News channel 8s Meredyth Censullo is in pasco county. Jamel lanee in Pinellas County. And our ryan hughes in Sarasota County this morning. We want to start with leigh to get the latest from the tampa studios on the storm. Its still a Tropical Storm and still has winds of 60 Miles Per Hour. But look how big this is. This is the center of circulation and seeing rounds of rain coming in near the coastline from it. And the latest advisories remain. Hurricane panhandle and northern portion of the big bend of florida. But closer to home, a Tropical Storm warning. And that means that we could feel Tropical Stormforce wind speeds in citrus, hernando and pasco within 36 hours. Heres the latest forecast. 60Miles Per Hour sustained winds. One big change, picking up forward speed finally. Yesterday, it was basically stationary and now its moving north, northeast at 12 Miles Per Hour. This afternoon, 65 Miles Per Hour winds, getting stronger. After midnight, it could strength on the a category one hurricane coming onshore in the panhandle west of the big bend and then through georgia and South Carolina as a Tropical Storm before finally heading back out into the atlantic ocean. The Hurricane Hunters left just after midnight and they found a flight level wind speed of 75 Miles Per Hour. Making a big turn and coming back through the system. This is how we get the information for the computer models and. We believe, you see this big area Tropical Stormforce winds. And notice the forecast stays off the coast today. But with the counterclockwise winds, what its going to do is pile up water in places like the coastline and into tampa bay and some of the rivers which means the rain doesnt have anywhere to go. And then tonight when the wind becomes an issue, we see stronger wind, possibly even Tropical Stormforce up around citrus and hernando counties but we remain under the flood watch. Light rain now, more rain offshore. Our meteorologist Ed Bloodsworth joins me to talk now. Well, as you mentioned, with the piling of water, you tack on a high tide to that and thats going to be the big issue. That of course with some additional rainfall with the flood watch in effect. In fact, yesterday record rainfall. Daily rainfall for many of the locations. Tampa International Airport just over 4 inches. 5inches officially at st. Pete airport. And Pinellas County got more than that. And sarasota, bradenton, picking up 7. 75 inches of rain in just a 24hour period but as i mentioned, today now the focus turned more toward the high tides with more of that onshore flow. So the high tide times, just after noon there at clearwater beach, just after 1 00 on st. Pete beach, that high tide is likely going to be enhanced by the piling of water. So coastal flooding and beach erosion. Not only an issue for today but likely the next couple days with the continuing onshore flow. High tide in sarasota just images like this. Seeing those piers disappear. Thanks in part to the rain yesterday. Davis island, that picture. And we wanted to show you here, one good reminder on a day like this, turn around, dont drown. If you come across a flooded road, find another way to get where youre going. And you want to be safe and smart in conditions like this. Speaking of the roads, got to check on that with leslee. Thank you. Thank you, ed. And you dont want damage your car. Thats another reason not to go through flooded roadways. St. Pete right now, we look great on the roadways. Not seeing delays. The 175 to the Howard Frankland bridge, an eight minute commute. And 275 bearss avenue to i4, looking at 10 minutes here. And lets take a live look at the fishing pier by the can Sunshine Skyway bridge. Nice drive between pinellas and manatee counties. No delays. Thats a look at weather and traffic. Back to gene and gayle. Thank you, leslee. Morning. Six Bay Area School districts are closed today due to Tropical Storm hermine. They are hillsborough, pinellas, pasco, hernando, citrus and manatee public schools. Hillsborough district offices are also closed. All usf campuses are closed. Hillsborough Community College campuses and st. Leo university closed. And also closed, Western Michigan University tampa bay and Pasco Hernando state college. And we continue our coge hermine with a hospital evacuation happening in the middle of the storm. More than 200 patients including 12 on ventilators had to be moved after a fire knocked out the power. That had to be a scary situation. At this hour, Regional MedicalCenter Bayonet Point is not fully operational. News channel 8s Meredyth Censullo is live at Regional MedicalCenter Bayonet Point in hudson. How are hospital operations at much happening. Primary power has been restored. But they cant do much with that right now. Surgeries for today have been canceled. All of those patients though were notified about that last night. 43 patients in total were taken to the brooksville hospital. Those out of about 200 patients that had to be moved overnight. The other patients were taken to other local hospitals. Some of them have discharged. 12 critical patients were the first to be moved. Those were the patients that were on ventilators, in the icu, all of them accompanied by a physician or a nurse. Crews from five counties helped to move those patients. And that move lasted until 1 00 this morning. This all stemming from an electric fire started in the generator room around 6 00. Bayonet point did not have enough backup power to operate to go ahead and get the patients out. Now gayle, right now, no word on when any of those patients will be moved back to the hospital. There is a phone number set up for family members, if theyre concerned about those who are hospitalized. The february none, ill give it to you now, 8773441313, option 9. Thats a lot of numbers. Dont worry, that is on the bayonet points facebook page. Scary for patients and the folks that love them. Thank you. Tropical storm hermine impacting several areas of Pinellas County. Dozens of cars stalled out in flood waters and many roads had to be closed. News channel 8s jamel lanee is live in largo. Jamel, good morning. Residents had to be evacuated from an apartment complex yesterday. You were there all day. What are you seeing there now . Reporter good morning, hours make. This water from the pond was overflowing into the streets all day yesterday. And now looks like the water has receded. But the residents that live here, they dont want to take a chance being that theres more rain on the way. And now residents say they woke up to at least 3 to 4 inches of rain in their apartments yesterday morning. Floors completely destroyed from the pond that sits behind the back of the units. And heavy rain caused the pond to overflow into homes and the streets and it continued on for hours. Residents grabbed whaty and now others walked around and surveyed the damage. Many who stayed behind the ponds say this is not new. Every time heavy rain, there is heavy rain, the pond overflows and residents believe at one point, the city did fix this. You know, we are at the low end of the complex. The topography of the land slopes this way. They have made attempts to keep it clear but when we get a big storm in a short period of we end up flooding. Reporter now the residents we spoke to, they do have Flood Insurance so they werent too worried about getting the items replaced but just a headache to know you have to eventually cleanup but you dont know when. Yeah, i know some are probably tempted to start cleaning up now but more rain coming our way. Thank you. And lets get a check on the weather with leigh. Yeah, good morning. Still watching Tropical Storm hermine in the gulf of mexico. And thankfully we had break in the rain. Some of the street flooding could subside even though i expect more to come. And look how huge the storm is. The flood watch continues for those green shaded areas. Rain is just off our coast. And its going to continue to rotate on. And just light rain happening in manatee and sarasota right now. But more certainly on the way. And we told you this equation before, we will show it again. Problems. Now as far as the wind threats, obviously rough surf today, high risk of rip currents. Gusty winds which not necessarily super strong wind but with the saturated ground, even the enhanced wind speed could bring down trees and isolated tornadoes a threat. Yesterday we had consistent rain. And today i think its going to be rounds of rain between now and about 2 00 this afternoon could mean an inch to two more inches of rain and then add fridays offandon inches of rain and flooding will be a threeday event this time. We will check with traffic on the 8s because we know that at least now we are seeing better conditions. Yes, much better. And we have a good drive. We dont have major issues that are going to slow you down. Traffic looks good. Especially on the bay area interstates. You might see left over puddling on the roadways on the surface streets. Aside from that, we have a good drive right now. Veterans expressway, ehrlich to 275, roughly an eight minute commute there. And heres a live look, i75 at hillsborough avenue, a good drive here. And taking a quick look at more travel times through gibsonton and sarasota on 75, 301 to bruce b down, 14 minutes. And st. Pete, the 175 to the Howard Frankland bridge, eight minutes and. A great drive on 75 in sarasota. Back to gene and gayle. All right. Thank you so much. Our Team Coverage continues in sara where some residents are out of their homes this morning as water from the Whitaker Bayou crept a little too close for comfort. News channel 8s ryan hughes is live along the bayou this morning. Ryan, whats the level like right now. Reporter good morning once again. We are not far from tamiami trail on a dock over the buy take a look. You can see the water is probably two feet from the dock and roughly two feet from the top of the retaining wall behind me. So significantly different than last night at 11 00 p. M. When it really looked ominous out here. And at that hour, people were getting out of their homes as quickly as they could. Listen here. Is it under water . No, its coming in now. Youre all right though . Yes, im fine. Nice officers to come and get you . Very nice. Reporter shes fine. Thats good news. Lets hope it judy, lucky to get out as the water got close the to her home. Now the rain at this point, it has stopped for now and the water has gone down in many places. Yesterday afternoon, streets were flooded and some drivers went right into thed streets, into the flooded streets, only to get caught there. Dont be fooled though, its likely to start again here in the next few hours. Yeah, at least theyre thank you. This morning, be sure to check out our free news channel 8 app before you hit 2 road app before you hit the road. He says he will make mexico pay for a border wall. Trump isnt backing down. Coming up, the latest on trumps trip to mexico city and now at havertys furniture, its our labor day sale. Where you can create the perfect home. From now until september 5th, youll find huge savings on stylish pieces. Get free delivery, plus an extra hundreddollars off every thousanddollars you spend. Can be perfect, even when life isnt. Mom . Have you see my iguana . The labor day sale is on now, at havertys. Clearwater police want to you look at this video. You see a woman who casually sets a mans car on fire and then just walks away. Look. You can see her feeding the flames as fire engulfs the trunk of the car. This happened sunday morning but police just released this video. If you know who she is, call from deputies wednesday morning is now back in custody. He turned himself in at the Tampa Police District one station last night. Still wearing handcuffs. He has been transported to the jail where he now faces several charges including escape, resisting a Police Officer and drug possession. In your vote, strong words from republican president ial nominee donald trump during his speech on immigration. Trump delivered the immigration policy speech in phoenix after he met with mexican president enri the day. Trump reiterated previous statements about building a wall along the mexican boarder and says that mexico will pay for it. On day one, we will begin working on an impenetratable, tall, powerful, beautiful southern border wall. [ applause ] we will use the thats the tunnels remember that. Above and below. In a tweet, mexicosment insist he made it clear to trump that mexico will not pay for the wall. Still, both mexicos president insisted that he made it clear thank goodness to trump that mexico will not pay for the wall. Hillary Rodham Clinton was in cincinnati wednesday night and declined to meet with and she dismissed trumps trip as a photo op. She told the crowd that trump has tossed insults at mexico for a year and that cannot be fixed by a short visit. The time right now is sneak up on 5 48. A lot to talk about weather wise. Even though its not raining now, its coming. Thats right. We had obviously a saturated ground yesterday. Everything we have shown has lead to quick street flooding and possibly coastal flooding. The flood watch goes through friday evening. Im watching a couple thunderstorms off the sarasota and manatee coastline. Theres the potential to have water spouts and this is going to be the case all day. The rotating rounds of rain, isolated tornadoes not out of the question, including a water spout that comes onshore. Just something im watching and we will let you know if anything happens just spotty rain this morning. Boy, thats good news for a reprieve. But scattered showers and thunderstorms, winds increasing during the day today, 81 degrees at noon. And 80 chance of showers and thunderstorms by the end of the afternoon. And again, the risk for high surf advisories and high risk of rip currents, going to be a rougher day as far as the winds are concerned. Watch the forecast here. Again, everything moving in the count clockwise fashion. Any rain that pushes onshore, totals inland. Again, if you think about the backwards of a clock, moving like this around Tropical Storm hermine in the gulf of mexico. So again, it wont rain on you all day like yesterday but the rounds will continue. Theres the counterclockwise fashion around it as it heads toward the panhandle as possibly a category one hurricane by about midnight tonight. And if it makes land fall as a category one hurricane which it is forecast to do, it will be the first one in 11 years making land fall in florida. For , but also heavy rain tomorrow. Leslee, how about traffic . All right, well, u. S. 19 right at beckette way, in the or the pan springs area, a collision there. Be on the lookout for that. And as i focus on the interstate, 75 through palmetto, looks very good in manatee county. Thats where 275 and 75 meet together. And down to state road 70 in 70 in bradenton, about 11 minutes as well. And six minutes to cross the Howard Frankland bridge at this point. And thats a look at weather and traffic on the 8s. Back to gene and gayle. Thank you. A burger consumed so fast, you may as well just inhale it. 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You know, you dont east the rest of the day. Do it on your cheat day. Yeah. One generous boy in new jersey got a big thank you from his local police department. The 5yearold saved up his allowance and bought lunch last week for the Police Officers. They got him his own pd squad car. This is cool. Check out that and the officers hand delivered it. I would love it if it had like a speaker on there. He has to move 7. Looks like hes sitting in the backseat and thats not where you want to be in the squad car. Patrolling the neighborhood now. Well, a Hudson Hospital evacuated in the middle of a storm. Patients and in Critical Condition moved after an electrical fire at Regional MedicalCenter Bayonet Point. Right now. Its thunder sleet is downtown tampa. Looks slick out there. Weather and traffic on the 8s is just three minutes away. Hi, im Henry Winkler and im here to tell homeowners that are sixtytwo and older about a great way to live a better retirement. Its called a reverse mortgage. 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Cloudy and gusty all day today. Higher rain chances and high of 82. The roadways in Hillsborough County right now. Some debris out there on the roadway on the veterans expressway. Its southbound. Its right near waters aver. Not seeing delays here but be aware of it. Out. Good drive on 275 into downtown tampa. Courtney campbell causeway, only going to take about seven Tropical Storm hermine charging directly for the florida coast. We are seeing a break in the rain right now in some parts but much more is coming later today. We have Team Coverage this morning to show you exactly what you need to know to stay safe. All of the rain is flooding fears to grow this morning. We will show you how many close to the coast are prepare freddie gray the record worst. And a pasco county hospital forced to evacuate. More than 200 patients moved to other hospitals after a fire and power outage. We have new developments overnight including what patients relatives need to know to check on loved ones this morning. Good morning. Welcome to news channel 8 today. Im gene ramirez. And im gayle guyardo. A lot of folks are looking at the window, not seeing rain but its coming. Thats right