direction. that's about all we know literally. right now, we don't even have a center of circulation. there's a lot of buzz going on. it's been 11 years since we have been hit by a hurricane in florida. we hope it will be another 11 years. but there is a potential for development. this could be a tropical storm or hurricane making landfall around the south florida area on sunday. is that set in stone? no recon is finding winds 50, 60 miles per hour. it's powerful enough. but the problem is there is no center. until there is, it is difficult for the computers to hint where it's going to go. they don't know where to start. garbage in, garbage out is what we say. makes the accuracy of the forecast limited. they are trending a little bit to the east over the last few hours. but for one. that has a bigger impact on the state of florida and the coast of florida. we will talk about that coming up. >> thank you, denis.

tonight people are pleading for something -- >> he was my best friend. i can't talk to him no more. i cannot talk to him no more. i can't because he is gone. >> tonight something should be done to help fix this sways. another person has died crossing a busy six-lane road. >> here is the thing, people rarely even cross the intersection of roosevelt street in pinellas county safely because the nearest crosswalk is several hundred feet away. >> lauren rozyla is tonight pressing f-dot for answers. >> reporter: on any given day you will see cars flying by. and people illegally crossing the street at roosevelt and morgan. now, another person is dead. a homeless veteran who had fallen on hard times. >> he was -- he was a friend. >> reporter: wesley mertz has seen one too many accidents there. when he learned it was his

of a car. for others, the pain is fresh too. >> i can't talk to him because he is gone. >> reporter: brett says the man killed yesterday was his best friend. he couldn't bare to look at the body. >> that was my friend. i didn't want to see that. >> reporter: in may, another man killed illegally crossing the road. >> that one is too far to go. >> reporter: this cross marks where a bicyclist was killed doing the same thing a few ar choice to walk here to get groceries and other basics. >> there are no crosswalks. right here, you have to walk, what, a quarter mile. >> reporter: abc action news asked the florida department of transportation to take a look at this problem back in may. fdot initially didn't find enough to warrant a crosswalk back in may but now plan to look at this again in october with a full-scale safety effort. they also plan to educate the businesses here with crossing

victim hope that will be enough. >> do something about it. >> reporter: because if not, they fear more people could die. and out here live, again, i want to give you a perspective as to how close the nearest crosswalk is. it is all the way down there. imagine having to walk that far just to be able to legally cross the street. now, again, fdot came out here in may after the last deadly crash and they didn't enough to warrant a crosswalk. now they plan to do a full- scale safety effort in the area. lauren rozyla, abc action news. >> lauren, thank you. new at 5:30, thousands of unfilled registered nurse positions in florida right now. >> local colleges tonight racing to train new people for the jobs as adam weiner found out, schools are using a job simulator. >> reporter: as a patient

how to react. this apartment is actually inside a hillsborough community college classroom building. the new simulation lab has a space to look and feel like a hospital. >> it replicates a hospital. beds, iv poles, drawer that's have blankets. >> reporter: molly gonzales wants to be a nurse. going straight from a classroom setting to real patients can be intimidating. these simulati the gap. >> like wow, i can practice this and the mannequin is not going to judge me. >> reporter: it's not just about comfort. these kinds of labs are a popular training tool for colleges across the country. if hcc communities are going to compete, the school needed to upgrade. they can get quality ems and nursing education at community college prices and gets them to working in an in-demand field

the first two works. they can work and get their chelor's degree but be out in the field and working as nurses. >> reporter: which is ideal for those trying to make ends meet while getting an education like gonzales. >> we want to go on to be nurse practitioners and get master's degrees of nursing. and we know that you have to start somewhere. >> reporter: once she competes this program at hcc, gonzales plans to become a nurse and continue her education at usf. adam weiner, abc action news. there are 15 new cases of the zika virus in florida. nine are in the tampa bay area. now we're learning the number of calls for help with mosquitoes is growing. this happening right after the governor announced yesterday the first nontravel related case of zika in pinellas county. pinellas county mosquito control says they got over 200 service calls for help compared to 300 to 400 they get in a

>> we have swamps and ditc and flooded fields. those are not really our n en we think about the zika virus and how it can be transmitted. >> the county tonight says their main concern is small apartments of water, usually in containers like these near your home. you will help them by dumping any water that you see as little as half an inch. just go ahead and dump it. new developments out of the middle east. syrian rebels are in control of the town taken over as part of a military operation against isis. they're trying to secure territory along the border with syria. officials say the operation was aided by u.s. airstrikes. new developments tonight. the mother of a texas teenager use the affluenza defense after killing four people in a drunk driving crash is a free woman tonight. she is facing hindering apprehension of a felon and money laundering charges. she and her son fled to mexico

party with alcohol which is a probation violation. reagan is serving nearly two years in jail. a forum alying some students get out of saying the pledge of allegiance is facing backlash. michael brennan posted this photo of the form that he said was brought home by his niece that attends elementary school. this is the dumbest thing i ha i am so ashamed of this. the post has been shared nearly 4,000 times with parents upset who say they feel e sa way. the school district says the form was to fulfill a state law passed this spring informing parents of their rights concerning the pledge of allegiance. since the heavy backlash, the county got rid of the forms. u.s. swimmer james fegan apologizing for a serious distracts that he and three

olympics. he left out information in a statement to police including the fact that the swimmers urinated behind the building and ryan lochte pulled a poster off a wall. he still maintains that the group did not force their way into the bathroom and that a gun was pointed at them by a security guard. fegan was pulled off an airplane by police for more questioning. jeffrey willia no more time than any other american. the commander of the international space station today. he has accumulated the total over four missions. he is due back home in two week log 542 days off the planet for nasa. it's a crime that can occur silently. you may not even know about it. criminals preying on your kids. at 5:00, the most important thing to learn before going off to college that will save them

>> i ran home to check my account and realized that money was missing from my account. and a lightbulb went off that something weird happened. scammers using a new kind of way to steal your infoion. two ways to protect your hard- earned money after you use the

>> new at 5:30, heading to college can be an exciting me for young adults and criminals too. people ages 18 to 25 are more likely others. >> free student accounts and a $50 bonus. >> reporter: orientation day on the quad. new faces, new names and a lot of information floating around. but not a great deal of student oversight. >> so i have never checked my credit report. >> credit report, not so much as i should. >> the only time i get my credit pulled is when i apply for something. >> reporter: this is exactly what criminals are banking on. >> not something that we're

>> we are venturing out and been with our parents for stoplight years. >> reporter: which is what makes college students vulnerable, their lack of knowledge. according to the federal trade commission, about 490,000 identity theft complaints were filed in 2015. a 50% increase over the prior year. it was households headed by individuals aged 18 to 24 that were more likely to fall victim to the crime. >> ultimately this is kind of a situation where it's not a matter if but when this is going to occur. >> reporter: criminology student anna had her identity stolen and didn't know until she tried to buy something and the card was declined, the creditor calling her. >> you can walk by someone and it will take your identity. >> reporter: this is why hillsborough county consumer protection section is trying to bring awareness. >> we are trying to get high school students aware. >> reporter: in hillsborough

>> and are precautions you can take to make sure this doesn't happen to you. never give out an atm pin code. don't use public wi-fi to pay bills. and be aware of your social media posts. always be vague about your personal information. now to breaking news we want to bring to you. an investigation underway after a fai-4. you're looking at a live picture right now. we do know as you can see the cones is blocked. traffic getting by very slowly in that area. again, this is on i-4 in seffner. as soon as we get more information, we will bring that to you. well, a phone app could be another layer of protection in the ongoing fight against sexual assault. it's called phone fl can it trigger an emergency signal and text friends and family your location if you're in danger. this mode that you see there can be triggered three

out your headphones. phone flare is free. you can find it right now in the app store or google play. criminals off with as much as $3liworld by skimming credit cards and debit cards. a police detective showed us the hardware righhere that thieves install at the atms. a skimmer to copy the card information and a tiny camera to record you typing in your pin number. this is give it out. now a new type of skimming device that doesn't use a camera at all. listen to this. >> the bad guys will insert a scanner way into the mouth of the atm. as a customer, you will never see it. >> it's a fake card reader that fits snuggley over the real one that you find in stores. first it reads your card information and then when you type in your pin, chip cards with the improved security features are safer to use but

inserted into the card reader. one of your best is to constantly monitor your bank accounts online for any suspicious activity. now the most accurate weather team in florida, abc action weather. >> denis taking a close look at the tropics. people on facebook keep asking me -- >> what are they saying? >> what does rule number 7 mean. i wasn't here when you instituted rule number 7. >> everybody was freaking out when hurricane issac was coming. they made rules. 1 through 7. rule 7 was don't freak out, we're fine. that turned into any time there's a tropical situation, don't freak out. we're fine. we probably won't see anything. >> are we number 7 right now. >> we are still under a rule number 7. >> rule number one is a lot of

tropical systems. >> listen to denis. >> there's a lot of clouds out there. it led to rain earlier on today. now things are winding down. storms popped up around 2:00, 3:00 and moved through. now they're off shore. if you have any plans outdoors this evening, while it may be cloudier than we have seen as of late and warm, at least it should be mostly dry as the rains we had earlier have moved right on to the west side of the state. and for that matter, out into the gulf not as hot today as yesterday because we had the rains pop up 2:00, 3:00. we're still in the upper 80s. remember yesterday sarasota hit 99. today they ended up at 94. still warmer than normal but a little cooler. tampa topped out at 90. that is where we should be. down to 87 now. mostly cloudy. clearwater, 88. saint pete 84 with clear skies. the southeast bend that we have

classic or textbook summertime pattern. the storms develop in the morning on the east coast and come across and run the heating of the day and get stronger. we had it yesterday and today and we will have it for the next three days. no changes there. meaning most of the evening hours will be dry. you will wake up tomorrow morning to dry conditions. it will be warm. temperatures about 80 degrees. no changes there. i know a lot of folks on facebook are ready for fall. they're ready for fall area. in our area, fall weather especially in september and october. typically with the east to west pattern, the storms move across the state. as they do so, by , 7:00, they get stronger. by tomorrow, can expect that. try until 2:00 or 3:00. we had stronger storms, possibly even a strong storm tomorrow between 5:00 and 8:00. then they're gone. wednesday, thursday, friday, saturday, same pattern.

the coastline. okay. this is what we have been tracking. hurricane center saying a 80% chance of development over the next five days. it still hasn't developed. there isn't a guarantee it will. it has to go over high mountains of the dominican and hey haiti. this is ragged to say the least. there is an outside chance it never developed. it may move into florida on sunday with an increased amount of this is interesting. even though there's novelment, there is wind in there. by sunday, if we're not looking at an organized tropical storm or hurricane, south florida will get wind and rain out of it. models trending to the east over the last six years. the models are completely lost at this point. case in point, the european model brought this into biloxi and brought it into texas. last run brings it right along the west coast of florida much

clearly until we get a center, don't even worry about following the models. we update on facebook. and when things get bad, if they will, i personally don't think they will. we will let you know. until then, it's rule number 7. there's definitely spin. if it's going to develop, it will be right here. low sheer, warm water. that would be saturday. with landfall somewhere in south florida early on sunday. here is a look forecast. rain chances about where they should be through saturday. afternoon and evening storms. sunday about the same. monday and tuesday things could get dicey. maybe as early as late sunday when whatever is down south decides where to go. >> thank you, denis. there are several road closures due to consucti on that you may want to know about. >> reporter: hi, everyone.

we're starting with some overnight construction tonight. so this is going to be for people maybe heading to the airport frompinellas into hillsborough county. the exit from northbound 275 -- so this is coming off of the howard franklin, it will be closed to get on to state road 60 or memorial highway. this is near the airport. you will have to get off on kennedy and meaning a left on to state road 60 or memorial highway. this will start at 11:00 p.m. tonight and reopen tomorrow morning. again, if you have an early flight to catch, make sure that you leave yourself extra time to make that detour. looking ahead to overnight tomorrow night. some road work on macdill avenue. macdill will be closed in both directions just south of bay to bay. all the way to tan bay avenue. again, this will be overnight on thursday. starting at 9:00 p.m. on thursday. expect it to reopen by friday morning. hopefully before rush hour. while this is closed you will

heinz instead. we have the construction, resurfacing going on in pinellas park. between 9th north and us-19 from 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. every day for the next couple of weeks. for more make sure that you follow me on twitter at tampa bay traffic. still ahead tonight, a warning before you cook dinner. what is being recalled and the

>> we know there are popular times of the year to get married. it looks like there are also popular months to get a divorce. more people file for divorce in march and august. they also found a significant amount of divorces in the fall months. most people don't want to get a divorce before the holidays.

you may have to rethink dinner because of a frozen corn recall. we have the information for you. cambridge farms is recalling the following brands. key food, better value and laura lynn fresh cut corn varieties because of a possible listeria contamination. so far no illnesses have been reported. now here is wendy ryan with a look at what is happening at 6:00. >> thanks, laura. new travel related cases of the zika virus. the state confirming half a dozen alone. how bad an outbreak in florida could get. plus these top stories. >> reporter: an app designed to hide your photos so parents can't find them. we will tell you what to look for to make sure that your kids are safe online. >> reporter: a once healthy boy suffering a debilitating disease. despite the renewed hope from

>> this may go across the mountains and never get its together. that would be beautiful. still rain across florida and wind. there are still winds -- in together reconfound 63 miles per hour winds. tropical storm force winds are already occurring. there's no spin. it's just a big thunderstorm. like we get here in the summertime. heck, like we had yesterday. over the next couple of days, we expect at least the possibility of this getting better organized. and right in here, the central bahama is where it will develop