In santiago. He boards a plane. He leaves cuba and he heads to washington, d. C. Reporting live from havana, Darlene Rodriguez. Today in new york. Michael, back to you. Well see you again at 6 00. We look forward to that. Thanks again. 5 04. Today we expect to learn more specifics about how the popes visit will disrupt traffic around the city. Barricades are up. Theyve been up for a while. Today in new yorks Katherine Creag on the Upper East Side. Thats where the pope will be staying. Kat . For two nights down the street on east 72nd. More concrete barriers. Were seek parking restrictions. For example, these no parking signs have been placed. They dont allow parking starting overnight until saturday, 8 00 in the evening during the popes visit drivers should expect dozens of street closures on the Upper East Side, Lower Manhattan, mid town, east and west side. Bus lines will be rerouted like the m 72 and m 15. Taking the sunday ways might be the best. The postal service, ups, other Delivery Services admitted they may not be able to deliver mail and packages to certain zip codes because of road closures and so many zip codes. Go to nbc 4 new york. Com for road closures. Expect a lot of action going on. Well tell you about the generators being brought in for security issues. Back to you. Kerry. Thank you, kat. Dont forget weve created a very special section as kat referenced on our website. Everything you need to know nbcnewyork. Com pope. Right now though we do want to check weather and traffic on the 4s. Well check with storm team 4s weather, chris cimino. The weather has improved before his visit . Yes. Today we have the comfortable temperatures and a lot of cloud cover. Overcast and breezy. Maybe a couple of Early Morning sprinkles well north and west of the city. 50s in the suburbs, 60s in the city. Low and mid 70s this afternoon and maybe late breaks of sunshine especially north and west of town. In town it is 62 degrees. Cool breeze out there. We have that cool breeze all day with the overcast skies. 70 at noon. 74, thats the expected high at 3 00. Pretty close to normal temperatures for this time of the year. 5 07 on the nose. Lets find out about the coytmmute. Heres lauren. Mass transit, a couple of detours out there on the buses. The b 63, q 44 and q 48. We should enjoy having that right now because we know its going to change a lot later. If you are getting on the ferries, everything looks good on the commute. New york waterway, the pier 11 stop could close at any moment. You can expect delays and bus route changes throughout manhattan. The Molly PitcherCommuter Service begins today at 6 30 a. M. That will take you from bedford, middletown, monmouth. Thats exciting. Over on the trains. Things look good. Alternate side of the parking rules are in effect today. Right now were following breaking news in new jersey this morning. Firefighters battling a house fire overnight on laurel avenue in carney. Toitd in new yorks Tracie Strahan talked to firefighters on the scene. Reporter michael, the good news is theyve been able to turn off the hoses. Now theyre this the process of evaluating the Single Family home on laurel avenue. The flames were so insentence the roof collapsed. This is cell phone video when the call came in around 1 44 this morning. At one point residents said smoke filled the entire neighborhood. Authorities say at least one person inside was able to gem fire engulfed the first and second floors. Crews were able to stage a pretty effective interior attack before the roof collapsed. Even as the fire was brought under control there was damage to both homes next door. Pretty common in this area is how close the buildings are together. Theres only about three feet paration between the buildings and when you have a lot of fire in the fire building, its very e easy to extend to the home next door. I doubt theyll be back in. The back is all gone. Reporte there was a lot of fire in the back of the home as that neighbor just said. It extended to the second floor of the home. Investigators are starting to descend on the scene and try to figure out a cause of this. Michael, no word on where the fires started in the house. Back to you. Tracie, thank you very much. New this morning on long island, a driver is recovering after crashing into a strip mall in west islip. A white maserati slammed into a restaurant on higby lane just before 10 30 last night. Both businesses were closed. The driver had to be extricated and taken to the hospital. As you can see, this accident caused extensive damage. Meanwhile 5rks 09. Happening today Michael Grimm heading to prison. Hes reporting to a medium facility prison to serve an eight month sentence. Prosecutors accused him of hiding 1 million in receipts. Mayor de blasio has a few d years before hes up for reelection. Michael faulkner announced hes running in the 2017 mayoral race. Hes currently a minister and businessman. Hes going to seek the republican nomination. I am running not because i believe im the smartest guy in the world nor will i have to be the smartest guy at the table but i will be the unifying factor, the one who brings us together. Faulkner actually ran for congress in 2010. He lost to longtime harlem democrat charlie rangel. The mayor of bridgeport, connecticut, inding it a little more difficult to run for reelection than he thought. Bins bill finch lost the election last week to joe ganum. Finch later announced plans to run in november as a candidate with the Job Creation Party but state Officials Say that party missed a deadline for naming finch as its nominee, however, finch is still hopeful that hell find a way onto the ballot. 5 11 right now. Ahead, rising republican president ial candidate Carly Fiorina, she was in our building. She headed up to the tont show. Well hear what she said about donald trump and Vladimir Putin. Starbucks newest feature that could mean never waiting in line for coffee again. Plus, well have weather and traffic on the 4s as we look at the bell park way. Youre watching today in new york. [irenstrumental music playing] windows are the eyes into the so of the home. Ugly soul. Go to blinds to go with the Largest Selection of blinds and shades custom sized and guaranteed for life. Theyre a designers best friend. Trust me, they make window decorating easy. Back to school . How about. Back to blinds during blinds to gos early fall savings sale, save 20 to 30 on all the seasons latest looks in cellular shades and cascade double shades. Thatll really make you look smart. Blinds to go. 5 14 right now. Time for a check of weather and traffic on the 4s. We start with storm team 4s whats happening . Not much. Back to you. Here. A lot of clouds and lingering on into the afternoon. Get some breaks in spots and even eared on north and west, spritzes around. Gray, cool, breezy. Thats the way they will play out. Beautiful arrival of autumn gorgeous day. Lots of sun. Looks nice thursday and friday. Drd y and comfortable temperatures, too. Normal high of 72. Just a little above average. Most of this month has been well above average. We could go to the record books. Boken, 61. City island, 61 degrees. 60 to 65 covers the five boroughs. Most of long island as well. Coastal connecticut, north and west seeing 50s this morning. With the cloud cover overnight that didnt allow the cloud cover to drop. There is quite a bit of cloud cover. Not a lot of rain. Most of its passing mos y to the west and northwest. Warwick, sussex. Olster, duchess county, there could be a couple of light sprinkles. That should be about it early this morning and then the clouds could part for at least a few peaks of sun later this afternoon north and west. High of 74 degrees. Clears out everywhere tonight. West to ea w low 59 in mid town. Cool start tomorrow, 40s. Distant suburbs. Sunshine around. It warms up nicely while fall arrives at 4 22 in the morning. It warms to a high of 81 tomorrow afternoon. Almost ten degrees. Roll and knock down another magic number. First pitch temperature looks very comfortable for baseball. Thursday and friday looking good for the pope. Few clouds in the mix on friday. Rmer d i will be thursday. Op into lkthe 70s on friday. Then well have to watch some rain trying to move in from the atlantic. Temperatures in the low 70s. Looks like the bulk of it right now will stay south and east of us. Well keep an eye of that. Today. 81 tomorrow, 80 thursday. Really nice days. 74 on friday. Weekend cloudy side, spotty shower little drizzle south and east and back to partial sun monday. Lets get over to lauren scala. No new trouble spots on the roads for todays morning commute which is good news. Im going to take this moment to look ahead to tonight and tomorrow since the u. N. General assembly street closures do begin tonight at 10 00 p. M. The streets that will close at 10 00 p. M. , first avenue s thhut down from 42nd to 48th as well as cross streets between first and second. The underpass will remain open. You can jet under. I still dont recommend traveling in that area if you nt have to. Looking a ead to tomorrow, 42nd street fdrpramps. Those will be closed. We have sporadic closures of the fdr drive possi ly southboundult 63rd and northbound. You have emergency vehicles blocking lanes on some of our cross streets, 57th street, 42nd stusreet and also up and down 2nd avenue. Something to keep in mind. Were going to see very heavy delays on the east side of manhattan. A little bit worse for the rest of the week with the pope here. Alternate side of the Street Parking rules in effect. Lauren, thanks very much. Big shakeup in the race for president. Hear was once one of the favorites t now wisconsin Governor Scott walker, hes out. He withdrew on monday with a message for his fellow republicans. I believe that i am being ecalled to lead by helping clear the field in this race so that a sitive conservative message can rise to the top of the field. Walkers comments are seen as an attempt to end don d trumps dominance. He sank in the polls and ran out of money. Carly fiorina is rising in the polls. She shared her personal side on csmtonight show with jimmy fallon. Turns out she sings to her dog m l names nick and im lazy. Please dont take a walk with me id rather stay right here at home instead id like to lie back down in gmyrnece warm bed. My names nick and youre going to have to carry me she and jimmy also talked a little politics so jimmy fallon asked her about Vladimir Putin and donald t and rump, she told him, quote, they have a lot in ccommon. Thats brave to sing in public when youre not that good. Trust me, ive been there. This mornings cnbc money port, starbucks lovers can stop standing in line and pick up their could have fees. 7400 locations customers can preorder their coffee using the order and pay feature on their smart phones. Strsarbucks has only had an iphone app, one for Android Devices is now available. Pumpkin spice latte iv now. My god. I try to limit myself to one of those a season because they are a diblgting. All sugar. 5 20 right now. Ahead, a rodent because a viral sensation. Why a subway rat has now inspired his own twitter account. What would you do if you saw this at your door. I mean, they look cute but they can be a little nasty. Follow the today in new york team on facebook and 5 23 right now. A florida woman has an unusual neighbor who knocks on her door every day for food. Someones knocking at the door. Who could it be . Is that a rock . Thats susie chin. She calls her, the raccoon, roxy the raccoon. Okay. Video of her has gone viral. For the past nine months the little raccoon rattles the rock against the door when shes hungry. This can go on for hours even after roxy eats the cat food thats left outside. The noise sometimes drives me crazy but i look forward to her coming every day and actually theres been a couple times where shes been late not getting here and i worry about her. Kind of cute though, right . The video of roxy will send a message people should respect animals. Wildlife Officials Say you should not feed wild raccoons because they have the potential to spread diseases. Its unnatural to their behavior. The cat food i guess is off. If its going on for hours, why dont you give them Something Better than cat food. Maybe it would go away. All right. That raccoon doesnt have anything on this road dend. Comedian matt little recorded this. It went viral. A rat is pulling a piece of pizza down the new york city subway. Thats a new york rat for you. Thats right. Determined rodent makes it down before getting startled. Wait until you see he gets the cheese. Pitsz is a rat. Oh, my goodness. That is hilarious. Tenacity. Tenacity. Determination. Thats a pretty good place for pizza called the form. Slopg all over the place. You should have seen the call zone. A billionaire. People were tweeting that exact thing. Thats a new york rat. Imagine carrying pizza bigger than your entire body. Thats what we would have to be doing. I do that every day. I like that video. Lets get to the weather picture this morning. Weve got a lot of clouds. Couple of sprinkles north and west of town. Maybe breaks in the clouds. It feels like autumn, 74 degrees. Even though this is the last full day of summer. Tonight clearing skies after evening clouds. Cooler. Upper 50s in the city. Well see more 40s in the suburbs. Tomorrow, the first day of autumn, will turn out to be warmer, sunny zbler good. Hey, lauren. Hey, guys, pretty quiet for the commute. Enjoy it while we can. Take a look at your commuter checklist. All trains look good. Outside in the gowanus. Things moving along nicely. Thank you very much, lauren. A flight to connecticut forced to make an unexpected stop. Were going to show you what happened midair. Plus, an elaborate scam to warn you about. These people posed as Good Samaritans but they are anything but. And im Katherine Creag live on the Upper East Side where security, parking and traffic restrictions getting more intense ahead of the popes visit. How this will affect you coming up. And if youre about to head out the door, take us with you. Keep watching today in new york. Todays the day pope francis arrives here in the united states. What you need to know about the final preparations for his historic visit. Also breaking news out of new jersey. Flames shooting through the roof of a home. A live update from the scene. And this morning a new look at the man wanted for gunning down a cab driver in the bronx. Today in new york starts now. Good morning, everybody. 5 30 a. M. On this tuesday, september 22nd. Im michael gargiulo. Im kerry barrett. Darlene is on assignment in cuba covering Pope Franciss visit. Coming up we want to check in with storm team 4s chris cimino. We have to come up with something maybe a parttime job. There will be time for me to get busy as we head into you know what season that will follow after fall. Lets enjoy the quiet weather. Yes, indeed, it has been an easy go. City at 62. Cooler 50s north and west of the city. The skies are cloudy everywhere this morning. By noon, gray sky. Peaks of sun. High temperature of 74 degrees. Well have the weather for the popes visit as well. Seven day outlet. The latest on the commute, heres lauren. Good morning, everyone. It is a quiet commute. We will enjoy it while we can. Things are going to get crazy. Lets take a live look outside and tell you what the roads look like. Long island expressway in queens. Things still moving along pretty nicely out there. No delays into the tunnel. More weather and traffic coming up on the 4s. Pope francis just hours away states. Hell depart cuba for washington, d. C. This is where the holy father will be staying in the city with all the lastminute rush to prepare the city for his arrival, kat. So much going on. Reporter yes. Michael, yes. 72nd street just down the street from fifth avenue hell be staying for two nights. A lot of people it came as a surprise to them to see the barricades set up here so early. They were set up last week, but we are also now seeing parking restrictions. These went up last night no parking between 1 00 a. M. Overnight until 8 saturday, 8 00 p. M. Drivers and pedestrians should be prepared for roadblocks. Security issues. Popes may be stopped in their tracks if theyre trying to cross the street. Buses will be running but many bus lines will be rerouted including the m 72, m 15. The buses along fifth avenue. The mta says taking subways might be best. There will be traffic restrictions and parking restrictions and security. The secret service is leading the security detail and is prepared for anything. People will go off script and maybe take us a little bit out of our comfort zone but we are so well trained, we have such a level of experience that this doesnt concern me. Reporter heres a map of central park. The shaded area south of 79th street. Joggers, bicyclists, those only who have a ticket for the popes procession will be allowed in. These workers have been here since we arrived here before 4 00 in the morning. You can see the lights are on. What theyre doing, theyre delivering generators. They toll me they are for the mobile phones for Security Officers to use, but also for those security machines, michael, that people walk through so they can be powered up. Xray machines will be here at the entrances of central park when people go in for the procession on friday. Kat. People have to get screened. Thank you so much. Meanwhile, when pope francis touches down in new york five youngsters will be among those greeting him. These five students hand picked from Catholic Schools from brooklyn and queens. The oldest is 15 and the youngest 5. Theyve been working on what they will say to the holy father. A lot of pressure. Theyll be giving them what they call a spiritual bouquet. A collection of prayers given to them from across the brooklyn diocese. I was really ecstatic because i didnt know it was going to happen to me so i was shocked. The pope, not everyone gets to meet him and this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. I was really happy. Its like surprised. So cool. Only about 200 people are expected to meet the pope when 5 34 right now. Darlene rodriguez is in cuba right now where the holy father