from the station that's on your side, you're watching news 19 at 11:00. good evening, thank you for joining us tonight. i'm andrea mock. j.r. has the night off. hundreds of volunteers have come together to help homeowners and get them back on their feet from historic floods. home repairs are taking place in a big three day event. many people didn't know the extent of their damage. >> there are a lot of families or homeowners did not realize the extent of their damage. i think the community is learning quickly how much damage can happen. $300,000.

part of their project check out the story in our web site. the deadline to apply has been extended to monday, january 4th. president obama has declared all counties a disaster. the money would cover losses not taken care of by insurance. if you have already registered you do not need to reply. >> the original extension for the deadline was requested by the governor ofhat statete that extendedd to january 3rd. it falls on a sunday, fema has extended that registration period to midnight on january 4th, monday just to

register and have their plans face plans or whatever on sunday. >> if you have registered with fema you do not need to register again. usc is still running its flood relief program. it is partnering up from contributions from attendees of the party. they will have people collecting nonperishable food donations and monetary donations from the flood relief fund. there is still time for people to sign up for volunteers. check us out on wltx.com. the midlands forecast with chief meteorologist jim gandy. >> today was unseasonably warm in the area we averaged 20 above degrees above normal. in fact, both locations reached

now we have dropped down to well, we developed down to 69 degrees but bounced back to 71. still humid outside. our humid is from the west rather southwest. we expect showers in daybreak. tomorrow, we will be seeing more rain coming through the area with a high temperature of 75 degrees. more on our forecast for new year's eve coming up. great news for a story we followed up. that couple searching for their van says they have it back tonight. columbia police and s.l.e.d. found it about 5:00 this morning. he has the special tailored van to get to work every day. they are glad it is back in their hands.

a torn wire led them to believe a buzzer was going off which made those thieves abandon the van all together at an apartment complex right off of broro river roro. sumter police are looking for three suspects. they are looking for 21-henry dingle, kevin smith, and 18-year-old women sp -- william spann. they found two vehicles in a collision. nobody was found at the scene. detectives think the three are involved in this and maybe other cases. all three are believed to be armed and dangerous. if you have any information that can help call crimestoppers, 1-888-crime-sc.

house would give harsher penalties for harming or killing a dog. several animals in law enforcement were killed. you might remember fargo who was killed after chasing a robbery suspect and that suspect turned around and shot fargo. it would require that violator to pay the cost of the expensive animals. it would require a mandatory sentence for two years. or a fine of $500 to $1,000. some new details tonight in a case where 100 animals had to be taken from a home. the smell was so strong in the house a deputy found it almost

that same report says there was feces inside the house. the animal society wants the owner to be prosecuted and keep them from ever owning animals again. >> the animals -- some of them dying. this is a known repeat offender. it could be expensive. don't have that many animals. it is against state law to withhold veterinary care from the animals. >> it is one of the largest rescues from the county. they will be ready for adoption in about a week and will be posted on the web site. fatal actions in our state goes up and up.

the word out on safety on the roadways. here is more. >> it boils down to people making poor choices. >> reporter: for veteran highway patrol officer the end of 2015 is a story of number. 942, the number of fatal accidents so far this year. 16 the percentage increase 45. >> when you are arresting people problem. >> reporter: it is an epidemic. this holiday season they are seeing more motorists than ever. >> gas prices are lower and the weather has been a lot nicer. >> reporter: it is why they have year. last year they put more than 20,000 behind bars. there were more prepared this

>> we graduated the class of 40 troopers. less than two weeks ago that brings the number 772. we will get these numbers out there. >> this holiday season they say they can't do this alone. they need your help. if you see somebody that is drunk behind the wheel driving on the highway they asked you to call them and help person that person down bars. >> we are asking people to dial. >> reporter: doing so can save a life. >> everyone has expectations of leaving their residents and coming home. if you make a bad choice, you won't be able to make it home. >> encouraging you to plan ahead eve. they add you should put aside cash and have a cab number in your cell phone.

people in a drunk driving crash in texas will spend one more night in mexico. they captured ethan and mother at a resort. they stayed at a resort before moving into an apartment. ethan's case is still technically in the juvenile system. even if a judge decides to hold him it will only last until his 19th birthday which is in april. prosecutors have a hearing. if that happens prosecutors can have 120 days in jail but that's it. now the texas district attorney options. different. however, our system of law in texas means that the best results in this case is going to be to get him in our opinion into the adult court.

serve what is left of his probation which is eight years. former new york governor george is dropping out of the presidential race. he made the announcement tonight. he gained initial headlines while being the governor during the septembmb 11t1t attack. announced his run in may. he acknowledged it was a long shot. the former governor has never made it on to a main stage debate and had trouble fund-raising. on to a couple of gop candidates still in contention. the front runner donald trump will be back in our state tomorrow. he will be hosting a meet and greet at the west end.

is hosting a meet and greet of his own that is on sunset boulevard that starts at 6:30. still to come tonight, lots of lights fill the skies for the very last time tonight all for a good cause. we got that story. the warm weather continues.

ho the elgin light christmas show has been bringing holiday cheer to folks in the midlands for 18 years.t the light christmas show has years. it is not stopped him from raising money for kids to go camp chemo.

>> reporter: today was the last night of elgin lights. people came out to enjoy lights with lots of replicas and antiques. tell me about the organization you raised donations for. even the new developments this year. >> right. we do this all for camp chemo. 100% of every bit of money we take in goes to camp chemo. i got a gift shot. 100% of the sales go to camp chemo. it is all by donation. this year we have never made as much money as we have this year with the help of the television and the news getting out there. we have made right now without counting tonight's amount over 17,000 dollars.

camp chemo to send kids to camp. if we get 20 that's 40 children we get to send to camp chemo. >> reporter: reporting in elgin janet. >> we will hold on to our christmas lights a while longer. >> that's because the first day of winter has been postponed until next year. >> next year. we are not going to see any winter. i had to turn on my a.c.. it was muggy in my house. >> you held on longer than most people. >> i was so man i had to do that. >> today was like spring outside. we had temperatures in the 70s. we even had some 80s.

we had a front that moved into that area. 71 degrees the high temperature in greenville. tonight the temperatures haven't changed that much. it is still 71 degrees in columbia and orangeburg 68 but notice upstate a little bit cooler 58 in anderson. take a look at of the amount of moisture. you know how humid it is in mildlands. our dew point in the upper 60s. here is that front there. the dew point temperatures are lower as low as 52 in greenville. here is a look at the radar over theast sixix h hrs. they quickly kind of dissipated. now we are watching a new batch of rain that is moving southwestern georgia. this is moving to the northeast and coming through our area around daybreak.

on the warm side of the front. behind it we do have cooler drier air that is moving into the eastern part of the country. we are one of the hold outs for winter. it is still warm here. look at the cold weather over the rest of the country. in fact, at this hour it is two degrees in rapid city. in denver it is nine degrees. dallas they are 42 degrees. our comeerld showing that for tonight we will be cloudy, we will be seeing rain coming in at daybreak. we will see showers into tomorrow night. look at thursday. most of the rain stays to our south and it's not forecasting as much rain as it was earlier. this is good news for the new year's eve celebration. so we are hoping that that stays true to course.

columbia, 67 in columbia and manning. we should see temperatures at 70, 75 in columbia. a look ahead. we will continue to see that chance for rain into thursday but now it looks like that chance for rain maybe diminishing on thursday. once we get to new year's eve it should be okay. we will seeing a front coming on thursday. cooler on new years day. we are expecting a high temperature. 54 on saturday, 57 on sunday. then another front comes through sunday night. by the time we get to monday morning a low of 33.

the first week of the new we are a little away from 2016 now news 19 sports director reggie anderson. the clock has struck midnight for three clemson players who have been suspended. the biggest loss of that trio is dion cain. missed the tiger's game when he was suspected from the miami game for attitude reasons. returned with a new sense of focus but now his career is once again on hold. nothing official.

would these three allowed to come back and play in that national championship game. after his arrest on dui charges. the official release -- these players have been suspended several reports say these players failed a drug test thus ending their stay in florida. earlier today media day at the orange bowl. a. a popular target from the media. florida. the national coach of the year. this is the day you don't know what will happen in media day. christian is the true freshman out of massachusetts.

in media day even though he has been injured is receiver mike williams. the season. he caught the first touchdown of the year. he injured his neck. the diagnosis was a fractured neck. he is a junior so this acc selection could declare for the nfl draft. he says he will be back with the tigers. he says it's been tough watching his teammates rise to the top with him on the sidelines. >> number one team in the nation, you want on the be a part of that. you want to go out there and make plays for the teams. they have been there since day one. so i just have been taking day by day. i'm going to be 110%. i'm going to be confident i can

meanwhile dabo swinney has the -- the tiger head coach has sounded very confident this week saying practices have gone well. he says it is just a matter of going out and backing up that number one ranking. >> we have a formula that we believe in as far as how we prepare both at clemson prior to coming down here and while we are here. we try to make sure that we have a good itinerary so that these guys can enjoy the process as well and enjoy being part of this playoff. i want them to enjoy it. i don't want them to look back and say man, i wish i had enjoyed that when i had that opportunity. because it suchyh4z-kifr?e-xudvhv=h)6zt+^er$g such a small moment in their life, you know, this season. these four or five years that they have in college. it is such a small moment.

making sure these guys are having fun along the way too. switching gears to hoops frank martin and gamecocks are back in action. carolina's best start in 80 years. for the first time since the dave oden tenure they are 20th in poll. they haven't been following the rankings the only reason they are away is when they are asked about it. >> we don't even know. you guys break the news to us. i didn't even know that. >> thank you. >> they don't even tell us about anything. they just keep practicing. it's like we didn't even rank. just like that. it's like we haven't been ranking in so long. you just practicing like we've

>> after we get a certain amount of wins or break a record. you'll mention something after the game.

record. we'll see some showers towards daybreak and occasional showers in the day and night. expecting a high of 75.