out. and guys, we are really just on the other side of u.s. 19. this is right here. and we've been driving up and down u.s. 19 throughout the morning. and a lot of neighborhoods just like this. early this morning, we were up in hudson beach where people were actually being evacuated. we talked to one family who got a foot of water into their home. same kind of situation. they had water being pushed up from the front. that was jo general flooding. and wham -- that was general flooding and then the double whammy this morning with the high tide and that sent the water through the back of their homes. so a lot of folks sandwiched between u.s. 19 and the gulf. those are the ones that are really having the trouble today. so we're going to stay here and continue to talk to people and let them know when the next high tide is so that they can be prepared. >> okay, meredyth censullo reporting live in new port

thank you. >> yeah, team coverage across the bay area. and also up in the pan hand this will morning. jamel, where are right now exactly? >> reporter: we're in indian shores right on gulf boulevard. there is a large condo that's behind us. a fire destroying this building. you can see it here. firefighters are having a time trying to get this the fire under control. that's because of the weather conditions that we're experiencing right now. they're saying fueling the fire. they have been here since 7:00 this morning. working to put the flames out. we're told that this is a four- unit condo building. three stories. we've heard of one transport. the residents the other residents are out. a woman told me she woke up just before 7:00 this morning. when she saw smoke coming into her vent. and again, now the cause of the fire, we do not know that at this time. fire officials do not know.

that could be from weather as well. again, that's something that we are working to the find out. again, they're having a tough time gut putting this fire out because of the windy conditions. but they are definitely staying with it and working at it. >> have you seen any of the residents out there? are they asking them to standout side in the rain or have they moved them somewhere? >> reporter: the residents are actually on the other side of the street. there's a neighbor that they know. they are sitting over there, making phone calls. some of them obviously very upset for this reason. they've lost their home. but they are talking. not on camera at this moment but they are telling us that everyone they know of is okay. they saw smoke when they woke this morning. one woman said she came outside and saw flames shooting out of the roof. again, we were told that indian

the area. and they ended calling in more fire-rescue. and we know the pinellas sun coast fire-rescue is here as well as largo fire-rescue here as well. again, like i said, they have been here since 7:00 this morning. and if you look again, they're on both sides of the building and that's because of the windy conditions. they hit the water on one side ofhe building and the flames move back to the other side. so right now, they're trying to building right now. the windy conditions making it difficult for them. as we know, the residents there underneath a carport right now. and they're just watching their building pretty much be destroyed. >> jamel, you said it's a four- unit complex. are they worried about the fire spreading? obviously if they're attacking from both ends, do we know how much damage it's done to the other units? >> reporter: we don't know how

other units. i think that's what the fire official, he is trying to figure out for us right now. again, like i said, they have been working on both sides of the building. you can already see that huge gaping hole from the top. and so as far as we obviously know that unit is damaged. as far as the ones on the second floor, we're unclear about that. but that fire was pretty much rolling around in the attic. and that's why they have been attacking so we definitely can say that at least if anything those two top units are probably most likely destroyed. as far as the units underneath here, that's unclear. the adjacent buildings, they haven't been touched. as far as we know, those buildings are okay. >> wow, sounds like they have quite the strategy to hit from both sides because of the winds. and also, let's talk about the strain on the emergency personnel, given everything else that's happening in the area.

from largo and other areas as well. have you seen other issues in that area like flooding, downed power line, anything like that? or is their focus solely this fire? >> reporter: i think right now it's just totally this fire. i mean, when we were on clearwater beach earlier, obviously a couple miles away, there was the flooding issues over there. but right now, mainly this is the area that emergency crews raining downpours within the last hour. so again, everyone is pretty much here, blocking off the the roads and focusing on this fire. we saw a tree down up the street. but you know, that's not anything compared to this. >> all right. well, jamel lanee' coming toes from indian shores where a fire apparently started somewhere around 6:30 this morning. i know you will keep us updated and we will check back shortly. >> and now we want to check in

the comments on social media. a lot of people talking about hermine and what it's doing to the area. >> yeah, no doubt trending. no surprise here. of course, we've had numerous tweets sent in. really over the last 24, 36 hours. really since the onset of the event. and several of the emergency management folks have been tweeting out reminders to residents and. of course, we have been passing these along to you as well. so pinellas certainly reminding folks there's a lot of flooding and even just some of the flood waters that don't really look that deep, they warn folks, do not walk through flooding that you see here because a good reminder, it only takes 6 inches of moving water to knock you off your feet. doesn't take as much as you think it does. only a foot of water to lift up a small vehicle. so again, flood waters still going to be an issue, even into this afternoon. and this evening when we deal

this afternoon. of course, street flooding, reports there coming in out of tampa. standing water. they noticed that it was passable for vehicles but again, a lot of standing water. also, that combined with the fact that we've had plenty of trees down and power lines there. don't want to walk through the waters. and our own paul mueller sending us this video. this was coming in out of crystal river. again, the northern counties really got hit qu that was from a pile-up point. you could see the water coming over there. and indating the roadway. so again, this is what we have been seeing going over the last 12 hours is with the high tides, especially like this morning, that combined with the very strong onshore flow just really enhanding the high tides across the area. and this from tim. showing water coming in from the driveway at hernando beach.

incredible and intense flooding. some evacuations near green key that were reported from this system. from this ongoing flooding here. so again, you can see the water just inching in to tim's driveway. and we noticed that again a lot of the waters started to recede as the high tide started to come to an end. but it's as we go into the afternoon and the window we're monitor is noon through about 3:00, 3:15 this afternoon. that will be the high tides across tampa bay. so that combined with strong winds coming out of the southwest, really going to enhance those high tides. and already going to be running normal high tide as it is and above arch. but again, just sort of exacerbating thanks to the strong flow. is also with continued rain, and also a lot of the emergency folks are reminding folks that loose soil still going to be a big issue here. and that can lead to additional downed trees through the

wins. so although hermine is now made land fall and it's causing heavy rain over southern georgia, you look at the system here, again, a massive system. we measured this earlier this morning and if you look at the the cloud bank from the delmarva region back down towards portions of the northern yucatan in the central gulf here, we have seen this system actually ab quite an amazing system. not done yet. really about a good 24 hours before we start to see things start to wind down. >> all right. thank you. and we are waiting on governor rick scott. he is going to be addressing the state of florida in just the next few minutes or. so we will wait and have that for you as soon as he hits the podium. right now, we want to keep an eye on what's happening on the ground. >> and there's a lot of flooding on the ground. meredyth censullo is in new port richey at the imperial courts mobile home park this

a tour. and it's bad out there. >> reporter: yeah, it really is. and high tide is a big concern for these folks. low tide right now. and we still have this. several inches of water up to more than a foot of water or more in this area. and we've been watching scenarios like this, at least people can kind of get their vehicles out. but let's see how this one does. very high -- it's, wait, they're asking me how deep it is to see if they can get the car out. i'm going to give them a guideline of how deep it. is his car just stalled. poor dude. that's what we're dealing with here. we're dealing with folks that are just trying to get out of the driveways to go to work. or as we saw just a few minutes ago, a woman needed to go to the doctor. they can't even get out of the driveways because if they have a cute little car like that, it's going to get flooded.

here where water is literally -- i had to stop because it was up to my knees and i don't like soggy pants. i'm sure they don't either. but there are people that live down there and they can't leave their homes. we did see a guy in a jeep drive down but he had the giant monster truck wheels. really the only way to drive down some of the roads here. tides an issue. just on the other side of the trees, oh, he got it going. that's good. just on the other side, you're backing up to the gu pushing all of that water in this way. and then you have little retention ponds. you see them all over the place in florida. that's what that is supposed to be here. it's not supposed to be a lake. this is not lake front property. but it is today. because you have all that water from the retention ponds. that's overfilling. and then you have all the water. oh, buddy, not a good idea. he's going to try to go that way and it's not going to work.

it. trust me. just a bad situation. this is one neighborhood, it's happening in neighborhoods all along that corridor between u.s. 19 and, west of there to the gulf. we were north of here earlier this morning. up in hudson beach. hudson area, same thing, you had folks dealing with water coming in from just generalized flooding. and then the tides come inning. and that was pushing more water in just north of here. u.s. 19 at jasmine, strip mall, completely underwater. so again, this is the entrance to people's homes down this way. and the reason why we actually knew to come here is because one of you, a viewer emailed us and said we can't get out of our dryways. we would like to thanks jessica for giving us a call because she's the reason that we came out here. and still haven't found jessica because i think she's down there. i asked some neighbors, do you

lives on that side. that's why we haven't been able to talk to her, because we can't get to jessica we can only talk to these folks. we have been watching this guy down here. he's trying to clean out his flip flops. that little toy house, i guess is what it is, we saw him pulling that out and it was dripping water. and he was shaking it out. he has items inside his home that he is trying to today. okay, back to our audi. he is still trying to deal wit. i think he has given up. he said i had enough. so i think he is just going to call it quits for now. probably a good idea. they were evacuations in pasco county earlier this morning. again, one of those communities that backs up against the gulf there. no update on those folks on or if they were able to return to

people. ironically, we've talked to two different families who they have just moved to florida. welcome to florida. first hurricane in 11 years. guys, back to you. >> even with the monster tires, you don't want to drive through that. and definitely not with the sports car. >> yeah, cute convertible audi guy was making me nervous. >> oh, he went that way. >> give it up. >> still trying. >> yeah, it's too dangerous. and it can do damage to your car and be dangerous for you. a lot of reasons evacuate and i don't believe those folks were, but if you stay and ride out a storm like this, then you are stuck. hopefully they have the supplies they need to stay in their house. >> and that's why we've been telling you for day, it was the time back then to stock up on the water and food and whatever you need to ride this out because we don't know when the water is going to recede. i know somebody who might know that. that's leigh spann keeping an eye on the tides and the issues. what do you think about the flooding?

to monitor flooding through afternoon and evening. the tides go back out and we will have at least improving conditions but not going to take my guard down until at least tonight and some for tomorrow. here's the reason why, yes, tropical storm hermine did make land fall as a hurricane becoming the first hurricane in 11 years to hit florida. and now southern georgia as a tropical storm. interestingly en the tropical moisture out of the gulf of mexico, it remains a tropical storm into south carolina. and now i worked in charleston, south carolina when we got hurricanes and they came off of the atlantic ocean. not once did i track a tropical storm coming in from georgia. that is not what you normally expect. normally what you see is okay, weakens and just rain by the time it makes it to you from the west. this system is going to hold together. still being a tropical storm in

atlantic. and it basically puts on the brakes. look at this, sunday, monday, tuesday, wednesday, that's the forecast track there off the mid-atlantic seaboard. so that's going to cause rip currents and rain and wind and nasty weathered for them. getting rain from raleigh to jacksonville and tampa, and ed mentioned all the way back to mexico. this feeder band, it feeds the moisture into the center of circulation. we often call it a rain band but this is one of the reasons why this storm is staying healthy, because it's getting moisture from the gulf of mexico. heaviest rain at this point south of i-4, have been stronger wind gusts with this, especially moving through the lake whales, frost proof area, finally for the first time making it into highlands

the southeast quadrant would have the least amount of rain. and that's what you're about to see now. sebring, avon park, downpours through arcadia and lightning strikes as well. and moderate to heavy rainfall but not the strong intense downpours throughout bradenton, sarasota, venice. heading finally out of englewood. and hula bay restaurant in tampa. just no, ma'aming on the door of 2 inches of rainfall. just since miht areas may see as much as 3 inches of rain today. other places would stay around 1 inch or so. this is an area, probably by the time it's said and done, be closer to 3 inches of rain. and a southwest wind, gusting at 2025 to 30 miles per hour. wind speeds, 21 in tampa. 24 in clearwater. 25 in venice. lighter wind speeds overall in places in polk county where

the sustained wind takes an average over time. some gusts that are higher and some that are lower. ky look at the highest. and at this point, we are getting a wind gust in clearwater of 33 miles per hour. again, 93 miles per hour winds, tropical storm-force. 28 in sarasota. when you look at the eight-day forecast, again, today cloudy, rainy all day. gene's question, when is it going to the dry out? well, tomorrow, we will see sunshine but the tropical moisture that lingers around still gives us a good coverage off rain and that could lead to spotty areas of flooding. not until sunday and monday when we dry out. [stand by for change of

i want to show you the access road underneaths and water is popping over and it on the howard frankland bridge itself, we're not seeing delays and it's a good driver. governor rick scott is ready to address florida resident about the storm. >> let's go to him live. >> has the best emergency management professional and will do all they can to help families and residents get back to work. today there's do and left following storm. we will spend the coming days assessing the damage and responding to the needs of our communities and florida families. but the number one thing is to stay safe. do not driver in standing water, stay away from downed power lines. just because it's clear doesn't mean it's safe. take all the precautions. beginning this morning, we began assessing the damage and

recovery efforts to assist those impacted by the storm. here's what we know right now. there will be a lot of debris, including up root treed and fallen limbs. do not travel on the roads until they're clear and it is safe to do so. the storm has caused a lot of downed power lines. do not touch them or approach them. call your utility power company and report any downed power line in your area and let them handle it. weec amounts of flood water along coastal and inland areas. don't driver in it. stay out of all standing water and especially power line and power sources. if your home has been damaged and you need assistance or to find a shelter, please visit your local emergency management office or visit floridadisaster.org/into.

you can also call. we expect to see a lot of downed traffic light and road signs. again, don't travel unless you really have to travel. it's important for everyone to stay tuned to their local weather station for updates on road and weather conditions. as the hurricane moved through our state, more than 253,000 floridians experienced power loss. this number will continue to fluctuate throughout the day. and the following co without power. alachua, 19%. citrus, 13%. franklin, 19%. gadsden, 40 president. hamilton, 38%. jefferson, 34%. lafayette, 13%. leton, 68% -- more than 78,000

leavy, 13%. madison, 31%. taylor, 41%. wakulla, 99%. utility companies are working to restore power. i contactedsuwanee electric, taylor electric cooperative, gulf power, duke energy, talcon electric, florida power and light, teco, -- acochee, are- op. i reached to local leaders anymore pacted areas to make sure evaat help. i have contact a variety of individuals. i spoke with tallahassee's mayor. he said he has no unmet needs the state could help him with. they are work very diligently on the power outage and there's a lot of tree damage in tallahassee and a lot of roads closed. commissioner meeks in leavy county -- cedar key is the

infrastructure there. pasco sheriff nocco and other sheriffs have no report of injuries. citrus sheriff dalsy, no major issues to report. hatcher, no issues to report. when i say that, issues -- everybody is dealing with issues but things what i ask, is there something the state can help them with. they're dealing with roads -- road issues, all dealing with downed trees and power lines down. sheriff william night with a lot of trees down. monticello is okay but county roads closed and sheriff creole -- they're doing good, had a lot of flooding and they're evacuated the elderly people there. i talked to the mayor in st. marks and bed and breakfast was flooded down there and a lot of flooding yesterday.

george island. madison sheriff stuart, roads closed but the interstate is now open. lafayette sheriff lamb, they're trying to clear the highway but no major issues. sheriff cameron, they're doing good but down trees. they have no water damage that the state -- at this point -- everybody is still doing assessment. sheriff reed, clearing roads and a lot of special-needs individuals in shelters. columbia sheriff hunter, they believe right now based on their ss have significant damage. gadsden sheriff young and their emergency director, no major issues to report. sheriff wood, same thing -- a lot of down treed, power outages, but they're working really hard. marion county sheriff gainey, no major issues. he did tell me that one homeless man in marion county was hit by a tree and passed away.

florida national guard deployed reconnaissance teams beginning in crystal river and work up the coast. there are special forces doing search-and-rescue. we have 6,000 narc guardsmen ready to assist our state. florida wildlife commission have conducted search and rescue mission with high-water vehicles and multiple counties. heroes answered the call fo in pasco county, fire personnel rescued 18 people from rising flood water and got them to safe. hernando county, fish and wildlife officer rescued families from flooded areas and the state provided 75,000 sandbags to residents in impacted communities. schools in 35 counties will remain closed today -- bay, gulf, walton, columbia, dixie, jefferson, lafayette, leon,

taylor, alachua, waklla, baker, bradford, clay, duval, flagler, gill crest, levi, nassau, putnam, st. john, union, citrus, hernando, hillsborough, pasco, pinellas and manatee. state offices will remain closed in 37 counties including some of the areas hardest hit such as taylor, levi, leon counties. at least 59 shelters were they will continue to offer services as needed, including those with special needs. we have quite a few special- needs individual in the shelters. thank you to the red cross for all their hard work and helping in this effort. we know the one death in marion county -- we're waiting for the medical examiner to confirm -- it was storm-related. the sheriff said a tree fell on him. our first responders are still working around the clock to help people and we will keep you update as it changes.

areas were along the gulf coast, as you would expect. in taylor county, storm surge was in excess of 9 feet, bringing water into the coastal communities and causing extensive damage. life-threatening coastal flooding and rip currents will continue through morning hours in taylor county. in hernando and pasco counties, we see report of flash floods causing evacuation of low- lying areas. at this time, we have not received confirmed reports of reports. no interstates are closed. the sunshine skyway bridge is still closed. there are no reported fuel supply distribution or retail issues at this time. our ports are doing their preliminary assessments to ensure waterways are safe. for information on road closure, monitor local news stations or visit fl5811.com.

floridadisaster.org/info. forfor more information. 31 state parks are closed. if you have property damage, you should locate all applicable insurance policies including homeowners policy, flood policy, or car insurance policy. document all damaged property and belongings. take photos or shoot video footage before attempting temporary repairs. when you file an insurance claim, you will be asked for visual documentation and the national association of insurance commissioners called. they can help you take and store a room by room log and photos. myhomescr dot app dot book. they can help you take room-by- room photos. contact your insurance company or insurance agent as soon as possible to report damages. insurance policies require prompt reporting of claims so

as possible. business owners who have been impacted by hurricane hermine should visit the florida virtual business operations center at flvbeoc.org. and complete a business damage damage assessment survey. zika. we have had heavy rain throughout our state. it's incrediblely important everyone does their part to combat zika water no matter how small. any amount of standing water can be a breeding ground for mosquitoes everyone should dump the water around their home and businesses, encouraging friends and neighbors to do absolutely the same thing. remember to wear long sleeves and useburg repellent when outdoors. combating the virus is something we must do together and everyone must use precautions to protect our state. florida knows how to prepare

to neighbors in need. now is the time for our state to come together. there is a lot of work left to do. we will spend the coming days assessing the damage caused by the hurricane and responding to the needs of communities in florida's families. thank you to first responders for quickly rushing to the aid of fellow floridians. thank you to our great national guard, ready to assist in time of need. thank yo florida baptist, other organizations and those who lent a helping hand. let's thank utility companies across our state who respond to begin restoring power and thank you to state and local lead and elected official who continue to work together to ensure community have the resources they need. thank you and i'll be glad to answer convections anybody has. >> reporter: has the state had

is it better than you expected at this point? >> sure. look, first, i was scared about the storm surges especially places like taylor. you know, i went down, saw what happened and we have power line and trees down. many places are still g about now is people driving in standing water, people touching a downed power line -- we have a lot of trees down so we have power lines down. that's really the biggest concern. hopefully the -- i know all the utilities are working hard and they're working together. i saw -- they're calling each other to see what they can do. i talked to stan at gulf early. he said they didn't have as

power and light was doing the same thing. i talked to mayor gillam to tell him that because cooperation generally between the public utility and then the co-ops. they're trying to help so that's really nice. >> reporter: governor, did you feel like the state had enough notice of the storm and how strong it was going to be to give the evacuation orders and how milt it built up? >> we for a while and we didn't know how bad it was going to be. we have been trying to get people ready but evacuation orders are local and the storm surge increased and i was

down, st. george item. -- st. george area. so far, the information that we have -- we didn't have a positive but we want to make sure people don't touch power lines. that's what we're trying to make sure we have recovery efforts and make sure we saved everybody if everybody needs anything. >> reporter: are major roads blocked -- you said don't travel if you don't have to. does that apply to statewide level. >> anybody that drove -- we have a lot of trees down and