That the southbound lanes of the interstate have reopened. Thats where most of the accident took place. The semitruck involved flipped into this lane. We have some video to show you. At this point, according to the florida highway patrol, the wreck happened around 11 45 last night. Were told a Passenger Van was stalled in the center lane of southbound i275 with its lights off for some reason. And thats when the semitruck came down the road and slammed into the back of the van. Now the van burst into flames and were told by an fhp spokesman that the driver of the van died onscene. As a result of the crash, the semi went if the southbound lanes to the northbound lanes. It had extensive frontend damage but were told the driver of the semi was okay, not even taken to the hospital. Again, just a few minutes ago, we saw a line of traffic move were told by a trooper onscene that the northbound lanes could open in a while but at this point, she does not have specific information as to when. Leslee, back to you from here for now. Thank you, ryan. A lot of good updates there. So again, southbound lanes reopened but northbound remains closed. Its north of bearss before you get to the northern apex. So on 275 wanting to get up to pasco county, exit at bearss avenue and take bruce b downs and then up to 75. 75 looks great. This is at least a 25 minute extra commute on your drive time because there are a lot of red lights to go through. Traffic is light and then again, all those red lights are going to slow you down. So we will keep you posted throughout the morning. And i will let you know as soon as the northbound lanes reopen but they dont expect it for a while. At least some of the southbound lanes are coming open. Yeah. This morning when you step commute, its going to feel much warmer, 52 in tampa. 55 in sarasota. Heres some perspectiving for, crystal river, you are 20 degrees warmer than you were at 5 00 yesterday morning. Most of us are about 15 to 20 degrees warmer. And we will hit 73 today. So even with extra cloud, a warmer day and down to 63 tonight. Coming up on weather and traffic on the 8s at 5 08, i will talk about the hourby hour forecast for today and then when the rain comes. All right. Thank you. In other breaking news, an Early Morning fire at an assisted living facility in tampa is forcing firefighters to evacuate the building. Crews arrived at the scene early this morning to the estate at hyde park. Police tell us that a drier caught fire. Fortunately all patients in the facility did get out safely. Right now, police are largo. Two pedestrians were hit. Now at this time, theres no word on their condition. And happening today, it was the first criminal conviction of its kind. And now cup who will lied about sinkhole issues will be sentenced. This afternoon, glenn and kathryn jason. They were convicted of mortgage fraud after failing to disclose sinkhole problems when they sold their house. Not only did they know, they pocketed insurance money for the claims for the sinkholes. An armed robber is on the run this morning and detectives think he could be connected to as many as six holdups. This is the crook in action on 46th avenue north and pinellas park. With the hoodie over his head and ban dan la nia over his face, he and bandanna over his face, he demands cash. And at one point, he tries to break into a coin game using a gun. Hes hit this store three times as well as three other stores. Florida state is paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to the woman who claims she sued fsu claiming the school did not investigate her claim and even tried to cover it up. Fsu will give her 250,000 her attorneys will receive 700,000. More than 3,000 of merchandise swiped from this victorias secret in lake whales. And this morning, employees there are on edge. These four women robbed the victorias secret inside eagle ridge mall over the weekend. You can see them trying to juggle the lingerie in the video. That can happen anywhere. It can happen you could just be distracted for 30 seconds and someone could swipe something. All four women are charged with retail theft. Mall security has a standout side the store now. Well today the democratic president ial candidates will continue to crisscross the state of iowa. With the caucuses just one week away, the democratic lot to say at a town hall monday night in des moines. The race is a dead heat between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Rodham clinton with Martin Omalley a distant third. Sanders out thed his judgment referencing to his opposition to the iraq war. And clinton stressed her experience. News channel 8 will be covering the caucuses live from iowa starting later this week. We will be there to show you firsthand how the tight races are playing out in both the democratic and republican fields and explain what this means for florida and the races going forward. The time right now is 5 06. Happening today, residents in Hillsborough County are invited to try out new voting the equipment. The supervisor of elections is holding open houses to reveal the new equipment that will be used in the 2016 elections. This starts at 4 00 on gunn highway in tampa and at the Service Center on falkenburg road. The spotlight is on disney as the company deals with a Class Action Lawsuit filed in federal court here in tampa. Two former employees accuse disney of illegally hiring Foreign Workers to replace u. S. Employees. News channel 8s Lindsey Mastis has the morning alert. A lot of people are voicing their opinion on social media. Reporter this is a story getting a lot of attention on facebook this morning and some people are calling for boycotts of disney products. Disney along with two Global Consulting firms are being sued. In the suit, two employees insist they were train their foreign replacements and if they didnt, they would be denied bonuses and severance pay. More than 250 people got paid off but the newspaper says disney claims they hired more than 100 people back in other roles and the company insist they offered the two men suing different positions with similar pay. Employees is adamant that disney and the firms illegally used visas to replace American Workers with cheaper foreign labor. We will follow the story. Thank you. You can follow the morning alerts each and every day on facebook and twitter. Just search the 58 the hash hag hag 8 alert. You will the 8alert. Already in the mid to upper 50s when you step out the door this morning. We get into the 60s very quickly. 67 by your lunch break. And 73 at 3 00 p. M. Thats short sleeve weather. However, the clouds will be increasing and thats going to keep us warmer through the evening. So if youre like me and going for the gasparilla distance classic training run today, go for a morning run. As the day goes on, the clouds will increase and it will be warmer and thats going to be and thats topping our headlines for today. Tomorrow, were going to start tracking rain and strong thunderstorms. That will continue through thursday. But for the gasparilla parade, looking nice. At 5 08, lets check on traffic on the 8s. Yeah, another update. Its closed again. This is whats going on. Lets move over to the maps now. Both directions closed 275 north of bearss due to a fatal accident folks. Now originally just a few moments ago, i told you southbound reopened. What fhp did was they allowed some traffic that was stuck there to get through. And then they reclosed it. So it was temporarily open but now both directions again closed north of bearss. This is how you get around. Take bearss to bruce b downs and 75, but at least 25 minutes by the time you go through all the lights on lights on this route. On the truck. Thats the on the tow truck. That was the van mangled in the crash. A lot of cleanup, again both directions of 275 north of bearss completely shut down. Thats weather and traffic on the 8s. Back to gene and gayle. Thank you. The Florida Department of transportation wants your input on the proposed widening of u. S. 41 in Hillsborough County. The public hear willing be held tonight at 5 30 at the gardenville recreation center. The improvements include widen u. S. 41 to a sixlane divided highway for a distance of approximately seven miles. All right. Let your voice be heard. Coming up, all the travel updates you need to know about after the big east coast storm. Yeah, just how much snow one airport had to dig out of. And then, up next why one trainer claims were doing it what you need to do is coming up ahead. Youre watching news channel 8 today. In this line of work only the freshest ingredients make the cut its important to me to know every dish i serve is the best it can be. Especially for this food critic. We bake it in store every day with pride so you can serve it with some publix. Where shopping right now the blizzard may nightmare on the east coast is far from over. More than 1600 flights around the u. S. Were canceled. That doesnt count the additional backlog of departures and arrivals. Just to give you an idea of what airports are dealing with, Reagan National airport had enough snow to fill a football field. So these guys are pushing and hauling snow from sun up to sun down. At jfk in new york, Delta Airlines managers say its their biggest recovery effort since Hurricane Sandy in 2012. So dig out your patience. Airports are reporting its going to take dice coordinate getting people to their take days to coordinate getting people to their final destinations. Several whales found dead on the beach in the neglecter lands and now sign in the netherlands. Scientists believe they were looking for food in Shallow Water and then became disoriented. In rhode island and this morning the driver is seriously hurt. Police say four people were on the bus at the time when it crashed through the shop. Two of the passengers were also hurt. The two workers inside survived. Tame right now is seconds away from 5 15. And this morning time right now is seconds away from 5 00 time right now is seconds away from 5 15. If youre getting ready to run the gasparilla distance classic, youre most likely dealing with sore muscles. Did you know you can improve your running, much like your golf swing, and you do that to prevent injury and soreness. Josh benson discovered a program. Reporter are your legs sore from running . Would you believe you could be doing it all wrong . One of the number one factors in causing an injury in running is running with the wrong form. Reporter maybe you think youre a decent runner. Great injuryfree form. Doing all right . Oh, yeah. Okay. Definitely out of shape though. Reporter running is not taught. Humans run to escape threats. So the doctor in clearwater created ideal run, a Simple Program that uses science and video to show you whats wrong with your gait or manner of running. 15 seconds of video, a few squats and step downs and he says he can transform your hobbling form into injuryfree strides in no the time. I was the guinea pig. Hop up. We look at what we call the footground angle. We want it to be less than 10 degrees. Reporter 27 . Oh, boy. Well i learned i i jump when i run, my strides are learned i jump when i run, my strides are too long and my right foot sticks out like a duck. But the doctor says you will notice major improvements. Just getting people closer to an efficient Human Movement in this pattern we call running. You jumping for joy. Just dont do it when youre running. Josh benson, news channel 8. Well, if you dont fix your form, just hobble to the finish line, josh, nobodys looking at you. The Doctors Office is in clearwater but he says anyone can have their running style reviewed. All you need to do is capture about 15 seconds of video and up load it to his website. And now i can blame my running style on my form. Today the crew will break through tampas defenses and storm into city hall and demand the mayor surrender the city. The crew of gasparilla has been putting on the parade of pirates since 1904. This year theyre rolling out one of their largesand perhaps most complex floats. Its going have water that comes over the teeth and recycles back into the water falls in the interior chamber. And it will be blue water. Weve got induction fans that will blow smoke into the crowd. The mayor will meet with the captain at noon today to negotiate a peaceful surrender. Hopefully that happens. We will see. And we hope you have your pirate costume out. The adult parade kicks off in a few days and news channel 8 will carry the parade live. Its our own tradition here. Our coverage starts at 2 30. And we will stream it live on wfla. Com. So you have no excuse to not partake in the pirate activities out there. By the way, our web team has been busy compiling everything you will want to know as the pirates invade tampa. Look for the special gasparilla section on wfla. Com. Such a great time of year here in the bay area, leigh. And its also great weather its cool but comfortable most of the time. And thats the forecast i saturday. Its also pretty much the its the time in between which more dicey. For today, already 10 to 20 yesterday. 59 degrees at 8 00 a. M. And more clouds rolling in, 67 at noon. And 73 at 3 00 p. M. And 44 zephyrhills, its cool but warmer than yesterday. Whats happening, winds from the southeast thats going to push the temperatures into the 70s. More and more clouds and then overnight tonight, we could see a stray shower. This is about 9 00, 10 00. Drastically changing tomorrow. This time tomorrow we could already be seeing pockets of heavy rain and the slowmoving front is going to keep heavy rain and possibly strong storms in the forecast for wednesday. Most of thursday, but hey, we dry out for the pirates to come into down. Leslee, lets check on traffic on the 8s. Yeah, big problems today. Were going to start off on the maps here. From you passing underneath the veterans expressway. You have to come down to gunn highway. But the Biggest Issue remains on 275 in tampa. For those coming in and out of pasco county or trying to head up there, you need to step away from the microwave, bring your coffee to the suv set. Check out 2 to the tv set. Check out 275, completely closed both directions north of bearss. You can exit bearss and take bruce b downs and take 75. An extra 25 minutes through the relights. And southbound, you cant get on 75, do the opposite. Keep that in mind. And a live look. Its all due to a fatal crash where a semitruck ran into a van. Now they are in the process of clearing it up. I see a tow truck onscene. One tow truck has already left. But still a lot of cleanup out there and an investigation going on so both directions remain closed. Thats weather and traffic on the 8s. Back to gene and gayle. Thank you. Just ahead, a house fire in out of their home. What firefighters did to rescue the rest of the family. And where those family members were found. And you can connect with me with story idea, check out my facebook page. I have more of that Surveillance Video of the guy who allegedly took hector the cockatoo, he is dancing on the video. I cant get enough of that. Still looking for that guy. You like being picture perfect. You should want your banking to be too. Stop into td bank and well help set you up with picture perfect banking. New customers, open a checking and savings account and you can get a polaroid cube video camera on the spot. Having lots of devices in your home can really slow your internet down. So keep things moving with 100 fiber optic fios, the Fastest Internet and wifi available, with speeds from 50 to 500 megs. Its no wonder were ranked highest in Customer Satisfaction by jd power. Now, for 79. 99 a month online, get 50 meg fios internet, tv and phone for your first year. Or with a 2 year agreement, get go to getfios. Com or call a new line of hotels with millennials in 9 yep, hilton is set to debute tru hotels by the end of the year. Its designed with new Technology Like a social media board in the lobby. Cool. At 90 to 100 a night, the brand hopes to compete in the popular mid scale hotel category. All right, listen to this. How much do your facebook friends really like you . Well, a new Study Reveals only four of all those facebook friends are part of your support circle. So what does that el nio it means they would be thering for in times that mean . Well, it means that they would be thering for in times of crisis be there for you in times of crisis. I buy into that. Might want to start deleting some people. Some lucky pups in california are alive after firefighters rescued three dogs house fire. There they are. Together. The fire started in a garage and forced eight people out of their homes. One person suffered smoke be okay. The cause of the fire is still adorable pups. Weather and traffic on the 8s is three minutes away. Plus, we are on top of morning. A deadly crash shuts down i275 in tampa. We have a traffic updating for this morning on some lanes that were reopened. Everything you need to know seriously . Where do you think youre going . To work, with you. Its taco tuesday. Youre not coming. I took mucinex to help get rid of my mucusy congestion. Oh, right then ill swing by in like 4 hours. Forget the tacos one pill lasts 12 hours. Im good all day. Wait your loss. I was going to wear a sombrero. Only mucinex has a bilayer tablet that starts fast, and keeps working. Not 4, not 6, but 12 full hours. Start the relief. Ditch the misery. Ingredients make the cut me to know every dish i serve is the best it can be. Food critic. Publix bakery scratch made bread we bake it in store every day with pride so you can serve it with some publix. Where shopping it is 5 28. Not as cold for the kids at the bus stop, around 95 degrees but the temperatures go up to 37 and the clouds increase as well. I think emoji man is excited but tomorrow, theres an 80 rain chance. Leslee, how about traffic on the 8s. Well, we still have construction tying up the lanes on ehrlich underneath the veterans expressway. And both directions remain closed on 275 north of bearss. Use 75 due to a fatal accident