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tv   ABC7 News 1100PM  ABC  November 15, 2018 11:00pm-11:35pm PST

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mass school closures and events canceled across the bay area tonight. the reason, you can see it and you know, smoke from the camp fire. good evening. thank you for joining us. >> our air quality was so bad tonight purple air.com and air quality monitoring network showed it was the worst in the world. even worse than delhi, india, one of the worst polluted cities in the world. >> i want to get the latest now from air quality. >> from the central valley into the bay area this area of purple
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represents the strongest concentration of those helped todare why we've s further decline in the air quality. poor air quality in other parts of the bay area as well. and these color coded dots indicate where we have to go to find clean air. the green represents clean air. you can find good air quality up along the mendocino coastline. but we have to go up across it sierra and lake tahoe to find an area of good air quality. >> and we have live team coverage on the bad air and the camp fire. >> let's begin with abc 7 news kate larson. shaes live in
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seen the worst conditions. >> reporter: normally our news camera cut through any type of haze or smog, but not tonight. according to purple air.com the air quality index was 3:34 at 6:00 p.m. which is unhealthy for everyone. after school kids were still playing outside. but during school hours in oakland students have been inside all week. >> it's been pretty rough. you remember what it's like 10 years old and you want to get outside and run around. >> reporter: he says oakland unified decided to cancel school friday because of the poor air quality. >> our staff, they've had some conditions about the same conditions that are our students are dealing with. we've heard of some people having headaches, things like that. >> getting bloody noses. >> reporter: she's a parent and runs an after school program in
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oakland. >> the coughing and feeling unwell, and have to call for the parents for early pickup. >> reporter: michael lee is a parent at oakland elementary. he says he wants to get his kids back outside. what do you plan to do with your boys tomorrow? >> we're going to look at a map and try to go outside the bay area to get away from this. >> reporter: he's not as worried as many bay area parents are about what to do about the unplanned day of the school. are you sad school is closed tomorrow? >> no, i'm real excited. >> reporter: all right, so now that you have to keep your kids home from school tomorrow, how do you make your air inside your house is safe? of course keep your windows and doors shut and many air purifiers do come with built in monitors. and i did check online and you can buy a separate hand held device for about $100 on amazon. live in berkeley, i'm kate
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larson, abc news. >> oak grove district not santa clara county, will be closed tomorrow. offering free rides tomorrow as a way to keep people from driving. san francisco is known for its iconic landmarks but tonight many of them are barely visible because of that thick smoke from the camp fire. and now some of the big atracks have been closed because of the worsening air quality. live from the embarcadero where people line up for the alcatraz tour. >> reporter: that's right. 3,500 tourists board these ships to alcatraz, but tomorrow all these tours are canceled and will be through saturday. and alcatraz isn't the only pager attraction closed because of the poor air quality. tonight touristsor a
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group of cable cars which they didn't know were coming. late this afternoon empty cable cars were sent back to the barn as air quality throughout san francisco reached dangerous high level, the decision was made to pull them off the streets, a big downer for some tourists. an alcatraz landing not for tickets but for refunds. the night tours all canceled. >> i was excited, though, happy finally get to explore alcatraz and bummer. >> reporter: and daily tours for friday also canceled once again due to poor air quality. >> people come from all over the world and we don't want to cancel our tours but we want to make sure it's safe for both our crews have visitors alike. >> reporter: it's not just the big tourist attractions. these norwegian tourists bicycling around the city had to
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cancel lunch. >> it was close to the bridge where we were supposed to have our lunch and it was closed because of the weather, because of the air quality. >> reporter: many of the tourists that we spoke with say the poor air quality may be an inconvenience but it's nothing compared to the suffering of those devastated by these wildfires. not everything is closed. tomorrow museums are open. in fact, some of them are offering discounts, even free admission for people who want to stay indoors. >> okay, thanks very much. abc 7 news was at sfo were travelers from north carolina, texas and washington were excited to leave the smoke filled bay area and breathe fresh air back home. >> i usually go hiking so it's kind of disappointing to be in all weekend. >> it's different, and certainly flying in it looked like flying into los angeles. >> i'm excited to get my flight to be back in seattle and be in
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th rainy city air. >> sfo reported a quarter of all flights were delayed today due to poor visibility. as air quality in the bay area hit very unhealthy levels some are seeking air from the coast. >> reporter: a rare sight as the bay area's choked with smoke you can still see the sky in santa cruz. >> it's kind of weird. it's more of a haze. personally i don't smell the smoke that bad. >> reporter: this group left for fresher air. >> 272 yesterday. >> reporter: air quality in santa cruz still at moderate levels, making the oceanfront city a refuge for some. >> most of them were coming from the fire area and we had some over the week too that came down over two nights >> reporter: due to the wildfire smoke in the bay area they're
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seeing an influx in tourists now in late november. >> i did have another couple who came through today and they had come from monterey and they said down there was beautiful. >> reporter: these are pictures from monterey where an east bay family with young children got a break from the smoke that could last well into next week. >> it's not going to clear, but at least we got have fresh air for a couple of days. >> reporter: hotels still have openings along the coast but they could sellout over the weekend. >> meantime, sadly the number of dead rose to 63 tonight. and those unaccounted for more than doubled to 631. >> this is due to all the calls coming in and the sheriff office going through dispatch logs. >> the fire itself has scorched 141,000 acres. that's the updated figure. firefighters have made progress. containment tonight is at 40%. >> now, the number of homes destroyed in the camp fire keeps
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climbing. today we learned 9,700 homes have been lost in the fire. >> well, some evacuees who are living in a tent city in a parking lot were told tonight they're going to have to leave soon. >> live in chico with that story, wayne. >> reporter: you talk about the devastation, it's another thing to see the burned out homes. tents as far as the eye can see, cars in the parking lot, many people sleeping inside those cars and now change is coming. you heard about thoughts and prayers, here's the next level, hugs, tears and tents filling an open field in chico. >> they didn't even have time to tell us to evacuate. >> reporter: it led so many people including christina hicks in paradise to a wal-mart tent city. >> i don't know what to think.
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>> reporter: as of sunday so will this encampment. tomorrow butte county will begin moving these people to an in-house red cross shelter. it is a smooth operation on the surface but difficulties loom. >> i don't know what to do. what are you going to do with 50,000 people homeless all of a sudden? >> reporter: perhaps a concern more of the fire has caused it to swell. >> more of the homeless in chico have now migrated here. >> it's tough they have to do it because it's getting out of control out there. >> reporter: call it too much of a good thing that's really a band-aid following a horrible wounding. when you've lost a house and can't see a future in a once vacant field outside of a wal-mart in chico, well, fill in your own blanks. >> there's not enough shelters for everybody. they make it sound like there's enough shelters available. there is not enough shelters available. >> reporter: sad story and that
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is the level of frustration for christina tonight and a lot of other people here. she says she has no money for a hotel room. she says she has no money for a place to live. she can't find either one of them. they're not available. no comment tonight from wal-mart. >> wayne, thank you. and if you'd like to help fire victims we have a full list of resources you can turn to on our website. you can also make a $10 donation to red cross by texting red cross to 90999. abc 7 news is committed to building a better bay area. >> all this week we're focused on one big issue. that's transportation. tonight we'll look at what it
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abc 7 news is committed to building a better bay area, which means we're spending more time looking at issues that affect our quality of life and trying to find solutions. >> we all know traffic congestion is a huge problem and one of the worst in the region is the bay area toll plaza. >> usually you pay your toll to only end up in a slow crawl of metering of lights. they're supposed to be but when? >> we get some answers from alexa smith. >> reporter: welcome to commuter hell. from drone view 7 you can see how bad the morning commute is on interstate 80 to san francisco. once you get through the tol plaza you slowly make your way to the dreaded metering lights. >> we're looking at a system that at best is approaching 40 years old. and that's beyond creeky.
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>> reporter: john goodwin is with the metropolitan agency commission, the agency that manages bay area highways. he says the bay bridge can only handle 10,000 vehicles an hour, so those metering lights are necessary. but he agrees the current metering lights needs to go. >> the meter needs to be completely rebuilt. >> reporter: they were added in 1974 to keep the bay bridge from being gridlocked. since then it bay yea has added 2.3 million people. there's only been one significant change to the lights. that was a software update in 1980. with cal trans. >> it's determined by the flow of traffic and the total number of cars on the highway accessing the highway. and at that point once the determine nation has been made they turn the metering lights on. >> reporter: two years ago we took you through where that happens. they turn on the lights manually. >> all we do is we punch in the
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metering rate and hit the send button and the lights will start cycling. >> reporter: that's right. it's pretty low tech. the mtc was supposed to start work on a new hi-tech metering system last year. >> we lost a year. >> reporter: the $70 million upgrade will take advantage of the latest metering technology and prove traffic more smoothly on the bay bridge. some of the technology is already in place. censors embedded in on-ramps talk to censors on the highway. together they keep traffic moving. signs above the highway turn onto warn drivers of hazards ahead and direct them around collisions. >> so far since it's been activated we've activated 712 times. >> reporter: those signs have been in place since 2016. >> cal trans is continuing to monitor and continue the system. it's not going to eliminate congestion, but it's helping us
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monitor it to better judge what's happening on the roadways >> reporter: the bay bridge commute is expected to move a little smooth, but don't expect those cash lanes to go away anytime soon. >> it's not a matter if we go to all electronic toll collection but really a matter of when. it won't happen on the bay bridge for certain until we've got a new metering light system in place and proven. >> reporter: expect those new metering lights to be fully operational by may of 2020. >> even watching the video of all that traffic makes you anxious. let's turn our attention to the weekend forecast and of course the air quality. >> we may get some minor improvement over the weekend. i'll take you outside to give you some outdoor view. this is the view from our rooftop camera. looking at hazy conditions and smoky conditions here in san francisco where it's 55 degrees. oakland and mountain view and san jose, 39 at morgan hill. that's a cool spot right now.
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half moon bay, 41. and smoky view along the bay bridge. 43 ennapa, 34 in novato, and one more live view from emeriville, and smoky hazy air will be with us through tuesday. t'll be possibly a slight improvement on saturday as we expect a sea breeze to develop. there's a chance of rain on thanksgiving day. that may bring some welcome relief and better air quality. but for tomorrow we're looking at poor air quality for most of the bay area. and poor air quality will continue for all regions of the bay area for saturday, sunday and monday. overnight look for hazy conditions with temperatures mainly in the upper 30s for the inland valleys. mid-40s along the coast and tomorrow low 60s on the coast tomorrow. we'll see highs in the upper 60s along the way, and here is the accuweather seven-day forecast. there won't be much change in the weather conditions through
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next tuesday, although we'll see a little bit of an increase in clouds developing over the weekend. and if that sea breeze comes on saturday, we may get some pretty good improvement in air quality, but we're not sure about that yet. rain by next wednesday. wednesday night, i should say into thursday, thanksgiving day. and we may get two or three consecutive days of rain once it begins. that would be great. it's too dry right now. >> thank you, spencer. tomorrow on good morning
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♪ ♪ connecting people...
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...uniting the world. ♪♪
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tonight we're getting our first good look at the baby saved by an oakland police officer. the baby boy's mom was homeless and was living in her car. she gave birth tuesday on the side of a road. a driver going by flagged down
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an officer. the baby wasn't breathing and the officer cleared his airway. >> glad he's doing okay. welcome to the world. awesome. okay, onto sports tonight. >> draymond and k.d., they hugged it out, but their dispute was like a grenade in the
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good evening. draymond green addressed his dispute with kevin durant today in houston. but coach steve kerr he really said it best. the warriors are banged up
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spiritually and emotionally. >> i wear my emotions on my sleeve. and sometimes it gets the best of me, and, you know, it doesn't work to my favor. i'm going to live with that. >> warriors and rockets, draymond and k.d., they were joking around at times so you'd never really know there was a rift here. draymond was scoreless in 24 minutes of play. exploding to the hoop right here. durant with 20 setout in the fourth quarter as the game was a blow out. the warriors hit only four. james harden, 27 points. as i mentioned this game was a blow out. lacking on energy, this whole thing seemed to have drained thel. rockets cruise 107-86. k.d. after the game. >> how do you characterize
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things with you and draymond? >> don't ask me about that again. >> all righty then. sharks leads five goals in the first period. that was the fifth. 3-2 sharks. josh levo beats martin jones top shelf, stick side, retired at three. and this is bad. a shorthanded goal for a break away, his second of the game and the leafs win it 5-3. packers and seahawks, aaron rogers, go deep, deeper, go deeper. 54 yard strike to robert and that is that guy's first catch of the year. 14-3 green
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seahawks win 27-24. he was at the new circdesoleil show. apparently they sell dragon puffs that makes smoke come out of your nose. i don't know if it's safe. what kind of sorcery is going on here? abc 7 sports sponsored by river rock -- >> did casie pass a (music throughout)
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that is our report.
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we appreciate your time. >> from all of us, thank you for joining us. >> have a good night. >> dicky: from hollywood, it's "jimmy kimmel live." tonight, former first lady michelle obama, lin-manuel miranda, and this week in unnecessary censorship. and now, what do you know, jimmy kimmel! [ cheers and applause ] >> jimmy: how you doing? thank you very much. hi there. hey, everyone. i'm jimmy. i'm the host of the show. thank you for watching. thanks for coming. relax, relax, relax. pleetz. please. thank you for being patted down to be here tonight.
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oh, you are -- you picked a good night to s

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