we'll talk more about that and check on the extended forecast coming up. tropical storm force winds could be battering our area by this time tomorrow. what authorities are doing now to keep you safe. >> we'll show you who within yesterday's primaries and why one florida race could play a huge role in the country's future. thank you for jo this wednesday, i'm dan shaffer. >> i'm deiah riley. we start with the latest on storm preparations. hurricane watch extends from the northern part of our area all the way to panama city. governor scott visited tampa yesterday to check on storm preparations. he says 8,000 national guard troops are standing by to help. the emergency operations center already upgraded its alert level. in pasco county, inmates from the county jail helped fill

evacuate. the county had pumps going from last week to prevent the flooding many neighborhoods have already seen. it will be decided tonight if local school districts will be closed. >> hopefully we won't have a hurricane, knock on wood and hopefully it's the worst weather we're going to get this year. but we're going to have storm surge, we're going to have rain. we're going to have tornadoes and rip currents. everyone has to be prepared. >> this year there are additional concerns due to the zika virus. that storm could leave behind standing water where mosquitos can breed. >> we've got to go out into our backyards. take responsibility for our personal property. dump over any flower pots, fountains that you may have, anything that will collect standing water we need to turn over to make sure that the mosquito larva don't have

the city just bought 5,000 more mosquito dunks that kill mosquito larva in large areas of standing water. the other message, use common sense, don't drive through standing water. barricades are already in some low lying areas that can be moved into the streets if they flood. just 6 inches of water will stall most cars. 18 to 24 inches will force your car off the road. it's very hard to tell how deep the water is before you drive into it so remember the slogan from the national weather service, drown. citrus county could take the brunt of the storm in our area. >> the county is under a hurricane watch. because of the storm restaurants like the freezer tiki bar have generators on standby. it's next to the homosassa river. also brought out lanterns in case they need those. it's been in old homosassa for a long time and one of the managers says they are not really too worried. >> we go through this every year. and the freezer is a freezer,

we'll either leave or stay and make potato salad and party. >> good attitude. several parts west of u.s. 19 will be closed later this afternoon for everybody's safety if you still need sandbags there's still time. there are two locations open in the county, we've got them both on our web site. an update on tv 9 with ivan cabrera. >> there's a lot of heavy rain counties here as we fly closer and put this in motion, the movement from south-to-north, these are tropical downpours, some lightning but not as much and that is the case when we get tropical systems. a lot of warm air throughout so we don't have as much lightning. we have to worry about very heavy rainfall through pinellas, across the bays and eventually heading up into pasco as well. so we've begun to measure the rainfall. so when we show you the totals

through the day on to friday when we begin to wind down. widening out the radar you can see a lot more where that came from. basically it's going to be heavy rain on and off throughout the next 24 to 36 hours which is why we're going to have the significant accumulations. it will be a prolonged event as we've been talking about, multi- day event. as far as the winds themselves, they won't arrive until tomorrow. today we're ok for that. there's a storm there. an update at 5:00 a.m. still a tropical depression bu perhaps even a minimal hurricane. we'll talk about that, and watches and warnings coming up. perfect time to remind you to download our stormshield app. basically a whether weather radio for your mobile twice. it's available on apple and android stores. now to democracy 2016 -- we know who will be on the november ballot. -- first we start with a hotly

county. 86-year-old pat frank running the democratic primary against commissioner kevin beckner facing term limits in his current job. >> the republican senate primary -- >> in a 20-minute spe kissimmee -- rubio calling patrick murphy a man with no experience who was handed everything in his life with no hard work. he tells abc action news after the speech why his race and run for the white house is so important for republicans to win. >> i will continue to talk about the things we stand for in our campaign. the presidential race is important. voters are allowed to choose. i don't want it to be hillary clinton, she'll be a disaster

his campaign. he can't point to a single achievement either in his private life or four years in congress. >> rubio has been criticized for not saying he will commit to all six years in the senate if elected. his opponents say it's because he plans to run for president again in 2020. the battle between rubio and patrick murphy could control which party controls the u.s. senate. polls show rubio leading murphy but the presidential race could have a ripple effect on florida voters. murphy easily challengers, he won almost 60% of the vote. the most significant opponent, grayson was hampered by an allegation of domestic violence made by his ex.

first time she faced a -- she was dragged down by a recent forced resignation as chairwoman of the democratic national committee after leaked e-mails. showing that preference treatment was given to hillary clinton in the primaries. clearwater police want to know if you recognize this woman. abc action news came with the victim. >> i have no idea who she is. i have never seen her. >> reporter: thomas jennings is looking for answers. who is the woman caught in this surveillance video setting his car ablaze? jennings says a roommate woke him up saturday morning to the chaos. >> he came running in the house saying my car was on fire. we ran out there, he had a pot of water trying to get it to go out. it was too much. >> jennings quickly checked the security cameras surrounding

american girl first checking out this ford explorer, then making her way to jennings' honda civic. in the video she's seen lighting the rear of the car on fire and appearing to fan the flames. >> she was throwing in some sort of paper or something like kindling to make the fire go more. then just walked off. >> reporter: according to fire investigators a rag was lit on fire and put in the gas tank causing the flames to quickly spread. they also believe the woman was carrying some sort of flammable liquid in determined to turn the car to ash. >> everything was gone. >> reporter: a sign now sits in the front yard offering a hefty $5,000 reward for whoever turns this woman in. it's not sure if it's a case of mistaken identity but for jennings who i now out at least $5,000 himself one thing is for sure. >> it's really frustrating especially not knowing why or who. >> reporter: in clearwater, cameron polom, abc action news. the funeral mass this

area's longest serving catholic priests. monsignor lawrence higgins was pastor of st. lawrence for 49 years. he had the longest tenure of any priest in the st. petersburg diocese. according to the parish when higgins arrived in tampa the archbishop gave them 20 acres of cow pasture and told them to build a parish. he also served on the u.s. commission for civil rights. two grocery stores in our area are hiring today. aldi is hiring for positions across the bay area. that event runs from 7:00 to noon at the sebring location. and walmart is hiring in sarasota. there are 20 openings there. hiring event will take place at career source sun coast from 12:30 to 4:30 this afternoon. publix is making a major announcement today as part of national hunger action month. it's expected to be the reveal of a major philanthropic effort, we'll bring you the update when we know more. coming up on abc action

by lightning. why the stormy forecast could cause extra trouble. >> did clerks go too far to keep a man from stealing drinks from a food mart? the violent confrontation in south florida, after the break. >> we'll preview the buccaneer/redskins game tonight and rays pete the red sox.

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4:43. two clerks send a would be thief to the hospital in miami gardens. police say the man in the surveillance video tried to walk out of the food mart without paying for his drink. the clerk blocked the door, it led to a fight. both men appeared to hit each other with bottles before a second clerk finally steps in to break it up. the accused thief tried to run but collapsed on the sidewalk. was airlifted to a hospital. singer chris brown is facing charges of assault with a deadly weapon after a daylong st brown arrested after allegedly threatening a woman with a gun at his l.a. home. police are saying that woman called early yesterday morning from his property needing help. brown though denies everything. in texas solar panels on a roof caught fire. no one was hurt. the fire department quickly put out the blaze and everyone went back to work after about 20 minutes. the building luckily wasn't damaged. two different hurricanes

hurricane made a direct landfall in the state. a category 2 storm called madeline could hit the big island early tomorrow morning. meteorologists say it should pass south of the island, but even a small course change could result in a direct hit. second hurricane lester should weaken into a tropical storm before it arrives in hawaii. president obama is planning to visit oahu this week and the white house says he will not ch tropical storm colin. three three new tanks have been added to handle three million more gallons of water to keep sewage from flowing into the waterways. this could end up being ian though it looks more like hermine as that tropical depression in the carolinas

this, the rain associated with the tropical moisture already on top of us here so look at this wall of water coming into pinellas now. is that going to be an issue for the morning commute? absolutely. this will just continue to fill in so janelle will be up and we'll be showing you very wet cams where you need to take it easy this morning. this is not the tropical storm situation with winds 40 miles per hour or 50 miles per hour. no, that is for tomorrow. think of this as just a morning here across the bay area wh this is what we have going on now. not severe but we're looking for good tropical downpours this morning so wet morning commute. widening out the shot, we can see well to the south in places where we have the storm, we'll get to the track in a second, as far as the forecast i want to get you out the door. you need the rain gear big time this morning and throughout the day today. we're going to have a few breaks but basically it's going to be on and off, rain will be heavy at times and we could be talking about tropical downpours. so there is our storm system

the forecast has been trending a little further and further west but for us it doesn't really moan anything. it just means the strongest winds will head over to the big bend. for us it's always been a rain event. will continue that way and that is the biggest threat. will we have coastal flooding? sure, with 1 to 2 foot storm surge as the storm approaches us tomorrow. that will happen with 70 mile- per-hour winds and could be stronger which is why we have the red indicating the hurricane watches posted from citrus and then the yellow is the tropical storm watches and then on top of that we'll watch the flood, this goes into effect too and continues through friday in anticipation of upwards of 10 inches plus along the coast. much lower as you work your way inland with the flooding event that will be a problem for the coast. 40 miles per hour as the storm approaches as along with that a tornado threat. could see rotating

storm to arrive getting closer to us and that will provide with us more spin tomorrow across the area. there go the bands of rain throughout today into tomorrow. there comes the storm into the big bend. then continues to move to the north and east. by the way once it does that it will race out of here though will leave behind plenty of moisture and rainfall as all of this has to move up. rain chances high the next few days. tomorrow we'll have the wind as well. staying breezy friday and then getting back to normal for the weekend. mexico today as part of his push to define his views on immigration. kenneth mouton has a preview. >> reporter: this morning donald trump is head south of the border, the same one where he plans to build the wall. >> we're also going to secure our border. >> reporter: overnight trump rallied in washington state but today the man who climbed to the top of the gop ladder on a plan of mass deportations of mexicans --

>> reporter: will meet privately with the mexican president. nieto has been critical of trump comparing him to hitler and the promise to make mexico pay for the wall riled up mexican leaders. >> i'm not going to pay for that [beep] wall. >> reporter: the visit is hours before he travels to arizona to clarify his stance on immigration. a plan trump's son told cnn is not shift are or softening. >> his policy same. >> reporter: the hillary clinton campaign response? what ultimately matters is what donald trump says to voters in arizona, not mexico. >> reporter: now more e-mail fallout related to the benghazi attacks were recovered during the fbi's investigation into the former secretary of state's private email server.

over some or all the e-mails initially. the state department says it will need time to review them. like trump clinton was also invited to meet with the mexican president, her campaign says she looks forward to it at the appropriate time. kenneth mouton, abc news, washington. 4:50. in sports tom korun talks to the bucs coach about how the weather could affect final roster cuts. >> reporter: good morning. big night tonight for about a dozen buccaneer players, they are against the washington redskins at raymond james stadium. again, one major obstacle tonight will be the weather as rain and wind expected for the game. how bad will it be? we're not sure but buccaneer head coach koetter knows how important this game is to the players. which is why they try to get it in with this tropical disturbance bearing down on the area. >> there's still guys that the game is really important to as

making practice squad, getting picked up by other teams. it's the same for both teams. so -- appreciate everybody's hard work. a lot of changes had to be made to get it done. >> reporter: the buccaneer/redskins game once again tonight 8:00 at raymond james stadium. not thursday as originally scheduled. hopefully the weather will be decent enough to the players don't get hurt and the field doesn't get ruined for the usf home opener saturday. rays and red sox. ticket last nigh top of the eighth, nobody on, evan longoria will take this one on at fenway park. his 31st homer of the season and the rays come back from two runs down to beat the red sox 4- 3, bailey hit a two run homer to tie it in the seventh. that's your morning sports update. enjoy your day. coming up -- vad mere putin is under arrest in west palm beach.

russian president. details coming up [a man credited with saving a woman's life by pushing her out of a

the latest from the national hurricane center, just coming in, 5:00 a.m. advisory dealing with the tropical depression. the track not changing much so

making landfall thursday afternoon across the big bend. there have been changes with our tropical watches and warnings. more on that coming up at the top of the hour. a tragic update on a plane crash in louisiana. relatives of a man killed say he saved his girlfriend's life by pushing her out of that plane. >> rana davis was at the controls, had to land in lake pontchartain. a boat rescued her and she told reginald hilliard that he saved her life. hilliard was actually afraid of flying but didn't want to disappoint her when she booked that flight over new orleans. >> it was his first plane flight ever. first time on a plane and it was a surprise from his girlfriend brianna. >> the 25-year-old hilliard was a baton rouge rapper, tattoo artist and father of three. coming up on abc action news at 5:00 -- how the bay area is preparing for the coming storm.

from pasco county. the latest on what county officials there are doing to prevent flooding and a warning for families living in low

tropical depression 9 moving a little closer to the bay area. already tropical moisture making its way here. take a look at the satellite loop, some neighborhoods already under a hurricane watch. good morning, you're watching abc action news on this early wednesday. starting with traffic and weather together. >> some people calling and saying how can it be a hurricane watch. it's not even a tropical storm yet. >> it's not the current intensity, we're expecting to be a hurricane. basically this morning what i want to you know, nothing has changed for us. this is still going to be a big rain event for us. we've been talking about it for days. coastal flooding potential as we head through tomorrow as the stronger winds begin to move onshore the track shifted a little and we'll talk about the watches and warnings in a second, but still going to be talking about some very heavy rain which already started. we'll show that you on titan doppler radar. 35 mile-per-hour winds, so the