catchup with texting technology. >> we found out most emergency centers are behind the times when it comes to texting to 911. >> ax news anchor discovered some of the most rural counties counties in the state have better technology than we do. >> reporter: when gunfire was outside the pulse nightclub inside it was the sound of silence helping victims getting out alive. texting for help when calling >> reporter: most 911 centers don't yet have the ability to receive emergency text messages. >> 911 has always been behind the curve and it's the technology. it's not necessarily the agency that's receiving the 911 calls. >> reporter: for the exception of hernando and sarasota the five other tampa bay counties currently don't have text to 911 technology. and abc action news has learned at least another year away from getting it. let me show you what happens

i'm going to type in help, push send. within seconds i.this response saying there is no text service available at this time. >> take a look at the map. the counties in green have text to 911 technology and there's some of those rural counties in the state. how does a place like walton county, the panhandle with 57,000 people. >> were weapons involved or mentioned? >> reporter: have more den technology than tampa bay. >> equipment needso moving parts when it comes to carriers. it's a matter of requesting the service. the carriers have up to six months. >> reporter: months and possibly another year. in a line of work whenever second is supposed to count. most of our storms are the typical summertime variety and they are up and down the

can see anywhere from sugar mill woods and citrus county on through hernando into pasco and northern pinellas county we have quite a few storms right along the coast. and the same from the skyway on south through for the desoto. bradenton, into sarasota we have another batch the strongest of which are right over the sayway right now. creating some heavy downpours and some gusty winds. with a slight potentl move west. but, again, most of what we're seeing out there, is just the typical summer-like variety. this is going to be tapering off over the next couple hours and we'll be dry between 10:00 and midnight as the temperatures fall into the 70s. the 7-day forecast and a look at a changing weather pattern and the timing of the rain coming up. we're continuing to follow breaking news. tampa police looking for this man. carlos core dare row a person of interest after an 81-year-

alfred watson found unconscious in his own backyard and his car stolen. his family telling us tonight he's still in the hospital with a head injury. they're looking for watson's 2014 red kia just like this one right here. police say he was the last person seen with watson. if you have any information about this call tampa police. covering hillsborough county, take a look. someone called 911 to report deputies finding corey johnsony the area and tried pulling him over on i-75 and state road 60. that's when he took off e. a chopper camera capping him walking into a citgo gas station. deputies saying this is where he bought another shirt and then ran. chopper video showing him running from the scene and jumping fences. here you see johnson stopping a truck and attempting to pull the driver out. bop that driver not giving up his truck.

and that's when deputies and a good samaritan closed in. johnson now facing numerous charges. a police arresting this guy for going around downtown tampa and throwing concrete brocks through windows in some other most iconic buildings. police say 54-year-old john simmons threw a block into this window causing $2000 in damage. next he shot at a window at the glazer children's museum causing $12,000 in damage. finally a window at a bus. felony charges. all those broken windows have a price tag of $16,000. more than 100 st. pete families are terrified they'll wind up on the streets. they've been living in the mosley motel now shutting down. one of you actually our viewers used the good question to ask what's going on here. abc action news reporter shows us who is stepping tine help all the families inside. >> reporter: the families living here in the mosley motel

months. now5 now they -- now, they received an eviction notice. they are here in the clubhouse helping them one by one but one thing is standing in their way. >> a lack of affordable housing. >> he's a 13-year-old believe it or not. >> reporter: she's been here for the past three years with her six pets all in one room. she's had to spray for roaches herself. >> because it's just such an old place. they're in the walls. >> reporter: she's known for the last few months that soon she'd need to go. >> we knew it was cu mosley motel has been up in the air for years. accused of being a breeding ground for drugs and criminal activity. the city of st. pete says there's numerous code violations making it unsafe for the 100 temperature families living here. >> we don't want to see anybody get evicted with nowhere to go. >> reporter: now, a new company owns the property. they don't plan op using this as a meh tell but they can't turn the families out on the street. there's one big problem.

scarce supply. 110 units, and everybody so far needs help finding a place to live. >> reporter: the city's put out a plea to local land longs of lord and agency like catholic charities are stepping in to find safer permanent housing. for joanie this has been a life saving relief. >> thises the cath list that was needed to get the help that we needed to get out. >> reporter: walking back to her room see knows that soon she'll be somewhere safer. the new deadline to be out of the mosley motel september 16 before tease doors close for good. in st. pete, abc action news. and taking action for you means listening to the things that concern you the most. so we want to hear the good questions you have from jobs and making end meet to safety and security for your family. and get you the answers you need. go to abcactionnews.com and look for the story on the mothersly motel you'll see the good question logo. you can tell us what you are

for granted. sleeping in an actual bed. a local church says their research shows 7000 kids in pinellas county don't have a bed. volunteers have been making hundreds of beds for local kids. >> it's too easy to take care of that problem so we just started building beds, the need escalated from there. the response, people started connecting us to other people and the next thing, you know, we're bumming hu agencies social workers and guidance counselors recommend the families in need. an update overcrowded classrooms we just learned about an hour ago. they're adding portable classrooms. in the meantime some will have to use computer labs. the civics academy holes 1400 students k through 8 grade. >> the a very greg area.

resources we have available. we are committed to finding the schools that were not able to go here. the reason we opened the school was to a accommodate growth. this is a very, very big area that is growing. >> as of today, the school is 25 students over capacity. so if any more students show up, the district will find them another school to attend. to the campaign trail her hillary clinton says she would bring the biggest jobs investment since world war ii and donald trump toughened stance. two claims we're putting through this week easy truth oh meter. >> donald trump took to the stage in ohio to outline his foreign policy plan. but it was this statement that caught the attention of our fact checkers at politifact. >> i had previously said that nato was obsolete because it failed to deal adequately with terrorism. since my comments they have changed their policy and now

>> reporter: some saw it as trump taking credit that his criticism made nato spring into action with the hiring of a new assistant secretary general to coordinate intelligence sharing among nato allies. politifact says it found decisions like that could not have made so quickly. >> changes in gnaw co-take such a long time. you have to go through all the nations that's pretty tough. >> reporter: politifact rating his claim as false. >> we're going to paying jobs since world war ii. >> reporter: hillary clinton making that claim a lot lately in talking about her claim to create jobs in america. a $900 billion plan over 10 years. we, heavy so little information to go on as to how these jobs would actually play out without her proposal actually being enacted. >> reporter: but they can say it would be a record investment since world war ii as clinton

politifact rating clinton's claim as half true. >> i actually like to point out if she's elected it might not see the light of day in the republican controlled house and senate. the company didn't identify any other account holder or terrorist groups but it's likely many are associate with isis. which has beenish suppressarile active on 2013 and other and attract new recruits. commute times are getting longer now that school is back s what can you do. what we found out that could ease your drive into work. >> plus it can save the life but after a major recall the cost of the drug that's skyrocketting the one thing that you can d to get a discount. >> and the showers and storms are rolling off shore. you can see some of toes dark clouds there from the island on the main sail beach and i'll

storms for the rest other night and the weekend coming up.

st. cost of saying your child's life has gotten a lot plore expensive. less tine this the makers of epipen jacked up the prices to nearly $500. that's a 400% hike. they say it's the portable device that can stop a potentially life threatening reax. they have a monopoly after the main competitor launched >> you can get coupons by visiting their website. well your drive times are undoubtedly blowing up in tampa bay now that school's back in session the tonight we hit the road to find out how to cut down your commute. >> we discovered suck that could change your morning routine. >> reporter: we timed out commutes from the north, south, east and west of tampa. and our numbers prove the pain

first up, palm harbor to tampa our commute time during summer, 40 minutes. now that school's back 51 minutes. 11minutes longer. >> and here's the thing before school started we left at 8:20 a.m. after school we left at 7:53 a.m. 27minutes longer. add that to the 11 minute longer drive and you're talking 38 more minutes to your morning. citrus park to tampa the summer drive, 12minutes longer. s how much longer did we lav to learn. do you recall the summer 8:25. now that school's in 8:00 a.m. sharp. we're still spending 12 minutes extra on the road for a grand total of 37 added minutes. before school 27 minutes, after school it exploded to 5 1 minutes. 24minutes longer. and we left 5 minutes earlier

instead of leaving earlier weary lax we'll leave the house an hour later. >> we tested this on palm harbor to tampa and it shaved off 19 minutes wheelchair at 9:10 a.m. and got to work in 32 minutes. compared to the 51 minute slog we suffered through when eleft at 8:00. the back to school rush hour is something our traffic anchor monitors every day. >> the bridges i've noticed about five minutes during peak. 5minutes sloughser than usual. 275 tends to be about 10 minutes slower. and the veterans is just hit or miss. it's just depends one of those weird animals that it's really hard to predict. >> we love it. as you take a lack of affordable look at i-275 looks a lot like that in the average p. if you have the option of moving your schedule and leaving later in the morning go ahead and do it. you can save yourself a lot of time. >> certainly some good advice

dogs arrived at the humane society. they're from louisiana where several animal setters were recently flooded by have rains this past week. today those dogs are being tested and cared for and happy could be available for adoption as soon as this weekend. if you have a dog, can you take it for a westbound this weekend >> we have very heavy rain along the coastline so the doggy may need to cross their legs. >> wait a minute. take a look. you can see how these storms rolled through across harbor and davis island but only part other island. not really getting everybody wet there. it was trying but yeah, we did have the heaver downpours that rolled through pretty quickly. then we were left on the dry

but, again, it didn't last very long. now those showers and storms have rolled off the coast and we're starting to dry off. in northern pinellas county. warning the lightning strikes. remember about 20 minutes ago. maybe 30 minutes ago we had over 1300 lightning strikes and now we're done-850. so we're seeing some improvement as they're starting to make their way off shore. they started off inland and upjust seeing the tail end moving off the coastline there. especially around manatee and sarasota counties. that's were we have some pretty hefty storms. i try to stay away from that if you could for another maybe 20- 30 minutes. then things will start to improve in that area, as well. we'll be dry by midnight. a few more lingering showers through 8:00-10:00. by midnight nice and dry across the area.

we've been counting, you know what time the showers and storms would be popping up each afternoon. basically like clock work, over the last couple of days. two, 3:00 they start to bubble up inland and three and four they're right on top of tampa bay. tomorrow morning will be much other same. we start off nice and dry. the storms bubble up after 2:00. it's hot and steamy. temperatures above average for this time of year. so over the next couple of hours we'll continue to see the a few lingering showers or storms. 10:00 it's really tapering off. by midnight we're dry and tomorrow morning, we're going to be dry and waking up to temperatures in the mid- to upper 70s. let's talk tarantula tropics. we have one batch of storms coming off the coast of africa. and it has about a 20% chance of developing. what i'm really looking at is by the middle and end of the week we could see heavier rain if it holds together into our islands. if you do have a cruise planned

otherwise fiona out there in the atlantic no threat to land right now. as we look at the spaghetti models some are bringing it a little closer to that little dot, bermuda. s you want to keep an eye on that. no throat to us. tropics very quiet as far as tampa bay is concerned. today high of 92, 2 degrees above average. that's the kind of trend we get those above average temperatures when we have an easterly flow. when you bring the -- or when ye bring the coverage of rain to% temperatures go a little bit higher. through the weekend we'll have a reverse trend. we'll have a chance for coastal rain early in the day and showers and storms likely to bubble up before noon and mover inland through the remainedder of the day. that coverage is pretty low right through the weekend. well tonight we're learning more about these giant snails right here.

animals, plants and people. people are now finding them in parks and everyplace that has water. wildlife officials want to know when you see one or its bright pink eggs. it's an exotic species originally from south florida that made its way across the state over the past 10 years. the snail is known to damage production.

z22pnz zy6z

people around the world ask why ryan lochte lied. more and more information seeps out of the rio police department what really happened. as you heard earlier lochte and jimmy feigen were indicted. thinks his teammates confessing

about the oer robbery. slowing the swimmers. a bathroom door and a soap dispenser broke it. security footage showed the swimmers vanderbilt liesing the bathroom. that's when security guard number 1, entered and confronted the swimmers pulling a gun. a second guard came behind him with his gun drawn. so as the story stands right now, guns were drawn. but in response to vandalism caused by the swimmers. there was no robbery which leaves you speechless he was thinking and why tease other swimmers went along with this guy. and the story. i know it's only been a couple days of practice. but i'll say this, there's some who think jacksonville has the better team than the buccaneers. watching practice tape i say they could counting the bucs pretty short. they were pretty impressive but this was a sight that put a little scare into them. defensive tackle went down with what they're saying is a slight

injuries have ruined his season or two in his tenure. >> so if we're going to be gone if we're competing against another team i'm a competitor. so i'm going to go hard. so missing the opportunities is -- it bugs me. >> last thing they want is to have that guy out. yeah, not again. >> he's okay. all the day's top stories are on our website at abcactionnews.com. >> we'll see you right back

tonight, breaking news from rio, coming in right now. police now recommending that two american swimmers, including ryan lochte, be indicted. authorities in brazil say the swimmers lied. tonight, right here, the new surveillance video of them at that gas station. what really happened. and standing firm, this sources who have talked to the swimmers tell abc news that they were, in fact, held up by armed gunmen. also breaking, the wildfire out of control. flames now racing tonight, across land at 30 miles an hour. the major headline coming in from chicago. the head of police says seven police officers should be fired. he says they lied after an officer shot and killed a teenager. the well-known american military family and the mother