As it moves near the florida east coast. We will watch this very closely. You see the cone gets wider the farther out we go in time because the uncertainty gets greater. So as we go through the next few days, models will get a better handle on this. As of now, a lot of computer models continue it towards the bahamas. At this point it is really a matter of whether or not this storm holds together. If it strengthens or if it stays weak as it crosses over maybe cuba. So a couple factors to keep in mind here. Again, this is farther out in time so of course, as we go through the next few days we will have a much better idea of what the storms going to do and of course, we will have more updates tonight as well. Coming up, we take a look at the local forecast. We have hotter temperatures coming in for the weekend. We mentioned how erika has already hit the caribbean island of domenica. About 400 miles away, people in puerto rico are preparing for whatever the storm may bring. Their loved ones are watching closely back here in the states. Our Team Coverage continues with our sister station telemundo 62. He joins us live from Philadelphia International airport. Has the storm had any impact on flights . Reporter i can tell you guys we talked to several folks who came in from puerto rico around 6 00 this morning and they tell us so far, even though the skies were clear when they left, this morning from san juan, they said they did hear about several rumors about possible Flight Cancellations throughout the day thanks to Tropical Storm erika. We did also talk to several local folks who have friends and relatives in the storms path like rio grande and they say preparation is normal during Hurricane Season but communication is also vital. One woman who oversees the Puerto Rican Center in north philadelphia emphasized that electricity and phone service is the first thing to fail when Mother Nature is at full force. Different storms are different. As i said, this one is less of an issue and i will stay in touch with them but there have been other storms and the worst part is sometimes there may be no communication for 24 hours or something. And you will find out through the media what happened. So yeah, its nervewracking. Reporter i can tell you i have been checking flight monitors here at Philadelphia International airport and i can tell you so far there are no cancellations. Of course, this can change throughout the next couple hours. Information up to date that is also available on nbc10. Com website. Of course, the threat from erika comes as the gulf coast is remembering one of the worst hurricanes in its history. Today, president obama visited new orleans to mark ten years since Hurricane Katrina. Well have much more on that plus nbc 10s doug shimell spoke to a woman who left new orleans ten years ago and never went back. Closer to home, a Burlington County road is still shut down after a crash that killed two people. Skyforce 10 over the scene along route 206 at garden street in southampton. Police tell us the impact of the crash flipped over a car. A passenger and a pedestrian are dead. The driver was flown to a hospital. The accident happened around 2 00 this afternoon. New information today in the Chester County courthouse attack. The District Attorney now says the sheriffs deputy was injured by friendly fire, not the suspects knife. We have this new mug shot of curtis smith. He died in tuesdays attack. Prosecutors say he had a history of bizarre behavior. The secret service arrested him in march for scaling a wall near the white house. Prosecutors say he used a knife to attack a deputy at the Chester County courthouse tuesday. The deputy is still recovering. A second deputy shot and killed smith. The District Attorney today ruled that shooting justified. In this case, its a justified shooting. People reacted as theyre supposed to but every single courthouse in the nation needs to be ready to react this quickly and efficiently. The d. A. Says the system worked as it should tuesday, but county will take a look at possible security improvements at that courthouse. A makeshift memorial is growing outside the television station where a reporter and photographer gunned down yesterday used to work. People are leaving flowers, balloons and other items outside wdbj, the cbs station in roanoke virginia. Reporter Alison Parker and photographer adam ward were conducting a live interview during their stations morning show when a gunman ambushed them. Today, management at wdbj talked about how the station is coping with the loss. The performance of this staff has been incredible. They cry, they hug and then they get the job done. Thats all i can ask of them right now. The suspected gunman, a former station employee, died from a selfinflicted gunshot wound. Nbc 10 National Correspondent dave wagner has been following this story. He joins us live from roanoke, virginia. What else did we hear at the News Conference from wdbj . Reporter well, i think the one thing i took away from that News Conference, really a couple of things, i guess i should say. Number one, just the absolute sadness as they all walked out together wearing ribbons in honor of their two fellow employees who were killed yesterday morning. The other thing that stood out to me was the general manager talking about the performance record of vester flanagan, the gunman in this case here. He says that when he was fired, he was very angry and as he was escorted out the door from sheriffs deputies, he handed the news director a wooden cross and said to him, youll need this. So thats a scary thought, considering what happened early yesterday morning. We also learned about new evidence that was found in the shooters car. It sounds like he had a disguise. What have you learned about it . Reporter yeah. He had a to do list, he had a wig, a shawl, and he also had two glock hand guns. For those of you who are not gun enthusiasts, those are two of the most popularly sold hand guns in the world. The father of reporter Alison Parker, the 24yearold reporter who was killed, says hes going to make it his mission to reduce the number of guns out there. He is very upset about this and said along with his grieving, he will make it known to the world just how important it is to do something about this after his daughter was killed. We know the memorial will only grow behind you. Dave wagner live in roanoke, virginia, thank you for joining us. Stay with nbc 10 for continuing coverage. Nbc nightly news will have a full report coming up at 6 30. To this now. The message, were your best option. Septa said that ahead of next months visit from pope francis. Officials announced close to 200,000 papal visit rail passes are Still Available and more Parking Spaces are opening up. Another change, septa says it will now keep running as long as it takes to get you back home after the saturday and sunday papal events. If youre worried about a long walk, septas general manager says dont be. All of our dropoff locations are within a twomile walk to logan circle. None of these distances are marathon walks. You can buy papal rail passes at septa ticket offices. Its a month before pope francis wkujr philadelphia. A local Response Team takes part in an emergency drill. The fbi led Homeland Security s. W. A. T. Teams and police from delaware county, chester, and montgomery counties, through a tactical drill on tinicum island, simulating a response to rockets or bombs being launched at delaware county. Well, certainly we want to make sure the pope is safe but beyond that, we want to make sure that the residents of philadelphia, the residents of delaware county, and anyone that wants to visit this particular area for the papal visit, are protected. The area of the drill is also under the flight path of planes traveling to Philadelphia International airport so teams practiced responding to attacks on planes. Nbc 10 has the information you need about the popes visit, whether you live in the city and need to know how to get around or you want to attend the papal events. Go to nbc10. Com or the nbc 10 news app. Look for our special section called preparing for the pope. A new poll shows most pennsylvania voters blame the legislature for the budget impasse. The poll by franklin and Marshall College shows 54 of voters blame the legislature. 46 blame it on governor tom wolf. Take a look at our rolling clock. Pennsylvania has been without a budgets for 57 days now. Switching gears, he was known to fans as chocolate thunder. Tonight, philadelphias mourning the loss of one of its sports legends. Former 76er Darryl Dawkins died this morning in lehigh county. Neil hartman joins us from Comcast Sports net. Moments ago, the family released a statement confirm Darryl Dawkins passed away of a heart attack at the age of 58. He played 14 seasons in the nba. It started in 1975 when the sixers made dawkins the fifth overall pick right out of high school. He played here in philadelphia for seven seasons until he was traded to the New Jersey Nets in 1982. Perhaps best known as chocolate thunder for those huge rimshattering dunks that broke two backboards in 1979. Sixers ceo scott oneill released the following statement on dawkins passing which read in part we have lost a dear friend and an iconic figure, both on and off the court. We remember fondly not only his thunderous dunks but more importantly, his powerful presence and personality. Simply put, Darryl Dawkins was beloved by his friends, family and former teammates all over the globe. His endearing charm, infectious smile and unparalleled sense of humor will sorely be missed. Coming up at 6 00, more reaction to the passing of Darryl Dawkins. Now, back to you. He was a force to be reckoned with on the court, too. Thank you very much for your time. Donald trump, Hillary Clinton, they are the leaders in a new president ial poll but someone who may or may not be running has an edge on both of them. Its Vice President joe biden. Now democrats just got another hint about his potential president ial run. X;o1 still ahead, this is what thousands of Montgomery County drivers had to avoid for months. Now crews have finally reopened this major road. Why commuters arent the only ones celebrating. Plus, a mini market that sold a big winning lottery ticket. Thats next. President obama is in new orleans right now remembering the devastation of Hurricane Katrina ten years ago. It was august 29th, 2005 when the hurricane hit. Today the president and mayor of new orleans went doortodoor greeting people with hugs and handshakes. The president is getting a closer look at the ongoing recovery. Nbc 10 National Correspondent jay gray was there when katrina hit. He is back now with more on how the region is currently coping. Reporter in the days just after the storm in some cases all you can see are the rooftops. Reporter a region in ruins with the world wondering how it would ever come back. The people in new orleans pulled together to make sure their city did. Together we started to clean up, sweating the heat, clearing away the devastation and putting our lives back together. Reporter through the French Quarter uptown, universities, families and businesses came back. Most people that are from new orleans or had an affinity for new orleans felt like if they didnt come back, no one was going to be here to revive new orleans. Reporter today, more than half of new orleans 72 neighborhoods have recovered 90 of their population and 16 of them have more residents than they did before the floods. Even parts of the ninth ward show signs of resurgence. Today, president obama toured the area celebrating the recovery and renewing the federal governments commitment to stay until all of the work is done. Federal funds helped create this massive wall, the front line of a 14. 5 billion maze of updated levees and canals. It includes this pump station which has 11 bays that can fill an olympic size Swimming Pool in three seconds. It is the largest pump station in the world. Reporter security thats led to progress here. After the largest and most costly hurricane in u. S. History. Jay gray, nbc news, new orleans. Washingtons governor is getting a firsthand look at wild fires scorching the state. Hes taking an aerial tour and meeting crews on the ground. Firefighters battling flames have been hampered by dense smoke. The biggest fires burned 438 square miles. It is the largest blaze Washington State has ever seen. A kentucky clerk will ask the Supreme Court to intervene in her legal fight over the issuing of marriage licenses to same sex couples. County Clerk Kim Davis has refused to issue marriage licenses. She did so again today to a couple that showed up at her office. Thats despite the fact the Supreme Court legalized gay marriage throughout the country two months ago. Davis cites her Christian Faith and constitutional right to religious freedom. Philadelphia mayor Michael Nutter is flying to minneapolis. He is attending the Democratic National committees summer meeting. The 2016 Democratic National convention will be held here in philadelphia. Philly beat out two rival cities for the chance to host the partys nominating Convention Next july. Speaking of which, pennsylvania voters can now register to vote online. Governor wolf made the announcement this morning. Pennsylvania is the 23rd state to offer internetbased voter registration. The state says the move saves county voting offices time and money. For counties especially, its about cost savings. Thats a real thing for citizens, for taxpayers, to make sure that exercising the responsibilities of citizenship can be done efficiently and securely. October 3rd is the last day to register for the november election. Now to a great gift for some philadelphia students heading back to school. Beauty barn in frankford is hosting a backtoschool hair drive. Beauticians cut hair for students in all grades for free. They are doing it all again tomorrow. We are doing this because we do understand some parents are not able to pay for certain things. We want our children to look and feel their best at the beginning of the school year. The kids look good heading back to the classroom and it helps parents check off one more thing on their backtoschool to do list. Well, its definitely hard to go to class, hard to go to work on a beautiful summer day like this, but it is back to school time at drexel university. Plenty of people Walking Around campus today really enjoying the weather. So definitely a day where you want to get outside. This evening it will be nice and cool, same thing as we go into tomorrow. So nice again tomorrow morning. Temperatures on the cool side, afternoon highs still about the mid to low 80s with low humidity. Then we go into the weekend and thats when we start to see more changes. Hotter temperatures, more humidity. So it will start to feel a lot more like summer, especially by sunday. And we have updates on Tropical Storm erika. Still very far away but i will show you the track in just a second. Some clouds have moved into the area so temperatures are right in the upper 70s, blocking a little bit of sunshine. But still very nice outside. Humidity, still low, only around 39 . Temperatures will keep dropping as we go overnight. We are looking at the 50s again for some areas by tomorrow morning. 75 degrees only in allentown and reading. 75 in pottstown. Really starting to feel a lot more like fall but again, the temperatures will be rising this weekend. 78 degrees now wilmington, bensalem, 76 in glassboro, 78 for millville, also in dover we are looking at temperatures in about the mid 70s. Enjoy this while you can, because the hot humid weather thats coming will actually stick around to start off next week, too. We are nice and dry, rain stays to our south. We have nothing but dry air continuing to move in. Until we get into saturday and sunday, then our winds are going to shift and we will see some changes. Heres future weather for the rest of this evening. We will keep that northerly wind. Humidity stays low and this even goes tomorrow through the afternoon. Low humidity and nice breeze coming in with temperatures very comfortable. Then as we go into saturday, the wind starts to shift in more from the south. That will bring in the humidity and the hotter temperatures and as we go into sunday, even more of that. More heat, more humidity. By the end of the weekend, definitely not feeling so much like fall. If you are heading to the shore this weekend, looking pretty good. For friday, temperatures around 80 degrees, low 80s to mid 80s across the weekend and we expect to see pretty dry conditions at the shore. Now, heres a look at Tropical Storm erika. This is the most updated version of it. Moving to the westnorthwest at 15 miles an hour so the area that its moving through, not favorable for development. We do expect it to stay as a Tropical Storm as it continues