>> i'm larry beil in for dan ashley. thanks for joining us. police say esteban santiago was the lone gunman. he had served in the alaska army national guard and he has undergone some psychological counseling in the past. the ft. lauderdale airport remains closed right now. as you can imagine, travelers were just terrified and scrambled 230 cover. >> reporter: gunshots in a busy airport, passengers evacuated. this morning's shooting at ft. lauderdale-hollywood international airport left multiple people dead, more wounded and resulted in a chaotic scene with fears of another possible shooter. but law enforcement officials say a single suspect is in custody. >> he's unharmed. no law enforcement fired any shots. the subject is being interviewed by a team of fbi agents and broward sheriff's office homicide detectives. >> reporter: just before 10:00 a.m. our time, reports came out of an active gunman inside terminal 2. the shooting happened on the lower level of terminal 2, by baggage claim. the suspect, esteban santiago,

is a former member of the alaska army national guard. law enforcement officials say he was a passenger on a flight to ft. lauderdale originating in alaska, with a checked gun. >> the investigation is very early. we have a lot of preliminary information that we are going through, but at this point our role is to actively support the broward sheriff's office until we make a determination on the nature and the motive of this incident. >> reporter: the experience disorienting and alarming to those who had just landed. >> it's a little bit shocking because you're not really prepared to see something like that when you're actually in an event like that. >> quite chaotic. passengers from ft. lauderdale landed at san francisco international airport this morning, just stunned by what happened while they were in the air. >> abc 7 news reporter melanie woodrow is joining us live from sfo after she had a chance to speak with some of those travelers. melanie? >> reporter: yeah, we did talk to those passengers earlier today at baggage claim. of course they were devastated. they learned the news while they

were in the air. you may be able to see on this board behind me, there was a flight that was supposed to depart here at 10:27 to ft. lauderdale. that flight has now been cancelled. earlier today we were seeing a lot of delays. an sfo spokesperson says the airport is monitoring the situation, and that spokesperson says right now two-thirds of the remaining flights from sfo to ft. lauderdale have been cancelled because the florida airport is closed until 9:00 our time, midnight eastern. earlier today, though, we were seeing delays, so of course your best bet is to check with vi individual airlines before coming out here to sfo. you can expect if you come out here to see a heightened vigilance by law enforcement, basically more patrols. but the way a passenger makes hiss or her way onto the airport, goes through those security checkpoints, all of that for now will remain the same. >> this is the moment of friends

and family and parents. i'd hate for this to go away because of one incident. >> reporter: again, the passengers we spoke with here say they were in the air when they learned of this news. they also say that they were able to follow along as everything was happening because of those tvs that are on most jetblue flights, and they tell us that there were no announcements from the pilot or from any of the flight attendants. live at sfo, melanie woodrow, abc 7 news. >> thank you. of course you can get the latest news any time with the abc 7 news app. download it for free and enable push alerts. onto our other major story, the weather. the approaching storm is sending many people into preparation mode taking precautions to protect their homes and businesses. cornell bernard is live in san anselmo with that story. cornell? >> reporter: larry, no one is taking any chances tonight and believe it or not this entire town of san anselmo is on storm watch. take a look.

sandbags at the ready just about everywhere here on san anselmo avenue and all eyes on san anselmo creek. many fear this weekend's storm could bring flooding. they're taking no chances ahead of the storm at this real estate firm on san anselmo avenue where the entire store front is now covered in plastic and sandbags, lots of them, are standing by. >> the worry is that this turns into a creek, the creek extends itself right onto san anselmo avenue. >> reporter: he's seen flooding from nearby san anselmo creek. this time he's not so sure. >> touch wood, we've been very lucky and always dodged the bullet. i kind of have a feeling my luck is about to run out. >> reporter: every merchant is armed with sandbags. the potential for flooding is real. >> we worry about a lot of rain all at one time. that runoff all goes into the creek. >> reporter: just weeks ago

flood sirens sounded and downtown san anselmo was evacuated when the creek rose to near flood stage. this webcam shows how fast the creek filled up in a matter of hours. luckily flooding never happened. >> and the red line is the flood stage. >> reporter: the office of emergency services is open with a flash flood watch in effect. the director says residents need to be prepared for a rough weekend. >> the issue is potentially power outages, and you could become landlocked. so if that's your situation, then you need to make sure you're ready to be able to stay in. >> reporter: he expects flooding on the russian river by sunday or monday. dan janosec is ready but worried about his neighbors. >> i'm high enough up that i'm not so worried about my house getting flooded but you never want to see people's homes get destroyed. >> reporter: residents should be ready to move to higher ground as the storm intensifies. cornell bernard, abc 7 news.

>> and there's a real threat of flooding in parts of santa clara county that includes the creek which spilled over already. taking no chances, dozens of residents evacuated the thousand trails rv park west of morgan hill earlier today. >> the rising river would pose a danger to the bridges. there's no other way to get in and out of there. if there was an emergency in there with the bridges down, they wouldn't be able to help anybody in there. >> the rv park has flooded before, most recently last march. many residents are following the order to leave and some have already found alternate places to park their rvs nearby. >> abc 7 news was in moraga today where we found a crew working on a landslide we first told you about last year. it's on augusta drive and forced two families out of their homes. this huge slide is covered by tarps and plastic sheeting. it's also affected water service for almost a year now. neighbors there are not happy, although east bay mud tells us there's no evidence of any

additional sliding. all roads leading in yosemite are closing even as we speak. u.s. park officials made that decision today. they say for visitor and staff safety. the same storm hitting us here could dump a foot of rain in yosemite valley and of course snow in the higher elevations of the park. >> let's get right to drew tuma for the latest on the storm. drew, our first 4 on the storm impact scale. >> since the inception of the scale a couple of years ago exclusive to abc 7, we have yet to rank a storm a 4, until this weekend. this is going to be a major storm moving through the bay area, mainly early sunday morning, so the highest impacts will be sunday midnight through 10:00 a.m. we're talking heavy rain and powerful wind gusts of flooding and wind damage are certainly a concern, but this is going to be a very active weekend. starting tomorrow we have a two on the storm impact scale so saturday will not be an easy cake walk. even as we go down the road tuesday, we have a 3 on the impact scale.

let's talk about the concerns we have this weekend. a lot of rain in a short amount of time means stream and creek flooding very likely, along with debris flows along our burn scars. that is very likely as well. ponding on roadways, hydroplaning means travel will be difficult this weekend. strong winds likely creating power outages, even river flooding is a concern. live doppler 7 tracking the start. the light showers will move onshore by 10:00 tonight, but early tomorrow morning, saturday, 6:00 in the morning, there is some heavy rain, those pops of yellow. this is just an appetizer of what's to come on sunday. we also have watches and warnings to talk about across the region. that coming up in the full forecast in a few minutes. kristen. >> thanks, drew. live doppler 7 will be changing rapidly throughout the weekend and you can track the approaching storm with the abc 7 news app. be sure you enable the push alerts so you get advisories sent right to your phone or tablet. a man accused of kidnapping and raping a woman just waiting

for b.a.r.t. made his first court appearance today. he attacked the woman near the mayfair b.a.r.t. station and appears to be random. the woman was just trying to get home. eric thomas joins us live from that station. eric. >> reporter: the suspect was arraigned today in hayward. his lawyer asked for a continuance. police say the evidence in this case is very strong. they say, one, they have surveillance video from b.a.r.t. of the attack and, two, they have a dna hit. the suspect, 27-year-old meini foster, is being held on numerous felony charges, starting with -- >> kidnapping with the intent to commit sexual assault as well as several other sexual assault crimes. >> reporter: police say the ordeal began here at the bayfair b.a.r.t. station about a week and a half before christmas. a woman in her mid-20s got off b.a.r.t. here around midnight after having a few drinks at an after-work party. that's when foster pounced, forcibly dragging woman almost a

4 mile behind a local kfc and raping her. >> at about 3:00 in the morning covered in mud, she was able to go to a nearby residential neighborhood. she banged on a door and she sought help. >> investigators gathered dna from the victim and matched it to foster. >> if convicted of all of the charges that have been brought against him by the alameda county district attorney, could face life in prison without the possibility of parole. >> reporter: foster is on probation from san francisco, where he was convicted of lewd behavior on a muni bus. he was ordered to register as a sex offender, but strangely doesn't appear on the state's megan's law website. that seems to greatly bother san leandro police. but now that he's in custody, officers say the focus turns to helping the victim. >> this is probably one of the worst crimes that anybody could ever be exposed to. you can only imagine how traumatic it can be. >> reporter: so traumatic police considered not releasing information about the case to

spare the victim more pain. eric thomas, abc 7 news. up next, go inside a burning building. a firefighter's helmet camera captures the dangerous flames. plus shaking things up in san francisco. why there was such a big turnout to welcome the city's newest supervisor. bay area skiers hoping for the best. will there be a silver lining to this weekend's storm? >> and about to break off and slide into the sea. the iceberg that's bigger than al

a seat once occupied by harvey milk will now be taken by aids activist jeff shehey. he's an outsider who has the respect of the establishment. >> i will be the lgbt supervisor. >> reporter: it's a fitting role for a 59-year-old who has spent years defending gay rights. in the mid-'90s, jeff shehey

pushed city hall to do business woenl those companies providing domestic partner benefits. under then mayor gavin newsom, he was san francisco's aids czar. he has led the city towards the goal of reaching zero cases of new hiv infections. he will be the first supervisor living with hiv. he anticipates many threats under the new presidential administration. >> rights that we fought for and won, that women have won, we may have to fight for them all over again. >> reporter: shehey is a progressive who has retaken the term family values. today his husband and daughter stood by him. he made it clear that supporting families would be on his new agenda. >> and if we don't do right by our kids, we're not creating the right future for this city. >> reporter: he also spoke about an issue that some city officials have grown tired of addressing, public safety. >> our streets need to be safe.

people need to be able to park on the street. >> reporter: many in district 8 say the homeless situation is affecting the neighborhoods here. >> whoever is going to be a new guy in charge hopefully will have solution about this. >> i don't want to start off demonizing one sector of the community or the other sector of the community. my hope is we can bring people together and find solutions. >> reporter: he will be sworn in on sunday by mayor lee and on the job on monday. in san francisco, lyanne melendez, abc 7 news. erie video of a firefight inside an oakland apartment building. >> we have some video from the helmet camera of a firefighter who was battling the flames inside this building on harrison street. investigators say a wall heater ignited a blanke inside a first floor unit sparking what was a three-alarm blaze around 4:00 this morning. >> the blaze has left 14 people without a place to live right now. one person suffered a minor cut to the leg. the treasure island landscape will change rather

dramatically in the coming months. dozens of palm trees are going to be cut down. removal notices have been posted on the trees along the avenue of the palms to allow needed soil work for the new waterfront there. palms that are healthy, they'll be transplanted but most of the ones facing san francisco are in pretty bad shape. >> the ones here along the western shoreline have some structural problems that don't make them good candidates for surviving the transplanting. >> the good news is that nearly 250 trees will be planted along the edge of the island, but that will not happen for a few years. the same storm that's expected to dump lots of rain on the bay area will likely make traveling in the sierra dangerous. abc 7 news reporter alyssa harrington explains why. >> reporter: snow has been dumping in the sierra nevada mountains, creating a winter wonderland at lake tahoe ski resorts, but that's about to change. >> we're expecting a very strong storm to move in saturday and continue through monday.

>> reporter: rain, not snow, is expected to drench the tahoe area, which could melt all that fresh powder and cause dangerous conditions. flooding, landslides, and road closures. the national weather service is advising travelers to postpone trips until monday, when the snow level falls. >> we're looking at flooding on roadways, those streams and rivers are going to be running very high. the potential for rock and mudslides on those mountain roads as well. >> still skiers renting equipment are hoping for at least one good day on the mountain. >> i'm standing here crossing my fingers hoping that we get cold weather and more snow just for the selfish reason of snow is fun to play in and it does make me a little nervous that if it rains, we could wash away a lot of our snowpack and see some flooding. >> reporter: the california highway patrol expects to respond to a lot of weekend collisions. >> we really ask people to slow

down, to watch their following distances, not make multiple lane changes. >> reporter: and carry chains, even if your car has four-wheel drive. alyssa harrington, abc 7 news. and it was literally freezing in sonoma county this morning. jordan winery used the #abc7now to show how the cold would not stop their crews from working on the vines. >> we also saw a beautiful sunrise, right? that of course is about to change. >> let's go back to abc 7 news meteorologist drew tuma for more on this big incoming storm. drew. >> reporter: yeah, we are in store for a soaking weekend. we go from freeze warnings to fash flood watches. we are tracking what is the initial band of light rain moving onto the coast. this will intensify overnight tonight. the wider picture, what i want to show you, this is just a large shield of moisture. this cloud cover you see off the coast, that is intense rainfall. it's going to be moving onshore over the next 48 hours. so the storm impact scale, if

you are new to this here the aabc 7, it's an exclusive scale to us. we rank our storms from 1 to 5. it gives you a better idea what to suspect. 1 is light, 5 is severe. we'll start you off on saturday. it will be a 2 on saturday. morning downpours, some evening showers. it does turn breezy saturday afternoon, but what will happen, this system will rapidly intensify as we approach saturday night into early sunday morning. so it's for that fact the storm impact scale gets upgraded to a 4, a major storm on the storm impact scale. we have never had a 4 on the storm impact scale since its inception about two years ago. so this has been pretty rare. midnight to 10:00 a.m. this will be the highest impacts early sunday morning. heavy rain, powerful wind gusts, flooding and wind damage is likely. let's go hour by hour for you on future weather and time this whole system out. we start at 5:00. we do have a lot of cloud cover overhead. early saturday morning the rain starts to fill in. by 6:00 in the morning these pops of yellow and orange on your screen, those are the

downpours. as we go into the afternoon on saturday, don't be surprised if we see a little bit of a lull in the activity. this is to be expected but it will quickly ramp up as you approach nid nigmidnight on sun. these pops of red you see on your screen, that is intense, heavy rainfall coming down and it really does not let up for a prolonged period. 5:00 sunday morning we're still tracking downpours training through the region, even as we go through 10:00. the sun is up and the rain is still falling in buckets. expected rainfall, we'll see several inches in many communities. the highest looks to be right along the santa cruz mountains, 5 to 10 inches of rain. on theliward side, a little less but significant around san jos, 2 to 3 inches of rain. through the heart of the bay area, 3 to 4.5 inches. the north bay could see 3 to 6 inches of rainfall. in a 48-howaur period. a lot of rain is falling in a short amount of time.

a flash flood watch will go into effect saturday afternoon. as this rain falls down we could see areas quickly flooded. we'll keep on top of the rivers as well. the napa river does look like it will have a little bit of flooding, especially 3:00 on sunday afternoon. it is forecast to go over flood stage about 18.6 feet. that's 2.5 feet above flood stage. along with the russian river in guerneville, 4:00 monday afternoon we are expecting the river to crest. flood stage is 32 feet. forecast is 36.3 feet. so moderate flooding there. along with the rain we have wind in our urban areas, a wind advisory is in effect. it could be as high as 45 miles per hour. in our hills, even higher winds than that so high wind warning in effect. look at that, 60-mile-per-hour wind gusts could get clocked this weekend. the accuweather seven-day forecast will show you tomorrow it's moderate rain.

it ramps up intensely sunday with heavy rain and gusty winds. some lingering showers monday and even tuesday rainy and windy. >> thank you, drew. scientists are keeping a close eye on a growing crack in the larson ice shelf in antarctica, because if this ice breaks off, it could create one of the biggest icebergs on record. one that's a little bigger than sonoma county itself, just to give you an idea of the size and perspective. video from nasa shows the expansive and deep crack in the floating sheet of ice. it's 70 miles long, 300 feet wide and a third of a mile deep, and it's hanging on by just 12 miles of ice. scientists say it could break off in the next few months causing sea levels to rise about 1/16 of an inch. >> we might see more and more of this happening. from drinking healthy to being healthy. it's all about starting the new year right. for finney's friday free stuff,

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organic chia vitality beverage. >> mama chia, she makes it the old-fashioned way. >> mama chia. the first 500 people on our website will get some of this. you guys want to try it? >> sure. i'm trying to reduce the glare on th label but i'm failing. >> raspberry passion. pass it on to your neighbor right there. you'll get a full day of omega 3s in this. also 25% of your dietary fiber and 4 grams of complete protein. what does it taste like? >> i feel like it's like tap yoka. >> it's a little thick. >> it's like a smoothie. >> it's not too sweet, though, which is good. >> try it out for yourself, see if you like it. we didn't really get a yea or nay out of these two. >> you know, the second drink i'm liking it more. >> is that right? >> yeah, yeah. >> how do we get it?

>> you get it right there. go online, abc7news.com. that's where all the information is. for mamma chia's and crunch fitness, try them out. >> definitely has texture. thanks, michael. >> say hi to mamma chia for us. coming up, the salute that appears to be unnoticed, and honey nut cheerios get their delicious taste from honest ingredients. like real delicious honey... and real oats. ok, that's still honey. ahhh, there we go. we're back to honey again. who's directing this?

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yep indeed, get ready to watch live kumcoverage of the raiders game here on abc 7. wayne freedman is there for the wild card game against the texans. he'll have live reports plus postgame interviews after the game. >> when i saw that, i thought wayne might be playing quarterback. thankfully, no. as for what's happening tonight at 6:00, here's ama daetz with more. >> let's not tell him we were laughing so hard. thank you, guys. coming up at 6:00, we're going to take you around the bay and show you what's being done to protect people ahead of this weekend's storm.

plus the help we'll be getting from a group of southern california first responders. also it's a big job, the steps a bay area company is taking to make sure that all of president-elect trump's statements are on the record. and he may not be a favorite of raiders fans, but we'll tell you about tom brady's special connection to a heartbroken bay area family. that's all coming up in half an hour on abc 7 news at 6:00. >> san mateo native. thanks, ama. finally tonight, a touching scene from across the pond. british guards are known for having a stiff upper lip but watch what happens when a mini guardsman came to visit windsor calf for his fourth birthday. >> video posted on instagram shows little marshall scott saluting the soldiers. one of them came -- how cute is this, summoning his little admirer for a picture. they posed for a moment. the real guard didn't say a ward. he marched away. the guard later came back offering to give marshall and his mom a tour of the castle. how cool is that? >> i swear that hat is bigger

than he is. "world news tonight" is coming up next. >> see you in half an hour for the news at 6:00. tonight, breaking news. the terror playing out inside the ft. lauderdale airport. a gunman opening fire. authorities say a 26-year-old american, an army veteran, killing five and leaving several more injured. victims rushed to the hospital. tonight, what we've just learned about the gunman. he was known to the fbi. as we hear from eyewitnesses who were standing just a few feet away from him. also tonight, the face-to-face meeting inside trump tower. after weeks of president-elect donald trump taking aim at u.s. intelligence, questioning their work, questioning the russian hacking, tonight, mr. trump in the same room with them. and what he said right after. and this evening, new information declassified. authorities revealing vladimir putin wanted donald trump to win. dang