blame it on the wildfires that seem to be burning everywhere in northern, southern, and central california, forcing people to evacuate theirhomes. we fir spark ia red flag warnin tonight. that threat is compounded by the heat wave that's brought record setting temperatures to places where you live and we are still sweating it out. >> abc7 news weather anchor, spencer christian. any more records today? heat again today. we're checking now. the highs that just came in, the official highs, against the records to see how many records we have. let me show you how hot it is right now as we speak. 104 degrees in san ramon. 106 in brentwood. santa rosa 107. we had temperatures in several locations today ranging from 110 to 112. an excessive heat warning will expire tonight at 9:00, but we still have excessive heat blanketing much of the bay area.

and we have elevated fire danger a red flag warning for high fire danger goes into effect at 10:00 tonight. that will be in effect until 8:00 wednesday morning for all the hills and mountains of the bay area. wind gusts will bring drier air, warmer air to the bay area, flowing offshore. and as a result of that, that raises the fire danger. and a wind advisory will be in effect from 5:00 a.m. tomorrow to 11:00 p.m. tomorrow. that will be mainly for the higher elevations of the north bay with wind gusts ranging from 45 to 65 miles per hour. you can see how the wind gusts will pick up overnight tonight and continue through much of the day tomorrow before they start to i taer off a little bit. with all that, we still have really poor air quality. the next two days will be spare the air days, giving us a string of 23 consecutive spare the air days. and we can't even be serve yet that air quality will improve by thursday. poor air will be with us tomorrow and wednesday. >> thank you, spencer.

in the tri-valley, people tried to stay cool while being stuck inside because of kavanaugcove. at the same time, they tried to save energy to avoid blackouts. >> twice they've said it's leaking. they've come out to fix it three times. >> reporter: nick says his air conditioner has been broken for the past week. they're trying to get it replaced, but it's bad timing with this triple digit heat in livermore. >> my wife is a teacher, she teaches from home. my kids are homeschooling and it's an absolute mess. >> how do you keep cool in this heat? i noticed the pool behind me was finally open. >> reporter: brian, who lives in an kparmt complex in livermore, says he was glad to see the pool being used. he said it's been closed all summer. >> i'd say they were probably left with no options. with the rolling blackouts coming up, i'm sure they had to do something. >> reporter: as temperatures climb close to 110, vanessa got an early start taking her dog to a dog park this morning. >> decided to take my dog, bedo,

to the dog park as early as possible and spend as much time as possible before it really gets hot and we can't go anywhere. >> reporter: she knows it will be tough to stay inside due to covid-19 and to limit the use of the air-conditioning in an effort to do her part to prevent rotating blackouts. >> early in the morning to 3:00 p.m., and then i shut it off at 3:00 p.m. so that we don't have any blackouts. >> reporter: pg&e officials say californians conserved enough energy on sunday to help keep the lights on. pg&e is asking customers to do the same again today. >> don't run those major appliances, the dishwasher, the washing machine, the dryer, the vacuum cleaner, until after 9:00 p.m. or before 3:00 p.m. >>ancer husba anser hassan. a first alert forecast alert is in today asking everyone to conserve energy. california's independent system operator is tracking the demand on the state's power grid. the teal bar shows what's being

used. this heat wave is putting the worst strain on the grid in nearly a decade. >> conservation is always going to help us get by and protect for any other transmission or generation outages we may experience. >> the flex alert runs through 9:00 tonight. happening now, pg&e is about to provide a live update on the possibility of a power shutoff which could affect parts of napa and sonoma counties over the next two days. you can see they are about to hold this news conference. we will take a listen in. >> we're not live quite yet. want to thank you again for joining and know this is the first time we're doing this in a remote posture, so we appreciate your patience. >> sounds like they are just getting started. okay. we're going to get back to that in just a moment. hopefully they get things up and

running. pg&e says the power might be turned off in the areas highlighted on this map. it could affect about 18,000 customers in sonoma county and about 5,000 customers in napa county. the possibility much a power shutoff continues over the next two days. >> while we wait for the pg&e press conference, we'll move on. a lot of people are trying to beat the heat and enjoy this holiday. in smoem counonoma county, they labor day visitors please stay away from the russian river. as wayne freedman found out, they didn't listen. >> reporter: if you're in three-figure heat and plan to slash in the russian river, best to bring provisions of them. >> you'welcome back to mont rio day three of the weekend that local officials asked people to stay away. clearly that didn't work. >> staying all day today. >> reporter: and yet we're told that what you see here today is nothing compared with the crowds here yesterday. >> we were so crowded yesterday from this stop sign right here, it was bumper to bumper across the bridge and down the road a

mile and a half. >> reporter: today monte around for the inevitable crowds to materialize. th them being here doesn't bother him. what they don't do does. >> i don't see that many masks out here. i don't see social distancing. >> just a friendly flotilla. marco ramirez came here with his entire family. anyone else, he said, stay away. >> we're already together with the family as it is, so we know we don't go out with other people. anything that we're within six feet, got to have the mask on. >> reporter: which we found to not be the case with some people in downtown guerneville. when you already have a reservation before the county tells you to stay away, you come anyway. >> we've had this trip planned. we've been going stir kriz. >> reporter: for local business owners, this was a predictable mixed blessing a week after being evacuated because of the walbridge fire, david didn't have time to sit down today. >> fortunately we've had a great, great weekend, which was much needed after being closed

for another ten days again this year. >> reporter: and visitors got a great getaway after being cooped up even longer. let's hope that's the last we hear of it. from the russian river valley, wayne freedman, abc7 news. continuing today, we saw many historic -- >> let's get right to that pg&e press conference on the possibility of public safety power shutoffs. >> the continued hot and dry weather is going to continue to dry out vegetation across california and make that vegetation susceptible to large fires. there is also a strong weather system now dropping south through idaho, and it's expected to pass just east of california tonight through wednesday and set the stage for diablo and santa ana winds to develop across california. the diablo wind event is expected to start near midnight tonight and continue through wednesday morning in some areas. the main focus areas of the winds that we're tracking are expected to be in the southern cascades, the northern and

central sierra nevada, and then some peaks and ridges in the bay area, primarily focused in the north bay. and other locations around the territory and the elevated terrain will be quite breezy as well. we are also expecting strong winds in the elevated terrain in southern kern county as a santa ana wind sets up and develops across southern california. unfortunately this wind event is occurring on the heels of the current heat wave and will produce critical fire potential conditions due to that combination of those strong winds, the very low relative humidities expected with the winds, and the dry vegetation i spoke of earlier. in order to prepare for this event, the meteorology team within pg&e uses the best available global weather models, high resolution models available out there, as well as our in-house high resolution weather model. that is capable of two kilometer and sub kilometer model resolution. and one notable trend that i'd like to mention is that all the

weather models that we're tracking as we head closer and closer to this event have trended stronger over the past 24 hours. and as we know, psps events are highly dependent on the weather, particularly wind speeds and other forecast information we use for this event. so for the past week, we have been collaborating with other meteorologists across the state of california, notably the national weather service and other federal forecast agencies on the upcoming period of risk to verify that this is a risk period to be concerned with. and essentially all forecast agencies that we talked to are aligned that this will be a significant event. the national weather service has issued red flag warnings for most of northern california that are going to begin to go into effect this evening. they also indicate peak wind gusts with this event could be near 50 miles per hour in many areas in that kind of sierra footprint i mentioned as well as elevated peaks and ridges north

bay and elsewhere. but some local areas could see higher gusts than that. that's quite possible in an event like this. and then other federal forecast agencies that we talked to such as the northern and southern geographic area coordination center and the noaa storm prediction center are also forecasting a high-risk event tonight through wednesday morning. so there is alignment across agencies that this is a high-risk event. you know, i want to touch on a few areas where we've made some improvements this year over last year. the first is that we partnered with some external experts to develop a new high resolution model that provides more than twice the spatial resolution this year compared to last year. so we're using that data to better pinpoint where the winds are going to materialize. and then we also use cloud computing resources to not only run but then post-process that weather data because it is quite massive in size, and we process several weather models that i mentioned earlier in that cloud

environment. then the last thing i'll leave you with is we've also installed 246 weather stations in high-risk areas so far this year. so that brings our total network up to 846 weather stations that we have. that helps us monitor the wind event in real time and provide that critical intel when it's safe to begin that restoration process. we'll be tracking that closely 24/7 throughout this event. and so all that information, that weather station information, is publicly available as well, and so you can find it online. so with that, i'd like to conclude the weather briefing and turn it back over to you, lindsay. >> thanks very much. so just to recap, we have a red flag warning. we have extremely dry fuel on the ground, and we have diablo winds coming in. so this is a very high-risk event that you described for us. >> that's correct. and as you can see on the slide, red flag warnings posted for most of california with this

event. >> okay. thanks, scott. okay. let's get an operational briefing now from our incident commander. >> hello, everybody. good evening. my name is mark quinlan and i'm the incident commander. i'm here to provide an operational briefing based on the weather intelligence that scott just covered with the team. i'll begin by stating that we activated our emergency operations center before the weekend in anticipation for this weather threat. scott covered all of the attributes about the weather and just how dangerous the conditions are. once the eoc, or the emergency operations center, activates, we pivot and immediately move into attempting to understand the overall impact to customers. we do that by using the weather data that the meteorology team provides to the operational

groups, and we attempt, to the best of our ability, to define the scope of the event. the slide that we're looking at right now, the highlighted portions of our service territory represent what we believe to be the highest areas of fire danger beginning right around midnight tonight into tomorrow morning. you can see they're grouped into three general clusters. the majority of the risk on the pg&e service territory is in the northern part of our service territory. there's a very small area noted by the number 3 on the bottom of the slide. that's kern county. but the majority of the impact is really in the sierra foothills, including all the counties and the tribal areas that you can see listed on the slide. if you look at how these groups are all put together, roughly

172,000 customers are in scope for a public safety power shutoff, and we don't take that decision lightly. we understand the impact on our customers and our communities. we've been working very hard all year, learning from last year's psps events and making improvements. scott mentioned a few on the weather front. we've made some operational improvements as well. and we believe that these three areas of scope are very high risk for fire conditions, and as such, we intend to execute the public safety power shutoffs in this area. with respect to when we believe these events are going to start, they all vary slightly, and they're really tied to the weather. weather conditions, as you know, can change. what we do in our current operational posture is constantly monitor the weather, and we changed our operational posture with the weather as it changes. but as of this briefing, we

believe that the majority of the shutoffs need to occur just prior to midnight for the majority of the areas. you'll see area 1 that's listed here on the slide actually begins a little earlier than that. and that's all based on when the unsafe weather conditions are anticipated to be in the area. and we need to start our shutoff execution earlier than that to ensure that when the unsafe conditions are present, our system is shuto off and it's ina safe posture. that's the whole intent of the program. you can see area 1 starting at about 9:00 p.m. this evening, and we anticipate restoration of everything after we monitor and determine that the weather conditions are safe. we anticipate having everyone on by end of day on wednesday, september 9th. area 2, a little bit later start, midnight. again, estimated restoration time, end of day wednesday.

and then for kern county, the event starts a little later as you can see. it's part of that santa ana wind event that's occurring in the southern area of the service territory. so as such, the customers in kern county, the shutoff time will begin a little later, and we still believe we'll have everybody back restored by the time stated, end of day on wednesday. so if we transition to the next slide, we talked a little bit about phases that we're doing to mitigate the impacts of public safety power shutoffs. i want to start in the upper right-hand side of the slide, so 200 grid sectionalizing devices are in use right now to make those geographic footprints as small as they can be. we look at the weather risk. we attempt to do everything that we can in our power to reduce that scope to just the area of risk so that we're not

interrupting and turning people off that exist outside of that danger zone. so those are all in play this evening. five micro grids and substations have been utilized to provide temporary generation and islands capability. if you look at those microgrids, these are areas that are set up to protect main street, the local city or town may be surrounded by extreme fire danger, but the actual main point of commerce, gas stations, stores, resources, we've configured microgrids to be abl while we shut off the infrastructure that traverses through the dangerous terrain. that equates to roughly 69,000 customers who have avoided an interruption off of the 172,000.

an easier way to think about this -- >> so that's the word from pg&e, and they're looking at the possibility of shutting off power to as many as 172,000 customers. 18,000 in sonoma county. about 5,000 in napa county. and then if you look east to the sierra foothills, that would be the balance of the 172,000. and because of the high winds that are anticipated, the pg&e meteorologist basically confirmed what spencer told us at the top of this newscast. extremely high winds starting tonight, lasting until wednesday morning. and we're talking about 20 to 30 miles an hour with gusts up to 50 miles an hour. and so the power shutoffs, they don't want trees toppling down, knocking over power lines and starting extreme fires. so look for this possibility starting tonight through wednesday morning. and we're streaming the rest of this news conference with pg&e online at abc7news.com.

because of the pandemic, the workplace is changing. working from home might mean working from another state. >> so i came with an open mind but still thinking, this is probably not going to work out. >> she moved from san francisco to tulsa, oklahoma. it's a place that's paying bay area tech workers to relocate. i'm dan noise. i'm dan noise. a south bay church is rush to work, grab a drink, hurry home. - [cell phone beeps] - stop! don't be on your phone. let someone else take the wheel. make a little eye contact. make a plan. it's a busy world out there. we're all in it together. go safely, california.

everybody felt fine. but now im super sick. everyone is sick. i just wish we had been more careful. it would have been easier than this. so wear a mask. do what you can outside. stay six feet apart. because some things you just can't take back. do your part to lower the risk. the $6.99 super slam is your perfect meal, it's buttermilk pancakes, eggs, sausage, bacon and hash browns. it's enough breakfast for dinner and it's as good as it sounds. see you at denn's. my only job is to take great care of my patients.? and it's as good as it sounds. i'm empowered to do what's right for you. our digital records mean your medical history is in one place, so i can give you great care. your primary care doctor, your specialists... it's great! we all work together as one team. our integrated approach to health care helps my patients

live longer, healthier lives. i don't just practice here, i'm a patient, too. i wouldn't trust my family's health care to anyone else. put it in gear and take off., next thing you know, the phone is in your hand! stop! we should be holding the wheel, not holding the phone. it's a busy world out there. and we're all in it together. go safely, california. ♪ fines are mounting against a santa clara county church that is holding in-person services against repeated health warnings from the health department. neighbors have expressed concerns about the spread of covid-19, but support for the church is coming from all over the country. abc7 news i-team reporter dan

noyes joining us live now with the latest. dan? >> reporter: larry, the county has contacted 1,100 businesses about preventing the spread of covid-19, but north valley baptist church is one of the few that will not comply. crowds have streamed into santa clara's north valley baptist over the past several weeks. the church can hold 3,000 people. i went there on a recent sunday to ask why they are breaking state and county guidelines that help prevent the spread of covid-19 and what steps they might be taking to protect the congregation. at first they said i could attend the service if i didn't bring in my camera. but then they changed their mind, saying it's private property. i also asked more than a dozen members to discuss the coronavirus pandemic, how they see the risk of attending church. they all declined. >> what a wonderful day in god's house with a great crowd. >> reporter: the pastor said last night's service marked six months since the church was shut down over covid-19. since resuming services, he's been hit with $102,500 in fines. he appealed to county officials.

>> one, i'm asking you to stop all fines. and, two, i'm asking you to remove all fines. this is not caesar's money. this is god's money. >> reporter: i spoke with santa clara county counsel james williams late this afternoon. why is it important that they don't hold those in-person services? >> well, from everything we've learned about covid-19 -- and we've learned a lot in the last several months -- one of the key principles that we have learned so far is that outdoors is safer than indoors. >> reporter: across the country, hundreds of covid-19 cases have been linked to religious services. one congregation had a third of its memberstednd deaths tied to the virus. i was there when county workers plastered the doors of north valley baptist with yet another cease and desist letter. >> sir, if you don't leave -- >> you're going to politic my camera? >> reporter: is there actually the possibility of a criminal charge? >> well, you know, violation of the health orders is a crime, so

that's absolutely something that's available. >> reporter: at last night's service, the pastor urged the congregation to take some precautions. >> you get a temperature or you get one of these symptoms, please don't come to church. please don't come to church. please stay home and make sure that you're not infectious. >> reporter: but his wife sent this email to members with permission from the pastor, saying, covid is not a death sentence. should you get covid, the less you talk about it, the better off everyone will be. doctors will ask you questions, shake their heads, and then turn in their report to the county. lisa gilmore is the mayor of santa clara. >> that's unfortunate because part of us getting through this and having a more healthy community is the tracing and the testing. we're doing that constantly. >> reporter: last night, the pastor discussed the heat wave we're having. >> i'll narrow it down tonight, get you home to those houses

that have no air-conditioning. >> reporter: and tried to raise money for his college next to the church. >> if you want to stay, every pew is $1,000. make the check out to golden state baptist college. you can stay the night for $1,000, and that would be wonderful. >> reporter: a second san jose church, calvary chapel, is also defying the rules and getting big fines. this story is already getting a lot of reaction on social media, and you can weigh in on my facebook or twitter page. for the i-team, dan noyes, abc7 news. larry, ama. >> all right. dan, thank you so much. all right. we want to get back to the weather. larry, i don't know about you but i could do without any other record temps. >> yeah. unfortunately it's not under our control. it's all spencer's doing. >> i'm the bearer of hot news. here's a look at today's records. we had eight record highs for this date in the bay area today, including 112 in livermore and

gilroy, 111 in santa rosa. there were other locations even hotter but they didn't have records. right now you can see we still have numerous inland locations, east bay, north bay, south bay with temperature readings above 100 degrees even at this hour. here in san francisco, it's cooled down to 74. looking north from the golden gate bridge, dangerous heat eases slightly tomorrow. spare the air will be with us next two days. red flag warning will go into effect tonight and last until wednesday for high fire danger, mainly for the hills and mountains around the bay area. wind gusts may range from 45 to 65 miles per hour. very low humidity. fires can easily start and spread under those conditions. in fact, a wind advisory will be in efect from 5:00 a.m. to 11:00 pam tomorrow. that will be mainly for the north bay hills and mountains. possibility of downed trees and power lines and possibly power outages as well. moving along to tomorrow's highs, look for 102 in livermore. 104 in concord. 94 san jose. 94 in oakland and fremont.

86 here in san francisco. and here is the accuweather seven-day forecast. finally on wednesday, which is another spare the air day, temperatures will moderate a bit. the wind eases up a bit, and then through the remainder of the seven-day period, thursday through monday we'll have much more comfortable weather, much more pleasant weather. however, we still could have lingering poor air quality. i'll have more a little bit later. >> thank you, spencer. we're happy because it's going to come down to 104, right? amazing. speaking of amazing, the story of a miracle man up next. the odds were against him surviving coronavirus. he's managed to come off a ventilator and leave the hospital. labor day marks the beginning of the final stretch before election day. i'm liz kreutz. how coronavirus is changing how we campaign. th

inflammation in your eye might be to blame.ck, looks like a great day for achy, burning eyes over-the-counter eye drops typically work by lubricating your eyes and may provide temporary relief. ha! these drops probably won't touch me. tl targeting inflammation that can cause dry eye disease. what is that? xiidra, noooo! it can provide lasting relief. xiidra is the only fda approved treatment specifically for the signs and symptoms of dry eye disease. one drop in each eye, twice a day. don't use if you're allergic to xiidra. common side effects include eye irritation, discomfort or blurred vision when applied to the eye, and unusual taste sensation. don't touch container tip to your eye or any surface. after using xiidra, wait 15 minutes before reinserting contacts. got any room in your eye? talk to an eye doctor about twice-daily xiidra. i prefer you didn't!

xiidra. not today, dry eye. shut >> announcer: now from abc7, live breaking news. >> that breaking news is a

public safety power shutoff by pg&e set to begin at 9:00 tonight. more than 104,000 customers are expected to lose power, including some in napa and sonoma counties because of fire danger. >> we believe that these three areas of scope are a very high risk for fire conditions and, as such, we intend to execute the public safety power shutoffs in this area. >> again, that's 9:00 tonight. some other customers in napa, sonoma, and lake counties are expected to lose power starting at midnight tuesday. affected areas include parts of santa rosa, calistoga, and st. helena. in total, about 172,000 pg&e customers in 22 counties are impacted. pg&e expects to restore power by wednesday night. officials say this will be different from last year because the microgrid system will allow power to stay on in business districts, so resources will remain available. we have details on what pg&e is planning at abc7news.com.

you can also call pg&e at 1-833-208-4168. it is labor day as you know, and that officially marks the beginning of the end of the presidential election. >> bay area activists working hard to campaign and organize, but obviously covid-19 makes things look a lot different. abc7 news anchor liz kreutz has the story. >> reporter: any other election year, phone banks would look just like this. but like everything else right now, covid-19 is putting a new twist on this political tradition. at manny's, an event space in the mission, they're taking a page from nearby restaurants and taking their operation literally to the streets. these socially distanced cubicles, called victory booths, are currently being built right on valencia. this initiative comes with just 57 days to go until election day. labor day often considered the start of the final stretch. today democratic presidential nominee joe biden campaigned in pennsylvania. he met with union members and went after president trump's

record on labor. the president held a press conference where he called biden stupid and hit back on the economy. a cbs news poll released over the weekend shows democratic presidential nominee joe biden with a ten-point lead over president trump nationally. still, it's the battleground states that will make the difference. today senator kamala harris and vice president mike pence both campaigned in wisconsin. pence spoke to employees at the da dairyland power cooperative and harris met with the family of jacob blake. the pandemic will continue to be front and center in big ways and small. even today the president asked a reporter to remove his mask. >> you're going to have to take that off, please. you can take it off. >> i'll speak a lot louder. is that better? >> it's better, yeah. >> reporter: manny's has raised more than $10,000 so far to be able to make these victory booths. they are hosting a phone banking event tonight right here. they'll be making calls on behalf of former vice president bden and senator harris.

in san francisco, liz kreutz, abc7 news. part of our efforts to build a better bay area mean working towards racial and social justice. a large crowd marched across the golden gate bridge today protestihe tng dfloyd and the police shooting that left jacob blake paralyzed from the waist down. abc7 news reporter luz pena was there. >> reporter: bridges are meant to unite two sides, but in this case demonstrators are not only asking for unity but equality. >> black lives matter! >> we don't have the same freedoms that white people have at all. >> reporter: hundreds marched across the golden gate bridge, protesting the death of george floyd, breonna taylor, and the police shooting that left jacob blake paralyzed from the waist down. what do you hope marches like this one will change? >> i'm just hoping that, you know, because we're still in the early stages of this. i hope that these marches will get more attention and get more people going, oh, this is an issue. let me learn about it.

>> reporter: law enforcement surrounded the crowdke a t rdwa sure no one jumped over the fence to block traffic. >> i think as civil dohis is a s show of heinous force. there's no reason for any of this. we came with medics. we came with water bottles. like we didn't come here for any, i guess, belligerence or violence. >> reporter: in the back of the crowd we met a group of volunteers with first aid supplies, ready to respond to any emergencies. >> if people get hurt, if people need supplies, i have some hand sanitizer. i've got masks to keep people safe from covid. >> black lives matter. >> his life matters, just like our life matters. he's one of us, and he has a job to do. >> reporter: she joined the march with her kids in mind. you brought your kids here. >> yes. this is for them. we do this for them. this is about saving lives within the community. you know, black lives are under

attack right now. we're not safe. >> reporter: in san francisco, luz pena, abc7 news. >> if you're fighting for racial or social justice, we want to help you find an ally. go to but as californians we'll get through this together. if your income has been reduced or you've lost your job or your health insurance, covered california is here. we can help you find the health insurance you need to protect you and your loved ones. and, you may even get financial help to pay for your health insurance. so, if you or someone you know is without coverage, visit coveredca.com to learn more or enroll today.

an extra 15% credit on car and motorcycle policies? that's great! that's 15% on top of what geico could already save you. so what are you waiting for? john stamos to knit you a scarf? all finished, jean. enjoy! thank you. i give. the stitch work is impeccable. it's just a double fleck pattern with a reverse garter stitch. no big deal. is your hair this soft? softer. geico. save an extra 15% when you switch by october 7th. ♪ i got it all from you ♪ i'm always pushing through ♪ i know we'll make it to the finish line ♪ ♪ i know you're waiting on the other side ♪ ♪ i'm like you on-demand glucose monitoring. because they're always on. another life-changing technology from abbott. so you don't wait for life. you live it.

because of the pandemic, bay area workers are all facing new job realities. as part of our commitment to billion a better bay area, we're spending this whole week looking at our changing workplace and highlighting ways people are making it work. remote work has given people freedom to move to the suburbs or even across state lines where housing and living costs might be cheaper. it's also inspired one city in oklahoma to capitalize on that

trend, specifically targeting tech workers in the bay area. it's called tulsa remote, and it's working. abc7 news reporter david louie with the story. >> reporter: floors and floors of empty high rise offices reflect how many people are working remotely. tulsa, oklahoma, is doing all it can to lure them away. >> honestly, i had to look at a map and go, where is tulsa, oklahoma? >> reporter: fourth generation san franciscan stephanie came across this website, tulsa remote. it offers $10,000 in cash to remote workers who relocate within six months. the initiative is funded by the george kaiser family foundation. >> it is a bit of a leap of faith. however, we have succeeded with over 20,000 applications from every state in the union. >> reporter: there's even workspace available at a facility called 36 degrees north. as you settle in and look for a. tulsa says it has almost reached its goal of attracting 250 remote workers this year. half of the applicants have never set foot in tulsa.

>> do they have a trader joe's or a whole foods, you know? i wasn't ready to give up all of my amenities of the bay area, like ethnic food. so i came with an open mind but still thinking, this is probably not going to work out. >> reporter: after a quick visit, stephanie was hooked, impressed by meeting the mayor and city staff at a reception. newcomers seemed welcome, unlike treatment in other cities. here's a big difference. she could buy this four-bedroom, three-bathhouse for $285,000. her rent controlled apartment in san francisco was $2,700 a month, and now rents for $4,500. >> we've had 40-plus homes purchased thus far, and we believe that is a strong indicator for people's likelihood to stay. >> reporter: only two people have given up after moving to tulsa. tulsa doesn't always succeed. the community made a big play to woo elon musk to build a new tesla plant there, even putting musk's likeness on the oil worker statue called the golden

driller. the city lost the tesla bid to austin. still, transplants say the arts and culture scene and restaurants, especially the lower cost of living. >> no regrets? >> no regrets. i do miss my sushi in san francisco, though. >> reporter: david louie, abc7 news. >> probably not great sushi in tulsa. we're going to be talking about our changing workplace all week long with a variety of topics and stories you can see on your screen right here. this will be all week long this week on abc7 news. tonight a story of survival. a 73-year-old is being called a miracle man by staff at the hospital who cared for him. annabelle munoz from our sister station in los angeles spoke with him and his daughter. >> reporter: for 73-year-old joshua james, family and faith are foundational. >> thursday through saturday, they organized, you know, food giveaways. >> reporter: but then he started feeling ill and too weak to serve at church. >> a bad cold, and then i

started aching. then i couldn't walk. >> reporter: he was hospitalized and diagnosed with covid-19. the prognosis was not good. >> my dad is diabetic. he ishypertensive. >> reporter: he describes himself as a fighter. his daughter says family around the country began praying. >> washington to louisiana to florida, texas. >> reporter: james says he only remembers dreaming about loved ones, including his mother, who died in 2014 and would pray for him daily. >> my mother come to me. and she said, boy, i ain't going to pray for you no more, but i'm going to pray for your -- i just knew everything was going to be all right. >> reporter: the father and grandfather is now known as the miracle man. >> lakewood regional calls him the miracle man. he's the only one in his age

group that had been admitted during this pandemic that has been on a ventilator and survived. >> reporter: when he was finally discharged, jocelyn worshipped to the hymn, the eye is on the sparrow. ♪ >> reporter: jocelyn, a nurse, also credits her father's medical team. >> on remdesivir. he was on zinc. and he was on convalescent plasma. >> reporter: they know family who's have lost their loved ones to the virus. >> my friends had lost their parents. >> reporter: they encourage those in the battle to be fierce advocates. >> call up there every hour. talk to the nurses. develop a relationship with them. really, really believe that the treatments that we did for my dad worked. ♪ >> i like your voice. >> reporter: annabelle munoz, abc7 news. >> he really is a fighter. for more stories about dealing

with the coronavirus pandemic from physical to financial sur viemp, go to abc7news.com/better bay area. we are in a record-breaking heat wave on this labor day, and parts of the north bay are now facing a pg&e power shutoff starting joint pain, swelling, tenderness. my psoriasis. cosentyx works on all of this. cosentyx treats the multiple symptoms of psoriatic arthritis to help you look and feel better. don't use if you're allergic to cosentyx. before starting, get checked for tuberculosis. an increased risk of infections and lowered ability to fight them may occur. tell your doctor about an infection or symptoms, if your inflammatory bowel disease symptoms develop or worsen, or if you've had a vaccine or plan to. watch me. or if you've had a vaccine or plan to. ♪ ♪ we've always put safety first. ♪ ♪ and we always will. ♪ ♪ for people. ♪ ♪

for the future. ♪ ♪ and there has never been a summer when it's mattered more. wherever you go, summer safely. get 0% apr financing for up to five years on select models and exclusive lease offers.

the fire weather forecast is so extreme, pg&e is planning another round of public safety power shutoffs, psps, starting in just a couple of hours. pg&e plans to shut off power to prevent fires tonight in parts of napa and sonoma counties set to begin at 9:00. some other customers in napa, sonoma, and lake counties are expected to lose power starting at midnight tuesday. affected areas include parts of santa rosa, calistoga, and st. helena. pg&e expects to restore everyone's power by wednesday night. take a look. this is pg&e's map showing exactly what parts of napa and sonoma counties will be impacted. you can look up your address on pg&e's website so you can find

out specifically if you will be impacted by this. it sounds like we still have a little more heat hanging around, larry. >> yeah. and the combination of that heat with strong winds is a problem, spencer. >> strong, dry, warm, gusty winds. bear with me one moment while i reset one little thing on my sequence of graphics that i want to show you. and here we go. we're going to show you some of our high temperatures today along with those that were records. the records are denoted there in yellow numerals with the asterisk. 96 in oakland. 97 sfo. 111 at santa rosa. 112 at livermore and gilroy. all records for this date. 107 in redwood city. right now we're looking at 74 here in san francisco, but numerous inland locations still have triple digit temperature readings even at this hour. we've got 84 in oakland right now. 93 in san mateo. it's still hot in most locations. here's a view the golden gate bridge looking northward.

we're seeing bluer sky than we have seen in quite some time but we still have rather unhealthy air. dangerous heat eases slightly tomorrow. spare the air for the next two days. that will make it 23 consecutive days of spare the air alerts in the bay area. and red flag warning will be in effect from tonight into wednesday morning. we have an excessive heat warning that's expiring later tonight. but at the moment, the heat is still excessive, so it would be wise not to spend much time outdoors right now. the air quality will be poor tomorrow and poor in most locations around the bay area on wednesday. so, again, two more days of spare the air alerts coming our way. and now we have increased fire danger coming our way as well. a red flag warning for high fire danger will be in effect from 10:00 tonight to 8:00 wednesday morning for virtually all of the hills and mountains around the bay area. down in the santa cruz mountains, the red flag warning goes into effect at 10:00 tomorrow morning, but still high fire danger with winds, dry, warm, gusty winds rolling down the slopes and compressing and

drying out, warming up as they flow downhill. of course that raises -- that drops the humidity but raises the threat of more wildfires. fires could start and spread rapidly under these conditions. as these winds increase, we have a wind advisory in effect also from 5:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. tomorrow. it looks like 1:00 p.m., but it's 11:00 p.m. tomorrow. that's for these affected areas in yellow, mainly in the north bay. wind gusts will peak between 45 and 65 miles per hour at times, and there is the possibility of downed trees, power lines, maybe power outages. here's our forecast overnight. not much of a marine layer at all. it's been compressed. it's going to be very shallow, but little patches along the coastline. 5:00 tomorrow morning. no cooling should be expected, no significant cooling from that little thin marine layer. overnight conditions, low temperatures ranging from low and mid-60s around the bay, shoreline, to low 70s in many inland locations. mild to warm and uncomfortable

overnight. highs tomorrow will drop into the 100 to about 104 in the hottest places. upper 70s on the coast. as we look ahead wednesday, a sharp drop it temperatures. cooler in some spots on thursday. tempur satersoilna wesl ranlge of the week. here's the accuweather seven-day forecast. one more day of rather extreme heat. of course high fire danger will be with us for the next couple days. then temperatures moderate and we'll have very, very comfortable weather through the remainder of the forecast period. however, air quality may not improve very much over the next few days. larry and ama. >> thank you, spencer. i'm in for dan, and chris alvarez is handling sports. i notice revenge is a theme, chris. >> yes, revenge is best served with -- begin a huge series that could potentially decide the division. as larry mentioned, it is game week. the 49ers legendary revenge tour

begins with a home game against arizona sunday. how the playe ♪ oh, oh, (announcer)®! ♪ once-weekly ozempic® is helping many people with type 2 diabetes like emily lower their blood sugar. a majority of adults who took ozempic® reached an a1c under 7 and maintained it. here's your a1c. oh! my a1c is under 7! (announcer) and you may lose weight. adults who took ozempic® lost on average up to 12 pounds. i lost almost 12 pounds! oh! (announcer) for those also with known

heart disease, ozempic® lowers the risk of major cardiovascular events such as heart attack, stroke, or death. it lowers the risk. oh! and i only have to take it once a week. oh! ♪ oh, oh, oh, ozempic®! ♪ (announcer) ozempic® is not for people with type 1 diabetes or diabetic ketoacidosis. do not share needles or pens. don't reuse needles. do not take ozempic® if you have a personal or family history of medullary thyroid cancer, multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2, or if you are allergic to ozempic®. stop taking ozempic® and get medical help right away if you get a lump or swelling in your neck, severe stomach pain, itching, rash, or trouble breathing. serious side effects may include pancreatitis. tell your doctor if you have diabetic retinopathy or vision changes. taking ozempic® with a sulfonylurea or insulin may increase low blood sugar risk. common side effects are nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, stomach pain, and constipation. some side effects can lead to dehydration, which may worsen kidney problems. once-weekly ozempic® is helping me reach my blood sugar goal. ♪ oh, oh, oh, ozempic®! ♪ you may pay as little as $25 for a 1-month or 3-month prescription.

ask your health care provider today about once-weekly ozempic®. now abc7 sports with chris alvarez. >> nxp week at this time we'll be talking about how the 49ers played in their home opener against arizona. that's because it is officially and finally game week once again for san francisco. let the legendary revenge tour begin. the niners, the defending nfc champions, beginning against a cardinals team that gave them everything they could handle last year. san francisco did sweep the season series. they were 2-0. but one thing will be different this time around. no fans in the stands. instead it's cardboard cutouts, music, and artificial noise pumped in the entire game. >> you know, like i said, i think that we're just going to be in our zone and not really worried about the crowd noise too much. even though it's going to be playing the entire time from start to finish. that's going to be a little bit different. i don't believe i'm going to be

necessarily affected by it. it's going to be nice to hear when i'm on the sideline to see how annoying it is or if guys really do love it. >> earlier this month the 49ers foundation kicked off the season virtually with the annual players for a purpose fund-raiser. 49ers past and present provided fans with a great chance to connect while raising nearly a half a million dollars with proceeds going to the 49ers foundation and their educational programs. the main event featured a special message from jed york, jerry lynch just to name a few. the a's have a major opportunity to put away the astros in the al west. they enter with a 3 1/2 game lead in the division. five games over four days, including a double-header tomorrow. because of the covid precautions and protests for social injustice, oakland's schedule has been impacted down the stretch. they'll play 23 games in 21 days. on top of that, they'll be doing it shorthanded. mark chapman, marcus semien both out today. >> obviously the astros is a big five-game series here, but, you

know, we just want to continue to do what we do. build a great team. this break might have given a little rust, but to roll. >> still two good teams. i think if you look around the league, there have been some injuries. we've probably been fortunate for a while not to have to deal with it. but now we're up against it. golf, final round. pga tour championship. that's collin morikawa, the long birdie here. he bogeyed three of his final five holes. dustin johnson needs this 20 footer for par on 13, and you betcha. d.j. becomes the first top seed to win the fedex cup since 2009. he pockets a cool $15 million. season restarts thursday in napa with the safeway. i really should have learned how to play golf. nba playoffs, raptors and celtics. tied at two games apiece.n. thownhe right-handed hammer. so nice, we show it twice.

he scored a game-high 27. kemba walker literally takes on the whole raptors defense. and beats the buzzer. celtic businey 27 at the break. boston wins big, 111-89. as i mentioned we're going to be talking football next week but also talking about our abc7 fantasy league, how that all broke down. some big rivalries in our station with that. >> george kittle, baby. george kittle. i need a big game out of you. you know what's interesting, i don't know how the nfl will do this, but somebody's got to monitor the crowd noise, right, because otherwise 49ers have the ball on offense, turn it down. oh, kyler murray, 110 decibels. nobody can hear anything. >> it's going to be really weird. the players have been practicing it with it but to actually see it on sunday with no fans? we get our first look thursday,

the chiefs and the texans. the niners, no fans that first game. >> thank you, chris. coming up on abc7 news at 11:00, the latest on pg&e's power shutoff plans in the bay area. see how people are preparing. and people forced out by the flames of the czu complex are returning home. but to no water or power. they explain why it's been no easy homecoming. coming up tonight on abc7 at 8:00, it's "the bachelor," the greatest seasons ever. then stay with us for abc7 news at 11:00. jimmy kimmel live comes on at 11:30. abc's night line airs after at 12:05 a.m. that is going to do it for this edition of abc7 news. look for the news anytime on the abc7 news app. for all of us here at abc7 news, thanks for watching. enjoy the rest of your holiday, and we'll see you tonight at 11:00.

but as californians we'll get through this together. if your income has been reduced or you've lost your job or your health insurance, covered california is here. we can help you find the health insurance you need to protect you and your loved ones. and, you may even get financial help to pay for your health insurance. so, if you or someone you know is without coverage, visit coveredca.com to learn more or enroll today.

so, if you or someone you know is without coverage, your dog is your best friend. ♪ ♪ but your dog's best friend is your ex-girlfriend... because she always has irresistible pup-peroni. be your best friend's best friend. pup-peroni. myi'm 70 and i live in mill valley, california. my biggest passion is gardening. i love to be outdoors. i have jaybirds that come when i call. i know how important it is to feed your body good nutrition. i heard about prevagen and i heard about the research behind it. taking prevagen, i have noticed that i can think clearly. my memory is better. i can say that prevagen is one of the most outstanding supplements i've ever taken. prevagen. healthier brain. better life.

♪ this is "jeopardy!" introducing today's contestants-- a travel planner from shreveport, louisiana... a privacy consultant from falls church, virginia... and our returning champion-- a physician from wauwatosa, wisconsin... whose 1-day cash winnings total... and now, here is the host of "jeopardy!"--alex trebek! [ cheers and applause ] thank you, johnny gilbert. thank you, ladies and gentlemen. it's always very exciting for me when i walk out at the beginning of the program because that's when i get my first look at the challengers on the program today. tonya and lindsay, good to have you with us.

morgan, good to see you again. i'll wish all three of you good luck and put you to work right now in the jeopardy! round. ♪ one daily double, coming up in one of these categories. where do we start? i have no idea what that's about. ...i know. you've got... and finally, this looks complicated-- "rock" or "roll" might come up in each correct response. - morgan, start us. - for good measure for $200. - morgan. - what is a liter? - that's it. - for good measure for $400. morgan. what...is...a...