it barely clips our northern part of citrus county. if you were looking at the cone of uncertainty, we're okay. yet that hurricane watch extends down to the pasco county line border. why is that? it's simple. what if we're wrong. what if this went more to the south and stronger. if that were the case, you have to have people in the tampa bay area at least facing the possibility that something worse could happen. are no. do we expect any changes in terms of what we're expecting tomorrow and thursday? no. this is a watch. it means it's something we're keeping our eyes on. at this point in time the track is still north. this is still a rain and flooding event for us. but tornadoes and some gusty winds up north will still be an issue. we will look at that coming up in a couple of minutes. >> we will see you shortly, denis. breaking news in hillsborough county. the leadership technology academy confirming in the last

knocked three holes in the building's roof. there will be no class tomorrow. two teachers were in the building and felt the impact. they are expected to be okay. the city of st. petersburg has faced problems with sewage overflowing during storms. this time things might be a little better. ashley yore live at the community park where people are sand bagging out there. right? >> reporter: that's right, wendy. i've been out here all throughout the day. let me tell busy like this all day long. people are allowed 20 bags a person. and folks i spoke with say they're going to need them to protect their homes. today's job, get this grass cut. robert says tomorrow his shore acres lawn could be under water. >> we've had water up to the carport. literally water. it's like a river.

>> reporter: he says mowing the lawn is the easy part. he still has to prep his home. >> we're going going to sand bag here. we will definitely sand bag by the door right there. >> reporter: the community park has been packed all day. people preparing for flood water they have seen many times before. but st. pete mayor says the city is ready this time. >> our storm drains have been cleared. our sewer system has been drained to maximize capacity during the storm. >> reporter: with additional tanks, the city can handle 3 million more gallons of overflow than it could back in june, bringing the total up to 8 million gallons. when i asked if the city could see overflow problems, the public works add machine stray tore said it's still a possibility. not what robert wants to hear with a storm on the way. >> it's frustrating. do you pick up your family and leave or try to weather out the storm? >> reporter: you can come out

as long as it's still daylight. reporting live here in st. pete, i'm ashley yore, abc action news. >> thank you, ashley. right now pasco county urging people in flood prone areas to prepare for self evacuations. the county not ordering anyone out right now but they do want you to be ready. county officials saying shelters are ready if needed and they can open with just about two hours notice. and the county has been pumping storm water systems since last thursday as preparation this storm. several counties extending operating hours at several sand bag locations all over the bay area. hillsborough county making them available until 9:00 tonight and tomorrow. we have the locations and the times as you scroll through on abcactionnews.com. and also on our free mobile app. and a reminder if you can have weather warnings sent to your cell phone or tablet right now, download the storm shield app. it's available for android and iphones. at this moment voter as

polls. at stake, the future of our state and nation. the top races are deciding who will fight for the congressional seats in november. we have crews across the area bringing you the latest in the updates. michael paluska is live in kissimmee tonight with rubio's camp. michael. >> reporter: jamison, it's still empty here suites. but supporters are starting to come in. they're filling out in the lobby. marco rubio expected to win here tonight. we know that statewide there were 1.75 million early votes cast. we will have a good idea in an hour who will win the primary. marco rubio feels extremely confident. donald trump has dragged rubio through the mud in a public smear campaign during his

there were attacks on his character that played out on tv nationally. a lot of voters were disappointed ho he acted during the run. because of that failed white house run where he got all of that attention it will be beneficial to him to getting reelected here in november. he will be taking on we assume patrick murphy, the democratic. we're told that some of the poll over patrick murphy but he has to hit the ground running and try to solidify a rina for the republicans because there's a lot of stake at the senate seat. we will tell you when rubio takes the stage behind me. michael paluska, abc action news. >> we will check back with you. thank you, michael. poll watchers monitoring precincts closely after the fbi warning of foreign hackers breaking into state election systems. donald trump sounding that

those poll watchers and is live for us in hillsborough county. lauren. >> reporter: absolutely. so we found out there's at least 15 republican poll watchers here in local precincts in hillsborough county just like this one. as you just mentioned, this comes after donald trump called on his supporters to take on this job to stop voter fraud. so julie kaplan is one of these. you can see from the signs it is illegal for her to talk to but she says poll watchers make sure that the voting precincts run fairly. >> you hear stories about people getting two ballots. or you hear stories about just, you know, people coming back and voting again. i think it's very, very important to make sure, the best that you can, that everything is going right. >> we have tech specialists out there, making sure that the equipment is running and running appropriately. so we do a tremendous amount of training with our poll workers.

>> reporter: and the supervisor of elections says actually he has seen very, very few problems, if any, today in hillsborough county. and also he says that voter turnout was really high. there were about 22,000 people who came out just to cast a ballot in hillsborough county today. and about 80,000 of you cast a vote by mail. reporting live in tampa tonight, lauren rozyla, abc action news. >> thank you, lauren. polling poll worker her job or his job. the supervisor of elections says that she mistakenly told a voter she could not vote as an independent. the voter insisted she double check the rules and look for the independent ballots which she eventually found. the supervisor tells abc action news they did not turn anyone away today and immediately fired that worker. so far that's really the only problem we have seen today

abc action news reporter ryan smith joins us live in pinellas county where voters are turning out in record numbers. right, ryan? >> reporter: yeah, that's right. as we're getting ready for this live shot, we're seeing this downpour of rain. we have volunteers right behind me who just packed up their signs. they're taking shelter right here. but we want to mention a couple of things about what we're seeing in pinellas county this afternoon. the largest primary voter turnout since 2002. 26,000 votes cashed just all in total including early voting more than 25% of all eligible voters casting ballots in pinellas county. i did speak with the pinellas county supervisor of elections late this afternoon. she says it's been a relatively clean afternoon. to reports of any issues countywide. that's the latest in st. pete, ryan smith, abc action news. >> thank you, ryan. in the meantime you have just under an hour left to volt if you have not done so already. be sure to stay with abc action news throughout the night as we

results on air, online and on our free mobile app. for the first time we're hearing 911 calls made the night a terrorist gunman opened fire in the pulse nightclub. ryan raiche walks us through the calls for help. >> as soon as he left, gunshots were just going like crazy. >> reporter: the calls that came in to 911 on the morning of the pulse nightclub massacre clearly illustrates the chaos and horror. >> friends bathroom. >> friend is hiding in the bathroom at the club pulse. >> reporter: calls came in one after another, overwhelming dispatchers. they came from people running from the club, people taking cover inside and many from worried loved ones who received frantic texts. >> one of our friends sent us a text and says he is shot and in the bathroom and no one sees him. >> reporter: a friend relayed to dispatchers what someone posted on social media.

first responders. >> he posted on facebook that he had got shot. got shot three times. we said where are you and the response was in bathroom. tell them to check the bathroom. >> reporter: on multiple occasions, dispatchers are heard trying to console panicked callers desperate for answers. >> he was in the bathroom and he said a lot of people were there. i don't know. >> okay. i understand. we are in the club. we're searching for everybody. we're pullg please just have patience. >> reporter: eventually the calls stopped. and by daylight, sunday, the devastation set in. 49 souls gone. dozens more badly injured. and two months later, a community still in mourning. in polk county, ryan raiche, abc action news. >> i saved her at the shelter and she saved me. still to come, a chihuahua's incredible actions that saved the life of her 92- year-old owner.

but big changes to the forecast. at least from the hurricane center. part of the area is now under a hurricane watch. we'll have all of the detail

>> welcome back. now to a rescue dog returning the favor tonight. this is sassy, a 9-year-old chihuahua. she may have saved her 92-year- old owner's life. jacqueline ingles explainsha >> reporter: sassy, a 9-year- old chihuahua only barks when the door bell rings. otherwise you can find her relaxing in her owner's lap. >> she follows me everywhere. >> reporter: and that has proved to be a good thing. >> you love your mama. >> reporter: sassy was walking along her owner as she checked the mall a couple weeks ago. alexandria didn't take her cell phone. after all, it was going to be a

happen. >> when i stepped up on the walkway, my foot twisted and i fell backwards. >> reporter: alexandria was on the ground and with her property, no one could see her. >> i just said prayers. >> reporter: the dog swung into action. >> she ran down to every car that passed. >> says see did this for five years. >> sassy came up and layed my face. >> reporter: it finally paid off. a couple walking by spotted alexandria. she was able to inch her way to a somewhat shady area on an ant pile. >> i got ant bites. >> reporter: she had bruised ribs was dehydrated and had to be hospitalized. she credits sassy for saving

>> i saved her at the shelter and she saved me. >> reporter: in inverness, jacqueline ingles, abc action news. >> now the most accurate weather team in florida, abc action weather. >> how are you doing, everybody? looking outside, nasty storms continue to roll in. this is something that we might as well get used to over the next couple of days. what usually happens with tropical systems as they get nearer, you lightning. you have less lightning. tomorrow we will see storms and overnight thursday -- wednesday night into thursday, that's when we will have to concern ourselves with the possibility of coastal flooding and isolated tornadoes and flooding rains as they will have continued in for about 36 hours. now, what's going on now -- this is something that i expect through tomorrow afternoon. not a lot of change.

typical thunderstorms. look how everything is coming in that fetches from the south. and eventually out of the southwest. that's your moisture from tropical depression number 9. but there have been a lot of changes, at least to the forecast. not so much the weather. but the forecast and the warnings over the last hour. if you're just walking in and you thought you had a pretty good grip on what was going on over the next 24 hours, you do. nothing has changed. except part of the area is now i have to admit it, when i saw that, i was surprised myself. because we don't even have a tropical storm yet. but there is a good reason why the hurricane center pulled the trigger on this. we will talk about that in a second. let me reassure you right now the track in fact at 5:00 is farther away from us than it was at 11:00. so it isn't like all of a sudden we're looking at something that is inevitably

the moisture is there. flooding rains in my opinion is the number one thing we will have to deal with. second, the possibility of some coastal flooding because you're going to have a rather large system, whether it's strong or disorganized, it still has a broad envelope that will stretch out and push water into our area, especially at high tide. now, if this wasn't that particular point in the month where we had a high tide any way, it wouldn't be as big of an issue. but it is. thursday afternoon, hi the month. that will coincide with a lot of water coming in. that's why a surge of a foot or two, coastal flooding will be an issue. this evening, it won't be. what will be is the water. we will have rain off and on all night long. it will continue tomorrow off and on. you will have heavy periods of rain ask then the sun for a period of time. then you will get hit again. don't think we have to worry

especially on thursday as the center of the low comes this way, then all of a sudden we have other things to consider. the possibility of tornadoes, more sustained winds. especially up north. unless there's a change to the track, we are not in the serious wind with this system. what we're looking at even through thursday afternoon, while there is plenty of rain out there, i think by then, very likely some of the heaviest weather will have viewing area. okay this is the one thing i want to focus on. let's talk about what we he know right now. this storm has been a bear to try to predict over the last nine days. why focus on something two days out that can change. let's deal with what we know now and go from there. right. area of low pressure getting its act together. now, notice over the last hour or two, you're seeing kind of an explosion near the center. that's what we expected. when you have the warm waters of the gulf, you have to be

into something rather quickly. it is not a tropical storm but that could happen shortly. what i think is going on, the hurricane center, even though the path has not changed towards us, in fact, it's farther away from us. this is the latest advisory from 5:00. not officially drawing to hurricane status. but there is the possibility that it could. i want to spend a little more time on the zoomed in part of the region. this is the important part for yo the purple is a hurricane watch. notice, there's the margin of error. this watch is outside of where the hurricane center is saying we have to concern ourselves with. so why are we looking at a hurricane watch in an area that is not in the cone of uncertainty? because it's better safe than sorry. if this were in the big bend area, i think there probably wouldn't be a watch. but there is. so because of the slight possibility that maybe this

include the areas on the fringe. do we think it will happen? we do not. it is something that we will monitor and continue to do it all night long on facebook and online. we've got you covered. because we know the next few days, whether it's flooding, winds or possible tornadoes could be stressful. we're here for you. right now nothing has changed and we will update you. spotlight against washington.

>> hello, folks. it doesn't matter who you are,

released today. wide receiver murphy and jr put on the reserve list which means they won't be available until the final 11 games of the season. right now there's been 10 to 12 players on the bubble who want a chance to shine against the redskins. the problem may be in the weather. as rain and wind is expected for the game. how bad will it be? we're not sure. those 22 or so that do get cut this week, there will be a back and keep in the fold, like the adam humphries of the world a year ago. >> you can -- there's two ways to go. churn the bottom of your roster and continually bring guys in. there are people who have done that successfully. and you can also if you -- if you like the guys who you have on the bottom, you have to make tough decisions and let them go, you can continue to develop toes guys and bring them back

them. those players still get better. >> and again, in case you missed it the game will be played tomorrow instead of thursday and hoping that the weather will be decent enough so nobody gets hurt and it doesn't ruin the field. serena, can she make it 23 grand slam titles? we'll find out. she has a chance to win the u.s. open. >> might we have continuing coverage of the top stories on abcactionnews.com. >> and we will see you all night long with election coverage.

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breaking news. tonight, we start with a new hurricane watch, just issued. two systems. one growing in the atlantic. the other, in the gulf. plus, back-to-back major hurricanes now targeting hawaii. terror takedown. one of the most wanted terrorists killed tonight. the number two a $5 million bounty on his head, as new details come in as an american woman held hostage. in the race for president, donald trump facing a pivotal moment. will he flip-flop on immigration? tonight, his son coming to his defense. fiery crash. the chain reaction pileup. all caught on video. and the heroic rescue by a group of other drivers. and, an out of this world sound.