citrus county. there's a few more showers and storms pushing in from the gulf. that will continue this evening. off and on showers not as heavy and not as much wind. tomorrow is an unsettled day. we will salvage two thirds of the holiday weekend. we will talk about that coming up in a few minutes. >> thank you, denis. hermine making landfall as a hurricane along the northern coast of florida overnight. the first hurricane that the state has seen in 11 years. look the dock damaged. the surf so damaging in franklin county. michael paluska is in saint marks, 30 minutes south of tallahassee with just how damaging the storm was. >> reporter: the eye of the storm passed here clone to saint marks. the orsurge about two feet high, running into that bed and breakfast. now with the sun out, residents say they will clean up and rebuild.

wet. >> we did save a lot but we lost a lot. >> reporter: this is the face of exhaustion after a night full of fear as the hurricane hit saint marks. >> it was nasty. it could have been worse. >> reporter: locals who have lived here their entire lives. >> it was a long night. >> hurricanes, hit, waters rise but they don't evacuate. >> this is home. >> reporter: getting back to normal is tough. >> this right here sets you back for at least a whole year. >> porter: hermine made landfall with 80 miles per hour winds but the power in saint marks went out well before it hit, leaving people are few options to escape. >> we didn't whether torun or stay or what. but we stuck it out. >> reporter: and as fast as it hit, hermine was gone, taking

>> we will make it through this one too. we're going to rebuild. we will all come back. that's what we do here. >> reporter: in saint marks, michael paluska, abc action news. >> let's zero in on citrus county tonight which had some of the highest storm surge from hurricane hermine. rescuers rescued 40 people there. jacqueline ingles getting a close-up look at the flooded areas. >> reporter: we hitched a ride in back truck to get a tour of the area. look behind me. this area completely flooded with water. some areas ankle deep. others waist deep. you can see people's cars are stranded in the water. their homes aren't even accessible. there are a lot of people here today looking at the damage to their homes. they're grabbing whatever little items they can. and then it's right back out on

down. we have citrus county sheriffs deputies in the air and on the grnd assessing the damage. mailboxes are underwater. this is going to be a massive clean-up for these people. a lot of them not anticipating being able to come back to their homes at least for the next several days. now, we're following the conditions out here and we will bring you updates as we have them. reporting for abc action news, i'm jacqueline ingles. >> thank you, jacqueline. now to pasco county. a family facing flooding in and outside of their homes. they contacted abc action news to get some action. ryan raiche is looking at what they're dealing with right now. >> reporter: take a look how deep the flood water is.

high or better. so flooding posing an obvious threat to many homeowners here. i can tell you there is one home in particular that has been hit especially hard. right behind us here, they cannot catch a break. they have been flooded out five times in just six years. getting to mom's house is outside conditions causing issues inside the corner house. she showed us sopping wet carpets and her family's flooded garage. >> it would sit like this and it would be moldy. it would get on to the green board and everything like that and they would have to rip that out and redo all of that

stinks. you can barely breathe in it. >> reporter: despite the reoutside, this is not a fema designated flood zone. neighbors say more needs to be done to keep the retention pond from flooding after significant storms. in the meantime, her mother is left buying costly flood insurance. >> how can you fund this? how can you pay for this? >> reporter: and the heavy rain picking up just now. that is not good news for improving the flood conditions. county leaders tell abc action news that they have a plan in place to lay hose and install up to pumps in a nearby reservoir to help clean this up. i want to mention, we tracked this information down for you today. fema actually lists this location as prone to, quot minimal flooding. i n tell you for the people dealing with this mess today and over the next few days, there is nothing minimal about this flooding. live tonight in pasco county,

>> you said it best, ryan. now we move to seffner where falling trees is a big concern there. look at this. close call here. ryan raiche found a disabled veteran who narrowly escaped death after an oak tree collapsed right on top of his home. >> reporter: talk about a rude awakening. >> he looks terrible. >> reporter: that nearly turned tragic. >> i was asleep. i woke up and it was in there. >> reporter: this disabled veteran is covered in debris from head to toe. he has cuts and bruises from the ceiling that caved in after this old massive tree crashed through his home that doubles as a family business. >> you don't think you should go to the hospital. >> i tell you something, you can take it to the bank. i ain't going to no hospital. >> reporter: he was asleep. he thinks it happened sometime around 4:30 in the morning. he managed to escape but got a strong zap when he touched the fence.

lines too. >> luck don't even describe what i feel. >> reporter: his ex-wife rushed over when she got the call. the whole family worried about him but also wondering about their livelihood. the repair shop. >> very devastating. wiped out everything that he has worked for. >> reporter: code enforcement is not letting anyone near the high. there is heavy damage. the front of the home is slanted and the entire house is off the foundation. >> look at this house here. standing in it makes me feel like i'm drunker than a cootie because it is slanted. >> reporter: they are trying to get the valuables out. at this point they have no clue if they can save the home and business but it's not looking good. in seffner, ryan raiche, abc action news. >> thank you, ryan. we're hearing about rescues because of fallen trees all across the area. officials have condemned 14 buildings in hillsborough

at the crescent mobile home park after not one but two trees fell on the homes. thankfully no one was hurt. >> i imagine it is so soaked up that it just took a little bit more and it came down. >> and clean-up already underway in valrico where a number of mobile homes also had trees fall on them. wind gusts reaching 50 miles per hour in that area. price gouging across the area. but the price gouging hotline is open if you see something. call the number on your screen. it will be open as long as counties remain under a state of emergency. tropical storm hermine is taking a big bite out of local beaches tonight. i went to honeymoon island where it is costing taxpayers millions. >> where did all of the sand go. >> i have no clue, man.

>> reporter: on honeymoon island, the honeymoon is definitely over. >> i love the waves, but, you know, the sand is what keeps the beach beautiful. >> reporter: here on the island, beach officials just four months ago spent four and a half million dollars on a acp but now hermine is sending the sand back out into the gulf. >> 4 and a half million dollars out to seat. >> reporter: this isn't the first time divorced the beach. >> they did a reach renourishment and spent a million dollars putting sand out there. it was gone in like two months. >> reporter: this time it was just a summer romance. >> if they're not going to do the renourishment correctly, they need to not waste our tax dollars. spend that money on buying more land to preserve instead of this ridiculous notion that you can control mother nature. >> reporter: on a day like

last word for the tabs pairs. >> what are you doing to do? >> i'm going to eat it. >> to be fair, the projects are not always complete money losers. the sand attracts tourists who spend their money here. tourism leaders say the beaches bringing in $2.5 million to honeymoon island every year. and we have full coverage of hermine on abcactionnews.com right now, including your pictures, live radar. anything and everything that you need related to the just search the google play store or apple store. paul. >> dangerous conditions in st. petersburg tonight. coming up, why the mayor is issuing a warning to anyone

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>> just trying to figure out if we will be able to get out. when the power will be back. if we will be able to use our water. >> two pinellas county neighborhoods still under water tonight. people dealing with a lot of issues. manholes still overflowing tonight. they have had nearly four times the amount of water into the plant than normal.

the mayor of st. petersburg is issuing a warning to drivers. lauren rozyla is live o isle tonight. one of the hardest hit areas. >> reporter: yeah. we still have 6800 people here in pinellas county without power. it is easy to see why. look at the cars driving through four to six inches at minimum of heavy rains, the storm picked up around 4:00 a.m. one man woke up just hoping that his home wouldn't flood. >> it was really loud. at one point we looked outside the window and it was like -- it was a really heavy downpour. all we could think of was looking at the street, hoping that the water didn't get up to the house. >> reporter: and tonight st. pete's mayor is issuing a warning to drivers. anyone who may consider walking

contaminated, full of snakes or even alligators. back out here live asking people to avoid driving through the water as much as possible. the big reason is that there could be downed power lines or other dangerous debris in this water. for now we're live in st. petersburg, i'm lauren rozyla, abc action news. >> now the most accurate weather team in florida, abc action weather. >> denis, places are there is a water rescue. >> yeah. off of us-19 in pasco county a flash flood. there's no prays for the water -- no place for the water to go and there are still heavy rains in the area. you look outside, this is one of those days where we've had a little bit of everything. right now there is sunshine across part of the area. but the last place that needs it, pasco county. and as i said, we are getting a

vehicle stranded along us-19. this was at 5:00 with flash flooding going on. we will keep our eyes on it. that is where the green shaded area right there, there is a flood advisory in effect for another hour or so. in fact, taking a closer look, it isn't that this rain is particularly any heavier than we get any day in the summertime. it just happens to be after they have seen so much rain of late. and that green shaded area is where we're getting the reports of some flash flooding. and that started as very heavy rains off she to move off to the east. there is rain up north. and i think the bulk of the area, if you actually look out in the gulf, this is the only region that we're a little more concerned about. because if that were to move northeast, it would create issues for part of the area. i don't think it will make it. this is not the same setup obviously as it was yesterday. because yesterday we had the hurricane so close to us. what is left of it, way up off of the carolinas now. i think most of this moisture will actually fizzle out before making it across the state.

there that we will continue to see scattered showers and thunderstorms through the evening. and i do think that tomorrow, we are looking at that possibility early on in the morning of some rain rolling in off of the coast. so we will continue to keep our eyes on anything that does pop. because it will take several days before everything comes down. the coastal flooding has also been an issue with the high tides. that will be helping out a little bit tomorrow because what is left of hermine will continue to topped out at 84. normal is 90. obviously the clouds and rain kept temperatures down. officially only about an inch and a quarter of rain today at the airport. but depending where you were, you could add, eight, nine, ten inches to that. some folks had about 22 inches of rain around the lake tar pin area and also around indian rocks in the last three days. that's almost half the yearly

degrees. and this just goes to show, it's the thing that we often talk about. we get so caught up in thinking how devastating a hurricane can be that sometimes you think, well, it's just a tropical storm. just tropical storms give you 40 to 45 miles per hour winds but it leads to incredible rainfall totals. think of the storms in the last couple of years. debbie comes to mind. winds of about 40 miles per hour. but when you get a system that stalls out or fetches that moisture all the way across the area for a couple of days, all of a sudden you're talking 15 to 20 inches of rain. that's what happened with hermine. you notice the models through the evening. look what happens. it tries to keepthe bulk of that off shore. i think we will be dodging showers tonight. tomorrow morning, we're looking flow coming in off of the gulf of mexico. if you're making your weekend

more clouds than sun. and i think we will see rain starting first thing in the morning. so not the best of days. and it will continue right on through the afternoon as everything moves in from the gulf and moves across. it is still linked, if you will, to what is left of hermine. i think by sunday, we begin to see some changes. you don't see nearly the amount of rain as we're going to see tomorrow and the last couple of days. on monday, i think the winds come around out of the east. that is good day. more sunshine during the day and less rain. the rains that do pop will be later on in the afternoon. overall rainfall totals through the middle of next week, a couple inches. a little above normal. as we said earlier on, this hormone, as monstrous of a hurricane as it quickly became yesterday, this will be a major news story starting tomorrow and early next week. there is why. stalls out in the northeast.

minimal hurricane. labor day weekend hurricane, the jersey shore. philadelphia, new york, boston. this is going to get a ton of air play. as i said, while it won't be a big issue for us, it will be a large one for the folks in the northeast. the second half of the weekend, things are improving. sunday not too shabby. next week, back to normal with highs in the low 90s. >> thank you, denis. a live look 275 and the howard franklin bridge. waves are still strong in the area but all seems quiet and thankfully traffic is moving by fine. a live look how tropical storm hermine is impacting those in north carolina next. download the new abc action news app for your mobile phone and tablet.

>> hermine posing a big issue for sea turtles across the state. in naples, seven nests have been destroyed by the storm surge. many others under water. there is nothing anyone can do to prevent the nests from being wiped out. >> our goal is to be overprepared and underwheel manied when it comes to the

counties in north carolina tonight as they now start to deal with what is tropical storm hermine. the governor there asking for people in low-lying areas to stay off the roads. a live picture of north carolina. you see the winds and rains starting to pick up there. the surf is up as well. and the tide is coming in. now to this story out of south florida tonight. a large overnight story gutting dollar mansion. firefighters confronted large flames in the garage of the house. they put it out quickly and luckily no one was injured. a lakeland man charged with getting a 14-year-old pregnant just faced the judge hours ago. he is accused of having sex multiple times with the teen against her will starting in 2015. that victim is now four months pregnant. coming up all new at 6:00,

just beginning to dry out. the new warning from authorities tonight and the one thing that you need to ask before letting anyone do work on your home. plus these top stories. >> reporter: an entire college campus without power. i'm eric waxler with how florida state students are dealing with the aftermath of the storm that tore through tallahassee. >> reporter: town and city crews in sarasota are out in full force to assess the damage. i'll tell you what they are

>> live from the station taking action for you, this is abc action news. >> hermine is gone, but the threat is far from over. now at 6:00, the danger creeping closer to homes just as we see new images of the storm's impact on the bay area. >> first, more rain falling on areas already hit hard by the flooding. we want to get to chief meteorologist denis phillips tracking the advisories for us >> flash flood advisories. if this was any regular day we would say typical summer day. it would be. but unfortunately this has rolled into an area that has had so much rain in the last 24 hours, primarily pasco county, citrus. you can see everything coming in from the coast. this extends believe it or not all the way up. that's the moisture plume that trails down from what is left of hermine. taking a closer look, the green

area for areas to new port richey. we got a report around 5:00 in new port richey there were water rescues of cars stuck because of the fast rising water. that heavy rain is moving off to the east. that is a pretty decent thunderstorm that continues to pop. citrus county, northern citrus over to crystal river also picking up rain. most of their issues was coastal related last night and this morning due to high tide. if you look at futurecast this evening, there will still be a large area out in the gulf of mexico. now, i think overnight, this lingers. and by tomorrow morning, we start to see some of this rain coming in. it won't be nearly as heavy as it was the last couple of days. but we will begin to see some rain first thing in the morning. and i think that will be an impact on the first half of your weekend. the second half, changes. i'll talk about them coming up. >> that rain that he was just talking about caused flash