. breaking news this morning. hermine has been downgraded to a tropical storm in the past 30 minutes or so. it made land fall as a category one hurricane in the florida panhandle overnight but you can see the system is huge. the rain and wind in the bay and it will throughout the day. and in levy county, look at this. this is what it looks like in cedar key. many roads are flooded there. you can see the water right at the doorsteps of many homes. and take a look here at clearwater beach earlier this morning. reports there of lots of street flooding near the beach. good morning. welcome to news channel 8 today. i'm gene ramirez. >> and i'm gayle guyardo. we do have team coverage for you this morning with crews all over the place.

tracking hermine. and jamel lanee' live in clearwater beach. ryan hughes in cedar key. and ed bloodsworth is in tampa monitoring the conditions for us this morning. >> yeah, you mentioned it, gayle, a huge system. this extends from north carolina on the north side to the central gulf of mexico. and we are stuck in the middle as the system did make land fall at 1:30 with 80 miles per hour winds, making it a category one hurricane near st. line there. but so significant that it made land fall as a category one hurricane. believe it or not, it's been 11 years since florida has seen a land falling category one hurricane or larger. so very, very unusual to have gone that long. but now we have what is left of this system affecting the tampa bay area. we have been inundated with rain over the last two days. so the ground is saturated but with this rain band, whipping around, this center of

this point, the tropical storm warnings continue for our coastline. and that means we could feel tropical storm-force winds embedded in this rain band. and also in the rain band, we have the risk of for tornadoes so the tornado watch for citrus, hernando, pasco, pinellas and hillsborough. and we will continue until 9:00 this morning along with the flood watch throughout the day. you see the places seeing rain will continue to see rain. that's why it's called a train of rain. starts back here and just runs if it's on a train track. drier conditions to the north. the northern areas had more overnight. and now the rain band has pushed to the south, north of i- 4. new port richey, boy, it's been rough there. just starting to see more rain again. downtown tampa getting rain. zephyrhills, polk city, brooksville, crystal river dry for the moment.

have flooding conditions and that continues into bradenton. this is new port richey, a live look here from the hyundai of new port richey. 2inches of rain this morning so far. i have seen the rain blowing sideways at times too. the winds are not quite as strong. let me show you the winds, out of the southwest 20 miles per hour in tampa. 18 in brandon. and we have individual wind gusts up to 30 miles per hour. and meteorologist ed bloodsworth up on the roof of wfla to talk about what the winds can do to on the water. >> reporter: that could be the big concern into the next 24 hour, the additional high tide cycles that we have this afternoon. as you mentioned, we are here on the roof of the news center. and i want to show you along the hillsborough river, running very high. and looking across the street, along that stretch of the riverwalk, and that parking lot associated with the sheraton there downtown is completely under water. and we are expecting the hillsborough river along with

remain high. just a few minutes from now, crystal river, your next high tide. and another one at 5:45 this afternoon. and hudson, your next high tide comes up at 2:15 this afternoon. right around just after lunchtime there in clearwater beach for your next rise. st.pete at 3:19. and bay shore will likely see roadway later today as that high tide comes in at 3:28. and then looking at port manatee, anna maria and sarasota and venice high tides into this afternoon. so a busy day tracking these rising waters. and again, that's going to impact the roads locally. let's throw it over to leslee. instead of the riverwalk, you can say it's the river swim right now, ed. look what's going on. a big problem southbound 275,

boulevard. a look at it, the jackknifed is semi-truck. and we have just one right lane that is squeezing by. and that's what is causing the back-up. moving to the other camera, you can see actually see how it's slow and go approaching this crash. that's where it's at at the map. take florida instead or nebraska. bay shore boulevard closed from bay to bay to plat street. and we've got reported issues of flooding in channelside around florida halve and manhattan in the northbound gandy boulevard. take dale mabry instead. and a quick reminder, access is restricted to shore acres and snell island. and also flooding on u.s. 19 at ranch road. and that's a look at weather and traffic. and now back to gene and gayle. >> all right. thank you. for a second day, tropical storm hermine is forcing the closure of hundreds of schools in the bay area. a look at the schools closed today. hillsborough, pasco, pinellas, hernando, citrus and manatee counties canceled classes.

september 6th after labor day. >> and also this morning, all usf campus locations this the bay area are closed, nova southeastern and stetson university canceled for the day. pasco hernando state college, new college and florida state and the university of florida. you can find a complete list on our website, wfla.com. all right, well, we have been checking in. across the bay area. and right now, we're going to meredyth censullo. >> yeah, she is in hudson where they have been seeing a lot of flooding there. and you are inside a home that has seen extensive flooding. >> reporter: these poor people, they just moved here from ohio. and they're dealing with this. literally their stuff is still in boxes. i want to show you the water line. this comes up about a foot in the garage. and this is what happened, it was about 11:00 last night and all the water just started

area. filled up their garage. you can still see the water marks on the boxes. and then we hit high tide. about 2:15 this morning. that sent even more water in this time from the canal at the back of their home. they have been up all night trying to deal with this. and i want to move into the garage and dave can show you. they somebody is coming over to try to suck some of the water out. and another concern, we have a gentleman on oxygen here. they're really worried about him. and you can see they have elevated some of the oxygen tanks off the floor. they tried to spare their lawnmower here. they have pushed that up. but half the stuff that's on the floor here, it is ruined. and you have water marks on the furniture. they did put sandbags out front but it didn't do much good. they're going to be okay though.

another update in about 30 minutes. >> we always think about the damage to possibly the walls and floors but we don't think about medical equipment and other things affected. >> yeah, people's live cans be turned upside down. and now cedar key took the brunt of then hurricane hermine when it moved through the area. i know we have ryan hughes there live all morning long. >> ryan, good morning. >> reporter: guys, good morning to you the rain has subsided here on cedar key. but look at how bad the winds are. look at the trees just whipping in the winds. this has been the case all morning long. it really is a terrible situation because the winds, as strong as they are, they are throwing things over the roadway including barriers. you see one that's down. and another one right there. but on the other side, a little bit down the area there is a motel where we stayed

to the first floor. so a really dangerous situation there. they hope that things certainly don't get worse but again the rain has subsided at this point. let's go to video right now. when this storm was really at the worst, you can see the heavy rain, the wind whipping. it was really nasty for hours. probably from 8:00 until midnight and then from 1:00 until 2:00 and the rain has stopped since then. we are told by local emergency manage. of number of evacuations here. some people decided to remain because their homes are located on higher ground. and they have just been looking for any sort of damage. but luckily, these homes are fine right here. again, guys, the wind is the main concern at this point. and eoc said they'll be out here in the morning to assess the damage and they expect it to be pretty bad in parts. back to you. >> okay, ryan hughes reporting live. and we have been receiving emails from officials too. i know gayle that in cedar key,

the sun comes up and searching some of the homes to make sure nobody is trapped inside. they don't think so. they don't have any reports but doing it as a precaution. and hopefully that's not the case. >> right. and i'm sure a lot of folks without power. tropical storm hermine is knocking out power throughout the bay area. here's a look at outage map from duke power in pinellas and pasco counties. the triangles indicate areas where customers are without electricity this morning. and right now, in pinellas pasco counties, alone, duke is reporting, listen to this, close 20,000 outages. a lot of folks without power. tampa electric is reporting more than 18,000 customers are without power right now. >> and that's just over the past couple hours or so. because not too long ago, we were seeing 1 is thousand and now up to 18,000. so we will continue to keep an eye on that. and of course, our continuing coverage of tropical storm hermine continues.

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a live look from the hyundai of new port has been inundated with heavy rounds of rain. so far this morning since midnight, south winds at about 28 miles per hour. this is also associated with a tornado watch. citrus, hernando, pasco, pinellas, hillsborough, that watch goes until 8:00 a.m. because of the feeder band or the rain band that wraps around what is now tropical storm hermine. and it's bringing tropical downpours. there's the live picture, all

plenty of lightning unfortunately. we are getting a lot of lightning strikes northern portion of polk county, east of polk county into orange county, a severe thunderstorm warning. lakeland, auburndale, fish hawk, you're getting rain. but look at this in the gulf of mexico, there's the tropical storm center. look at this wrapping right through the area and all of this will continue to wrap through on top of the rain we have seen the past three days. country side came in at the top of the list with almost 2 feet of rain. seminole, 10 inches. longboat key, 8.5. about 7.5 in oldsmar. the ground is saturated. so that especially during the high tides, although even the low tides are higher than average. you add more rain to that and flooding is going to be an issue all day "today." and look at the rainfall potential between now and later this afternoon and evening. now you kind of look at the legend and you see the general

a red color, that's at least 3 inches of rain. and most of that will be along and north of i-4. where you will get a 3-inch total. even places to the south, southern polk county, sarasota, manatee county, you could see 1 to 2 more inches of rain. and saturated ground, onshore wind which is going to the keep the rain from draining. and now hermine itself will continue to weaken as it moves through georgia. but it's still going to be a tropical storm by the ti for us, we have the high tides and blooded up on the roof is talking about the high tides as well. they come this afternoon between lunchtime and 3:00 p.m. higher than normal ties, tropical moisture still coming down and a saturated ground. flooding will continue to be an issue. by the weekend, i know it was a long labor day weekend. i expect still expect thunderstorms to develop through saturday but it's going

labor day. so we just got to get through today and get better on saturdayer and continuing to improve our weather sunday into monday. and now i wish we could improve the roads right now. we will check in now with leslee lacey with traffic. well, we have one lane getting by. this is southbound 275. looking at is a jackknifed big rig. they are trying to clear it from the roadways. but we have a back-up between busch and bird, just the right lane squeezing by. i will move to the other camera so you can see th away from fouler is where you start to hit -- from fowler is where you start to hit the brakes. i suggest nebraska or florida instead of 275 through the area. bay shore boulevard remains closed due to the wet weather and the potential for flooding between plat and bay to bay. that's where the closure is at. and word of a lot of water here in the northbound lanes on manhattan between macdill air force base up to gandy

and shore acres and snell island that we're seeing flooding now. access has been restricted to those areas. also heading down of course, that sunshine skyway bridge remains closed so you have to take 275 to loop around. hopefully you're say staying at home instead. and let's take a quick look here, this is northbound i-75 at state road 70. that has cleared up. that's good news. it was closed down. and getting reports of flooding out on u.s. 19 at ranch road. now this is a intersection. again, 19 at ranch road. very flooded. that car should not be out there. and i want to thank the pasco county sheriff's department for tweeting this to me. back to gene and gayle. >> thank you, leslee. well, tropical storm hermine made land fall in the panhandle and the bay area, we are really feeling the impact. >> yeah, most of us seeing flooding in many of our communities. those rain bands moved through the area and that created the water coming up on our streets

cases, our homes. clearwater beach is one of the areas experiencing flooding. and jamel lanee' is there live. throughout the morning, we have seen it windy and rainy. what's happening now? >> reporter: okay, good morning gene and gayle. yeah, that's a testament to how strong this wind is right now. as you can see, it was a little bit calmer before. obviously a lot of lightning out here. and now also very windy within the last minute or we've seen the beach water, just tall water coming on to the sidewalk. clearwater police are on the other side of the peer right now making sure that no one is out here. even though the pier worker just showed 7, he is going to open the doors. again, dangerous situation out here. just very ndy and not a od time tbe out here. the rain has slowed down right now yocan tell, the wind not a good situation. inside. end it back tou >> all right. thank you so much.

in, the conditions change by the minute. these bands move through, it really kicks off. >> and they're opening up the pier. that's one place you don't want to be with water coming up there or the wind pushing somebody off. >> the lookie loos always come out. >> be careful. our continuing coverage of tropical storm hermine continues. >> and we leave you with a live look of downtown tampa. looking soggy the hillsborough river pretty high right now, the water level there. we will have more on all this and more coming up as we continue to cover tropical storm hermine on a wet and

still dark outside but people in east county, they are wait for daylight to see how much damage that tropical storm hermine caused. take a look. this say large tree that fell on to several cars and mobile memos in valrico. this-- mobile homes in valrico. residents saying it was raining very hard when out of nowhere, things got crazy. >> the ceiling and the walls started shaking it and it

ro was over. >> and we're looking out and watching and we watched the tree hit our next door neighbor's trailer and go through it. >> one family was trapped inside their home. fortunately for them, neighbors helped them get out. no one was hurt. love to hear when the communities come together like this of course. when the sunrises, the residents are to get a better idea of how much damage there but you can pushed it is pretty bad. leigh, what's the latest? >> even though the center of circulation is to the north, the rain bands coming through, we have the threat for tornadoes and then still heavy rain. i wanted to show you where tropical storm hermine is

then finally back into the atlantic ocean as it weakens. our eight-day forecast shows it will be a rainy day today and tomorrow. sunday though we start to dry things out and labor day looking good, leslee. i wish traffic was lookinha getting by, southbound 275, this accident away from busch. and it's got you backed up to about fowler. and let's look again at the back-up here. this is due to the a jackknifed big rig. bearss avenue minute commute. if you don't want to sit in the back-up, take nebraska instead. it's not too bad at this point. and also quick reminder, bay shore boulevard closed down here between plat and bay to bay. also seeing flooding in the northbound lanes of manhattan from the base up to gandy boulevard. and also moving over here, just reminting you, access is restricted to shore achers and snell island. a lot of flooding in the area.

and the sunshine skyway bridge is still closed. not good news here. instead of the sunshine skyway bridge, take i-75. make your way around. but hopefully you will just stay at home and not get out into this nasty weather out there. all right, let's take a look here. travel times elsewhere, we have a good drive on the howard frankland bridge and the courtney campbell causeway, both up to speed. let's go ahead and i want to remind you about, excuse me, pasco county sheriff tweeted out a it's at u.s. 19 and ranch road. that's up in pasco county. a lot of flooding in that area. and also around channelside, in downtown tampa. seeing flooding there. and we showed pictures of the riverwalk. probably can call it the swim walk. but we have some flooding there. so keep that in mind. this is u.s. 19 at ranch road. you can't get by. remember, turn around, don't drown. not only is it unsafe to do but you don't want to ruin your

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breaking news this morning, hermine has been downgraded to a tropical storm. it made land fall as a category one hurricane in the florida panhandle overnight but the rain and wind in the bay area continues this morning and will throughout the day. and this is things are really bad there this morning. this cedar key. many roads are flooded and you can see the water right at the doorsteps of many homes there. >> yeah, a lot of wind there too. and look at this image here from clearwater beach this morning. a lot of rain falling there, wind flowing and we are getting reports of flooded streets near the beach. thank you for joining us on this wet and windy friday morning. i'm gene ramirez. >> and i'm gayle guyardo.