On darci strickland. Lets turn to efren afante for the weather. A lot of us are starting off with no rainfall, but we do have wind upstate. Specifically in the western part of midland and saluted county. North of saluda pockets of heavy rainfall are moving through into newberry. Right now a lot of warm air is coming in from the southwest and we have warmed up. And aiken. Cooler where the rain and clouds have not settled in. Camden. We are expecting showers and storms that could be on the strong side with gusty winds at 25 Miles Per Hour. A high of 75 and a low of 53. Showers continue at least through tomorrow morning. The wind will be at 510 Miles Per Hour in a high of 59. As far as the roads, getting ready to head out on the roadways, give yourself extra time. No issues on i26 between piney grove. There are two incidents on the road right now. The first incident is are not i26 westbound near alpine road. Then another accident has been reported in lexington on Mineral Springs rd. Right by lender street. You want to avoid this area before it is cleared up in lexington. Then headed to the willie be you have five minutes. Airport to downtown, about a nine minute commute. We will look at the forecast and the sevenday coming up in a few minutes. All right efren , thank you. Today is National Signing day. The first day that a High School Senior will sign a binding letter of intent for college football. We will talk about the 2016 signing class today. We will look at where the midland High School Seniors are headed. That will be at 6 00 tonight. Joining me is west mitchell from game central. I know it is early for you, but a lot of kids look forward to signing day. Explain the importance. For their academic career. For some of these kids, they may be wouldve never had an opportunity to get that education. Today is the first day they can sign and most will go ahead and sign today. Its a big day for all of them. I would imagine the percentage of the High School Students that go to college is low. Other standouts that you look at . It is less than 1 , im sure. A low number. But there are a number of kids. It goes even lower if you have kids that play secretary or acc or major ball. Maybe they haves have a chance to sign and there are many schools they have an opportunity to go to. Reporter thats the thing, there are so many schools. The things so many people are a fan of. When you look at the coaching change, South Carolina had two months to put together a class. Other schools have been recruiting for 23 years. The recruiting process start so early. For South Carolina, it was finding guys. They already had relationships with auburn and other schools. They had to see at guys that they were recruiting that other guys were interested in coming to columbia. For the last two months or so, thats what you see the staff do. This is a big decision. What does that recruiting process entail . It is a lot. A lot involve social media and contact on social media. There is actually times during the process where no phone call or in person contact is allowed. You can still contact them on twitter and that has become a huge part of the process. It is not really oldfashioned it is actually twitter. The kids love the edits and graphics that the schools send out. Ey will take a picture and added a kid into a South Carolina jersey and the kids love that. There is also a way to go around the rules a little bit. Yes, that is a safe assumption. Reporter so that is interesting. What do people need to be on the lookout for . Actually, with our coverage on game central. Com, we are tracking five guys. The first will be at 7 30 today. These are guys that have not signed anywhere yet and theyre considering South Carolina. We will havevecoverage and announcements throughout the day. Reporter thank you, we will have that coverage as well and we will keep an eye out on wltx. Coverage. Lumbering Columbia Police are asking if you know this man . He is a person of interest in the sexual assault. Police believe he may have interest that can help the case and so far he is not made contact with officers. Police say that a man forced a student into a nearby area where he sexually assaulted her. You can leave an anonymous tip at Crime Stoppers at 888crime sc. Take a look at this video. This man is wanted at a burglary at the a. M. Food mart a. M. p. M. Food mart. Stole several bottles of liquor and then came back and took money from the register along with cigarettes and lottery tickets. If you know who the man is in call Crime Stoppers at 888 crimesc. Police and sumter are looking for a man in connection with the shooting at a gas station. Police say that he robbed a man and a woman at a federal citgo. The man was shot before the suspect got away in the victims car. Safely the shooting victim is expected to be okay. If you know where police can find him, call 888crimesc. Lets call lets talk about flood recovery. The bluff road bridge was washed away and now stay for 10 the state transportation crews are rebuilding it. They melt they met at the local st. Johns Baptist Church to track the progress. Right now the bridges 31 Percent Complete and it is expected to be finished by april 15. This is a combined contract the cost a little more than 3 million and it is all funded emergency relief program. We have her dates before, but now i feel more comfortable that we are getting what we expected would happen. It seemed to be happening a lot sooner. Reporter although you may not have to use detours here much longer, there is still work to be done. There are 49 closures and about 20 of those are bridges. Many homes and bridges were washed away, but archaeologists say that pieces of history were uncovered. They are on the Army National guard Training Centers land and they found a road that they believe dates back to the late 18 or early 1900s. Just 100 yards away is a mill that has been known since 1992. The Rushing Water damaged and changed the structure. Changes met. We want to make sure that the pieces that get washed away. They expose new construction techniques. We want to continue to monitor the site over the years. The National Guard and everybody seems willing to do their part on that. The teams are almost done mapping the sites. The road will be covered in a protective cloth and then covered with dirt again so that it stays preserved. It is mom of the day time and our mom is yolanda anderson. She has a heart of gold and goes above and beyond the call of duty for family and friends. She also always ensures her children have the best care. She deserves this honor. Congratulations yolanda. If you would like to nominate a your nomination. Todays word is reminisce. A verb that means to think about or talk about past experiences. Another recognizable word. A more universal word we reminisce about times in the past. If you have a word, tweet us. Celebrate the accomplishments and histories of african americans. We have a great up and to tell you about ter the break. A pocket of heavy rainfall moving across parts of newberry and it is that th3 its black History Month. And several organizations are having events throughout the month. To tell us about one. Is news19s megan rivers. Megan it is black History Month in several organizations are having events throughout the month. Lets go to megan rivers. Reporter it is ththbeginning of black History Month and of events. We will have one and downtown columbia, the annual thanksgiving the annual parade and festival. What will be going on. I hear you have some big names coming to columbia. We are excited about who will be there. Joshua rogers will be there to do a free concert during the festival. Of course we have other entities involved. The Buffalo Soldiers are coming out of North Carolina. The Buffalo Soldiers here and the Motorcycle Group that is here. You know, the tuskegee airmen. There are so many different groups at this point and im excited. This is our 12th year with the project that we have been doing. So, we have the city in on it as well and im excited about that. They have adopted it. I am looking for everyone to come in and just blow up like other events in the city as well. We have added an added and it is time for it to happen. That it is an educational event. Yes, we do the parade and the waving and stuff, but as they proceed down the parade route, they are issuing to the spectators a little card or some type of flyer with history on it. So, you can walk away with a lesson. Reporter what time will the festivities begin . You need to be there by 12 00 and the parade kicks off at 12 00 at martin street. We will parade through five points into Martin Luther king park. The festivities there start about 1 00 as well. Joshua rogers will be doing a free concert. Prior to him, we have a liturgical dance ministry, mime, gospel a gospel poet. His name is barry dennis. We have Corey Johnson who is a it is a host of events. We hope everybody comes and walks away feeling proud about some of their history. Storytelling and there will be people there who can tell their life stories. I, for one, will be able to tell my life stories. Reporter Joshua Rogers is coming to give a free concert. Tell us who he is. Joshua rogers won the pet sunday best about 34 years ago. He is from greeleyville, South Carolina. Our objective is to highlight those who came from us so that we can remember and they can feel comfortable about being home and wanting to do things at home. Reporter it starts at 12 00, is this an all day thing . When does a wrap up . Up around 5 005 30. We will be out there frying fish. She is doing a fundraiser for her class and they will all be out there. Who knows, you might sing a little bit. Reporter ms. Glover, thank you for coming on again. If you want to make it to the black history festival parade, it starts at noon on saturday and it goes all day long. Head out there because it is free and open to the public. The weather is going to be great. Thank you so much ms. Glover for coming on. Im going to send it back over to you. Remember you can test your black history knowledge with our quiz on wltx. Com. It is under the nation now tab. I got six out of seven. You did really well. I was close. They talked for the parade and i am excited. You are watching rain today . We already have rain moving through the midland. Sometimes they move into the upstate, but right now the heaviest concentration is just a long interstate of i26 down to prosperity. As we get to the northern parts of Newberry County and the far North Western parts of fairfield county, theres still a lot of rain. The main line is in georgia and alabama and its marching its way toward the palmetto state. Right now we have a lot of southwesterly flow and it has warmed is up a lot. 69 in saluda and 69 in aiken and columbia. Cooler as we get to camden at 63 degrees. Bishopville and manning at 59. Here is the computer model. It will march from knoxville through tuscaloosa. Incident it is in the northern part of the metro. A few showers this morning and then another line of moderate to heavy rainfall move through in the northwestern parts of our community. By lunchtime, the main line will move through upstate and then we will see showers and storms and some could be strong. That is the afternoon and into the evening. Overnight, we will have light to moderate rainfall with more thunderstorm activity. Then tomorrow morning there will be more showers. We expect a high of 71 when the kids get out of school. It will be stormy, windy and warm. Highs will generally be in the low 70s. In columbia, a lot of rainfall is expected and gusty wind up to 25 Miles Per Hour. The high today of 72. Some showers could linger overnight. The load tonight is 53 and all in the lower to middle 70s. We will start cooling off and then by the afternoon tomorrow, 59 for a high. The shatt the skies were clear and it will be cooler at 53. More cloud cover saturday and another chance of rain by sunday. As far as the roads right now traveling in and out of columbia, the roads are dry and the traffic is light. It will pick up. I20 eastbound by mile marker 75, we are expecting traffic to pick up later on. This is going to be on alpine road and i20. There is a stalled vehicle that has been reported. There is an incident that has been reported by the Columbia Mall. An accident by shakespeare lane. Be aware of that as you travel around the mall and to and from Columbia Mall. Minute commute. Check out grady the gro superbowl 50. Check out grady the groundhog. Hes normally use during groundhog events, but thats not the only thing he has forecasting. He is going to pick out the super bowl winner. It will make carolina fans happy, he picked up the broncos. His handler says he has a 50 accurate raise accuracy rate over the next five years. We will have to wait until sunday to see if he is correct. I guess his pixar a better which is 30 . 30 something. He could be more accurate. The only place to watch superbowl 50 is right here on wltx on sunday. Also the day before, there is event honoring the biggest the best player. That all starts at 9 00 p. M. On saturday night. You can make it a weekend of super bowl on and on wltx. With lots of calories. Eyes are on South Carolina. Who just picked up an endorsement and who may be be draining your wallet. And from the station that is on your side, you are watching news 19 this morning. Good morning, it is wednesday, hump day. Ke you for joining us on news 19 this morning. Umbrella is the accessory of the day. We have already had rain feel rainfall from saluda to parts of marion county. The concentration is moving out of Newberry County and it is in and fairfield county. It is light at best right now, but we expected to pick back up. With a southwesterly flow, we have been warming up. 63 in camden where the have not were there has not been that much cloud cover yet. As the kids head to the bet to the bus stop, they will need the rain jacket. They will definitely need the jacket later on today. Hourbyhour, the rain picks up in intensity. 67 by 11 00 and showers and thunderstorms by 7 00. Barely scraping 72 degrees. We could have strong and gusty wind up to 25 Miles Per Hour. We continue with moderate to heavy hit moderate to heavy rainfall. Get ready to get on the roadways. Right now i26 by the emerge past st. Andrews to picking up quite a bit. The good thing is that the roads are dry right now. One accident has been reported on Mineral Springs rd. One accident has been reported on Mineral Springs rd. This accident has been there for the last 45 minutes. This is s Mineral Springs and linger street. Then headed west on a guster road toward i20, the speed limit is down to 15 Miles Per Hour. From harvest into downtown, a seven minute commute. From blake would to downtown, 15 minutes. Looking at that important hour byhour forecast for when the rain comes in. We will have the sevenday forecast in a few minutes. , thank you. Now we look at the paper today and we will see what comes in. On the front page is a its an incredible story of heroism and just the incredible work that they do. You can find more about that story on our website at wltx. Com we would be remiss to not mention the super bowl. Many people looking forward to the ads. We saw a preview earlier around 5 00 a. M. The wiener dog, at commercial is this . It is heinz because they are running to the ketchup and mustard. It may be the best super bowl commercial of the year, that was leaked. Cbs news tweeted that they are voting on it now. They are having viewers vote on what they think as far as the commercials. A lot of these companies will release a little early. To get the attention and that kind of thing. Was a story talking about how some automakers were leery of paying 5 million for ads. But apparently there are a bunch that will have hyundai has one with Brian Reynolds and honda has one along with a couple of other automakers. You can find it all in usa today. Lets move on to the this came in yesterday. Senator. Rubio. It is the one shot for marco rubio to win the white house. Scott says he is a better father and husband many as a politician. Trey gowdy is also inducing endorsing marco rubio. Supporting ted cruz who was campaigning. He got a lot of support from pastors who say they value his conservative and christian beliefs. The upcoming gop debate. Reassessing his president ial campaign this morning. He was supposed to campaign in South Carolina and instead he is thinking of dropping out of the race. An Event Schedule that in aiken today has already been postponed. Donald trump will turn his focus to New Hampshire and right here in South Carolina in the polls. He will hold hold a Campaign Rally at the Florence Civic Center and he will also be in sumter on the 17th. An attempt to feed a bill to the Summit Senate floor. Centers want to slow down and take a closer look at how to fund the South Carolina roads. You letter woman wan