usgs betterre of how heavy it is. that orange and yellow, 280 and cesar chavez, and we do have some video of that. >> alexis, thank you. we continue our storm coverage in the south bay. big problems in the santa cruz mountains. >> the soaking rain is leading to rock slides there.. matt keller is there for us live this morning. matt? >> good morning, reggie and natasha. so much water here in the santa cruz mountains. i want to show you the runoff that is heading into the san lorenzo river. all this water is going into the san lorenzo river. i received that alert that mike was talking about on my phone, on my drive here on 17, and yes, there is a lot of water. everybody's keeping a close eye on that san lorenzo river this morning. and it's not just the rivers, though, we're worried about up here. that heavy rain caused mud and rocks to come down on local roads. cal fire called it a significant

land slide with potential to get worse. cars were directed cautiously through the area. on highway 9 just outside of brook dale, there was a multiple car accident. the drivers didn't hit each other. they crashed into rocks that had fallen on to the highway. >> i hit about a rock this big, and it destroyed my car. >> it's the first time the air bag has ever popped into my face and it was kind of crazy but i'm fine. i'm pretty sure they're >> reporter: chp says to slow down since you don't know what's around the corner. the next couple of hours will be critical here in the santa cruz mountains. we're keeping an eye on the san lorenzo river and we'll keep you updated all morning long, just so much water out here and you can see as soon as you get som debris out here, it can cause problems. reporting live in felton. >> matt, thanks so much. there are power outages

scattered around the bay area this morning. the two biggest, nearly 1,000 customers in the south bay and roughly 800 in the north bay. 4,000 people in the north bay town of guerneville were left without electricity yesterday. a tree fell on the power line long the russian river and knocked out power to most of the town. lights were out at some restaurants. employees tried to make due. >> we were still able to finish out some dinners and meals that were going as well as i can still do most of the bar. apparently our soda machine doesn't work well without power so i'm a little bit limited. >> hey, they gave it a try, though. pg&e will have every crew out today. parts of the north bay dealing with rain, local vineyards floded this morning and part of snider lane under water. even locals were confused. >> how do you get out of here? >> that is a good question. i think there's an exit down that way.

the way we came in. >> a lot of attention today will be focused on the russian river. it may overflow. its banks should enough rain come down. >> heavy rain overflowed drainage ditches and roads. this is from fair field, plenty of flooded signs warning motorists. one car drove through anyway and you can see how deep the water gets there. that driver did make it through safely you hear that noise coming from outside your apartment, you walk out and see this, firefighters using chain saws to cut a tree off your car. this happened around 9:00 last night on sacramento and o octavia streets. abc news was in pacifica where an old cypress tree fell on to two parked cars and the owners of the cars are out of

town on vacation so they don't know yet. neighbors say they felt shaking and heard the loud boom. >> reporter: you heard a crack or a snap and then like an earthquake and i jumped out and ran outside. it was a huge gust of rind, you know? shook my house. but then my dog came and got me. so i knew that it was more than just shaking my house. >> and the neighbors have tried to reach out on facebook to let the owners of those cars know what happened before they get home. you can track our rain and snow with the abc 7 news app. we have live doppler 7 there. enable push alerts and you will get information sent right to your phone. rain and high winds having a big impact on travel. >> jess, how's it look? >> reporter: not looking very good, the airport itself calling this major delays, departure delays out of sfo right now and rifl arrivals not doing much better. i want to show you this map. sfo, the only one in red right

now. and i want to show you this as well because we've seen a lot of those cancellations, primarily affecting the southern california area so this is a look at some flights going out to san diego. we spoke with sfo. so far today, they have already 19 cancellations, 7 of those ar departures and 12 of those are arrivals and again this is to los angeles so that's where we're seeing those delays, primarily, to southern california. check ahead if you do have a flight there. san jose's website shows only one delay right now. i just checked and that's the flight out to lax this morning. oakland reporting no delays so far. >> thank you, jessica. dwroping news in the east bay. we are learning more this morning about oakland pd's new police chief. several sources have confirmed to abc 7 news that an outsider, anne kirkpatrick, has been selected to lead the department. she has worked in chicago and

spokane. our sources say she's been known to be tough. >> reporter: mayor libby schaaf chose anne kirkpatrick from chicago's police department. kirkpatrick will be the first female police chief in oakland's history. kirkpatrick was the former police chief in spokane, washington, and was picked by chicago's police superintendent to head the department's new bureau of professional standards last year. kirkpatrick is a memphis native and a lawyer. some insiders expected mayor schaaf to choose a woman after saying she was here to run a police department, not a, quote, frat house. this comment came after a widespread sexual misconduct scandal, which in turn created a revolving door of police chiefs. last year, sean went resigned after members of the police department admitted to having sex with an underaged prostitute who went by the name celeste. then interim chief ben far roe was appointed. he lasted just six days.

acting chief stepped in but quickly resigned. >> that was lisa reporting and meanwhile, in fair field, firefighters had to back away from this fire when ammunition started exploding in the garage. it happened just north of interstate 80 and once most of the flames were out, firefighters worked on the hot spots. home and garage were completely stroited. a community forum is scheduled to discuss how to protect tenants from warehouses from eviction. the forum was scheduled after the ghost schihip fire killed 3 people last month. some warehouses have been shut down. an passed. pacifica city council members will host a meeting. that building yellow tagged a

year ago last january. it is hanging at the edge of eroding cliffs that are falling away into the ocean. council members are considering a contract to tear it down altogether. the owner of the property declared bankruptcy in 2015. now your accuweather focus. >> is your destination the bay bridge toll plaza? look at that. moderate rain falling right now through emeryville up towards berkeley, through oakland, peed month, right up 24 and over towards lafayette. it is a bear to drive through there, so much standing water. it's like driving this sand almost. dublin grade, very wet. we've got camino, very wet in western danville heading towards livermore. that's where all that moderate rain is going to cause more ponding. notice there's a little bit of a break developing to our north so the heaviest of the rain is hours. here's your 12-hour day planner and that includes 7:00.

by noon, more scattered showers, light showers by 4:00, and from 7:00 on, there's a slight chance of a shower. so it's going to taper as we head throughout today but it's going to affect your activities outside, whether you're on the roads, very poor driving conditions this morning. if you're on the water, not as breezy as last night but get prepared to be wet, and if you're going to be out and about, our heaviest rain is this morning. you'll be able to get out there and do a little stuff outside as we head into the afternoon hours. even stronger storm for the weekend. i'll have that coming up next. here's alexis with an update on your commute. >> yeah, we're going to take a look right now at some flooding and this is in the san francisco area so our crews shot this right around 101 and 80 and there you go. hit that huge puddle. you can see all that road spray kicking up and just some really dangerous driving conditions. we also have heavy rain and flooding reported around 280 and cesar chavez and in the last half hour, three separate collisions in the same areas so

just really want to slow down and take it easy and know that standing water is out there this morning and check that out. look at that semi, just kicking up those huge rooster tails. visibility is going to be an issue this morning. i had my wipers on high the entire way in. just not a fun commute. if you can stay at home this morning, i highly recommend that. we will take a look at our current conditions coming up in just a few minutes. better than anything we've seen so far. alexis, thank you. coming up, donald trump versus the intelligence community, the new questions he's raising about the investigation into the russian hacking of the election. also the search for the good samaritans who stepped in to help "star wars" actress carrie fisher and the details we are learning about the memorials for her and her mother. her and her mother.

where teams compete to make the right decisions about safe food preparations. our challenge in this round -- read and follow package cooking instructions, and use a food thermometer. let's see how our teams are doing so far -- team 1? we just got 100 points. we separated our raw food from our cooked food. team 2? we got a 100-point green card for proper hand washing before our meal prep. referee: we've reached a critical safety point in the challenge. okay, team 1, let's check this out. uh-oh, not a safe internal temperature for those hamburgers. that puts everyone at high risk for food-borne illness. you get a red card -- undercooked. always read and follow the package cooking instructions and use a food thermometer.

let's see how our winning team cooked it safe and avoided problems. well, i just kept focus on the four food safety steps -- clean, separate, cook, and chill. and we followed the package cooking instructions and took the temperature. can you cook it safe? . 4:43. you're taking a live look at a very wet embarcadero this morning. i know driving in, there was quite a bit of ponding on the embarcadero and all of my colleagues say they had a rough ride so please be careful out there. if you take photos or video of the weather where you live, post them using now a live desk update from abc 7 mornings >> monterrey county reporting its first flu death of the season, so far, officials are

only saying the person is under the age of 65. they have not released their name or where they live. health officials say influenza activity is increasing in monterey county. this is actually is second death of the season in california. someone else died in los angeles county last month. natasha, reggie, back to you. the family of "star wars" actress carrie fisher and her mother, hollywood icon debbie reynolds, will be held. the service will be for family members only. fisher's brother, todd,mentes united airlines passengers who tried to revive his sister to be present. he credits them for getting his family a chance to say good-bye to to his sister. tmz reports the family has reached out to meryl streep to

develop a eulogy. president-elect donald trump says a briefing is delayed until friday. intelligence leaders say that has always been the scheduled time. abc's norman has more. >> reporter: the president-elect throwing shade on the u.s. intelligence community. it's the latest in the russian hacking schedule that's found the president-elect aligned with the fugitive computer activist. julian assange. >> whether assange is a knowing participant or what the russians call a useful idiot, that's hard to tell. >> reporter: meanwhile in washington, house republicans doipg an about face. first, behind closed doors, voting to protect themselves by gutting the office of congressional ethics, created to make sure they play by the rules. then, trump tweeting, with all that congress has to work on, do they really have to make the weakening of the independent ethics watchdog as unfair as it may be their number one act and priority? and finally, a last-minute

meeting and unanimous decision to delay, heavily influenced by those tweets. trump announced he'll hold his first news conference in months in one week on january 11 and at the same time, we're learning bill and hillary clinton will join george w. bush at the inauguration to watch trump get sworn in as 45 >> 4:46 now and if you take muni along gary boulevard in san francisco, listen up. happening today, there will be a move to make your ride on critical corridor safer, faster, and more reliable,they say. a committee is expected to recommend approval for the gary rapid bus transit project. the project includes bus only lanes, new stations, new traffic signals, these changes are expected to save off as much as 20 minutes per round trip. no matter the outcome this weekend, the oakland raiders are expected to make history on saturday. >> with a little updates on matt mcgloin's injury, rookie

quarterback conner cook expected to start in the team's wild card game. he would be the first quarterback if the super bowl era to make his first start in the playoffs. he actually broke his finger in week 12. the team said it was a dislocation. his pinky should heal by training camp. >> they're going to take on the texans in houston. our live coverage starts at noon on saturday. 49ers potential gm candidates, among them, elliot wolf, current espn analyst, louis riddic, and possibly the most intriguing, nick casario from the patriots and that's because new england's offensive coordinator is also a to be coaching kabd. we can't warn you enough. it is wet out there and potentially dangerous on the roads. let's talk to mike right now to see what we can expect. >> i'm just fine tuning live

doppler to show you all the areas of heavy rain. let me althouload this one on t bridge toll plaza. so much ponding on the roadway there, it's almost like driving through a mini-river in many areas this morning. until you get to the south bay where it's a little bit better because you've had about 1/4 of an inch. that rain got the better of you guys right now. that's 101 and 880 and you can see it's very wet. steady rain this morning to light showers this afternoon, cooler tonight, and then dry until friday and a stronger storm, a real strong storm possible saturday, sunday, and monday, in fact, i just upped the storm impact scale for sunday. i'll show you that in just one second. here's a look. you can see the eastern side of the san mateo bridge as you head into hayward, ponding developing right now with that moderate rain, some heavy rain heading towards dublin. that will stretch up 680 and a

san ramon. some of our earliest commuters, you can see, ponding on highway 4 right now. and this stretch is back to pittsburg, clayton, ignacio road, all the way down to walnut creek and then back to maraga, lafayette, more ponding is developing right now. now, the way things are moving, yeah, looks pretty impressive right now. but this is it. if you're one of our earlier accumulators, you're going to have the toughest time this morning. temperatures right now in the mid 50s to upper 50s, not going anywhere. here's a look at the rain. you can see by 9:00 it's just about over and then scattered showers as we head through the afternoon and evening hours. let me quickly show you temperatures because they're going to be about 20 degrees cooler tonight, mid 30s in the valley to mid 40s around the bay. thursday dry, friday dry until the evening hours and then saturday's a 2, i just bumped sunday up to a 3. there's a potential for a couple of inches of rain and more power

outages and that will linger into monday. alexis? all right, mike, just show that had really heavy rain on live doppler 7, right around the hayward area. here's a live look at that on our traffic camera. a lot of rain on the lens there and if you can see through that, on to the roadway. we've just got some big rooster tails, some really tough driving conditions this morning. it will improve later in the day, so boy, if you can delay that trip, i highly recommend that. that orange, that yellow you're seeing on live doppler 7, that's some really heavy stuff. this just pushed through san francisco as well. showed you that video of a lot of flooding around 101 and 80 sper change, also 280 and cesar chavez. southbound 101 just before the 280 merge, they're working on clearing that accident. we had all lanes stopped just a few minutes ago. looks like that is starting to improve but tough commute. we have flooding in the tri-valley and rollover crash in the danville area. thanks, alexis. if you use amazon a lot, we do

have a warning for you this morning. coming up next, why you'll want to give the companies you buy from a closer look oomt also, here we go again, what this boy did that landed him in a dangerous predicament. plus maybe the force will be finally with us. george lucas's hunt for a home for a "star wars" museum is just about over. are we the winners? first, this morning's tech bytes. >> and today's tech bytes, a preview of this week's super bowl for dajt gurus. >> that's where chrysler is showing off the future of minivans. this is the all electric portal that can operate without a driver. >> it recognizes who's in it and can adjust the lighting, temperature, and even the music. it's just a concept, at least for now. >> also at the show, a gaming laptop called predator features a 21 inch curved screen and four speakers. >> price tag? $9,000. it will be available next month. >> and mattell is coming out with an artificial intelligence device to keep an eye on your baby it have. >> the aristotle can instantly

respond to your infant's cry. much like a souped up baby much like a souped up baby monitor, price tag $3 martin luther king jr.: we hold these truths to be self-evident -- that all men are created equal. john f. kennedy: the torch has been passed to a new generation of americans. barbara jordan: the american dream need not forever be deferred. lyndon johnson: this is the richest and the most powerful country...

for the thousands of wounded warriors returning from battle, wounded warrior project has developed the warriors to work program, a unique program that helps wounded warriors translate their military experience to the civilian workplace. the warriors to work program also works with employers to find the right job for the right warrior. contact wounded warrior project at findwwp.org. welcome home the brave.

♪ when you recognize something isn't right, make the call to the veterans crisis line at 1-800-273-8255 and press 1. abc 7 storm impact scale. today's storm is level 1. that means light rain so keep an umbrella handy and drive safely. track today's storm any time on the abc 7 news app. download it now.

welcome back. for the second time at the same resort, a child had to be rescued. this boy got his backpack stuck in the chair at the sun dance mountain resort in utah. he is okay but take a look at your screen. nearly two weeks ago, a nearly identical situation unfolded there after another boy got his backpack caught. after that incident, sun dance urged everyone to prepare before getting off the lift. they say you should start wriggling to make sure you're not caught on anything. >> maybe just no more backpacks. one of the state's largest dams will have to release more water because of the rain northern california has been getting, several inches of rain expected in the sacramento area next week. folsom dam will release about double the amount of water they had planned to prevent the dam from overflowing. they says the water release is part of a delicate balance to prevent flooding but to keep adequate water storage for the

drier months. live doppler 7 zoomed down to street level. up in i-80 corridor, you can s some moderate rain just moved through there so look for some ponding on 4 and 80 through there. the rain stretches all the way down to the grapevine so heading through the central valley, it's going to be wet. heading into the mountains, heavy snow today. in fact, we have still have that winter storm warning effect until 4:00 thursday morning. this is how much more snow we're going to receive. they have already received about a foot and a half, another foot and a half is on the way, it is dangerous getting around there. please be careful if you're heading up that way and take your chains. we have a really busy morning on the roads, 28 incidents on the boards already, not even 5:00 a.m. yet. and that yellow and orange is really heavy stuff right around the tri-valley right now, too, so if you're going to be traveling through the dublin area, southbound 680 to eastbound 580, all of those lanes are flooded on that connecter and they do have a

crew on the way to that scene. also southbound 680 in the san ramon area near crow canyon, vehicle flipped over on the side and is on the shoulder. tough morning, slow down, take it easy and drive for tnz. alexis, thank you. san francisco versus los angeles, "star wars" creator george lucas will decide this month which city will get his museum. san francisco has offered lucas a four acre waterfront site. his narrative art museum looks like a galactic fighter in architectural drawings. this is not a "star wars" only project. lucas has a personal art collection of 40,000 paintings and drawing. a warning to you if you're shopping on amazon. buyers are seeing more items coming from third parties. a forbes columnist says three items he bought for christmas were never shipped. the sellers just took his money

and vanished. in each case, amazon made good on the deal but they demand that buyers accept some responsibility for checking out suppliers. the search for a new oakland police chief is finally over. next at 5:00 a.m., what makes the city's newest top cop unique. and of course we're on storm watch all morning long and we have seen it all this morning from heavy rain to powerful winds. our live team coverage continues. also ahead, a violent school encounter caught on video. why students are coming to the why students are coming to the defens

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good morning, south bay. let's get up and get going. >> this is abc 7 mornings ps 5:00 a.m. and we do want to tell you this may be one of the most