more wild weather means the possibility of more potential damage in the bay area. a berkeley neighborhood is still picking up the pieced and counting its blessings after lightning hit a massive tree. >> reporter: good morning. plenty of evidence out here still of what exactly what happened yesterday afternoon. i want to show you a couple things. i'll start with the tree. just that sharp, jagged spear sticking up above the roofline there, just a fraction of what was originally a 75-foot redwood tree. the branches coming off it even though they have all those green leaves on them? the branches themselves are blackened. come back down here. more on the road. this minivan parked right in front of the house. the windshield is crashed. the roof dented in, just completely smashed just sitting there innocently on the curb. hubcap in the road there.

then back here the house directly behind us. this is the home where the tree lived, if you will. red tagged. it is 1 of 10 that was damaged but it is the only one red-tagged. you see the red caution tape, the danger "do not enter" tape all around the house that sits here and the roof is all caved in as well. aroundñ@cack you can't see it from here. this happened just about 1:15 yesterday that the massive redwood was hit by lightning and basically it exploded, by all accounts. thunks of wood were sent fchunk were sent flying over three blocks. people's homes had their windows shattered and it really sent a scare through the entire neighborhood. >> it was literally explosion. it was like a bomb going off. it was violent and the shockwave, i could feel it in my chest. >> reporter: huge pieces of tree. everything from huge pieces to little splinters all over the nand. he city crews came out, tried to board up some of the broken

windows, clean up the mess that was left behind. had this morning i can tell you not a lot of the wood left around the street but we do know that yesterday some people came here to see what all the hubbub was about and actually were collecting some of these pieces of wood they say as souvenirs. in mill valley a home is yellow tagged this morning because of the damage caused when a large redwood tree came crashing down on top of it. the tree actually punctured part of the roof and cracked a window. crews in menlo park closed a street after power lines fell. road reopened once the lines and the branch were removed. only one person lost power. more snow is expected in the sierra today. this video of castle peak on interstate 80 last night. chains are required on 80 and 50 this morning. officials will conduct another

snowpack survey, traditionally considered the peak of the seasonal snowpack. it is expected to be critically low. a measurement last month found the snowpack just 22% of normal. california counts on it this this snowpack for 30% of its water. download the app on abc7news.com. an upkale complex into flames about 20 miles from the white house in rockville, maryland. witnesses said they saw an orange glow from the fire several miles away. fire crews are now on the scene conducting a mop-up operation. part of the complex does have people living in it but the fire was burning in another area that's still under construction. contra costa county sheriff he's deputies are investigating a homicide it in pinole on

cornelius drive in an unincorporated part of the city. officials have not released the name, age or gender of the victim. they won't confirm whether the person lived at the home. we'll bring you more information as it becomes available. at emeryville plan charged with murder in an alleged drunk driving accident that took the life after union city marine will be back in court today. 23-year-old alexander yawn downed several whiskeys before getting behind the wheel last week. in addition to murder he's charged with vehicular manslaughter and hit and run, being held without bail. accident killed 23-year-old marine lance corporal andrew silva who was riding his psyche from fremont. he'd just returned from a you are tour of duty in afghanistan. visitation will be held for andrew today from 4:00 to 10:00 in union city at st. ann's catholic church. a $7,500 reward is being offered this morning to help

police find the man who sexually assaulted a 6-year-old girl near her oakland elementary school. just after 3:00 friday afternoon at bella vista elementary school, the girl managed to get back to the school and alert an adult. man was driving a silver suv and was last seen wearing a blue and black jacket with black shorts. a former san francisco firefighters accused of driving a fire truck while drunk and hitting a moat sitorcyclist is n bail this morning.ç 43-year-old michael quinn s surrendered to police yesterday. a fire truck allegedly driven by quinn is shown going through a red light and hitting the motorcyclist. quinn was arrested last july but the case was discharged pending further investigation. quinn is expected to be arraigned tomorrow. the deadline has passed for uninsured americans to sign up for health coverage under obamacare. so many californians tried to

beat the midnight deadline. cover california had to switch off a key function on the website and make people finish their applications later. abc 7s in reporter leslie brinkley reports fr. >> reporter: deadline is today. expert at the had health center who know how to manipulate the online website were being dumped out of it every time they tried to enroll someone. >> you get kicked off literally and it doesn't give you confirmation -- that the information has been kept. you don't know one way or the other. >> reporter: it was frustratingly impossible. and cover california admitted it. >> we've had 324,000 people, unique business to our webpage base. that's just record setting. our system just simply is not able to accommodate it. >> reporter: many were left disappointed and worried. >> i'm out of luck. what am i going to do?

>> reporter: by evening cover california extended the deadline. >> you have until april the 15th to finish the process. >> reporter: here's where it gets even more confusing. >> there is a caveat. they cannot do itself service. if you were not able to get through the last-minute logjam you won't be able to do it yourself anymore. you have to click on find local help and speak directly with an enrollment counselor or insurance broker to sign up. but if you did successful start an aaccount you will still have online access to finish enrolling. >> people really want this. >> reporter: and they're going to tough it out. leslie brinkley, abc 7 news. in san francisco today, supervisor david campos is set to introduce legislation to overhaul the city's universal health care program. the kr

the program is run by public health but is not considered actual insurance because it doesn't cover participants outside city limits so people still have to way the fine for not having insurance under obamacare. a stage one water imagine is expected to be declared today. reflecting a 10% water shortage. the move would authorize the city to ban non-essential water uses. restaurants would not serve water to customers unless they request it. residents will not be able to use their running hose to wash vehicles and the city would ramp up efforts to educate the public about water conservation programs. 4:38. ironically we are in the middle of a storm system while those water conservation efforts are going on. >> even in the middle of a drought we can have a few storms like this. that's what's happening. we're finally below eight-inch deficit in places like san jose, moffett field. livermore didn't get much rain yesterday. oakland down to 10. we are excited because we're

down to 10 inches! that's how sad this winter's been. 11 1/2 at sfo. 10 1/2 san francisco. under 19 in santa rosa. an update on the whole system, it is still swirling out over the ocean. here's a small area of low pressure. we are going to see an uptick in the coverage and intensity of these showers and thunderstorms during the afternoon and evening hours because of this low. then the parent low comes in tonight and that will bring us one last push of wet weather through tomorrow's morning commute. that will also drop our snow levels from 3,000 feet to possibly 2,800 feet during overnight hours. this morning we're going to see a little bit of a tapering of the showers through about noon. temperatures will hang out in the mid to upper 50s. then heavier rain comes in during the afternoon and evening hours. the commute this morning will be easier weather wise than the commute this evening. if you drove through it last night, you know how much fun that was. i don't think it was too much fun this morning either

because we already have a couple of reports of accidents. one is in vallejo, an overturned vehicle along eastbound 80. at redwood parkway. chp says it is still possibly drivable. they'll try to upright it. they he have to bring a traffic break there, stop all traffic and then upright it, hopefully get it on its way. if you're traveling in the westbound direction, everything is moving alone just fine. livermore, highway 84 will have this closure. the area shaded in purple indicates where traffic is not moving through but it should re-open by 5:00. so about 20 more minutes from now. hopefully everything gets moving along. san mateo bridge is moving along just fine, albeit wet and damp as you continue over the water and up to the peninsula. right now it is only going to take you nine minutes. 4:40 now. she and her partner lost their lives in a violent encounter. next the special tribute the

university of california is paying to a fallen santa cruz police officer. and in the hot seat. questions gm's ceo faces from congress over the automaker's failure to warn vehicle owners about a deadly ignition plel. the action cal fire is taking now to prepare for a you know, from a young age. i definitely want to major in political science. become the mayor or something. make the situation better for other people.

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4:43. uc santa cruz is announcing a new scholarship created in honor of a police woman/alumnus killed sexual assault. the memorial scholarship will support a uc santa cruz student while on field study in santa cruz county. this morning an online dating site is urging people to

stop supporting an anti-gay marriage contributor. the site is okaycupid and the focus of its anger is the new ceo of mozilla. he gave money to the campaign to pass proposition 8 which outlawed same-sex marriage in california. okcupid is encouraging its users to stop using firefox through a letter on its website. there are some planes looking for the missing malaysia airlines jetliner these days, australia is deploying a modified 737 to act as air traffic control over the indian ocean. 11 planes and nine ships are taking part in today's search for flight 370 in the waters off western australia. the search area has been narrowed so the sinarro narrowed to the size of pennsylvania. crews also reported seeing more objects in the water today and dropped gps buoys so ships can

investigate what the objects are. they are a he in a shipping lane where sea trash is pretty common. happening today, the ceo of general motors will testify before congress about its handling of a deadly flaw in its cars. faulty ignition switches can shut off the engine while the car is moving, losing power steering, brakes and preventing air bags from inflating in a crash. it is responsible for more than a dozen deaths. more from washington. >> reporter: today general motors' ceo will face tough questions from congress about the automakers' faulty ignition switches now linked to at least 13 deaths and why it took more than ten years to reveal the problems. in prepared testimony, mary barr will say today she's deeply sorry repeating her promise to conduct a thorough and unimpeded investigation and that today's gm will do the right thing, starting with an apology to the victims' families. >> said she was sorry to all of us and then we all got a chance to talk to her and tell her

about our children that died. >> reporter: last night randy and about 20 other family members spent two hours with her on the eve of her congressional testimony. but at today's hearing these family members say they don't want more apologies -- they want answers. >> i'd like to say to gm, just come forthright and say okay, we're going to own this, this was our problem, our mistake, we're going to own it and take care of it it. >> reporter: yesterday they announced a new round of recalls, this time over concerns the power steering could fail on some chevy, saturn and pontiac models dating back to 2004. that's 1.3 million mr cars on top of the 2.6 million already recalled for the faulty ignition switches. >> there are still people out there driving this vehicle who should not be driving it. >> reporter: gm is still investigating if these new power steering problems have caused any accidents or injuries, but so far gm says that no deaths due to this most recent defect

have been record. the impact of this drought is prompting cal fire to hire seasonal firefighters ahead of schedule. they've already hiring several hundred firefighters in central california. the bay area and sacramento foothills. the agency is now expanding the hiring state wide. seasonal workers are usually brought in until mid-may or early june but the fire danger being produced by the drought has changed that. new hires will be trained and begin staffing fire engines immediately. it's either feast or famine when it comes to fire season. >> when you get the rain now so late, i wonder if that's just more fuel to burn in the fire season. >> definitely allow things to grow, but we haven't seen much growth anyway. interesting to see if there's more now, less later. people were selling their cows because there was nothing to graze on. 4:47. there's a look at the swirling mass of clouds. notice from kodiak, alaska all

the way down to us is where all the cold air is dumping down on us. because of that, that's why we're looking at the chance of that wet weather coming in. we do still have some snow up in the sierra. we'll take a better look at that in a second with your travel forecast in about seven minutes from now. we have mid to upper 40s throughout most of san francisco. as you get closer to the water, it is a little bit warmer. ocean beach, 52. downtown mission district, 48. we have a lot of mid to upper 40s everywhere until half moon bay at 50. dress accordingly. it is much cooler this morning. from explore toratorium, waves just waiting for that next chunk of energy to come through and

spark those showers with thunder and small hail again today through tomorrow morning. a slight chance we may get a little bit of wet weather thursday and friday but still promise a spring like very warm -- not warmer but brighter weekend. today mid to upper 50s across the board whether the coast, bay or inlands. tonight even cooler than this morning. one of the reasons why the snow levels will drop again tonight. 38 in santa rosa. 39 napa and cloverdale. just about everybody else in low to mid 40s save san mateo and san francisco in the upper 40s. you can see just some scattered showers throughout the morning and into the lunch hour. right behind me, you see this is our next wave setting up. comes about 3:00 into the north bay. heart of the bay 4:00. then through about 5:00. that means it started the evening rush. it is going to be wet with ponding on the roadways and heaviest storms moving through right at the beginning. during overnight hours here's the third chunk, the mother low

of this entire system moving through. most of the energy will stay offshore but a few of those showers will work their way onshore. when they do we'll have residual moisture on the ground tomorrow for the morning commute. by noon the clouds opening. once they do it destabilizes the atmosphere in the north bay mountains. down around gilroy in higher elevations there we could possibly have some scattered afternoon showers but they'll be very, very scattered. once the sun starts to set around 7:00, they go away. warmer weather on the way even with a slight chance tomorrow and friday. look at the 70s away from the ocean, saturday, sunday and monday. couple more days to get through this, then it will be a-okay. we's had 27 b.a.r.t. trains running on time. ace train number one also on time. we do have areas with some yellow indicating where traffic is slowing down just a little bit. that's what you want to do this morning. if you aren't experiencing

showers during your morning commute, there is certainly going to be ponding, puddling, pooling, the three "ps" as you make your ride to work. stay away from the far right and left-hand lanes, try to stay in the middle if at all possible. be careful as you make it away from the dublin interchange. from tracy to dublin right now, 35 minutes. westbound along highway 4 from antioch to concord, 14 minutes. let's look at san jose. this is 280. as you come away from 17. couple of cars out there making it in the northbound direction. southbound traffic non-existent at this hour. no accidents in this particular area and no construction today because of the wet conditions. there's new warning this morning about anti-bacterial soap. coming up, the danger it can pose to the environment. and, a new ferris wheel

opens in las vegas. what makes this one so unique?

here's something you don't see every day. yesterday's downpour since it recycling bin floating down a south san francisco street. there is goes. the video was sent to us. the wayward bin rolls over to more bins. we want to see weather happening where you are. send us your videos and photos. you can also post them on our abc 7 news facebook page or share them with us on twitter at abc7newsbayarea. >> the only 710 recyclie ining split. top five cities to live. steamboat springs, colorado has

music festivals. three williamsburg, virginia and its salute to colonial america. number one -- chautauqua, new york. 4:55. i tell you, this game yesterday in oakland and the rain, we'll do it again tonight but hopefully without the rain. >> i hope so but it really looks like we have a better chance of seeing some rain tonight than we did last night. 53 down to about 49 degrees. with those showers more likely. well, taking a look at what's happening. in the santa cruz mountains, highway 17 northbound size, this accident is blocking a lane right at the summit. it is possible involving injuries. we'll find out a little bit more about that but we are starting to see a few extra crashes starting to pop up. watch out for that in the northbound direction. a new report of an accident near

the bay bridge tolls -- right near the bay bridge and the maze. eastbound side of 80, a spun-out pick-up truck. it possibly hydroplaned. it is a hazard certainly this morning so be careful. 4:56 now. creating antibiotic resistant super germs may not be the only problem with those antibacterial hand soaps. researchers at arizona state university say they can create environmental problems as well. scientists say two common chemicals used in the soaps can contaminate lakes and rivers for years. the two chemicals are the most abundant drugs in waste water treatment plant sludge and they don't break down easily. that could mean lifetime exposure to fish and other wildlife. in december the fda gave manufacturers a year to prove those antibacterial soaps are safe. buckle your seatbelts. a new ride is now open in laying and this thing is huge. it is the high roller ferris while. it is 550 feet and it is said to

be the world's tallest ferry wheel. remember we talked about this thing is huge? there are 28 gondolas on the high roller and each can hold up to 40 people. riders pay $25 to ride during the day and $35 at night for a bird's-eye view of the sparkling. a baby will be able to boast that he got up close and personal with the president when he grows up. take a look. president obama and a 5-month-old immediately bonded during a white house event yesterday. the baby reached out to the president a president's nose. and grabbed. the little boy's family was there with members of the wounded warriors, a group of combat wounded veterans. >> the secret service didn't do anything about that baby. >> no, they didn't. in fact can you see them smiling in the background. caltrain's newest station is open for business this morning. next we're live in san bruno with a big improvement you'll

see. a bolt of lightning hits an 80-foot tall tree in berkeley. major clean-up is still under way as we brace for storm, round two. and, name game. why opponents are going to court today to reverse a decision to name the western span of the bay bridge for former san francisco mayor willie brown.

good morning on this tuesday. 5:00. thank you so much for joining us. first day of april. >> if you liked the weather yesterday, boy, you're going to love today. >> not that different to start, mike. >> absolutely. here's a look up in