think we're going to have to bundle up not just this morning but the next few days, we're going to continue with the cold spell. by the afternoon we'll warm up a little bit here, some folks loving this, temperatures in the 50s, we'll top off around 60 or 61 with you most of us -- but most of us especially to the for the staying in the 50s as far as temperatures. how cold we'll go the next few nights because we're not the coldest so far this week. chillier air coming in and then we track the next storm system scheduled for arrivality on friday. right now -- arrival on friday. right now we're quiet on the roads. traffic conditions are great. no rain so the roads are dry. if you're heading out now you shouldn't have any trouble getting to where you need to be. this is what the looks like at 275 and ashley through downtown. again traffic up to speed in both directions, just six minutes from here to the howard frankland bridge. this is what it looks like on i- 4, i've been checking cameras all along i-4, again, no

have a smooth ride all the way into tampa from lakeland. let's check the drive times on i-4, just 21 minutes to get from county line road to downtown. 14 minutes from county line road to 75. and just seven minutes from 75 down to 275. crossing the bay looking great as well. just about a minute slow on the courtney campbell causeway at 9 minutes, 6 across the howard frankland bridge and 8 to cross the gandy bridge. 6:01. abc action news returning to one of the communities hit hardest in the weekend tornadoes that turned deadly in the small community of duette. >> reporter corey dierdorff is there live with how neighbors are working to help the family that suffered an unimaginable loss. this is so sad. >> reporter: it really is this. is a very small community in northern manatee county and friends. family actually watching over this here, making sure no looters come out to try to take

that home is devastated from a deadly line of storms that passed through early sunday tight-knight community. they are still cleaning up touched down. this is what is left of the home of steve and kelly wilson, in their mobile home with their adult son and four grandkids ages 6 to 12 when that tornado touched down, tossing their entire home several hundred feet, ripping it apart. steve wilson was pinned under the rubble, passed away. his wife kelly survived the brunt of the storm but died in the back of an ambulance on the way to the hospital from an apparent heart attack. >> i kept telling her, i said let's go. them she died. >> with emotions running high a bit of good news. the adult son and the kids were hurt but survived. they are expected to recover. friends, family and neighbors are heartbroken. this community now pulling together to try to salvage anything they can. we're hoping to get an update

condition of those four that, did that adult and three children sometime this morning. so stay with abc action news, and on-line. live in manatee county, corey dierdorff, abc action news. along the lines, such an outpouring of support for the family that lost two grandparents in the tornado. a family friend set up a gofundme page to help raise money for faith patton, a 7- year-old granddaughter of the couple who died. i have a quick check of the page. they've already raised $12,000 to help this family and help pay for faith's medical expenses. if you would like to contribute i'm going to share this link on my facebook page. it's also on the abc action news app. continuing now with our coverage in sarasota county, where clean-up efforts will continue today in neighborhoods and popular tourist spots. action air 1 flew over this condo complex in siesta key torn apart by storms. the damage in the community

because of lost future rental income. rental managers are scrambling to find housing for seasonal residents and people planning trips to the area. if you know someone who is struggling now there's help that will open up in sarasota. you can stop by the edison keith mansion at phillipi state park from 11:00 to 2:00 today. representatives there. we're also watching today to see if governor rick scott will declare a disaster area for the region. that would allow state funding to help pay for the clean-up. no power has been restored to -- power has been restored to most businesses and homes left in the dark. at the height of the severe weather florida power and light says 200,000 homes were without power so they added crews and tree trimmers to try to restore power to everyone. i just checked, 99% of homes have power. just a few dozen outages left in sarasota and manatee counties.

at 6:15 we'll check in with ivan cabrera for his take on how the strong el nino fueled the severe weather. ahead at 6:30, the one app you need to download before the next round of storms. to make sure you keep you and your family safe. time now 6:05. we turn to democracy 2016 -- with exactly two weeks to go until the iowa caucus, new numbers show senator bernie sanders could upset frontrunner hillary clinton in that key early voting state. the "des moines register" reports clinton has just a 2- point lead over sanders before the primary. the two came out swinging in the last debate before the primary clashing over health care, gun rights and president obama's legacy. clinton struggled to defend the president's signature health care law and sanders slammed her for lying about his health care plans. >> i'm not sure whether we're talking about the plan you just introduced tonight or the plan you introduced nine times in the congress. >> that is nonsense.

affordable care act. >> unlike earlier debates donald trump was not a big conversation topic. clinton didn't mention his name once. trump was also uncharacteristically silent on his twitter feed during the debate last night. >> other republicans were not quiet on social media. they tuned in. florida senator marco rubio took him to task tweeting, two hours of this? imagine four years. at 6:30 we fact check the democratic debate. including bernie sanders' assertion that he helped write the affordable care act. keep going! a heart-pounding rescue caught on a firefighter's helmet camera. they say an entire -- saved an entire family including a baby. the scene that will give you chills. there's a new afternoon line-up on your abc action news

an iraqi intelligence official says the three americans kidnapped in iraq were taken from their interpreter's home in baghdad. the embassy only confirmed that several u.s. citizens were missing in that country.

responsibility for the kidnapping. california firefighters rescue seven people including a family from a second-story window of a burning apartment building. this video is pretty incredible. go provideo from the helmet of one firefighter in fresno shows how crews used a ladder to rescue a woman, her husband and baby. the woman climbed down after the woman handed the baby to a feister through the window. it broke out early saturday morning. luckily firefighters were only a few blocks away at the time when they got the call. no reports of serious injuries, so far no word on what started the fire. 6:10. another check with ivan cabrera and florida's most accurate forecast. >> we're cooling off big time. in fact cold temperature, 30s and 40s, factor in the wind and makes it feel even colder. that is how it will be really the next couple of days. then we'll be tracking the next storm system which will arrive on friday, but before that happens, coming up in a few minutes, we're going to break this down and explain el nino and what we can expect for the rest of the season and how in

tornado across the tampa bay area. other people tried calling, nobody picked up. >> ignored in the middle of an emergency. and wait until you hear the excuse. a florida 911 dispatcher gave

i still can't believe it it was our home. >> shock and sadness in manatee county where a community this morning is coming together to grieve the loss of two grandparents killed in sunday morning's ef-2 tornado. the red cross is on the ground there in duette to help with disaster recovery. the storms hit manatee and sarasota counties particularly hard. we're still waiting to see this morning if governor scott will declare the region dea disaster area. we've been talking about how el nino fueled this. there's some real necessary positives as well that come from el nino. >> yeah, we were talking about. that el nino can actually shut down hurricane season. we have very little activity throughout the year. the problem is once we get into the winter and spring months across our area then we get into trouble with tornadoes. this was an ef-2 as you mentioned, 127 mile-per-hour winds.

category 3 hurricane. instead of 50, 100 miles though we're talking about 300 yards for 9.2 miles. of course we had the two deaths and four injuries as well. here. the equatorial pacific. warmer than normal sea surface temperatures, that creates a entire planet. it changes the weather patterns. yes, it can shut down hurricane season but by the time we get to winter in the united states what it does, it splits the jet stream, our storm tracks. this is the way the storms ride the gem here, when you have a southern storm track that comes right into florida that sets the stage for the potential of not just severe weather which certainly we can get here but the potential for not just tornadoes but violent tornadoes that rolled through. we had an el nino in 2007, we had an ef-3 in portions of central florida in lake county.

thunderstorms we get in the summer, they develop vertically and then falls apart. when you have a jet stream on top of like this and winds screaming at 100, 150 miles per hour it timents the thunderstorms here -- it timents the thunderstorms. that the allows the thunderstorms to continue, essentially developing and intensifying as well. then you have southeast winds at the surface and you have winds blowing from west-to-east up top. that creates, of course, the shear that is needed for tornadoes. this does not happen across florida unless we have an el nino and unless we have the southern track which is key and why we had the outbreak over the weekend here. let's go back in time. only 2:45 on titan doppler, we were tracking this before it even -- went onshore, look at the storms as they began to intensify. then we have the tornado

this is what is fascinating. usually they weaken by the time they make landfall in a nonel nino situation but this intensified and became stronger as it moves through manatee county. there you see it there. by the time it got here, winds of 127 miles per hour. they were twisting and obviously we know the result of that. the problem is here, we are still in an el nino pattern. so over the next few days we're going to be tracking another storm system that moves in by friday. i don't think it -- it doesn't look now as if we'll certainly get a repeat of what happened over the weekend but the potential there is, by friday, to get a line of showers and thunderstorms that moves through. so we'll have to watch that closely. until then, really what we have to deal with is dry weather, sunny weather and look at the temperatures. 60s for highs and overnight lows in the 30s and 40s. and there's your rain chance on friday, again that would be a line of showers and storms that we'll watch closely for timing and intensity and fine tune that forecast.

but, you have clear skies in the morning, all you have to worry about is chilly temperatures now. no fog. no rain. the roads in pretty good shape. winds are normal on the sunshine skyway. just a few cars, traffic up to speed, just 9 minutes from toll booth to toll booth on the skyway bridge. a live look at the howard frankland bridge, the tampa side of the bridge. no crashes or breakdowns here. less than 10 minutes to get across all three bridges this morning from pinellas into hillsborough county. let's check some of the drive times on the toll roads. starting with the veterans, 17 minutes to get from 54 to 275. on the selmon expressway, things are looking great there as well. six minutes from i-75 to downtown. and six minutes from dale mabry down to channelside. in the wesley chapel area, if you're trying to decide whether

looking great heading south towards i-4, both 68 miles an hour is your average speed. so again no crashes or breakdowns, looking good there. today young patients at a bay area hospital are going to have a little taste of gasprilla brought to them. >> pirates will visit kids at st. joe's hospital in tampa. pirate crews will invade the hospital hallways, 2:00 p.m. the 12th annual gasparilla parade at st. joe's hospital. their stretchers and wheelchairs decorated too. the kids will hand out beads along the way. kate middleton has a new role, a news editor for a day. the duchess of cambridge will join the huffington post united kingdom branch for a day next month as guest editor. to draw attention to children's she's going to highlight work that teachers, parents and researchers are doing in the

jr. today. we'll explain why a local event in his name is stirring up some controversy this morning. >> have you seen this? this image of smiling slaves has many of you talking this morning. the writer defends his book. first, people are awaiting the apple watch 2, they have to wait a little longer, why? here's your business news. in today's "tech bytes" -- a delay for the next generation apple watch. >> it was likely heading for a march unveiling but an on-line report claims a company pushed back that date. no comment from apple. this is amazon echo. the wireless speaker and voice demand device that controls smart devices around your home. and now it can now read to you. >> having it read to you is free but does sound a bit robotic. google is traifng its most

his name is "ian," 6'2", 330 pounds and walks on two legs. >> "ian" competed in the u.s. military's robot olympics but is getting really good at rearrange furniture, sweeping up, even vacuuming.

no a controversial children's book is off store shelves. it's called "a birthday cake for george washington." it's depiction of the slaves as happy smiling workers. the author of the book says it was to honor their skill and resourcefulness, not to downplay a brutal part of u.s. history. on-line petitions called for it to be taken off store shelves. in the end the publisher scholastic did just that saying the book could give children a >> a lot of people have join the conversation now on page. this morning a south florida 911 dispatcher is admitting she didn't answer an emergency call and her reason? she was ordering pizza. >> according to reports the

this incident happened last september. while she was on the line with the pizza restaurant someone tried to get through to 911 after a man had a seizure. the dispatcher says she was not paying attention and didn't realize no one else was around to take the call. supervisors represented her -- reprimanded her. a cold start to the day today. i think by the afternoon, slightly milder here but still staying below normal for this time of year. temperatures now as far as what it feels like when you factor in the wind, upper 30s in brooksville, zephyrhills 39. bartow 39. feels like 42 in tampa, 50, the mildest spot in st. pete. as we head through the remainder of today, temperatures again a little milder by the afternoon. somewhat of a recovery with middle 50s, and back in the low to mid-50s for the evening commute. how cold we we go? tonight and the next coming days? in the next hour of abc action news. also still ahead -- bay area families assessing the

powerful storms that cut a path of destruction through their communities over the weekend. the early warning they got that could help your family the next

6:30 -- dozens of families in the bay area are waking up to scenes like these, torn up buildings, downed power lines, families torn apart by tragedy. there is help on its way. >> our crews are there getting a look at the damage as you're waking up with abc. >> ivan, that tornado that touched down in manatee county, ef-2 tornado. >> 127 mile-per-hour winds. you don't see that across the tampa bay area often. in fact last time i covered something this strong was back in orlando in 2007.

middle of the night which unfortunately is the way things set up with this pattern. the storms hit at night when folks are sleeping. weather radios, sure, you're not going to get a weather radio, right? what you do have in your pocket, a smartphone. ashley is going to talk about stormshield in a second which literally can save your life at 3:00 a.m. temperatures now behind the storm system, that's the story, the cold air, dry air has taken over here. certainly no severe weather today. not even rain over the next few days. but that's going to change, for the latter part of the week. details coming up in a few minutes. temperatures, the way it feels now in the upper 30s to lower 40s. this is about as cold as we've seen it so far this season. by the afternoon mid-50s. few locations touching 60 degrees but it will feel colder than that with a bit of a wind though not as windy as the last few days. shouldn't have much issue throughout the morning here.

have parades and traffic routes to contend with. for that, janelle. >> we're going to start with the howard frankland, fhp reporting a ladder in the middle of the road in the northbound lanes. i did check a lot of the cameras, didn't see anything, they should get that up pretty quickly but just use caution if you're heading across the howard frankland bridge now. here's a live look at i-275 through downtown tampa. traffic still pretty light this morning, we do expect it to stay that way because it is a holiday. again no crashes or breakdowns, six minutes from here to the howard frankland bridge. checking your drive times, from the south. i-75 from 275 to i-4 is 27 minutes. 14 minutes from big bend to i-4 and 10 minutes from gibsonton drive to i-4. quick check of more drive times. the veterans, all in the green.

captain al, welcome back. >> reporter: i am glad to be back. knee surgery, gone for a month but here we are, 1,000 feet right over i-275 looking, hillsborough avenue there, lower left to right, you can see, nebraska on the right there. we're looking up southbound, lights, familiar sight. not as heavy as it usually is but from bearss through busch sliding into hillsborough avenue it's a smooth ride. i-4 picking up a little bit but also no problems to speak of. back to the desk. this morning people in sarasota, manatee counties, cleaning up from sunday's ef-2 tornado which did turn deadly in the small town of duette. a husband and wife, steven and home along with their adult son and four grandchildren when the tornado touched down. steve wilson was pinned under debris and died. his wife died in an ambulance from an apparent heart attack.

and they are expected to recover. i've we warned people of the severe risk live on tv and our web site. some say our abc action news stormshield app let them know the twisters were coming. they say it was not long before they heard the roar of the storms and now they have a message for others. >> take those cell phone warnings seriously. i was awake, i heard it, not awake enough to pay serious attention to it. it was only three minutes later that happened. >> here's what you need to know. download stormshield through your mobile phone through the app store. it's a couple of bucks and using that we'll send you an alert when there's severe weather on the way including tornadoes and hurricanes. we'll send crews back to manatee and sarasota counties throughout the day to keep covering the clean-up efforts.

storm, a lot of firsthand accounts on our abc action news app. we'll send a push alert once we find out if governor scott will declare the region a disaster area. and today people are luther king. in st. pete many people there are angry that the person selected as the keynote speaker at a major event has made anti- gay comments. abc action news reporter adam winer is live at the coliseum to explain. adam? >> that's right. i'm actually with right now the executive committee of the st. pete naacp group here in st. pete. they are going to be attending this event and very excited to do so. in fact the president, maria scruggs with me to talk about why this event, despite the controversy and we'll get to that but why this event is so important to you, especially i would imagine in light of -- the black rights movement that has been happening, black rights matter and just why you

is an especially important event for a you guys. >> as you know the events that have taken front and center this year has been the amount of killings of african-american males and locally we've had the incidents of violence among each other. and i think 30 years, when we have an opportunity to reflect on dr. king's dream that this is really important for this community to come together and be able to celebrate the legacy and the focus remains on the legacy for which he was known for. >> reporter: thank you for showing up early this speak with us about this. i would imagine -- we were talking about this earlier, you didn't really expect the response to reverend bryant being so negative from certain people here in the lgbt community for apparently making anti-gay comments which can be found on-line. do you feel that was -- what did you think of the lgbt

the statements in the light of a lot of viewers watching him now? making the comments on their screen there? >> i think the lgbt community's responses were inappropriate. to request another of the organization disinvite someone they vetted and certainly felt appropriate to deliver the message that they had in mind. and at a group that has also sought and fought for so long for people to understand their views and to understand the dialogue that has to take place it was quite shocking that their approach was to disinvite someone so totally dismiss the opportunity for dialogue. i think that was a -- strategically, a very poor

the event starts 7:30. sold-out event. 30th anniversary of the event in st. pete. more information is on our web site, abcactionnews.com. for now live in st. pete, adam winer, back to you. >> thank you. across tampa bay today our communities will celebrate dr. martin luther king jr.'s lasting impact on history. >> in tampa the yearly mlk day parade route is expanding, more than 100 bands, floats, performance groups and more will begin to march down 15th street at noon. that is where city officials say they will get the best view. >> it's a huge parade. the city of st. pete, that parade begins 11:00 this morning at 3rd avenue south and mlk street. after that you can join a family fun festival. games, music, a car show and more. this is great, it's all free. let's check with ivan cabrera now, will the weather hold up for all the outdoor celebrations?

friday and warned folks the chilly conditions certainly

we'll keep you posted on the

the week and we'll see if we can certainly squeeze out some nice few days over the next few days, plenty of sunshine. breaking now in ohio -- let's first talk about democracy 2016, from vermont senator bernie sanders appears to be the big winner last night at the debate, before the iowa caucuses. during the debate's first hour sanders accused hillary clinton defending the status quo and not being bold on topics like wall street reform and universal health care. political experts say the former secretary of state didn't make major mistakes but did nothing to slow sanders' momentum. we're holding candidates accountage for what they say. >> let's begin with hillary clinton who criticized bernie sanders during a back and forth debate on gun control. she called him out for voting for the charleston loophole. >> he voted for what we call the charleston loophole.

gunmakers and sellers which the nra said was the most important piece of gun legislation in 20 years. >> on that point politifact gives hillary a mostly true rating. bernie sanders voted against federally mannedcated waiting periods -- mandated waiting periods. sanders votes don't line up exactly as clinton presented them but because sanders did vote against waiting periods for background checks we rate the claim mostly true. >> on the topic of health care bernie sanders had quite the claim about his involvement in the affordable care act. listen. >> we're not going to tear up the affordable care act, i helped write it. >> so, did he? did he really help write that ladies -- ladies

mostly false. in fact he supported a more aggressive single pair system. he was voted -- while his statement contains an element of truth it ignores critical facts. on the republican side donald trump is calling out texas senator ted cruz. in an interview with abc news chief anchor george stephanopoulos the billionaire says cruz would be a bad commander in chief. >> he's a nasty guy, nobody likes him, nobody in congress likes him. no one likes him anywhere once they get to know him. he's a very -- he's got an edge that is not good. you can't make deals with people like that, it's not a good thing for the country. very nasty guy. >> meanwhile cruz is working to jump ahead of trump in the polls in new hampshire. yesterday he began a five-day bus tour of the granite state. he plans to court religious and social conservatives and pro- gun libertarians in new hampshire. a police officer shot and killed an armed robbery suspect and some of the people who

chanting in protest against the police. it appears to be much different than the nearby shooting in ferguson that caused protests in 2014 police say an officer confronted an armed man robbing a kfc. he told the man, then the man apparently raised his gun towards the officer and then the officer fired two shots. authorities say they are investigating, there's video from the restaurant. in ohio, a police officer was shot and killed in the line of duty overnight. our affiliate in cleveland reports a man and woman are in custody in danville. around midnight a statewide search was launched for officer thomas cottrell and his stolen cruiser. the ohio state patrol says his hat was found with blood on it, his body later found near a city building. we learned one of the 12 marines when two helicopters collided off the coast of hawaii is from fort myers. 22-year-old corporal thomas jardes was in a helicopter that

mission late thursday. so far no signs of survivors. but search teams say they found debris that appears to be from a helicopter. no word yet on what caused the incidents. new individual -- new video shows the spacex attempt to land a rocket, landing in disaster. the spacex founder posted this to instagram saying after successfully launching into orbit it tipped over and exploded while trying to land. musk believes that ice formed because of heavy fog and one of the four legs of the base there didn't lock into position. 6:52 now, we count down to "good morning, america." >> recovery efforts are really just beginning for the people devastated in the storms in manatee and sarasota counties. reporter corey dierdorff is live in duette with how one family is coping with a

devastation behind me, in that small manatee city of duette, from the deadly line of storms that passed through early sunday claiming two lives. this is what is left of steve and kelly wilson's home off allbritain road in duette. they were in their mobile home when their adult son and four grand kids, ages 6 to 12 and ef- -2 tornado touched down tossing their home several hundred feet across the street ripping it apart. the adult son and kids are hurt but expected to recover. more at abcactionnews.com. governor rick scott is deciding whether to declare therin region a disaster area, that would allow state funding to help pay for the clean-up. extra crews dplokd to manatee and sarasota counties to help get the lights back on, 200,000 homes without power yesterday. and we just checked, all but a few dozen homes do have power. our crews will be in manatee and sarasota county today all day keeping track of the recovery efforts there.

posted to the abc action news app of some of the most stunning images of the storm. the keynote speaker at an mlk breakfast is stirring up controversy today. reverend jamal bryant has spoken about homosexuality calling it a sin, why some in the local lgbt community want a different speaker. the st. pete mayor has said he won't give reverent bryant honorary keys to the city but still will attend the event. expect closures for the parade today. more than 100 bands, floats, performance groups will be begin to march down 15th street at noon. that is where you'll get the best view as well. and turns on mlk ending on 22nd street. good morning. fhp is reporting a crash in riverview at i-75 around progress boulevard. i have been checking the cameras in that area. this is the northbound lanes here, not seeing any delays so

already probably off to the there. checking your drive times on i- 4 from county line road to downtown, 23 minutes, and down there at the bottom just eight minutes to get from 75 to 275. let's check with captain al, how is it where you are? >> reporter: pretty windy from the north, took 3 1/2 minutes to get from the apex to i-4 and i-75. the lights are northbound 75, good news, all directions, have a good day. here's the forecast. wind chills this morning in the 30s and 40s. by the afternoon most of us in the 50s here. there will be a couple of hours, we'll be 60, 61 degrees, most of the day staying cold. in fact that is setting the stage tore another cold night tonight. temperature falling back into the 30s and 40s, between 60 and 65 tuesday and wednesday. we'll begin a gradual warm-up thursday ahead of the next storm system, we'll watch it

shelters were open for the homeless in pinellas county. their locations in clearwater, st. pete and pinellas park. they will be open 6:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. the critics choice awards were held in santa monica, california last night. the movie "spotlight" won for best picture. leonardo di caprio won for best actor for "the revenant." i just posted on my facebook page about the best young actor, 9-year-old jacob trembly stole the show and you have to check out where he says he's house. it's adorable -- coming from a 9-year-old. >> i want to see it. "good morning, america" is