the storm. >> reporter: more than 60 million americans bracing for the big blizzard. >> awful. >> why? >> the snow is crazy. i didn't expect it to get this bad. it is intense. so crazy. >> reporter: the fierce nor'easter taking shape that could set records for the biggest snowfall in the month of march. snow is pounding parts of the midwest. expected to collide with another system moving up the east coast, creating a monster storm. >> we went and got our milk and eggs. we're ready to go. >> reporter: washington's cherry blossoms anticipated to reach peak bloom this week but spring is now on standby. the surge of winter weather catching millions by surprise. >> it went from 60 degrees, warm day and a t-shirt to this. >> reporter: last week's warmth giving way to these dangerous driving conditions in the icy grip of winter. >> i don't like the cold. i thought we were going into spring. disappointed. >> reporter: the midwest facing

below freezing temps and heavy snowfall. busine blizzard watches from new york city to boston. blizzard conditions in spots and more than a foot of snow possible in others, as old man winter isn't giving up without a fight. >> we thought we were in the clear from winter, but everyone in the storm's path needs to expect delays, cancellations and closures as the snow moves through over the next day and a half. spring begins in one week on march 20th. janay norman, abc news, washington. the storm is causing airport delays. >> let's get to jessica at the live desk. >> morning. brace yourselves if you have a flight anywhere today. already this morning, we have more than 700 flights cancelled all across the united states. i want to show you the misery mapaware.com. the storm is centered around chicago and that's where we have the most cancellations and delays now. more than 400 flights cancelled

out of o'hare, a hub for united and american. nearly 200 at midway, which is the hub for southwest. we will start to see a trickle down effect throughout the day. the misery isn't over soon. more flights than today cancelled for tomorrow already. we have nearly 1,000 already cancelled for tomorrow. this is going to last quite some time. reggie and natasha, back to you. >> thank you, jessica. we're going to track the potential problems for drivers on 101 this morning. >> let's get back to kate larson near 101 at embarcadero. >> good morning, natasha and reggie. yes, it was a rough morning in palo alto on 101. fortunately, the northbound lanes are open now. they were closed for many hours overnight because of some very large potholes. let's take a look. caltrans crews came out here last night.

9 9:00, the chp got a dozen reports of popped tires on the freeway because of potholes throughout the northbound lanes near embarcadero near palo alto. these were no ordinary potholes. they were very large. >> we noticed that there are four or more large potholes, ranging anywhere from four to six feet in length. two to three feet in width. six to eight inches in depth. >> of course, it is no secret that the 101 down on the peninsula can be rough in terms of these potholes and rough patches on the road. we also saw crews in redwood city this morning doing some patch jobs on the freeway. hopefully, these roads will get taken care of. of course, the rain, all the moisture that we've had this winter, can really be rough on all the asphalt and pavement. we'll have more throughout the morning. that's the latest. live in palo alto, kate larson, abc 7 news.

the community is coming together in san jose. people affected by the coyote creek flooding have essential items thanks to the generosity of others. abc 7 news was at a elementary school where there was a donation drive yesterday. thousands of people dropped off clothing, food, furniture and other items and flood victims picked up what they need. the san jose woman behind the drive said she felt compelled to do something. >> i was not affected but i was two blocks away. my husband and i and family wanted to give back. our way to give back was go through the neighborhood, see what people really needed. >> the city is admitting it did not give people enough notice to evacuate. it is working on getting state and federal aid to the victims. caltrans will start demolishing pfeiffer canyon bridge. storms caused it to, as you can see, crack, buckle, and start sliding down the hill. a giant wrecking ball zboigoing work at 7:00 this morning. oakland police help

witnesses will help identify suspects. the first shooting happened in east oakland on dashwood avenue around 7:20 saturday night. the victim died after being rushed to a trauma center. 8:50 the same night, another man was shot inside of a car in north oakland. this happened near 60th street and martin luther king way. he died after being driven to the hospital. a hiker is thankful for all the people who helped find her after she disappeared near woodside. bethany haury was found after not returning from a hike on thursday. she was at the bottom of a revereen, suffering from addy hydration and minor injuries. she's recovering from bumps and bru bruises at home and feeling better. two men's kayak capsized.

one managed to cling to the side of the kayak and called the coast guard for help. it happened around 4:30 in bodega bay. one man was treated at the scene and another was at the hospital. a third man managed to swim to shore. wear a life jacket and have a portable radio if you're headed into the water. >> announcer: now your accuweather forecast with mike nicco. >> let's talk about what's going on around san francisco. we'll start with temperatures. only one place in the 40s. that would be ocean beach at 47. the rest of us, about 50. you can see in glen park, 54 across the golden gate, 51. ferry building financial, 53 degrees. 50s around richmond, da daly city. a cooler start thanks to the lack of clouds. here's a look at san jose. that's the back drop.

high amount of tree pollen and uv index. a lot of people may be walking around with red necks or faces. didn't wear the sunscreen over the weekend, did you? tough lesson learned. hopefully early enough in the season that you'll wear sunscreen. 66 in half moon bay. 72 to 75 around the bay. look at that, 76 to nearly 80 in our inland valleys. walnut creek. mass transit, good. on the road, good. on the water today, good. hazy sunshine and a light breeze. some fog returns tonight. temperatures in the 40s to near 50. a slight chance of wet weather coming up in the accuweather seven-day forecast. we have dry payment this morning and calm conditions. not too much happening. we had what we thought may be a big issue on eastbound 580 at grand avenue. it was a serious crash turned into a car fire, as wellment . l all lanes were blocked at 4:15 this morning. got it back open. could be guardrail damage around

the grand avenue off ramp. there's still a little bit of oil on the road, too. just take it easy through the stretch. could be a little slick. a live look at the bay bridge toll plaza. a stack up in the cash lanes but that's it so far this morning. we'll look at the central valley in less than ten. the wikileaks release of cia documents is revealing how easy our electronic devices can be hacked. next, the one question to ask to protect your personal information. the spapain is deep. >> the grandfather of a 3-year-old girl who died in a fire due to a hoverboard. radio shack set to close more stores and the impact the this is the silverado special edition. this is one gorgeous truck. oh, did i say there's only one special edition? because, actually there's five. ooohh!! aaaahh!! uh! hooooly mackerel. wow. nice.

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>> announcer: abc 7 mornings. >> all news. >> all morning. 4:41. police in southern california trying to identify the activists who vandalized this golf course owned by president trump. you see the tarp covering the words, no more tigers, no more woods. the vandals carved the message into the trump national golf club early yesterday morning. in a statement, an activist group said this happened in response to what it says is the trump administration's disregard for the environment. >> announcer: now, a live desk update. >> from abc 7 mornings.

developing this morning, 11 radio shack stores are closing across the bay area and they are offering big deals, too. 90% off. really the time to go. radio shack declared bankruptcy last week. the second time in two years. it plans to close 187 of its 2,000 locations immediately. that's about 10% of its stores. the closures include stores in san francisco, oakland, san lean leandro, san rafael and other big cities in the bay area. we have a list on abc 7 news.com. rej dp back to you. we're hearing from the grandfather of a little girl in pennsylvania killed in a fire linked to her hoverboard. the more you hear, the sadder it g gets. the 3-year-old died on saturday. the fire happened fire night. a hoverboard plugged in and charging exploded. it ignited the harrisburg, pennsylvania, home. two other girls are in critical condition. a man and a teenage boy were also hurt. they have been released from the

hospital. >> my granddaughter. we can't replace her. the pain is so deep. my soul is hurt. >> to add to this tragedy, a firefighter was killed while responding to the fire. police say a drunk driver ran a stop sign and hit the firefighter's car, killing him. >> gosh. another series of bomb threats is targeting jewish community centers across the country. several jewish centers received threats via e-mail, including one in indianapolis. police searched the building after the threats came in but didn't find anything. >> the other centers across the country that, at the same time, also received threats in the similar manner, by e-mail. we do believe that this is part of, as i mentioned on tuesday, a larger picture. >> the threats follow one made against a jewish community

center in los gatos on thursday. a sheriff's bomb squad found no explosives following hours of searching. napa county using a new technique to stop human trafficking. posters like this have gone out to businesses last week. it helps owners identify victims of human trafficking. bars, bus stations, emergency rooms and farms use contract labor and must post them. data ludump shows how easy is to hack into devices in your house. hackers find flaws to get your personal information. rebecca jarvis is here with the one question to ask to protect yourself. >> reporter: from this jeef sp p stopped remotely on the freeway, with these cars broken into with the touch of a button. baby monitors --

>> i heard a voice screaming, wake up, baby. wake up, baby. >> reporter: everyday technology hacked. it can also happen to your phone or tv. >> the truth is, anything that's actually connected to the internet and exposed directly to the internet is potentially hackable. >> reporter: darrell's job is to find the weaknesses so companies can fix them. >> this all sounds like science fiction or a horror movie. >> it could be appear to be a nightmare. in reality, researchers are really focused on identifying these issues. >> reporter: to protect yourself, the most important question to ask before you buy. >> have they ever had vulnerabilities exposed? that in itself is not an issue. the question is how did the vendor or manufacture handle the vulnerability? >> reporter: he also says to change the default passwords. finally, when you aren't using a device, it should be turned off.

>> that was abc 7's rebecca jarvis. last october, a group hacked into household appliances and used them to overwhelm servers, taking down major websites. the price of gas going up. the average price of regular has gone up 2 cents over the last two weeks across the nation. $2.35. despite the increase, prices are expected to go down slightly because crude oil costs are falling. compared to this time last year, the national average is up 51 cents per gallon. gas in san francisco is the highest in the country with an average of $3.03 a dpgallon. >> lucky us. lucky this guy. a man is richer, purchasing a million dollar winner purchase from this lees sandwiches on king road. the star g the store gets a $5,000 for

selling the ticket. >> that is great. we are here an hour earlier and we feel it, mike. you'll give us good weather, right? >> absolutely. you're going to love trying to get off early today or, for us, on time, and get outside and enjoy some of the warm sunshine. remember, wear the sunscreen. from the east bay hills camera, you see how calm and clear the water is. spring warmth. cooler wednesday with a chance of rain across the north bay into the afternoon and evening hours. warmer thursday and friday. seesaw, back to cooler conditions on friday and saturday. chance of rain sunday night. high pressure clock wise flow. the storm track is to the north and where it'll stay the next couple days. this area of low pressure will try to crash the party. it'll bring an increase in low clouds across the coast. into 7:00 wednesday. some will filter into our neighborhoods. we'll turn our attention to the north bay. see the increase in clouds as we

head through wednesday. 5:00 wednesday evening, you can see some of the rain moving into the north bay. as it falls apart, it tries to head to the rest of the neighborhoods. a slight sprinkle maybe thursday morning and that's it. we have warmer weather for thursday afternoon and st. patrick's day friday. slightly cooler saturday. see the 80 tomorrow, alexis? >> that's what i'm zeroed in on right now. >> i knew it. >> that makes me happy. we're a live look at golden gate. we have the zipper trucks out. of course, giving you more room on the southbound side. no issues coming from the north bay. still quiet out of the central valley. westbound 580, tracy to dublin, 35 minutes. antioch to concord on the 4 west, 14 minutes. san rafael to san francisco on 101 southbound, you're in the yellow, 18 minutes. the commute will be darker and longer thanks to daylight savings time.

setting the clock forward does more than affect your sleep. the warning from the chp next. former vice president joe pieden ma biden makes an emotional appeal. what he and his wife are devoting their lives to. not a typical day on the slope for snowborders. in today's tech bites, the huge number of twitter accounts that are not human. >> twitter has 320 million monthly active users. a study claimers up to 15% are run by bots that like and retweet. google is taking smart ware to a new level. a smart jacket. >> the commuter connects via bluetooth, allowing the wearer to answer the phone or adjust the music. it's out this fall for $350. not cheap. and an internet pioneer. talking about what concerns him about the web. >> he's credited with creating the world wide web 28 years ago. two things that trouble him the

most are people using their personal data and fake news. we can agree on that. >> yes, we can. can you believe it's only been can you believe it's only been 28

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? back at 4:52. look at that. aren't you glad you don't live there? a house encased in ice on lake ontario in new york. this is just one of the effects of the nasty weather on the east coast. powerful wind gusts created big waves that spread the shoreline for days last week. this home right on the shores,

as you can see, never dried out. when the temperature plummeted this weekend, that's when the cottage became an igloo. former vice president joe biden vowing to work with the trump administration in the fight against cancer. biden and wife jill appeared at south by southwest yesterday, the annual tech, music and entertainment festival in austin, texas. they decided to devote their lives to the fight after their son died of brain cancer. >> experts predict by 2020, 26 million, 26 million will die. the passion jill and i bring to this effort is driven by desire to spare other families what our family and so many other families have gone through. >> bide san says once the trump administration gets organized, and he was clear it was not a dig at them, he can focus on the goal of ending cancer.

as you dress for work, break out the bling. national jewel day. not that we need a reason to wear diamonds or other jewelry. today, the day to ice it up. if you don't have jewels, no problem. today is not only a day to wear jewelry but also a day to, oh, hi, marketing team, give jewelry. no one knows who started national jewel day but i'm guessing it is one of the jewelry retailers. >> yeah. while your professor is being distracted by your bling, slip in a request for a quick nap. tell me how it goes. national napping day, socoincidg with daylight savings thing. it was a thing in 1999 when a former boston university professor touted the benefits of taking 10 to 20 minute naps daily. >> i take the three to four hour naps daily. i'll let you know how it is working. >> this is the first morning after daylight saving and losing an hour after sleep yesterday. the chp warning drivers about

the risk of drowsy driving, which goes up, of course, with the loss of sleep. the time change also means the sun, of course, comes up later. if you're walking kids to school before daylight, make sure you're extra careful of your surroundings. let's talk about march. so far, more dry than wet days. the dry days are going to continue to add up. we were wet saturday, sunday, monday in parts of the bay tuesday. look at the yellow days. i could put the next several days in there. sutro tower, looks absolutely nice so far. temperatures today, anywhere from 9 to 13 degrees above average. we should be in the mid 60s. we're going to be from 72 in san francisco to napa's 79 degrees. thinking about going to the beaches. should see a lot of sunshine. this will be the last day for total sunshine. 73 at santacruz. everybody else, the mid to upper 60s. >> don't forget the sunscreen. we have nice, new tan lines here since we had such a great

weekend. looking live outside in san jose. 101 and 880, no issues. nothing blocking currently. we are going to enjoy the quiet commute while it lasts. seeing a slowdown westbound 205 to 580. down to 23 and 21 miles per hour as you get closer to altamont pass. overall, it isn't too bad. we'll look at the peninsula in less than ten. arnold schwarzenegger says he won't be back. he's staying away from politics from now. our former governor said he is deeply flattered by the suggestions by people who have approached him about running for senate. he says that he hopes to, quote, bring sanity to washington through redistricting reform. he said gerrymandering has broken our political system and he feels the best way to repair it is from the outside by campaigning for independent redistricting commissions. 4:56 now. a moose frightened skiers and snowborders in colorado. >> oh, my god. i don't know where to go!

>> she says, i don't know where to go. this is one of the skiers pulling out her phone friday after she saw what looked like a horse. it was a moose galloping down the run. resort officials say no one was hurt. if you're skiing and you see a moose on a mountain, you need to star as far away as possible. >> i wouldn't have thought to bring my phone out. skiing with the phone out, going backwards? >> impressive. >> that's a lot of things happening. >> impressive balance. next at 5:00, how much is president trump's health care plan going to cost? santa cruz county officials getting snarky in their attempt to get what they want from state lawmakers. at the live desk, getting social video on protests happening in ferguson, missouri. it all dates back to the shooting three years ago. we'll explain why it is all flaring up this morning. former president barack obama waking up in the bay area obama waking up in the bay area as

>> announcer: good morning, south bay. let's get up and get going. >> this is abc 7 mornings. >> new this morning, a warning before you hit the roads. potholes damaging at least a dozen cars in palo alto overnight. northbound 101, crews working as quickly as possible. all lanes back open. you're going to want to watch out. it's not the only spot that's happening. >> absolutely. good morning. we're springing forward on monday, march 13th. glad you're here. alexis, want to turn to you. they worked quickly to clean up that issue but there is another issue nearby. >> there was. the roads are so damaged. they're all in bad shape, as we know. we hit the potholes and it is like, oh, my tire, is that going to survive that one? it was close to that. i'll