upgraded to hurricane status. we'll get a live update on storm preps in the south. >> cleanup begins this morning for residents rocked by lightning strikes that damaged several properties in the delaware and lehigh valleys. >> a bill providing much-needed help for philadelphia schools pass as major hurdle in harrisburg. good morning, everyone, 5:30, tam is off, nydia han joins us, karen is off, we have matt pellman and david, good morning. >> reporter: boy there's a lot going on in the weather today. we have a flood watch posted today into friday until noon because of heavy rain that's expected to come in later today and tonight. and arthur-related rain on friday morning. be careful of ponding an -- and puddling and flashing creeks and streams. we have a cold front that has

yet to come through. ahead of it it is warm and huggy. line of precip doesn't look like much right now will fire up later today and tonight. drenchers on the way. 75 and mainly dry across the immediate philadelphia area. 74 in wilmington, 69 in millville. 72 in sea isle city. of course it's humid. today will be humid and relatively hot one, 79 degrees by 9:00 a.m. 86 by noon, 89 by 3:00 p.m. high of 90 by 4:00 p.m. and still in the upper 80s with the late day and evening thunderstorms on the way. by the way if we manage the 90 it will be the season's heat wave. hurricane arthur. it has become a hurricane just declared a half-hour ago by the national hurricane center this is continuing it's track to the north with 75-mile an hour winds still a looks like a hurricane as it passes us. we'll have impact in the morning

anybody getting out there cooking hamburgers at 11:00 a.m. >> reporter: definitely not too early for hamburgers in my humble opinion. this is a pontiac grandam, the she will of a grand am. we have the tow truck backing up to remove the she will of the car. the southbound -- the shell of the car. the blockage on the blue route, traffic squeezing by via the on-ramp. there's a southbound delay heading into this blockage point. if you're heading out in delco, think about using 320, 252 through media. 352 or 452. in jenkintown watch out for a crash at old york road and

washington lane by the td bank. for the most part we're drying but there's in middletown township, bucks county. oxford valley road. stick with trenton road. >> the strong storms that moved through early morning left their mark on the region. as you just heard this is only round one. katherine scott is live in levittown where a lightning strike can be blamed for a apartment fire. >> reporter: matt quite a few fires as the storm moved through and investigators are trying to determine if lightens wag to blame for the tire -- lightning was to blame for the fire. flames tore through this apartment building. fire crews were busy last night. >> the storm was intense. matthew gorny heard a boom and

saw smoke coming from the home in montgomery township. firefighters were met with heavy fire on the outside which was spreading to the interior. the damage was heavy and the red cross is assisting the family of four. >> we have expensive damage on the roof area, most of the roof is gone. the second floor has expensive damage. lightning lit up the sky while fire crews worked to put out the flames at this levittown complex. an "action news" viewer captured this shot of the flames. 12 families were displaced and getting assistance from the red cross. nobody was injured. in burlington county officials are investigating if a lightning strike may be behind a house fire in edgewater park. the fire was reported around 8:00. flames and smoke tore through the second and their floor. the fire was brought under control in a half-hour's time. one person was treated for smoke

inhalation. back in levittown you can see the charred roof and there's debris on the ground. investigators are trying to determine if lightning was the cause of the fire. tropical storm arthur was upgraded to hurricane status. evacuation orders went into effect for cape hatteras, it could brush the popular vacation spot later on today, tomorrow, we'll have a live report from north carolina in about 15 minutes. >> developing now, the search will resume at daylight for the 66-year-old man who disappeared in the delaware river when his sale boat capsized. he and four others were trying to dock the 24-foot vessel at the delaware river yacht club when storm winds flipped the

boat over and sank it. four others were able to swim to shore. they last saw the man clinging to a cooler in the water. search crews found the cooler on the other side of the river, but not the man. we'll have an update in of a hour. >> police are looking for the feltonville man who is wanted in connection with the death of his mother. the body was found on tuesday, police believe she died in january. police are wondering if he was keeping her death a secret so he can cash his social security checks. the mother and daughter of this food truck exploded in feltonville remain in the hospital this morning. you can see the septa police first on the scene. they tended to the women who were seriously burned. police believe a linking propane

tank sparked the blast. members of the philadelphia mobile food association are considering tighter restrictions such as limiting the size of the tanks on the truck. >> i think the real answer is tighter regulation getting everything inspected more frequently. >> the state of pennsylvania does not require food truck propane inspection. >> philadelphia federation of teacher calls it a huge victory for public schools. a cigarette tax in the city to funds education is one step closer to reality. the pennsylvania house of representatives approved the bill last night. it goes back to the state senate for one more vote before it reaches governor corbett's desk. it will close the school district's 93 million-dollar budget gap. >> the accuweather forecast is lengthy, let's get into it. >> reporter: storm tracker 6 live double scan shows we're basically dry.

there's a little bit of a shower that has popped up in parts of chester county. southern chester county, southern berks is picking this up, i'll start it for you, it's not a big deal, by an indication that we're looking at very humid air in place. i could see parts of delaware county getting this before too much longer and parts of montgomery county that are not seeing it. as we look outside we have dry conditions across the region, but, obviously, a lot of clouds out over the ben franklin bridge. the air is muggy and soupy. the storms were not the end of it, we have a cold front to the west. 75 degrees is the temperature. the dewpoint still hi with the front out to the west. there's nothing to come through and sweep that humid air out. winds out to the south at 9 miles an hour. another indication that you have the front with the southerly wind ahead of it. on future tracker between now and noon a couple of showers are possible. it's later in the day after

about 4:00 p.m. we start to see more action develop out to the north and west, you get into the evening rush hour and we are looking at at at another round f downpour producing stores. we may have fast-rising water on flashing creeks and streams. by 10:00 a.m. we're not totally out of the woods, but most of the action is fading toward the shore and probably start to improve a bit. in terms of today's storms they will be numerous late today and tonight. some of them will be drenchers with possible flooding and there might be a gusty thunderstorm mixed in. that's something that adam and cecily will be tracking later tonight. 77 degrees by 8:00 a.m. 83 by 11:00 a.m., 88 by 2:00, we're expecting a high of 90 around 3:00, 4:00. that will be the season's first

heat wave if we hit it. high temperatures in time lehigh valley so hot, but upper 80s in the allentown and trenton in the mid 80s along the water at the shore. hurricane arthur became a hurricane at 5:00 a.m. this morning. you can see while there isn't an eye in the clouds there's a well-defined center of the storm around that rain band. that will be moving north with the 75 miles per hour winds as a category one hurricane going right through hatteras at matt mentioned. passing us bay during the day friday, well enough off the coast, we'll see rip currents at the shore and rain in the morning. up until noon we're looking at potentially wet conditions along the coast in particular and some of the northern and western suburbs. look what happens after

1:00 p.m. we expect the storm to rush away drier air comings in, we'll see sunshine in the afternoon and you'll end up with dry conditions for the fireworks and afternoon picnics. 90 degrees is the high, humid, drenchers in store, later today and tonight in particular. tomorrow we have rain in the morning and sun arriving in the afternoon. 79 the high lower humidity. great night to see fireworks. saturday and sunday, keep that holiday at going we'll have sunshine lower humidity and highs in the 80s. it will be warm, but nice. monday, tuesday, it's summer and we get a reminder with heat and humidity building back in. busy, busy. rapping up, the jury could see -- wrapping up, the jury could deliberate in the oscar pistorius trial. >> two tour buses go up in

flames. >> reporter: a sea of stopped tail lights. the sign tells you why, a car fire up ahead. we'll check the scene coming up. a new issue on the ben franklin bridge coming your way. >> a waitress in ohio learns the hard way, what you post on

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>> welcome back on this thursday, 5:44, 75 degrees, sky6

live hd taking a live look at the peco building you can see it's 75 degrees on the building it says. now, if we hit 90 degrees we'll be in our first heat wave of the season and we have our first hurricane of the year, arthur has been upgraded to hurricane status. >> we have a check on the roads with matt pellman. >> reporter: a lot of people are not saying it's not my thursday, it is my friday with the independence holiday tomorrow. theoricly theoriccally it should be an easy commute. it's slow on the southbound side of the fence as we pull in the waze app you can see people clocking slow speeds, 8 miles per hour coming south from the

route 1 media bypass to baltimore pike. expect delays, but i think it will clear out quickly. there's flooding blocking bristol oxford valley road. right in chicken foot park. stick to trenton road. old lancaster road going to close from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. stick with lancaster avenue to get around that. on the ben franklin bridge westbound they had a broken down truck, but, matt, they got that moving during the commercial break. a man wanted in connection with the weekend shooting on the busy bourbon street. justin oden turned himself into authorities hours after the

police announced a shooting victim had died. 9 others were shot and are expected to survive. the search for a second person of interest in the case continues. testimony has resumed in the murder trial of oscar pistorius could wrap up today. professor told the jury the contrast between his disability and the racing triumphs, gave him a lot of stress and anxious and anxious -- anxiety and that could have made him nervous on the night he killed his girlfriend. the prosecutor said he murderedded her. smoke and flames portland from the tour bus of stix, and the other fire occurred on the

bus for foreigner. they will play in camden

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and the boxes they come in. come to hhgregg. and fill your home with happy. >> parts of north carolina outer banks are under evacuation orders this morning. arthur reached hurricane status less than an hour ago. marcie gone -- gonzalez is live in nags head. good morning. >> reporter: good morning, matt, the winds and waves are calm a mild start to the storm that's gaining strength in the atlantic and heading this way. loading up and leaving town ahead of tropical storm arthur.

>> if it is mandatory you have to go, there's no decision to make. the mandatory evacuations in effect for hatteras, north carolina. >> we'll weather it out, if it's bad enough we have to leave and have to go, we'll go. it's hard to get into the hurricane spirit when it looks like this. >> reporter: misleading sunshine as arthur makes its way north threatening to bring 80-mile an hour winds and coastal flooding to north carolina. >> the people who live here if you meant, you -- full time, yon belt it's only a 1 they are taking it serious. >> reporter: the governor has declared a state of emergency for 25 counties and lifeguards from florida to the carolinas are already seeing the effects of arthur. >> we have rip currents out here as the storm comes in. >> reporter: as the storm comes in, business owners worry about

customers heading out ahead of the normally july 4th weekend. >> we're doing good business today but we've heard about people leaving, if they leave our business is going down. >> reporter: not the best timing, but everyone i spoke to said they plan to ride out the storm though it has been upgraded to a category one hurricane. live in "action nags head, chan6 "action news." >> track arthur's path with the storm tracker 6 live app it gives you audio alerts and weather warnings. >> reporter: sometimes looks can be deceiving. schuylkill expressway by the new ramps at henderson road and gulph road looks fine. yeah, no problem. up ahead in the eastbound lanes by gulph mills a boat is coming off a trailer. so they are trying to take care of that.

at this point the roadway is drying out. problems in fishtown, they will close frankford avenue for construction between oxford and thompson that will give us delays from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. anne detours from septa bus routes. >> reporter: that's a bad start for your holiday weekend, we'll get the boat and go down the shore on thursday. woops. we'll have heavy rain today and tonight. and we'll have arthur related tomorrow. if you're grabbing the bus today, 79 degrees by 9:00 a.m., 85 by noon. in the afternoon and evening the chance of drenching thunderstorms on the way. matt and nydia. >> up next, the 5 comment that a waitress made on facebook that got her fired.

>> new this morning two california parents have been arrested. they are accused of keeping their 11-year-old son with autism in a dog cage. police found a matt stress in the large kennel. the child was not enclosed at the time. but there are reports he might have been caindle up for -- caged up for several months or years. the boy and his two syllablings are in custody. tracy leann lloyd bu are under arrest for charges. an ohio waitress is looking

for are a new job because she got fired for a bad tip on facebook. she made the complaint about the customer on monday. she printed out a screen shot and showed it to the pate stresses managers. >> they said that i could yell at me for that, but i didn't think they could fire me. job experts say you can't too careful about what you share on social media. >> curious to see what people think about that, let us know. a loaded confess about customers caught packing heat in target. >>

>> good morning, it is 6:00 a.m. on this thursday, july 3. tam is off, nydia han joins us, here's what's happening. >> lightning strikes may have sparked several fires around the region and accuweather is tracking the porm for more thunderstorms -- potential for more thunderstorms today. >> the search continues for a boater who disappeared on the delaware river. >> if you like micro brews, hospice prices are up -- hops prices are up. >> reporter: we have a flood watch in place because of