>> ♪♪ >> "action news." delaware valley's leading news program. with matt o'donnell, tamala edwards, karen rogers and meteorologist, david murphy. >> ♪♪ >> good morning everyone, it's 5 o'clock on this wednesday first day of the month of july. we are following breaking news. >> traffic tragedy strikes the schuylkill expressway overnight. an out of control car crashes and bursts into flames. how that could impact your morning commute. >> yet another historically black church down south goes up in flames. federal investigators are now on the scene. >> accuweather is helping you get through any lingering effects of last night's drenching downpours. >> and we do have some lingering effects. karen is off. we have matt pelman along with dave murphy. good morning. >> once went we're slowing that you picture sent in by our viewer mr. urbine in

morgantown which is western chester county out into lancaster county. does look like a funnel cloud right there. we can't be certain of it but this is in the area of a thunderstorm and taken right around the time of a thunderstorm that was a cyclone on radar and that the national weather service says could potentially have been a tornado maker so they'll be investigating this. just one example of all the problems we had yesterday. seems like the storms want to come on tuesday doesn't it? now this morning the thunderstorms are departing the coast. still very active with lightning. 290 strikes just in this view that we're showing you here along long island but locally it's just one last little batch of lighter rain and then we'll be done for awhile. flash flood watches in effect for another hour until 6 o'clock in the central counties because of that additional rain coming through and piling up on top of the already saturated ground from last night. there could be some additional runoff and you might run into some flooded areas. never walk or drive through.

that once we get finished with this morning batch of precipitation we'll get into a lull and most of the rest of the day is dry with a slight chance of an additional pop-up shower or thunderstorm later this afternoon. 70 degrees currently in philadelphia. it's muggy out there. 67 in allentown, 68 in wilmington. and low 70's down along the boardwalk. i wouldn't recommend you walk because you still have those thunderstorms just off the coast and more rain on the way. it's going to be a warm one today. 75 by 9 o'clock, 83 by noon and by 3 o'clock 87 degrees. that is going to be your high sliding right in about 3 o'clock and again a spotty thunderstorm or two possible the rest of the way in the afternoon and evening but we're in the looking at more severe weather and this stuff later today should be very spot too. i'll have more on those thunderstorms and more on the damage that you're negotiating this morning along with the seven day coming up, matt. >> really starting to not like tuesdays a whole lot, that's for sure. good morning, david and this wednesday is not off to a great start in a bunch of spots including here on the schuylkill expressway because of the awful overnight accident in the westbound lanes right by the exit for montgomery drive.

they're still out here cleaning up. , see the wreckage right there. all the police officers also still out here on the scene and with just that left lane opened to traffic you're already seeing a delay coming west from girard of girard avenue. stay on the river drivers. watch out for the huge puddles along the river drive especially as you round the corners. can be a dangerous seven. as you round the conshohocken curve on the eastbound side of the schuylkill this morning there's high water partially blocking had had that right lane. you hit that as you travel in towards gladwyne. on the vine street expressway both directions just reopened overnight construction has cleared so it's wet but at least the traffic is getting by. crash in limerick by four eighty two cleared. a downed tree westbound 30 bypass at 340 the right lane remains blocked. tam. >> thank you, matt. and breaking this morning an out of control car crashed in and then burst into flames on the schuylkill. two people were killed and a third person is now in the hospital. let's get right on over to

"action news" reporter katherine scott. she is lie at police barracks at wynnefield heights. good morning, katherine. >> reporter: good morning, tam, that's right a driver and the passenger died. another passenger was rushed to hahnemann university hospital. troopers here from the belmont barracks were called out to that accident site let's get to that video of that awful ya', this morning on the schuylkill expressway in the westbound lanes. this happened around 2:30 this morning approaching montgomery drive. the cause of the accident remains under investigation but somehow this car lost control. it flipped to its side and it burst into flames. here's what the car looked like after the fire was out. it was completely burned out. accident investigators were called out to the scene. we don't yet know if wet roads were a factor. traffic has been slowly getting by as this investigation is under way. again, we know that two people have died. one person was rushed to the hospital. of course stay with "action news" for updays. we're live in wynnefield heights, katherine scott channel6 "action news." >> okay, katherine thank you for that.

it is 5:04. philadelphia police are on the hunt for a team of bank bandits who held up the td branch in chestnut hill on the 8600 block of germantown avenue last night. and at least one of the five suspects was armed with a gun. all of them were disguised in hoodies, sunglasses and hats. they got away with $7,000 in cash. no shots were fired and no one was hurt. >> developing now the fbi has joined the investigation into last night's fire at a prominent black church in south carolina. arsonists had tat targeted the the same place of worship 20 years ago. erin o'hearn has the latest for us at the big board. erin. back in 1995, the ku klux clan burned down the mount zion methodist episcopal church in agree leeville. last night flames erupted again at the church which is about 50 miles north of charleston where nine people were shot and killed in a church on june 17th. fortunately no one was inside this place of worship at the time of the fire. and authorities say it's too soon to see what caused the blaze, which did break out on

the night of frequent storms. but this comes at a time when federal authorities are investigating other fires at predominantly black churches in the area. but so far none of the fires appear to be related. however, members of the church of this latest fair to say they are drawing from the strength of the congregation of emmanuel ame in charleston. >> i think the emanuel ame has shown us the way to deal with tragedy and that is to draw your strength from the lord and come together as a community and meet whatever adversary you may have with a spirit of love. so, i think this community has done that in the past and they will will do that now. >> reporter: as we mentioned this latest fire comes at a time when federal authorities are investigating other fires at other churches including this one near aiken south carolina which broke out on friday. back to you. >> thank you, erin. happening today the u.s. and cuba will take a major step toward improved relations.

the obama administration plans to announce both countries will reopen embassies in each other's capitols. the embassys in washington d.c. and havana respectfully have been closed for more than half a century. the u.s. loosened travel restrictions to kuehne what and allowed for some new economic ties starting last deans earlier this month it removed cuba from its lit of state sponsors of terror. this is new. we're getting a first look at hillary clinton's early e-mail correspondence inn from when she served as secretary of state. the state department release thed first batch of 2,000 messages overnight. it makes it clear senior obama administration officials knew about clinton's private e-mail address as early as 2009 and this was a violation of state department policy. most of the e-mails include conversations with staff on errands. the e-mails have become a campaign issue for clinton who is seeking the democratic presidential nomination. >> the pope's visit to philadelphia includes eight scheduled events during the pontiff's two days here. pope francis will arrive on

saturday morning september 25th. he heads straight to the cathedral basilica to celebrate mass for 1600 faithful who will be selected from local parishes. the pope will visit independence mall before attending the festival of families on the ben franklin parkway. on sunday pope francis will meet with bishops at saint charles borromeo seminary. that's where he'll be staying during his time here. he will visit curran fromhold correctional facility to see prisoners and their families so that will not be a public event. and then at 4:00 that afternoon the pope will celebrate mass to conclude the world meeting of families. again that will be on the parkway. of course we invite you to follow our dedicated 6abc pope account on twitter where we're posting the latest news, tips and pictures on the pope's visit. this is going to be huge. >> yes indeed. all right, well, a lot of people got an early morning wakeup call but all that heavy stuff moved out right. >> yeah, thunderstorms now over to the east. storm tracker6 live double scan shows you we've gotten the center portion of the region right now is just showers with those heavy

thunderstorms and that was lightning, 307 strikes now just in the last 10 or 15 minutes from those storms off the coast, most of them up in long island and this stuff in and around philadelphia really nuisance rain. the problem of course is that we had so much rain last night that even though this stuff is having a tendency to push on through pretty quickly we are still looking at runoff from last night and there is still a flood watch for another 45 minutes or so across most of the central region. jut waiting nor last rain to get through and the runoff to get finished running off. as we take a look outside we've got cloudy skies for the most part over center city philadelphia. we'll probably see some sun return later on and then most of the day is warm and humid with maybe just another pop-up shower or thunderstorm later. 70 degrees currently in philadelphia, muggy out there. 68 degrees in wilmington, 67 in trenton, 67 in allentown and 73-degree readings down at the boardwalk and again twitter followers this one nasty east falls a lot of you saw some hail and tweeted us pictures of it. looks like that was enough to get about three of them in the

palm of your handled. we have a lot of trees and wires down. these are just some of the areas in northampton county or northampton, pennsylvania, honeybrook in western chester county where we have investigators headed out in that vicinity to see if there was a tornado. phoenixville hanover township pennsylvania and west goshen. parts of delaware county philadelphia might see some of this i live in delaware county and there was a big branch across one of the roads that i travel. lehigh valley is another area that did get some of this damage so be careful driving around in through here and up through here today. in terms of the rain, it does look like it's going get out of here during the morning rush hour and then by noon we're in a lull and by this afternoon the model really not picking up a whole lot but we will allow for another pop-up shower or thunderstorm this afternoon and early this evening. i will point out to you, though, that the chance of severe weather today is to our north and east closer to new york city, new york state and new england. so, not as much of a concern around here today as there was yesterday with severe weather. 81 is the high today in the lehigh valley. warm and humid with an afternoon or evening thunderstorm. down the shore for the second

straight day a moderate chance of rip currents so only swim next to the lifeguards if you do get out there once the vein on. and in philadelphia your exclusive accuweather 7-day shows a high of 87 this afternoon. warm and humid and a chance of a pop-up shower or storm here or there. take cover from any storm if for no other reason the lightning. town clouds then on thursday, 84 with some late day rain and then a thunderstorm possible friday morning clouds and sun otherwise, 82. for the holiday weekend clouds and sun on saturday, 84. warm issuish and there's a chance of a spotty thunderstorm in the afternoon or evening. so, keep your eyes on the forecast before you head out to fireworks but i think most of those displays are okay. sunday through tuesday looks sunny. >> yeah, okay. we'll take what we can get. >> that's what you're going get. >> thanks, david. 5:11. next the governor of california signs one of the toughest vaccine bills in the country into law. >> gaining ground, residents return to ruins as crews fight back against the flames out west. matt. >> tam, we continue big problems on the schuylkill

expressway westbound already this morning. a crash and vehicle fire here by the montgomery drive interchange is just letting the left lane by. already giving us big delays and already some cancellations on some of the septa regional rails. we'll talk about that when "action news" continues on this wednesday morning. >> ♪♪

i'm whoopi goldberg and new york is my home. there's no place like it in the world and no better place to lean about the people who shaped who we are today. hear about the lives of slaves in colonial new york and about the fight to abolish slavery. pick a stop on the underground railroad

and visit the home and grave of one of new york's most controversial citizens. a journey in new york is a journey through history. plan you next trip at iloveny.com/summer. there's something for everyone. >> ♪♪ >> good morning everyone. 5:14. taking a live look at philadelphia international airport. some strong storms moved through this morning with some lightning and heavy rains. right now just a little bit of rain out there. 69 degrees on city avenue. 87 will be our high for today. >> time now to get a look at your commute and what is it like for people who take the rails, matt. >> problems for people trying to get to the airport on the

septa regional rails this morning. coming out of the suburbs heading in you'll have issues. there's no service right now on the airport regional rail line or on the wilmington newark regional rail line because of amtrak power problems. earlier i told you no service on the thorndale paoli regional rail line through chester county and along the main line. that service has resumed so back up and running on that one but still have the airport and wilmington newark with no service. some of that you use the wilmington newark may be able to use the media elwyn. sometimes that works as an alternate. we'll keep you posted on those rail situations this morning. also have a new issue with a crash that brought down a traffic signal in pennsauken. it's blocking the southbound lanes of 130 approaching 38, the airport circle there. all lanes shut down on the southbound side at this point. 644 haddonfield road could be a good alternate or maybe 73 southbound depending on where you're going. this is the scene in chester county. we still have this downed tree on the westbound side of the 30 bypass. they have yet to turn it into sawdust here by 340 and as you can see the right lane is out

of commission but the left lane is getting by. so it's not causing a huge delay at this point but just really wet conditions and we're still cleaning up from storms from a week ago and over the weekend. the weekend storms closing balligomingo road in west conshohocken. stick with 320 swedeland road to get around that. as we do the commuter report a lot of people talking about the big jam on the westbound schuylkill this morning because of the crash by montgomery drive. just 6 miles per hour. we'll talk more about that, tam, in just a few minutes. >> okay, thank you matt. heavy rains in costa rica caused severe flooding damaging homes and triggering landslides. hundreds of people have been forced out of their homes. shelters are now providing aid for 650 flood victims. as many as 18 communities are cut off by the flood water. and residents are picking through the charred remains of their homes in central washington state. look at this damp. the wind whipped flames destroyed more than two dozen homes and businesses. fire crews at least are making a little progress against the

wildfire. they've got it about 47 percent contained. that is up from just 10 percent yesterday morning. >> california is implementing one of the strictest school vaccination laws in the country in the wake of a measles outbreak. governor jerry brown signed a controversial bill into law which prevents parents from opting their children out for so-called personal beliefs. exemptions for vaccines would still be granted for medical reasons. supporters say the science is clear that vaccinations protect both children and the community at large. well, the phillies are once again on a bad skid having lost two in a row and five of their last six. they give it another go at the brewers at citizens bank park tonight. the phillies closed out june with a thud. milwaukee beating them for the second straight game. final score four to three. the women's u.s. soccer team toppled first place germany in last night's world cup semifinals. team u.s.a. won two to nothing in montreal to advance to sunday's final. the americans will face either

japan or england. >> they have just played beautifully. >> great. >> go team u.s.a. it is 5:17 and there's a big change in american fashion. the founder of an iconic brand says she's stepping down. >> oh, say can you breathe? research takes a closer look at the lingering effects of fireworks. >> ♪♪

>> houston texas will be home the a new space port. the faa grant add launch site license to make ellington airport the tenth commercial space port in the u.s. it can be used to launch mike company satellites train astronauts and conduct zero gravity experiments. >> well, houston we have a whole bunch of problems this morning on the traffic front as we head outside already this morning. schuylkill expressway westbound is a parking lot. as you can see from this point at girard out to montgomery drive, still investigating that overnight crash and vehicle fire and blocking the right side of the roadway in the process. just the one left lane squeezes by. ailed stay to the right on the mlk or even the kelly drive.

watch out for the big puddles there. that's kind of dangerous too on those drives this morning. it's a least you can driver on the vine street expressway again. they've reopened everything overnight construction has cleared in both directions. we'll resume tonight at 11 o'clock. and still no service on septa's airport and wilmington newark regional rail lines this morning. it's because of amtrak power problems but service has resumed on the thorndale paoli line. david. >> matt, temperatures in the 60's and 70's this morning. warm and humid, a few showers rolling through. 75 by 9 o'clock, 83 by noon and 87 degrees by 3 o'clock. a slight chance of a pop-up thunderstorm or shower this afternoon but most of you are going to stay drive. across the country severe weather chances off to our north and east. a little pocket of it. most of it in atlanta back through the central states and right now in areas to our north particularly j.f.k. airport and newark liberty we do have some showers some earlier thunderstorms that should be tapering off before too much longer and there is a little bit of a shower right now in philadelphia. no major delays at the airport just yet though, matt and tam. >> thank you, david.

going on to health check a lot of us will turn out for fireworks on the fourth but a lot more than a spectacular memory may stay with you. a new study that the brilliant bursts could cause a city council spike in air pollution. researchers looked at 315 locates with fireworks displays. 33 found airborne microscopic particles were more than twice the normal level during the time of the fireworks. other studies show inhaling these particles can cause a health risk. however, this new study didn't look at the exact health effects. a new study finds most americans don't know what to do if someone around them goes into cardiac arrest. researchers found only 6 percent of victims survive a heart attack when it happens in their homes or other nonhospital settings and they link the survival rate to the lack of cpr training. the report recommends more public education and expanded cpr training as early as high schoolly. >> a big time designer is stepping down from her throne. details in america's money. >> ♪♪ >> good morning, everybody. topping america's money a

major fashion designer stepping down. >> donna car ran will no longer be the chief designer for her line which defined the way working women dressed for decades. >> the 66-year-old will still be a close advisor but the company has no plans to replace her. burger king may be bringing some of its veggie burgers to a location near you reena. >> the fast food chain started showing six varieties in eighty nine last november including a veggie whopper. a move to other countries could be next. i don't needs any secret sauce, i'll take it like that. >> i'll stick with the beef. >> adults are discovering the satisfaction of coloring within the lines. coloring books for adults are bestsellers. >> the designs range from flowers to spirituals, peaceful solitary and and plugged. >> i'll buy you some crayola crayons, too. that's america's money. >> 5:23 now. coming up on "action news" the case police. >> angel in the centerfold.

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>> coming in from our new jersey news room. the ocean county prosecutors office is issuing a warning over this, a cell phone case shaped like a handgun. would you know that's just a cell phone case? at first glance it looks like a gun sticking out of the back of the jeans is. the handle and the hammer are part of that phone case. as you might imagine police don't like it. their real fear is that the case could be mistaken for an

actual gun perhaps sparking confrontations that end in tragedy. >> i see what they mean. >> yeah. >> the morning buzz time. a milestone at the american ballet theater in new york city. 32-year-old ballerina misty copeland has become the first african-american woman ever to achieve the status as a principal dancer at the theater in the company's 75 years. she's already well known all across the world she's a pop culture phenom. she has endorsement contracts tv show, music video appearances, named one of time magazine's 100 most influential people in the world now making history at the american ballet theater. >> what else can you say but brava. breaking this morning a car goes up in flames. what we've learned about the victims in the highway inferno along the schuylkill. >> more heavy rain and lightning moved across the area this morning. we'll look at the hardest hit areas when we come back.

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schuylkill expressway. a car burst into flames with people still inside. >> strong storms moved through the region overnight. accuweather is updating, though, when it should all clear out. >> plus funnel clouds formed in the western suburbs as the wild weather began moving in. the national weather service will be on site today to determine if we indeed had tornadoes. >> good morning. 5:30 now on this wednesday july 1st. let's go to accuweather and matt pelman is in for karen rogers. good morning. >> those strong thunderstorms we were looking for yesterday are off coast pushing away from our airports around new york city in case you have a connecting flight. long island still getting hammered with this and lots of lightning strikes there. around here it's just a couple sprinkles and showers beginning to fall apart. looks like additional stuff near gettysburg. most of what we're seeing this morning will be on the light side. flash flood watch has expired. we were going to hold this until 6 o'clock but the weather service feels the rain has slack concerned off enough where all of those wat