thousands of ballots were mailed out in volusia county... right as the storm was hitting the coast a few weeks ago. many of those ballots were damaged, after getting left in the rain and heavy wind. the volusia county supervisor of elections doesn't know how many ballots were affected by the weather.. but they've since many people were forced to evacuate their homes... many of those ballots were left out in their mailboxes... for ?days. volusia county residents can still get a replacement ballot mailed to them if the original honey nut cheerios get their delicious taste from honest ingredients. ok that's still honey. ahhh, there we go. were back to honey again. who's directing this? that guy, figures. the time is now 4-49... and here's a look at the top trending stories today. first up: get ready to see a lot of ?purple on your social media feeds the next 24 hours. that's because today is national "spirit day." it was created six years ago by a teenager named "brittany mcmillan" . she wanted to show support for l- g-t-b-q youth... and take a

that was jim judge with the volusia county office of emergency management. hurricane matthew as we're talking about, pounding the coastline and here is what we're watching right now. high tide is set to hit the northeast coast of florida in about the next ten minutes or so and that means problems potentially with storm surge. we're looking at nine feet above ground level in some spots. up next, our own dylan dreyer will walk us through what this could mean for potential flooding and how meteorologists get a handle on what we can expect to see. stick around. i'm here in bristol, virginia. and now...i'm in bristol, tennessee. on this side of the road is virginia... and on this side it's tnessee. no matter which state in the country you live in, you could save hundreds on car iurance by switching to geico. look, i'm in virginia... i'm in tennessee... virginia... tennessee... and now i'm in virginessee. see how much you could save on car insurance. or am i in tennaginia? hmmm... narrator: it wasn't that long ago. years of devastating cutbacks to our schools. 30,

volusia county government is a well-run government. and we prepare, prepare, prepare. so hopefully, you know, once we assess, once the storm goes through, and we assess the damage, you know, we'll see what we need, and we have a strong community, and we'll pull together. and hopefully. >> hope for the best, for sure. >> caller: yes. >> okay. thank you so much for joining us from volusia county, we will keep you in our prayers. stay safe. >> caller: thank you. >> millions were urged to flee. not everyone heeded that warning. >> whether n we come back, one ride irwho refuses to be intimidated by this category three storm. >>> hurricane matthew is making its way up the florida coastline. preparing for its arrival is john ward, who is director of emergency management for clay county, florida, just outside of jacksonville, he joins us now on the phone. thanks for taking the time. talk to us a little bit about what you're bracing for and how you're preparing for it. >> caller: well, i think, sir, our team's been in place since yesterday. we've been activated when we pulled t

what have you seen around volusia county here in daytona?, i have seen many flooded areas and i have seen a lot of branches and trees down and roofs that were ripped. >> why are you guys out here right now? >> we are searching the place and seeing the damage and see what the hurricane has done and what damage, yeah. >> reporter: if you can just come here, you told me before you were trying to help somebody that ran out of power, if you can tell me more about that. >> yeah, my cousin was out of power so we were able to make communication through texts and i said i will come here and pick you up. >> reporter: that's what we are seeing is more than a million people without power and here in volusia county, we are seeing neighbors helping neighbors as this hurricane is passing through the florida coast. >> they are not really supposed to be out there right now, right? >> reporter: they are not. but it is still evacuated, the rain has tampered off a little bit. it is best that people stay home for thefection couple of hour, kate. >> all right, ma

>>>reporter: back here in volusia county, we are getting rain, high winds, there is a curfew in place until 7:00 >> parts of florida are recovering, georgia and south carolina are preparing. >>>reporter: hurricane matthew continues to pound florida and head towards other coastal states. here, you can see a home that caught fire after being hit by matthew. this is one of many homes and buildings destroyed by the storm. this is storm surge washing up at a 15 inches of rain and storm surges up to 9 feet are possible in some areas, saint augustine, some roads are so flooded by rain and salt water, they are impassable. georgia is bracing for the storm, more than 5 hundred thousand people are under a mac order mandatory track shows the storm towards the south carolina coast and myrtle beach officials say if the storm makes landfall in south carolina, the storm surge is expected to be over 8 feet. people there are now preparing. in the newsroom, "7 news". >> we are going to take more live pictures right now. this is the latest on what is going on in daytona, still jeremy to get a look at wha

golden beach up to flagler, volusia county line. that say hurricane warning north of there it is a hurricane watch. >> now, you look at the winds forecasted. this is the gusts. grain of saw. the numbers won't verify but it gives you an idea of what can happen base thond track. and we with could see wind well over 100 miles per hour in vero beach and this is by friday morning. as we advance through time you're looking at day to nacht winds 80, 90 miles per hour. orlando at this point the modles indicate we could see gust nooz hurricane force. here in tampa you see even in st. peters berkz 44 miles per hour wind gusts so that's why we're looking at big problems across the state. because have you 40 to 50 miles per hour wind gust as cross the state on friday morning heading into the afternoon and that is is earnly going to cause damage croots state, even here across the west coast and into the middle of the state and pretty devastating problems and damage across the eastern part of state. per sen tack. on the west coast continues to in

volusia county residents consider replacement belts no mail to them for if the original is damaged all they have to do is call the supervisor of elections. that's happened to quite a few people. >> we can hope that's only done next weekend on two or three weeks. when it could be a bunch bigger problem. >> we would also some effects of hurricane matthew. >> the still fixed going on along the east flooding in miami the king tied doesn't and along the east coast. we had a great day today. lots of sunshine rapid of beautiful note late today check this out for sunset tonight in sand key beaches talk about this guy on fire alert. there it is. margie hamilton baker beautiful shot from phil over indian rocks beach tonight and this talk about some raise great view of tampa bay from our good but i tell you the significant changes on the way. really for the first time since going back to like mid april we've got a significant cools not a cold snap the pool snap on the way. we had 80s to near 90 today. high in tampa officially 88 degrees just four degrees above the average and just missed the reco

we hear the bands of wind and rain coming through here in volusia county. this place is filled with people who love the people and love the ocean and love the night life. you are not seeing much of that here. most people are heeding the warnings. residents evacuated and the tourists have decided to not to come or they left already. we can tell you this. we went to stores to see what they had. p palates of water and generators sold out in much of the county. we can tell you there are voluntary evacuations happening in the barrier islands, including merritt island. that is about 150,000 people who have to get off the island. the voluntary evacuations will become mandatory this afternoon. people here are heeding warnings. it is a monster storm. if it comes in as a category four, a lot of folks who grew up in florida like myself, remember hurricane andrew and don't want to be around it. john and christine. >>> the governor of south carolina is ordering evacuations. we have the latest update from stephanie elam. >> reporter: you can see lots of preparations here

data is in volusia county.hat's the place being hit the hardest right now and it has been for the past couple of hours. we want to bring in the director of the volusia county emergency management james judge. mr. judge we have been keeping an eye on your location for hours on our program. what's the situation there? >> well, good morning. of course senator bell nelson did an outstanding job just kind of outlining some of the actions that have taken place here in florida. also, been in close contact with governor scott. governor scott did visit with us just a couple of days ago. but of course, as you know, this is something we planned for. this is something we've trained for. exercised for. for years. you know, to be able to deal with a situation like this. so, i would say things are going very well. of course we have the usual problems. power outages as you mentioned. we've got trees down. we do have sustained winds of over 45 miles an hour now. making it possible for public safety resources to respond to the c

seven mile bridge all the way up to deerfield beach and then a hurricane watch all the way up to the volusia, brevard county line. we're going to be watching this very closely because just that little shift in that forecast will really make some pretty big you can see the computer models coming into much better agreement, shifting this close to the state. we're getting more and more information back from the hurricane hunter. you plug that into the computer models and it really helps to fine tune that forecast. the probability of seeing tropical storm force winds, even here on the west coast of florida, we're between a 20% to 30% chance. you can see across central portions of our viewing area, over into polk county, hardee, desoelt county and you can see hurricane force winds or at least gusts over on the eastern side of the state. so we'reng to talk much more about that and talk more about what we could be experiencing, kind of the timing of all of this coming up in a little bit, linda. >> we are preparing for the worst and hoping for the best and we're not going to take any chances. florid

. >>> volusia county beach safety officials two men were bitten by sharks over weekend. first man was bitten on his side while surfing saturday and less than 24 hours later a man was bitten while surfing officials say sharks have bitten at least 14 people in volusia county so far this year. a 14-year-old is recovering after man's e-cigarette exploded while they were riding harry potter train at universal it happened on saturday on hogwarts express. the device blew up in man's pocket and then a fireball hit that little girl in the face. she was taken to the hospital with mild to moderate burns to her face and arm and leg. now ride was temporarily shut down but later reopened. >>> clearwater rescue crew as respond to two separate incidents of clearwater super boat raises. speed boats flipped. be taken to bayfront in st. pete for treatment. then in unrelated incident a woman was pulled from atwater after a medical emergency possibly a seizure. she was also taken to the hospital. >>> islands in caribbean are preparing for hurricane matthew as they start to feel the first eff

at the volusia county library center of city island. so don't wait one more day. go vote, and then help us get everybody else out to vote, too. now, i know, i know that we've got our canvas organizers up here. i don't want to take too much of their time, because they are workers. they are organized. they are focused. i'm so grateful to them and to you, and we need you. we need you. stakes couldn't be higher. we've got to do everything we can. i don't want anybody- i don't want anybody waking up on november 9th and saying, oh, i wish i had just done a little more. so help us knock on doors. make phone calls. talk to voters. and ask them, when are you going to vote? do you know where you're going to cast your ballot? who will you take with you? and make sure they know about early voting, already begun here in florida. and then, if you need to, sign up yourselves. we have -- we have signups for three more shifts between now and election day. and, you know, this is going to be a close election. they always are these days. and we're going to win, because of you. becaus

but one golden retriever from volusia county -- who wasn't supposed to make it to the end of the month is defying the odds. meet 9-year-old "maverick." maverick's gone throught a lot in his life, a nerve disease took away the use of his hind legs and he's been battling lymphoma. maverick's owners -- thought they were going to have to say goodbye to their beloved pup. two weeks ago.. they made sure he had one last big night out. but now -- after months of chemo-therapy -- maverick's since his big hoorah -- donations have been pouring in for maverick. but he's just happy walking down the streets of deland in his cart saying hi to all his new friends. work to repair a stretch of a-one-a is underway in flager county. the historic highway which runs along flagler beach was destroyed by storm surge during hurricane matthew. comes in just shy of 4-?million dollars. crews hope to reopen the road by the middle of december. hurricane matthew has come and gone but it left a lot of damage and a ?big? mess in its wake... fox's a trip to the hospital leads to an unexpected delivery. why this mother

the surf is up and it will get higher as the bands of winds come through here in the volusia county. this is a place which is filled with people who love the beach and night life. most people are heeding the warnings. residents evacuated. the tourists have decided not to come or they left already. we can tell you this. when we went to stores to see what they had, things like water all sold out. gas canisters sold out. generators sold out in much of the county. we can tell you there are voluntary evacuations happening in the barrier islands. that is about 150,000 people that have to get off the island. the voluntary evacuations will become mandatory this afternoon. this storm is no joke. people are heeding warnings. if it comes in as a category four, a lot of folks who grew up in florida remember what hurricane andrew was like and they don't want to be around for it. >> thank you, sara. the preparations are under way in south carolina. the governor ordering the evacuation from two coastal counties. that's where we get our latest from. stephanie elam. >> reporter: john and christine, h

. >>> dozens of illegal guns on the streets in volusia county. vulnerable time thieves picked to hit this gun store. a 911 dispatcher accused of hanging up on people calling for help. her shocking response to one caller. >>> good thursday morning. abc action news at 9:30. i'm dan shaffer. >> i'm deiah riley. we're going to talk about the latest efforts to help the victims of hurricane matthew in a moment. first ivan has a look at the forecast. you mentioned sunshine in ashley yore's live shot. >> you're going to osee a lot more of that today. maybe more humid than you would like to be this time of year. warm and humid conditions set up for this afternoon. temperature right now in the low to mid-70s. feels even warm clearwater, good morning and temperatures at 73. the rest of us in the 70s. we had lows this morning generally in the 70s. a few upper 60s to the north but we have replaced that cool air mass now with a more humid one and one that will bring us scattered clouds, plenty of sunshine and just isolated showers, coverage between 10% and 20%

county, daytona beach is located in volusia county.irst responders up and down the coast saying it's -- the conditions are too unsafe. they can't go out to actually help people right now. this particular area, daytona, is under mandatory curfew until 7:00 a.m. saturday morning. the national hurricane center and noaa, both websites before midnight going down. they were down for several hours and have since been restored. here things are starting to ramp up, but it will be the next couple hours when things become more intense. >> morgan, thank you. >>> back to the other top story, that is the british pound. sterling dropping sharply suddenly to a fresh 31-year lore in early asian trade this morning, last night in new york before regaining some ground. still under heavy selling pressure. joining us from london is the head of fx strategy at credit agricul. were you on the desk chen this flash crash happened? >> not really, but when i saw the headlines when i woke up, i thought, oh. it feels like a perfect storm for the pound. >> what exact

volusia county will be reopening some sections closed after hurricane matthew. certain roads along daytona and the new smyrna beach area will be opened one way. the red flag will fly indicating hazardous water conditions.>>> go to the beach this weekend the water is kind of warm out there, it is. >> is looking pretty good, i like it warm. the upper 80s, right now it is in the upper 70s, it is still too warm for some, south tampa take a look, beautiful out there, we have good conditions across much of the area, we had a few extra clouds from time to time today because of the northeast flow we have been enjoying, not only is it bringing more cloud cover but also trying to bring sprinkles across the state nothing to cause you any problems if you're plann might have in mind. if you want to go for a walk after dinner. look at the temperatures, 85 tampa, clearwater 83 degrees, saint pete 82, fairweather clouds out there and winds at 5 to 10 miles per hour, a nice breeze so not bad at all, nothing to report that will cause any problems as we head into the weekend this

closer to moment emergency crews in volusia andrevard say flood sght their biggest worries too. near mary island crews out there getting pumps ready in the flood prone areas so they start getting water out a clearing up streets so nothing blocks the trains. and one family there is prepare forth worse. >> and putting a plan together. getting ready to head out if they tell us. >> okay so you can evacuate. yes, if theyel it us to evacuate, it's the speafort thing to go. he is doing what they awld tell us to do. many of the crews les out of florida and east coast made last minute changrm. disney, ral caribbean and rerouteing to avoid the eastern caribbean. instead they are forpght mexico anyd ke west and paul is back now with the updaten matthew. and ihink you know, we still look at that and all about t jog west. >> it s. and a think the big question is will the center of th winds move onshore to the east coast. a thousand times. cot and going up the eastr east coast. into theadofort storm with the st thatur ea c aoastnd that keeps the stngt winds well east ofs. aslo as the is,scont

water treatment facilities this >> as the cleanup after hurricane matthew continues, officials from volusia county has died, bringing the official number to 5. a tree trimmer hit a live power line, while work to clear branches in daltona and was electric cuted. >> biketoberfest the festival gathers over 100,000 people. >> daytona beach is still clearing up from the hurricane, but that doesn't stop hundreds of thousands of bikers. >> it's hard to believe hurricane matthew blew through but not even a hurricane could stop biketoberfest, local businesses telling us the crowd is bigger than ever. >> it's getting better, it's been great. a lot of our regulars have come here every single day to help us out. i think the hurricane really helped us, it rallied a lot of people to bring out the spirit of a lot of people here. >> biketoberfest, the up revenue. you can tell this is nonstop party in daytona beach. the festivities started on thursday and continues through sunday. kate burgess, fox 13 news. >> new video out of miami where folks there are getting the royal treatment ass at east when it's com

let's check in with abc news' lauren lyster in volusia county, florida. >> hurricane matthew barreling towards florida the brutal conditions intensifying as the eye of the storm taunts coastal cities. overnight,violent winds along the beaches, gusts clocking in above 70 miles per hour in some places. the stbr sound of fireworks in the form of downed power lines, thousands facing outages, officials fearing up to three million may end up in the dark. the national weather service saying matthew will be devastating. florida's governor making this dire warning. >> unfortunately this is going to kill people. >> already, it has, matthew taking the lives of more than a 100 people as it swept through haiti. the death toll there bahamas before heading for florida. residents thursday preparing, filling up those final sandbags, stores are boarded up, their shelves bare. more then three million people urged to evacuate here and in the carolinas. some refusing to go, but many getting out clogging the highways for miles while nearly 4,000 flights have been cancelled >> a big concern here, the storm s

the rain and wind damaged more than 1,500 mail-in ballots in volusia county. many now soaked, torn, tattered. voters who sent in a damaged ballot may have to replace it. officials now sending out replacements to anybody who requests one. >>> new insight into how a polk county prisoner was able to escape taking a corrections officer hostage in the process. investigators say david ross was working -- on a work detail at the time, even locked four other prisoners in a room in the process. abc action news reporter rodney dunigan live in bartow where this all happened. happened. >> reporter: the police chief in bartow tells us that surveillance cameras here in the park may have captured the moments that all of this happened. that could be key in this investigation. meanwhile, people who live in this community say they simply can't understand why prisoners would be allowed to actually work here. >> all this time these prisoners working here and you see what happened now. i mean it might happen again. >> reporter: bartow police chief joe hall says it was around noon

let's check in with abc news' lauren lyster in volusia county, florida. >> hurricane matthew barreling towards florida the brutal conditions intensifying as the eye of the storm taunts coastal cities. overnight, violent winds along above 70 miles per hour in some places. the storm bringing the look and sound of fireworks in the form of downed power lines, thousands facing outages, officials fearing up to three million may end up in the dark. the national weather service saying matthew will be devastating. florida's governor making this # dire warning. >> unfortunately this is going to kill people. >> already it has, matthew taking the lives of more than a 100 people as it swept through haiti. the death toll there skyrocketing as the floodwaters recede and matthew battering the bahamas before heading for florida. residents thursday preparing, filling up those final sandbags, stores are boarded up, their shelves bare. more then three million people urged to evacuate here and in the carolinas. some refusing to go, but many getting out clogging the highways for miles while nearly 4,000 fli

this is importance inlet in volusia county and you can see all the rain that is covered in water but let's look at the storm. the big concern is the rain and wind and rain for us but you can see the rain, at going 171 miles north of this storm so let's zoom in and the eye technically never came ashore. this is still a hurricane that has not hit the united states plan. obviously you saw it hit haiti. what we have here is this eye about 23 miles wide and the center of the coast, 22 miles so this storm is lurking 22 miles off shore moving northwest so the big event is the rain. here's the good news, at least so far. look at the heavy rain over the ocean. rainfall amounts there coming up 6, 7-inch in the last 12 hours and inland, there's going to be rain. there's orlando where we showed you and didny world, 4 inches of rain so most of the shore, 100-mile-per-hour winds over port canaveral. you saw 80-mile-per-hour winds and daytona beach and that wind area is moving north so with the hurricane force wind, hurricane warnings in effect all the way up and now the new thing this morning is t

. >> especially for duke, they have customers in volusia county and tiko goes as far as poke and up to dade city and pasco county. they will be busy for the next few >>> i suspect so. peter, thank you. >> south florida getting ready for hurricane matthew. the long lines like this gas station in fort lauderdale ran out and that frustrated drivers. governor rick scott assured floridians that we are not running out of fuel and even if all of the ports were to close there is enough fuel to last 8 days. >>> to make sure you are not bondy has the price gauging hotline. 18889 no scam. storm price gouging, all of that is illegal. >> with hurricane matthew barreling towards the mainland interstate will be full of evacuees so every trooper will be clear out accident scenes. >>> construction on i-75 is on hold until the storm passes through. we will be using the interstate and the roadways must be clear. >> the i-75 construction will resume. once people have made it safely back to their homes. despite the best efforts they recommend that you be patient if you hit the roads this week. walt disney

we hope that we can minimize that here in this area of volusia county and up and down the storm zone.e i've seen what can happen when a palm frond lets go in the wind, are you sheltered at least locally. i know you're getting one of these rain bands right now. >> we are staying at the hotel. we're on a veranda now. we did lose one of the ceiling fans. we were concerned about these fans blowing around. fortunately they're shaped like palm fronds themselves, they're soft. we hope that the damage is minimal if it hits any of our crew. after we are off the air with you, we do move back inside. the winds sustained maybe 25, 30 knots with some gusts stronger than that. three or four hours from now, it will be a whole different story out here. again, there is a mandatory evacuation up and down the coast. some people have decided that they're going to ride it out. we did speak to a woman who this isn't her first hurricane. she's from upstate new york. this is her third year down in florida. she's very nervous. her son has been checking on her all day. she did manage to get into a shelter. she

at this point florida power&light in volusia county have 325,000 people. the storm about 40 miles off the coast where we are right now, maria. maria: all right, adam. thank you very much. adam shapiro joining us right now with congressman, good to have you on the program, thanks for being with us, what's your message so far? >> i'm interested to see how this is going to play politically as we look at two candidates, you can't look at your advisers, this is your gut reaction to how people are doing in harm's way and if they respond presidential as opposed to political. i think you're going to see a real benefit in the polls. maria: what does government need to do to ensure that we've got the goods to deal with something like this in the future. when i look back, i know that you were one of the 65 house of representatives who voted against hurricane sandy funding. explain that at a time like this what people are worried to not have the wherewithal? >> disasters happen. we want to make sure that we have systems in place and people can buy insurance at an affo

. >>> meanwhile, this volusia county man is behind bars after deputies say hysteriad to kill another man with a pick ax while he was high on meth. according to deputies. daniel brown and the victim were doing drugs together when during that argument. brown grabbed a pick ax, swung it at the victim. the victim is okay. >>> a push to the polls or voter shaming. some lee county voters are being graded on their voting history. people are finding voting report cards in their mailboxes. the report card not only grading people on their voting history, it also compares it to the state average. it is an effort to get people to get out but people are torn are whether it is the right approach. >> i'm not sure a voter report card would do any good. either you are motivated to vote or not. >> they say they are a nonpartisan organization. >>> still to come, having a baby comes with a lot of life changing. >> for one bay area woman, the changes nearly claimed her life. newschannel8 takes a closer look at the dangerous heart condition brought on by her story of survival. plus. >> to keep their playo

volusia county. daytona beach. that whole area as it continues to move to the north. our winds will shift. as they do, we will have to bring in drier air to chase in some of the high humidity for a short period of time. we hope that will be a long term trend, but we have to see how the trend plays out for around. warm, muggy for us. that is tomorrow morning. later in the day. we start to see banding coming off the northwest side of this system and enhanced somewhat as i mentioned with the heating of the day that can create energy. and there is the precipitation. most of it to our east. folks inland. watch for higher wind gusts. that is our big concern for the tampa bay area. especially those inland counties. rain chance 30% for thursday. 40% for high temperatures in the mid to upper 80s . overnight lows will take a bit of a dip and we will continue to see how the tropical system will play out as i mentioned beyond 5, 6, and 7-day period. but let's focus on the next 48 hours and its effects on the tampa bay area. especially inland counties and we will keep you posted g

this is video from volusia county. fortunately, nobody was hurt. but the driver lost control, but did not say exactly how or why. that driver was taken he if plan to renew your carting in the near future, you may want to budget extra time. ages computers and state agencies have become unpracticable. reporter mike vasilinda has more on the story. >> reporter: taking a number at a tax collector's office does not guarantee you speedy service when you renew your license or vehicle tag. a server has been crashing putting motorists and clerks into limbo. >> it can come back on. and five hours. >> reporter: when it works it works. >> ten minutes maybe? >> reporter: tax collector doris malloy says the crashes are happening with more frequency. >> we have known for years they have an outdated system. they are very sorry of course that will is happening. couldn't have happened at a worse time. >> reporter: and the tax collectors quick to point out this is the state's problem and not their fault. th but got worse back in april. that is when the state decided

. >>> two surfers recovering from shark bite in both britain in volusia county. the person for was bitten on his side saturday evening at new smyrna beach. the next bite took place on sunday and the shark bit is neither surfer wanted to go to the hospital for treatment and should be okay. and out-of-control car led -- made a big hole in the side of a retirement home. it crashed in lantana over the weekend and no one was hurt because no one was home but one person in the vehicle was taken to the hospital. police are looking into what made it lose control. >>> is born with the zika virus face the risk of several brain abnormalities and not just microcephaly. a study of 11 infants shows that microcephaly or small head size was only one sign of neurological damage from the disease. brain damage was found in all the newborns including abnormalities with cerebral fluid, brain folds and their head size. >>> a south florida botanical garden has been millions and that's because they are of mosquitoes. they can track water in the center at the core and over the weekend gro

> that's noted especially with high tide just a few hours away from now and, lauren, you there in volusia county, how have things changed? >> reporter: i can tell you the winds have really picked up. they have become very gusty. walking out by the water it became a lot more uncertain than it was earlier where it felt safe. now it feels like the wind has picked up a lot of power and rain is pelling you with that sideways rain which is a change from earlier and, of course, the power is out where we are. wow, lauren lyster in new smyrna beach, thank you for that. >> 77 miles south of where lauren is ginger zee is hunkered down and spent the night in melbourne, florida. what are conditions like there? >> reporter: conditions here are sounding a lot more like a tropical storm/hurricane. we've had hurricane-force winds north of us, 74 and now 79 miles per hour in melbourne the airport reporting 63-mile-per-hour gusts. the outer wall is 20 miles. the inner about 30 and that's going to make all the difference as we've been saying this whole storm running parallel to the shore is one thing, once t

and that's noted especiallyith high tide just a few hours away from now, and, lauren, you there in volusia county, how have things changed? >> reporter: i can tell you that they have become very gusty. when i was walking out by the water, it became a lot more uncertain than it was earlier where it felt very safe. now it definitely feels like the wind has picked up a lot of power and the rain is pelting you with that sideways rain which is a change from earlier and, of course, the power is out where we are. >> all right. >> wow, lauren lyster in new smyrna beach. lauren, thanks so much for that. >>> okay, so 77 miles south of where lauren is, abc's chief meteorologist ginger zee is ginger, what are conditions like there? >> reporter: conditions here are sounding a lot more like a tropical storm/hurricane. we've had hurricane-force winds just north of us to 74 and now 79 miles per hour. right here in melbourne, the airport reporting 63-mile-per-hour gusts. that outer wall, because there really are kind of outer wall and inner walls, the outer wall going to make all the difference as we've be

we would have evacuated but my wife is one of the directors of volusia county overseeing a couple of shelters so were gonna hunker down and stay with it and do what we gotta do.")) ((sharie johnson)) >> more than 200- thousand people are currently without power in florida. state of emergency in florida, georgia, and south carolina. /// ((sherry swensk)) >>> hurricane hunters are working around the clock.. to figure out the track hurricane matthew will take as it moves along the east coast. this is video taken from inside the plane the hurricane hunters were flying. they flew into the storm when matthew was a category four the clouds... and it just clears up... because they flew right into the eye. probes are then dropped to figure out the hurricane's structure and movement... giving scientists the data they need to forecast where the storm will head next. /// ((kirsten joyce)) >>> right now.. we want to get a check on your forecast. ((brian loftus)) >> hi sherry, how's the weather looking today? ((sherry swensk)) so much rain and wind continues to roll up the east coast... just about

volusia county residents can still get a replacement ballot mailed to them if the original was damaged. all they have to do is call the supervisor of elections. from the outside... this house looks like a regular family home ready for halloween... but new this morning... new port richey police say it was full of drugs. they served a search warrant there yesterday... it's on montana avenue. police say they found more than 2- thousand-dollars in cash... an xanax. as well as things like unused baggies, digital scales, and other paraphernalia. william napolitano and angelina ekdahl were both arrested. at least one person is dead... and 5 others injured... after a construction scaffolding collapse in downtown miami. a section of the framework fell from the top of this 50-story high-rise. fire rescue says the man who died was a bystander. he had a heart attack while trying to debris also landed on a car... sending the woman inside to the hospital. 2 construction workers were also hospitalized. 2 others were treated at the scene. the accident is still under investigation. a good day good deed

we have hurricane watches, melissa, up brevard, volusia county line in florida.he track of the storm looks like it will hug the u.s. coastline, the eastern seaboard for about five days. almost anybody not safe from the north of miami all the way up to parts of new england will be watching this. you see center of the track, this is the best guess where it goes at this point. if it tracks farther to the west, much bigger impacts. if it stays 100 miles offshore, less impacts. tropical storm force winds, maybe hurricane force wind across northern florida into georgia and into the carolinas. we may or may not see a landfall for this. you get idea. we have a long time to go. if it makes landfall as major hurricane, then we have huge problems with the storm surge. if it just hugs this line, we have major problems with beach erosion and rain for pretty much everybody across the eastern seaboard. a lot of flooding certainly whether we have storm surge situation, remains to be seen if we get landfall. everybody on the eastern seaboard needs to watch it. melissa: wow. we'll

the volusia county sheriff's office says steve was cutting a tree on the ground, when a largd piece of it rolled on top ofce him, killing him. o his suf itdden death comes as ae shock to his sons 12 year old his sudden deaths a hugegehua. like a lot of people, he hadd some issues in his past and hese was trying to make things right, trying to get his life on track and do what he needed to do to be a good father. get his jennifer says several years agov steven traveled to virginia to help with storm cleanup there. thousands of fans will pack progressive field for the alcsis opener against toronto on friday, as tickets have sold out. the indians put what was available online yesterday, and they were gone in minutes. fans looking to go will need to try ticket brokers, like amazing tickets. brokers admit seats won't be cheap. ine yeheinnutes.go will game one is friday night at 8. game two is saturday, but the time is still to be determined. game tickets weren't cheap. not at all. how about this one.r. picture of hosts with a burning river that read welcome to cleveland after the indian's s

let's check in with abc news' lauren lyster in volusia county, florida. >> hurricane matthew barreling towards florida the brutal conditions intensifying as the eye of the storm taunts coastal cities. overnight, violent winds along the beaches, gusts clocking in places. the storm bringing the look and sound of fireworks in the form of downed power lines, thousands facing outages, officials fearing up to three million may end up in the dark. the national weather service saying matthew will be devastating. florida's governor making this dire warning. >> unfortunately this is going to kill people. >> already it has, matthew taking the lives of more than a 100 people as it swept through haiti. the death toll there skyrocketing as the floodwaters recede and matthew battering the bahamas before heading for florida. residents thursday preparing, filling up those final sandbags, stores are boarded up, their shelves bare. more then three million people urged to evacuate here and in the carolinas. some refusing to go, but many getting out clogging the highways for miles while nearly 4,000 flight

right now in the last hour we have had some of the strongest weather in volusia county.e receiving numerous calls for transforms and power lines down. as the conditions continue to deteriorate, we are urging people to -- this is not the time to leave your homes. because we are in the thick of it right now. bill: can you see outside? and if so, what do the winds look like? is there any standing water in your area? >> i'm at the emergency operations center in daytona beach. so, yes, the wind's blowing and the trees are swaying but we are obviously in a center secure facility. so no i'm not seeing standing water. but we have had some pictures of our coastline area, and the water is coming up, and it's getting higher and high tide is coming in a couple hours. so it's -- we are concerned about the storm surge. we are at the point where the ambulances, police and fire services are not able to respond to calls in the county, especially the south end of our county. if we have a life-threatening situation we'll do our best to get to people and we actually had an instance where we

forecast project 3 to 5 feet from north palm beach to the flagler volusia county line. >> rip currents, beach erosion. tornadoes. and hurricane force winds. even if the storm remains off shore, tropical storm force winds will extend into our state. as of now wind strength is our the probability of high wind speeds has continued to increase a forecast develops. >> the probability for hurricane streak winds continues to increase. but again, this could quickly change and become much worse. these are all projections. we must prepare to be hit by a devastating hurricane. remember, these are simply projections. >>> hurricane warning are in effect from north god enbeach and miami-dade could is a basilica yan inlet in county and lake okeechobee. there's currently hurricane watch in sebastian and nassau county. there's a tropical storm warning in effect for and collier county to golden beach. florida keys from 7 mile bridge eastward and florida bay. >> this is a dangerous storm. and is never too early to evacuate. it is never too early to on island area prone to flooding you need to consider ma

we're still feeling 60-mile-per- hour wind in parts of volusia county where i'm standing. the good news is this hurricane apparently is not going to have the catastrophic impact initially feared. one side of that, for instance, the power is that maybe by now we wouldn't have power but, of course, obviously we do. there is a curfew in effect by this county that started last -- will go on until saturday morning. 3800 people are in shelters. by and large people did heed the mandatory order to evacuate. i did run into some hold-outs, people that were going to ride out the storm in their homes. they thought they would roll right now, everything appears pretty good. people have their fingers crossed the storm will stay off shore and spare the east coast of florida, which is what everybody here wants. gayle? >> a little bit of good news. thank you. loni quinn of w cbs is here to show us where it's heading in the next few hours. lonnie, what's the latest? >> let's take a peek of the satellite image because i want to dovetail what mark said, keeping their fingers crossed it stays o

officials say volusia county is the hardest hit by power failures.ry evacuation order for the 3000 people who live on the tiny island of georgia. hundreds of people have decided to ride out the storm. most of them left on wednesday, some of them hit the road at the last minute this morning. rail service at the hoboken, new jersey transit station will resume next week. a portion of the terminal will reopen in time for monday morning. investigators say the train last week that crashed was traveling at twice the speed limit, killing one woman and injuring more than 100 others. president obama has issued an executive order, officially lifting u.s. economic sanctions on myamnar. the white house says it has shown considerable progress establishing democracy. the move is expected to benefit myanmar's economy by stimulating growth to small business. global news 24 hours a day powered by more than 2600 journalists and analysts in over 120 countries. i'm mark crumpton. back to you. scarlet: thank you. let's get a recap of today's market action. u.s. stocks fli

now we're learning that rain and wind damaged more than 1,500 mail-in ballots in volusia county. many now soaked, torn and tattered and possibly unable to be read by a voting machi. replace it. officials sending them out to anyone who requests one. >>> we're learning surveillance video could help investigators as they determine how a polk county prisoner, david ross, was able to escape from a work detail. >> in the process he took a corrections officer hostage. abc action news reporter rodney dunigan live at mosaic park in bartow where this all happened. >> reporter: four other prisoners in fact. the police chief in bartow tells us that when the prisoners were finally able to escape they were able to call for help. >> they went to a young lady had her car and having lunch and told her what happened and call police. that's what happened and that's who called us. >> the police chief says noon yesterday david ross was on a work detail near shank on corrections officer jeffrey wexroad, locked up four other police officers into a room at the park. stole a city truck and drove to pinel

volusia county beach patrol officers are keeping a close eye on hurricane matthew and red flags are >>> the beach patrol is watching matthew the red flying. lifeguards are warning swimmers of currents as it moves north. confidentials -- officials are taking down stands and packing up anything they don't need for the next few days. beach patrol expecting surf conditions to be rough thursday and friday. the important thing now we're doing is monitoring the storm closely, communicating with the emergency operation center. they're giving us updates three times a day on what is going on about securing assets in 12 hours. >> and paul said people along the coast can expect heavy surf and maybe beech erosion. >>> matthew forces some cruise lines to make changes. and we see some of the last-minute moves ahead of the storm. >> reporter: traveling 4000-miles from brazil, this family of 7 could not believe that the disney cruise they purchased was going to mexico instead. >> we have not heard about it nothing. >> have you heard about hurricane matthew? >> no. >> matthew's presence was heard about

in particular is tony leadbetter, volusia county republican party chair that is daytona beach.ey have succeeded in switching counties that voters to vote republican. >> there is a shadow vote out there. many, many people. if you're registered to to vote the last year, the pollsters can't find you and these new people coming on board will vote for one person. that's donald jay trump. reporter: the votes are up for grabs in neither donald trump or hillary clinton can ignore this day. back to you. lauren: know they can't. adam shapiro, thank you. true to the cleveland indians take the cleveland indian tickets region that they've made against toronto blue jays. the little blood, sweat and tears. we'll explain that to you. we will have the highlights. and then there's this. >> i don't see any promotions for the last eight years. >> honestly there wasn't a lot of room for dancing in my last job. nicole: stephen colbert giving president obama little of my little of ice on his upcoming job search. u.s. stock market futures this morning. earnings, housing numbers coming out this week. d