we've been tracking storms throughout the night. now clearing out but unfortunately the roads are going to remain very wet for your morning commute. >> we are pinning down those problem spots to get you out the door safely in traffic and weather together. >> it was not as bad as this. >> before it hit here it hit the be panhandle hard. rescuers pulling families from their homes after a tornado touches down there. this morning they share their story of the moment the tornado ripped through. >> the manhunt is finally over but there are certainly plenty of questions. why so many of you are wondering how this woman was allowed to get behind the wheel before allegedly hitting and killing a tow truck driver on the howard frankland bridge. that video you're seeing there of the woman in the back of the police car, that is just coming in to us new this morning. good morning, thank you for joining us. we're going to get that in a moment but first we're tracking that line of storms. a lot of you woke up to it. >> absolutely. >> freezing lightning, lots of

but nothing like we saw across the panhandle. neverless still dealing with heavy rainfall here. as far as the biggest impact, so far has been just power outages that we've had to deal with. probably more from lightning strikes over the last several hours. you can see on titan most of the rain over across tampa bay but it continues to push off to the east so our spearier counties are still in -- interior counties are still in on the rainfall. in fact still pretty heavy rain across portions of highlands and southeastern polk county. when you see the yellow and orange, depicting very heavy rainfall. as far as the movement, everything is headed east and south, and doing so rather rapidly, but the problem is we're not getting a good wind behind that. that means we're not going to be able to dry out. so as we continue throughout the morning i think we're going to have to deal with a lot of wet roads. as far as futurecast, watch what happens, this really races east and then by the time we get to lunchtime we are going to be clearing out, plenty of sunshine and temperatures this afternoon will be in the low 70s.

along the roads. we had all the crashes, fatalities, that was with dry roads and without fog this morning we have the opposite. low visibility and the wet roads. >> you mentioned rain that came down in polk county. we have unfortunately a fatal crash in polk city along i-4, corey dierdorff is heading there now. he's driving along i-4, no rain coming down now but the roads are a little wet out there. again, all we know about this crash is that it did happen along i-4, a little before 3:00 this morning. at least one person killed in that crash. as soon as corey gets there he's going to give us more information. we were able to find this crash on our fdot cameras. it's right just east of the polk parkway, right now, the two inside lanes in both directions, eastbound and westbound are blocked. you can see a lot of flashing lights. it's still early so cars are getting through fine. again we don't have all the details on exactly what happened in this crash but we

so corey will let us know if that played a role. checking drive times on 4, from lakeland to tampa, not really affecting those drive times. still all in the green, 23 minutes from county line road into downtown. back to you. 5:03. breaking overnight -- officers are searching for this little girl here, this is 6-year-old ashley jade martinez, missing from the miami area. she has brown hair, hazel eyes, 4'4" tall and weighs 75 pounds. we know many of you have family and friends in south florida so we're asking you to share ashley's picture when you see it in your news feed this morning. we've also posted this on our mobile app. police say she might be in the company of the woman you see there on the right side of the screen, 53-year-old lily hatton. if you see this child or woman, and you know where they are, call 911. we're adding up damage after a tornado ripped through escambia county in the western

at least 10 homes destroyed or severely damaged in the town of century. >> three minor injuries is all we've heard so far, so people are grateful because judging by the damage you see here it could have been a whole lot worse. we heard it took a while for crews to rescue a 94-year-old woman trapped in her home after that storm. >> this is actual tornado footage itself, that prompted the calls to emergency crews. you can see the funnel cloud in the distance. right now they are going through debris still and the storm caused thousands of power outages throughout north florida. >> you can't control mother nature. thank god no one got killed, so far. >> the thunderstorms knocked out power for tens of thousands and four pensacola schools will be closed today because they don't have power. a new video this morning as florida highway patrol troopers catch the woman they say hit and killed the tow truck driver on the howard frankland yesterday morning and then

we brought you this breaking news yesterday morning at 4:30. that is alison huffman. she's headed to court today. she's accused of killing roger perez, perez, a husband and father had just loaded a disabled car on his truck when he was struck and killed. his family tells us he and his wife -- he has a wife and child in venezuela. huffman's car was found at the crowne plaza hotel a short time after that crash with severe front end damage. troopers say she has a long history of dui arrests in hillsborough county and now friends of the victim want to know why she still had a license. >> why are we allowing this to happen? why are we so lenient? why is this incredible human being dead? >> investigators tell us huffman used an alias to hire a taxi for a trip to the hard rock casino. we'll follow this case and bring you pore information as authorities uncover it.

citrus county who deputies say cyberstalked multiple women. william billy beagle is going to head to court today, facing several charges. deputies believe he used different phone numbers and social media sites including on- line dating sites and kept reaching out to the women after after they blocked him. the women told investigators they were frightened by him because he made threats. in one incident he's accused of threatening to stab one of the women. this morning his mother tells abc action news her son was set up. >> is he looking to go to prison? three different women? all i know is, i mean, he wouldn't hurt that fly. i know that. i mean -- after what happened in illinois, being charged with something like that i can't see him doing something like that again. >> beagle is also charged with violating probation for an aggravated stalking case. his mom said that happened out of state and says her son wasn't guilty of that either. an 18-year-old woman

clearwater is expected to be in court this afternoon. camry clark and a 15-year-old are accused of stealing a master key from a maid's cart. police say they broke into four different rooms on valentine's day and stole more than $1,200 worth of electronics and valuables. now some guests are concerned about the hotel's policy of keeping master keys secure. >> is it that easy to swipe it? most of the times i'm more concerned about the people coming in, just the maid service. more worried about that, didn't even think of someone else taking the key and coming in. >> the hyatt regency released a statement saying the safety and security of our guests and associates is the highest priority. hotel management is cooperating with the investigation. 5:07. hillsborough county deputies are just releague to us these two people may know a man killed over the weekend in a parking lot near usf. deputies are not calling afron row sadda and jeffracarino

have information about the murder. we told you saturday that michael fuentes's body was found on sycamore court off bruce b downs boulevard. now to the update on breaking news we brought you monday morning. hillsborough county counties just identified the man shot during a violent home invasion as a decorated combat veteran. they tell us grant landenburg was in a home on jr manor drive in town n country early yesterday when three suspects burst in through an unlocked door and shot him. at last check he's still at st. joseph's hospital in critical condition and the intruders are still on the run. we head to polk county where security cameras caught a disturbing scene, a man kills his neighbor's german shepherd puppy. the owner says two of his animals escaped through a hole under a fence sunday. the dogs then strayed from the street to a neighbor's property, that neighbor then shot the 3-month-old puppy twice in the chest. the man claims the puppy

feared for his own safety. deputies say the video supports the shooter's story so no charges are going to be filed. we have pictures just in to the newsroom after a house fire in sarasota county. take a look, northport fire rescue responded to the fire on coca road after 11:00 last night. the fire is out, no one was hurt. the person who lives there is now staying with relatives and the state fire marshal will launch an investigation today. we'll let you know what they find out this morning. we're still tracking heavy pockets of rain, severe weather threat at this point over for us though on the northwestern side of that. clearing skies, we'll talk about the extend the forecast in a few -- extended forecast in a few minutes. coming up, 100-foot fall. a garbage truck driver lucky to be alive after his truck tumbles off a miami interstate. coming up, what happened that kept this from being a whole lot worse. >> last night was full of big winners at the grammys but who swept the competition at the

good morning. we have some sad news to report. fatal crash on i-4, this is in the polk city area, this happened on i-4 just east of the polk parkway, right now the two inside lanes on the interstate in both directions are blocked, although traffic is light so traffic getting through just fine. corey dierdorff is on the way. more details coming up in a few

5:13. this morning a miami garbage truck driver is in serious condition but lucky to be alive. after smashing through a concrete barrier on i-95 and falling 100 feet to the street below. this accident happened yesterday afternoon on an exit ramp, witnesses say the driver was thrown from the truck, this could have been much worse, that truck fell on the parking lot of a park below and that park is normally full of kids attending after-school programs. thankfully it was nearly empty because of the presidents' day holiday. again the driver first crashed into a concrete barrier and then tumbled off the interstate. >> the impact, it broke the rail and then fell on the roof of the house that is right next to there and then tipped it and fell on the floor. it's where the driver was ejected from the truck. there was the driver on the ground, he was still moving but in pretty bad shape.

why the driver lost control of the truck. that exit ramp is still closed until that barrier can be fixed. you all right, common. you're all right. >> north florida wasn't the only part of the u.s. where tornadoes hit yesterday. this video coming from alexandria, louisiana. a tornado so powerful it dropped a roof of a car wash on this pizza hut. customers and staff rushed to help the injured when it happened, a woman in a car outside escaped unharmed. amazingly the roof crushing only the passenger side of her car. meanwhile out west, arizona and california trying to stay cool as they suffer through record highs, in the high 80s and low 90s. records tied or broken in more than a dozen places including los angeles where they hit 86 degrees, in new record. that expected to hold up and hitting 90 degrees. in florida, the rains moving out. what is coming in behind it? ivan cabrera joins us with what is next. >> i don't think we're ready for that kind of weather but 70 we can handle.

as far as the rain, we're not quite done. most of us drying out and the severe weather threat is over. we'll fly in closer to where we have moderate to heavy rain showers east of lake wales, frost proof and moving 40 miles per hour to the east. if it's raining on top of you now it won be in a few minutes, as all of this continues to move east. hardy, desoto getting in on rainfall as well. ouachula, rain showers on the back end, and that is. we have a sharp clearing that will be here later this morning. most of the day will be sunny, despite the fact we had a pretty good rain event overnight. right now upper 50s to low 60s. we'll manage 10 degrees higher than that later this afternoon with highs in the low he 70s. typical for this time of year. that's where we'll be, really over the next few days. in fact we'll cheat the temperature a little and get milder by the latter part of

70 with rain clearing. then looking good. remainder of the workweek and then some, low 70s, low 50s overnight. for the weekend if you have outdoor plans make them, if you don't because it's going to be fantastic. mid-70s with overnight lows in the 50s. not windy, so looks good. next chance of rainfall coming in monday. good morning. corey dierdorff behind the wheel of our live drive cam. you're heading to a fatal crash in polk county. are you arriving? looks like you might be. >> reporter: we're just arriving on scene at exit 31, kathleen road exit, in the center median. no lanes of traffic blocked now. a tow truck is on scene. we're hearing unfortunately one person passed away so if you're in this area, please slow down, give the crews a little bit of room. move over a lane as we saw that tragic accident yesterday.

this accident cleared. and get home safe. so we'll keep an eye on this and bring you updates as soon as we get them on twitter @tampabaytraffic and on air as well. how are the rest of the roadways looking? no accident east of the polk -- an accident east of the polk parkway, this is where the fatal crash happened, just a little before 3:00 this morning. traffic is still light so cars are able to get through, still just about 23 minutes from county line road into downtown tampa area. this is where the crash is. look how wet the roads are, all around the polk city area. again you definitely want to drive with caution out there this morning. again we've already had one fatal crash. as soon as corey brings more details -- he will let you know and of course i'll let you know on twitter. other bay area roads, this is the tampa side of the howard

again roads wet, not affecting drive times. you have less than 10 minutes to get across the howard frankland and the other two bridges as well. back to you. 5:19. biggest night in music went off without a hitch last night. >> the 58th annual grammy awards saute -- saw taylor swift take home several honors. biggest star of the night, kendrick lamar, won five of his 11 nominations. best new are a -- artist went to megan trainor. >> another notable win -- for "where are you now." at 5:45, we look at some of the show-stopping performances. lady gaga paid tribute to the late david bowie.

dog show, what does it take to win best in show? >> here's your business news. >> reporter: in "america's money" -- u.s. companies expanding into cuba. >> the u.s. gave the green light for the first u.s. factory in cuba in more than a half century. an alabama company will assemble small tractors there. we may learn when regular flights will resume between u.s. and cuba. u.s. markets reopen after presidents' day. there's reason for optimism. overseas markets were up for a third day. >> not a moment too soon. u.s. stocks have lost about 1.8 trillion in value so far this year. a great gift idea, a little late for valentine's day. >> how about a 404-karat diamond? about the size of a lighter, found in a mine in the african nation of angola. experts say it's worth as much

welcome back. 5:24. 2016 westminster dog show is underway in new york city. today's the second and final day of the competition. yesterday the judges picked four different groups, hound, toy, herding and nonsporting groups. today's portion of the show

working, terrier groups and of course best in show. the westminster dog show is being held at madison square garden and airs on the usa network. a giant octopus is happy and swimming free in the pacific ocean now, he was released because he was simply too big to be a part of the seattle aquarium's annual valentine's day mating event. that event was called off because "kong" at 70 pounds was too big for the females on hand. apparently there were concerns he might eat any potential mates. puget sound yesterday. breaking details overnight about a plane evacuated before we're finding out what was behind a scare at the orlando airport overnight. >> for two reasons -- one, because i care deeply will jeb. our country. >> brotherly love, will it be

campaign the push it needs? >> i'm janelle martinez in the traffic center. we're following a fatal crash in polk county. this is on i-4 just east of the polk parkway. you can see the flashing lights there. right now we have both of the inside lanes in both directions blocked. a live report coming up in a

she got away but for less than a day. we're learning if the woman arrested in a deadly hit-and- run was driving legally after we uncover a history of dangerous drunk driving charges. >> good morning, thank you for joining us on this rainy tuesday morning. >> we're starting to dry out now. janelle tracks what that means for the morning commute and ivan is going to tell us where the rains are now. >> a couple of hours i think we would have been in trouble with very heavy rainfall. just clearing now in time for the morning commute. i think we'll be in much better shape over the next hour or so. in fact the heaviest rain, the severe weather threat is over at this point. to there's a good chunk of clear air on titan doppler radar, across hillsborough, heading to the northern counties. manatee, sarasota, you're in the clear. not even raining there. we continue to track heavier pockets, polk. i talked to you a few minutes