american blames the problem on air ducts inside the plane. passengers alerted flight attendants right away of what they saw and the captain decided to return to sfo over the sierra. san francisco firefighters stood along the runway as a precaution while the jet landed as they do whenever a plane has a potential problem. the good news here, no one was hurt. i talked to the duty manager here at san francisco international a short time ago. they say another plane is en route. passengers will have to wait until tomorrow morning at 7:00 a.m. to board that flight to dallas. live at sfo, cornell bernard, abc 7 news. >> just nervewracking. thanks very much. sick passengers aboard an overseas flight triggered worries about ebola in boston this afternoon. a medical team dressed in protective suits before boarding the emirates airlines jet at logan international airport. five passengers developed flu-like symptoms during their

13-hour flight from dubai to boston. an airport spokesman says none of them had visited west africa but they were isolated and evacuated as a precaution. president obama today getting briefed on ebola after a texas nurse contracts the disease. 26-year-old nina sam is the first person known to contract the virus on u.s. soil. she cared for thomas eric duncan, the liberian man who died from ebola last week at her dallas hospital. the centers for disease control says training on the local level to fight the virus is paramount. >> every hospital in this country needs to think about the possibility of ebola. >> many of them are. abc 7 news reporter sergio quintana is in the newsroom with more on this. >> indeed they are. especially after the unthinkable happened with that dallas nurse getting infected with ebola. hospitals across the country and throughout the bay area are now going over their procedures and equipment to make sure they are prepared. at san francisco general hospital today, some staff spent

this columbus day going over ebola protocols. >> we have a lot of experience taking care of infectious diseases. i say we have the expertise. i know that even today, you know, the hospitals are drilling. >> reporter: this is the public health officer for san francisco. he says all hospitals in the bay area have the ability to properly care for an ebola patient but because there is no experience doing this preparedness at every hospital and clinic needs to be ramped up. that echoes with what the cdc director said during a news conference this morning. >> we have to rethink the way we address ebola infection control because even a single infection is unacceptable. >> reporter: right now, investigators in dallas are trying to figure out when 26-year-old nina sam was exposed to the ebola virus. she was part of the medical team that cared for eric thomas duncan, the liberian man who died at texas health presbyterian hospital. officials say some kind of breach in cdc protocol happened

but some experts are questioning the effectiveness of the cdc guidelines for care. which recommend that all professionals ebola patients should use gloves, a gown, eye protection and a face mask. but when you see images of workers cleaning up the nurse's home today, they are in fully sealed suits which seem more protective than what's recommended for medical personnel by the cdc. most hospitals don't have daily access or training for this kind of protective gear, or facilities that can offer full biocontainment wards. >> it's not feasible to believe that every single hospital in the u.s. is going have the same level of competency. >> reporter: the plan may be to have regional specialty hospitals where ebola patients can be cared for. sergio quintana, abc 7 news. >> how long does ebola last on your skin and how can you reduce your risk for infection? "world news tonight with david muir" answers those questions right after this newscast at 5:30 here on abc 7.

there are daily developments on the ebola crisis. you can get alerts on that and other breaking news with our abc 7 news app. it's free to download on apple's app store or google play. we have more information on abc7news.com/apps. an out of control car hit a young man at a major intersection in pleasant hill. the car then smashed into a utility pole and knocked over a street sign at pleasant hill and taylor boulevard. witnesses say the man was standing on the sidewalk holding a bike when the car hit him around 11:00 a.m. investigators suspect the driver had a medical emergency before the crash. palo alto police believe this man, a 19-year-old, was drunk when he hit and killed a pedestrian this morning. he is also suspected of driving without a license. sky 7 hd shows you the crash scene on east bayshore road. witnesses say his maxima went off the road, hit a pole and overturned. police don't know where the victim was standing when the car

hit him around 6:15 this morning. police believe store surveillance cameras caught pictures of a couple serial identity thieves. take a look at this. police say the woman on the left and the man seen with her again in the picture on the right are wanted for a number of identity and mail theft cases in the north and east bay. if you recognize them, police are asking for you to please give them a call. police in campbell are looking for this man. they say he exposed himself to a woman at a safeway store last month but it took police until today to finalize the sketch. the woman describes the man as homeless with long gray hair and a beard. he wore a green army jacket and dark pants and stood about 5'9" tall. this happened at the safeway on hamilton avenue on september 24th about 10:00 in the morning. he ran out of the store after it happened. a building demolition in san francisco's financial district went terribly wrong this morning. here's a look at what happened.

crews were tearing down this building on pine street when the facade fell forward on to the street. the bricks crushed a wood barrier set up for pedestrians and tumbled on to several driving lanes. it was supposed to fall inward. no cars or pedestrians were in the area at the time. san francisco firefighters and pg & e crews dealt with a gas leak. a car smashed into a house and severed a gas line on arganaut avenue and visitation valley just after 10:00 this morning. no one was hurt. that's the good news. but officials did evacuate people within a 100 foot radius of the leak until it was capped. fleet week wrapped up today and people just did not want it to end. check out the line of tourists waiting for a tour of the "uss america." by 9:00 this morning, look at that line. the wait was already an hour long. one of the best moments of fleet week came when the ship was commissioned this weekend.

>> man our ship and bring her to life. >> wow. crew members ran to the "uss america" up the gangway and across the deck. abc 7 news reporter lyanne melendez joins us from the embarcadero and organizers say this was one of the best fleet weeks they have seen. >> reporter: that's right, cheryl. here's why. you have, for example, for the first time the marine corps band playing different neighborhoods of san francisco. then you had also training exercises exclusive to san francisco and of course, you had that, the "uss america" which officially joined the fleet here in san francisco. all those tngs and of course, the blue angels contributed to a great fleet week. you know fleet week is coming to an end when the high school

bands play at golden gate park. the bands challenge is organized and judged by the marines. >> it really showcases our commitment to music education. otherwise, if we didn't have a high school band, we wouldn't be here either. >> reporter: this year, former secretary of state george schultz was among those who came to listen. eight high schools, most from the bay area, competed for a $10,000 grand prize. >> i would say the marine corps brand is stellar but some of these students are very good as well. >> reporter: this band has claimed the prize three times over the past four years. throughout fleet week, the members of the marine corps band moved around, playing in some of san francisco's neighborhoods. >> of course, the merchants love that because people organically gather around and of course the wonderful thing is the merchants saw the sailors and marines and invited them into the stores. >> reporter: according to san francisco travel, people who come to an event like fleet week

spend on average $100 a day. the organizers of fleet week say they had one million people over the weekend. >> you just go with the $100 a day, then you've got $100 million over the course of a week going into the economy. >> reporter: although they think that dollar amount is conservative. people always come to see the blue angels. this year, the "uss america" was a huge attraction, especially because it was commissioned here in san francisco. the ceremony was witnessed by thousands of people as crew members of the new warship assembled ready to man the ship and take possession. the "america" leaves san francisco tomorrow morning. lyanne melendez, abc 7 news. >> makes you proud. >> absolutely. there is much more ahead at 5:00. just ahead, how broccoli is giving scientists insight into autism. plus, why the pentagon says climate change is a national security threat. and -- >> how about a drum roll?

>> right there. >> great anticipation over the great pumpkin weigh-off. find out who shattered a record.

>> this is some exciting news. a small study is showing how broccoli may reduce symptoms of autism. more specifically, it's a chemical in broccoli. researchers from massachusetts general hospital say 44 autistic teenagers and young adults showed improvement in behavior and communications skills within four weeks of taking the drug. they were less lethargic and better motivated. the chemical is also found in cauliflower and cabbage.

the pentagon says climate change threats are being factored into planning, operations and training across all branches of the military. the 20-page report out tonight calls climate change a quote, threat multiplier. it could even exacerbate many of the challenges the u.s. faces today, including infectious diseases and terrorism. defense secretary chuck hagel wrote in the report that changing weather will make the world more unstable and even increase challenges like hunger and poverty. a lot of growers planted fewer pumpkins because of water restrictions. that meant fewer contenders for the weigh-off at half moon bay. the winner was a giant. abc 7 news's tiffany wilson has details. >> reporter: for the past several months, these folks have watered, pruned and primed their giant pumpkins to perfection. >> i spent hours on my plants. i gave up a lot of weekends where my wife wanted to go some place and i wouldn't go. i took some time off work

because it was so much work this year with the hot weather. >> reporter: now it comes down to whose gourd grew best. pumpkins can pack up to 50 pounds per day but water weight disappears almost as quickly. >> you are losing water weight the very second you cut it. >> reporter: that's why most growers kept the vines submerged until weigh-in. with a forklift and harness, judges carefully plopped each pumpkin on to the scale. big money's at stake. the winner walks away with $6 per pound. rob says that's not why he competes. >> i think i do it for the camaraderie. hanging out with people. i'm very competitive. i do like to have bragging rights. >> reporter: the five heftiest contenders will be on for the half moon bay art and pumpkin festival this weekend, an annual event started 44 years ago. >> means a lot to half moon bay, pumpkins do. they have got a lot of people here to half moon bay and put is at the capital of the world. >> reporter: finally, the big boy weigh-in. one pumpkin was disqualified

because of rot. then john's dreams came true. >> it's a big deal. >> reporter: at 2,058 pounds, his pumpkin broke the north american record. >> we never thought this could happen. we never allowed ourselves to think about something like this. >> reporter: at $6 a pound, this giant pumpkin should give him a check for $12,348. but because he broke the north american record, they decided to throw in an extra grand. tiffany wilson, abc 7 news. >> congratulations to john. tiffany was the first to tweet out the winner. he's a production manager at the napa valley register. the paper says he will be using the $13,000 prize to fix his home which was damaged in the august earthquake. really nice. we have a link to the scheduled events of the half moon bay pumpkin festival on abc7news.com. >> look at the size of that thing. incredible. let's turn to consumer news. here's a bit of advice you've heard 7 on your side's michael finney give before.

>> this evening michael is here with perhaps the best reason ever to read your medical bills. >> this was really an amazing study. californians have accumulated the third highest amount of medical debt in the united states according to a new study. medical debt is particularly high in california because of, get this, inaccurate billing. audits found more than 80% of california medical bills have errors so consider this a heads-up to read your bills and complain if something doesn't look right. only new york and texas have higher rates of medical debt than california. we have seen it before, bounce houses blown away and now we have another one. two toddlers have been injured after an inflatable house they were playing in was launched 50 feet into the air by a gust of wind that happened at a new hampshire farm. >> i saw this big bounce house fly up in the air. it just kind of flipped and came straight down. >> this is the latest in a string of recent incidents

involving bounce houses. you may remember early this month, surveillance video in china captured a bounce house flipping over, sending the children tumbling and back in july, a dust storm in nevada launched an inflatable slide 500 feet, injuring two. is apple pay ready to roll out? an internal memo from walgreens suggests the new payment system will launch at its stores this saturday. apple pay allows iphone 6 owners to pay for their purchases using their phones. walgreens appears confident in the service which promises to be the simplest, quickest and most secure payment method available. we'll see. >> could be interesting. thanks, michael. well, this coming friday, we are going to mark a very somber milestone. it's been 25 years since 15 seconds that changed the bay area. that is when the loma prieta earthquake hit. i was here anchoring as abc 7 became the first news organization to show the extent of the damage.

we are running on generator power right now. we had a chopper at the bay bridge right now. are we seeing pictures? >> that is correct. >> i understand we are looking at a live picture of the damage to the bay bridge. an entire section of the bay bridge has been lost. very, very frightening situation. we understand there have been cars trapped. i'm getting late bulletins. >> we can't see the pictures here because we are still trying to get the monitor back. the upper deck, part of the upper deck, section of the upper deck of the bay bridge is probably what you are looking at right now, has collapsed. >> that's the voice of don sanchez, a news anchor at that time with me. we had to share one microphone because our resources were so limited. our late friend, anchor pete wilson was on the field at candlestick park where the giants and a's were playing in the world series. i'm hosting the half hour special on the loma prieta earthquake this coming friday at 6:30 on abc 7. i certainly hope you can join us. dan, you were also here covering

the quake. >> i remember being in the marina, interviewing the day after the quake. such a surreal moment. i can't wait to see your special. >> lot of teamwork went into putting that together. let's head outside for a check on the weather. >> meteorologist sandhya patel is here with the accuweather forecast. >> a little cooler today but really now, things are starting to change. it is getting much cooler out here. the breeze has kicked up. the clouds are rolling in. we are expecting rain this week and not just one day. let me show you live doppler 7 hd. we will talk about three storms that could potentially bring us rain this week. as we take a look, we have the fog around the coast and some low clouds pushing in over the bay. here's our beautiful view to prove it to you from the east bay hills camera. a little shaky there. redevelopment of that marine layer. 62 in san francisco. 73 in oakland. 81 san jose. currently half moon bay, 61 degrees. half moon bay airport actually hit a high of 73 so you can see how much it's dropped. we had low 90s around livermore,

fairfield, antioch today. san francisco, you went from 85 yesterday to 79 this afternoon. little bit of cooling. san jose cam showing you sunny skies right now. here are the temperatures. low 80s, santa rosa and petaluma, 70 in napa. 84 degrees currently in livermore. mount tam cam showing you a strong sea breeze bouncing the camera around. spotty drizzle overnight tonight. rain arrives tomorrow afternoon and evening with two new storms through next monday. here's the satellite picture. high pressure is weakening and behind this area of high pressure we are watching the cold front that's going to bring us wet and much cooler weather as we head towards your tuesday evening/wednesday. you will notice the difference around here. overnight tonight, expect the cloud cover cloud cover to increase. it's going to be a gray, drizzly morning for some parts of the bay area. then we could see a few prefrontal showers or light showers tomorrow during the day but it's not until tomorrow evening going into wednesday

that the main cold front arrives, 7:00 p.m. it's just northf santa rosa. slides south during the wednesday morning commute and we are expecting scattered showers to continue until around the 10:00, 11:00 a.m. hour. by 1:00 p.m., it's pretty much all done. we start our computer animation 1:00 p.m. tomorrow, take you all the way into 1:00 p.m. wednesday. wet spots could get anywhere from a tenth to a quarter inch. some areas as you will notice down towards the south bay may not see any rain at all. keep in mind we have two more storms coming and they could potentially get wetter as we head towards the next two storms. tomorrow morning, drizzly so allow extra time. it could be a little slow going. definitely overcast and a little on the cool side. temperatures in the 50s. you will need to bundle up tomorrow afternoon. we go from the low 90s in the warmest spots to the 70s. livermore, 77. 78, antioch. i will be 70 in napa. 67 santa rosa. 69 oakland. san francisco, 66. san mateo, 72. half moon bay, 65.

carry your umbrellas as you look at the accuweather seven day forecast. rain tomorrow afternoon/evening. morning showers wednesday followed by a short break thursday. more rain friday night into early saturday and a third opportunity, we are seeing rain late sunday night going into monday of following week. this was definitely the warmest of the next seven days. temperatures are going down and barely coming up. it will feel more like november than october. dan, cheryl? >> about time. thanks, sandhya. just ahead, the season has ended for the a's but the team mascot is still hard at work. >> why he definitely became the elephant in the room at one school. school. we'll be r

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encouraging news. an implantable miniature telescope for the eye should soon be available to a wider age group. vision care technology makes the implantable miniature telescope. the size of a pea. it's used to restore sight in patients suffering from end-stage age related macular degeneration. a recent supplemental approval by the food and drug administration now means patients 65 years of age or older are eligible for treatment, ten years lower than the previous age limit of 75 years. what do you get when you combine a little science with the oakland a's mascot, thumper? hard to say precisely but the combination sparked a chemical reaction at global family elementary school in oakland today. turns out thumper was delivering

some much-needed science kits to one fifth grade classroom. courtesy of their teacher, chevron and the online charity donor shoes.org. >> chevron is a company of engineers and scientists. our future depends on future engineers and scientists. >> because they are really excited because we have been doing hands-on activities, building bridges, we will go out test the water at our creeks and in our bay. >> i think we have something wrong in our copy. it's stomper. most of the students at global family are low income and lack the most basic classroom supplies. this was a big day. way to go. >> exciting. yeah. still ahead, bruce bochy watching batting practice today. what is being said about tomorrow's big game. a beautiful picture from astronaut reid weisman. he unpacked a new camera this afternoon and this is what he got. pretty

coming up on abc 7 news at 6:00, it's become the biggest tech convention of the year in san francisco. the big turnout for dream force and what it's doing to the local economy and the traffic. plus, falling short. the struggles to recruit new officers in the san jose police department and how it's impacting the city's sense of safety. and mortgage modification nightmares. 7 on your side helps one couple when the bank refused to acknowledge them as the rightful owners. that's all coming up in half an hour on abc 7 news at 6:00. it was a very good day for a swim out in the bay. these people didn't just go for a short dip. >> many of them are native american activists taking part in the swim from alcatraz. it's about a mile and a quarter swim from the rock to the park. >> this is the twelfth year the tribes have been doing the swim to promote healthy lifestyle changes. >> one woman lost 120 pounds

since she started that challenge. congratulations there. the san francisco giants are back in town after yesterday's crushing loss in st. louis. >> the team took in some batting practice this afternoon at the giants ballpark. the giants could have won both games against the cardinals but a walk-off home run gave st. louis a split in the series. >> incredible game. the cardinals also took batting practice at at & t park today. yesterday's hero says the team is paying special attention to the outfield wall. >> reading balls off the wall will be tough for us. we will definitely work on that, trying to see how balls are going to react coming off that wall. certain parts of the wall have different angles the ball takes. >> the good news for the giants is the next three games are at home at the giants ballpark. >> first pitch tomorrow is at 1:07. wednesday and thursday's start at 5:00 p.m. go, giants. "world news tonight with david muir" is coming up next. >> for all of us here, we appreciate your time.

welcome to "world news tonight." and breaking right now, the deadly tornadoes touching down across several states. more than 20 million americans on alert for severe storms tonight. in the middle of this country and moving east. also, the tropical storm that just turned into a hurricane. also this evening, the first case of ebola transmitted in america. the 26-year-old nurse from dallas and her little dog, both in isolation. and we ask here, how long does ebola last on surfaces, on your skin? and the new scare on the plane that landed in boston. the pictures coming in. the 911 call just coming in from inside a school bus tonight. about 80 students on board. they say the driver begins to swerve. you'll hear the terrified calls. what was the driver on? and the "deadliest catch." our ginger zee out to sea with the fishermen from that hit program.