it is wednesday, january 27th. we want to start with our forecast and checking in with mike nicco. >> kumasi, reggie, hi, everybody. good news, i downgraded the storm from the 3 strong to 2 moderate. waves of showers today and tomorrow, with localized downpours that will cause some localized flooding. and there is a slight chance of some thunderstorms, especially across the north bay today. here is a look at what was once a thunderstorm, but now it is just a rain shower in the napa valley and heading to 80 and solano county, through vallejo, across the bridges, and all the way down too you see the richmond san rafael, golden gate and bay bridge about to get rainy again, this stretches down to brisbane. scattered showers in the east bay right now. the south bay starting to clear out a little bit, except for the santa cruz mountains, scattered light showers continue. flood warnings earlier this morning, but not right now, still under a flood watch. this high will hang around the next couple of days, that's why we have damp conditions, with chilly air in the 50s and chance

of wet weather at anytime today. reggie? >> mike, thank you. the storm knocked out powers to tens of thousands of people around the bay area. jobina fortson is looking at the numbers. >> thank you, reggie. so pg&e has an update for us. they tell us more than 36,000 customers lost power overnight. we're going to take a live look at the outage map here so you can see on the screen where everything is. we have outages all over the bay area and a lot of them. the map has been busy all night. almost every outage is because of the weather. north bay had more than 4200 outages, 13,000 reported in the south bay. the peninsula had more than 1400 and nearly 400 in san francisco. the largest outages have been in the east bay, where more than 16,000 customers are still without their electricity. but we just learned the power has come back on for people near the oakland zoo. abc 7 news reporter amy hollyfield was in pleasant hill earlier this morning covering an outage there, moving her way

across the east bay. where are you now and what are you finding? >> reporter: we're making our way across east bay, jobina. seeing a lot of dark streets, streetlights aren't on, i'm imagining a lot of alarm clocks are not going off this morning. here is video we shot in pleasant hill. this is an example of the problem across the bay area. dangling power lines, power lines just came down last night with all the wind. this is keets circle at oak park road in pleasant hill. that neighborhood is in the dark. pg&e has not been able to make its way over there yet. one employee is there keeping an eye on things, making sure no one drives down that street and gets tangled in those wires. he's waiting for a crew and says it still could be, you know, another hour or so until they arrive. they're just so busy this morning. we're hearing of outages in el cerrito and oakland, we're making our way in that direction. just a dark morning here in the east bay as power has just been knocked out across the region from the storm. reporting live from the road,

amy hollyfield, abc 7 news. >> thank you, amy. we know more than 5,000 people in the santa cruz mountains were ordered to evacuate ahead of the storm. and here's a look at the evacuation map. you can see those areas highlighted in red, those are mandatory evacuations. abc 7 news report er reporter an has more. >> reporter: the scotts valley community center is one of three evacuation centers that has been set up. the good news, they have power and the rain has stopped. now because of covid-19, this is not set up as a shelter. here's how it works. those who show up are given a health screening, if they pass, they can go through and pick up supplies which includes food. the red cross is also on they're here to help people get into hotels. the big reason for evacuations, of course, are the threats of flooding and potential deadly mudslides along the hills that burned last fall, in the czu

lightning complex fire. they say most people did not leave, here is their message for those who stayed home. >> grab your family and literally run uphill. that's the best thing we can tell you to do. if you can't do that, go upstairs. if you don't have an upstairs, get on the roof, if you can't do that, get on top of a table. >> reporter: cal fire has been tweeting this morning, their latest tweet reads we have been responding to reports of downed trees throughout the overnight hours. many hazards still remain on the roads. please continue to use extreme caution. now, pg&e and chp have been out patrolling the area. i spoke to a county official earlier, they say they hope to have an update by 8:00 a.m. reporting live, ansar hassan, abc 7 news. 200 residents under a mandatory evacuation orders in the santa cruz mountains decided not to leave their homes. boulder creek residents jennifer and michael parks say they wanted to stay in their home because they have a generator and a house full of supplies that could last them weeks.

they did have to sign a waver when the sheriff's office knocked on their door to issue that mandatory evacuation. >> i'm not anxious that my house is going to go -- get torn away. i believe that i'm most anxious about just that the roads will get blocked. >> it is a wonderful place to live. we love it here. and it is just -- there is natural hazards that you have to prepare for. >> the czu fire forced the parks from their home for more than a month. they believe the safest choice is to stay put, knowing their home is not near any dangerous hills. this winter storm caused a lot of trouble for santa rosa restaurants that have just reopened for outdoor dining. look at this. strong winds ripped the outdoor dining tent at jackson's bar and oven from its moorings. and then look at what happens next. the staff is trying to secure this one, and then another huge tent just went flying through the air across the street. and then down the street from this, the tent at belly left coast kitchen and tap room started taking on water. the owner says despite the storm, they are looking forward to reopening. >> i think we're excited for a

new start, a new beginning, and try to find -- get more people downtown, not just with this business, but other businesses. >> firefighters also went door to door in neighborhoods near the burn scars from last year's blast fire. there is that threat of mudslides and homeowners are being asked to be vigilant and have a plan to evacuate if necessary. still ahead, the wet weather is causing some pretty slick roads, where we are seeing flooding in san francisco. a former facebook executive backs the effort to recall governor newsom and that's not all. the signs showing that he made -- he wants a run for the office. with the downgrade of the storm comes a relief, a downgrade of my concerns. they're still very high for flooding on the roads, debris flows and mudslides. small stream flooding, power outages, very low moving forward. we'll look at the rest of the watche

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raise your hand if the wind woke you up last night. yeah, pretty noisy, wasn't it? good news it is significantly calmer. the only advisory out there is a high wind warning for solano county, up until 8:00. it is a cross breeze, across 80. be careful there, flash flood watch continues, but notice the north bay is out of it, you're in the clear for mud flows or mudslides and debris flows. but the santa cruz mountains and the east bay hills and d'abo range, those burn scars are in play because the creek, while it stalls to the south today and brings a lot of destruction to the central coast, it could move up and clip the south bay

through 4:00 tomorrow afternoon. right now, everything is light on either side of the santa clara valley with heaviest showers lined up along 85 from vacaville back to san francisco right now. in fact, our heaviest shower is right where 680 -- should say 780 and 80 meet and the vallejo right there, there could be ponding on the roadways in some of the interchanges there. be careful. here is jobina with a greater look at the morning commute. >> thank you, mike. good morning, everyone. so the positive update here is that things have really improved on our roadways when you're comparing our 4:00 a.m. and 5:00 a.m. hours to now we reached past 6:00. so we're going to bring in a live look now showing you the bay bridge toll plaza, the chp still has a high wind advisory for the bay bridge and the dumbarton ridge, richmond san mateo, a live picture in the south bay here, looking at san jose and 101. the slick conditions and the light reflecting there off the water on the roadways, be aware of roadway flooding.

and also ponding as well. the things have really cleared up because when we check out the map, our sig alert we have been following all morning long with that jackknifed big rig on southbound 680 at 101 connector has cleared. so that is our positive update this morning, and, reggie has more on roadway flooding as well. >> thank you. san francisco, the downpour caused issues for that early morning commute. southbound lanes of i-80 got flooded overnight, as you can see. this new video shows cars making their way through at least a few inches of water that piled up and, of course, some cars taking it slower than others, which is probably a good idea. the chp is now on the scene there. be careful. new at 6:00, a former facebook executive says that he wants to run to replace governor gavin newsom. he supports the recent effort to recall newsom and has now launched a website announcing his candidacy. he's currently the ceo of venture capital firm social capital. and a partial owner of the golden state warriors.

pala hapatia has not filed any official paperwork or taken steps toward running for office. the san francisco dog not putting up with the stormy weather. >> and the poet laureate who gained national attention at president biden's inauguration embarks on a new journey. the contract she just signed. as we head to break, live look outside, as it continues to rain in many parts of the bay area at 6:12.

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eddie garcia, who left last month to become dallas' chief of police. new developments, a san jose hospital executive has been disciplined after allowing los gatos teachers and staff to jump the vaccine line. a good samaritan hospital spokesperson does confirm that disciplinary action has been taken against the hospital's coo but is not allowed to give any other information about the personnel issue. the hospital was embroiled in controversy after it was revealed that they gave 65 doses to los gatos union district staff. california is changing the way that it will deliver and track the covid-19 vaccine. governor newsom announced a new secretary in charge of delivery will decide where the state's supply of the vaccine should go. a recent ten day push to get residents shots tripled to 125,000 a day. people 65 and up can get vaccinated expanding from those

75 and up. some people in the east bay are excited about the stormy weather because it means more snow in the mountains. yesterday many of them flocked to ski shops before heading to the lake tahoe area. the snow prospects had skiers in a frenzy. >> i just hope i stay warm, i guess, and if i need to stay there a couple more nights, schools online and everything -- >> we got a cabin to stay in. we have reservations to ski, so we're hoping for best. we're really excited to, you know, stay bundled up and see a snowstorm that will hopefully we'll remember for ever. >> many of the shoppers plan to drive to the mountain before the storm arrives so they can hit the slopes later today. just a reminder, you're not supposed to travel more than 120 miles from your home, but, you know. san francisco dog is saying no to the stormy weather. if it means he has to wear this raincoat. >> jasper. look at me. i'm sorry.

>> okay now. so jasper clearly is not happy. i won't even look at wayne. wayne in san francisco tweeted this video with a message saying, so i got my dog a cute raincoat, and jasper's just not having it. so earlier, i'm feeling jasper because he needs a raincoat with some spice and i realized, reggie, my raincoat is black, so i decided i should have several. >> see? >> but, listen, jasper probably needs more flavor to just get in the mood. he's not in the mood. >> or just a little more material maybe. >> maybe. >> that too. >> you think that's the issue? the color and the size? >> yes. he's exposed a little bit back there. >> he was definitely. a little bit more than that going on. better be safe. he'll understand eventually. let's look at what's going on. south beach, look at that, rain on the bay bridge, slick this

morning. with all the cars crossing, more likely you're not going to find any standing water there. look at this, nearly 2 1/3 inches in san rafael. southbound 101. sfo, an inch and a little bit more than a third fell. so you can definitely see it is wet and damp everywhere. we still have waves of showers today and tomorrow. a 2 on the storm impact scale. a chance of lightning across the north bay today. i'm finding a few dry periods moving forward. we have a chance of rain just about every day. it is looking like we'll be able to find significant times where you can get outside and enjoy some sunshine and dryer weather. right now, the carquinez bridge are wet, same with the richmond san rafael bridge. marin county, you're go to be hit hardest. we're going to have a southerly wind you see from muir beach to mill valley, a potential thunderstorm is possible so there could be some lightning drop by that one. we'll keep an eye on it. san mateo and the dumbarton bridges are pretty clear.

if you come through the altamont pass, no real rain there. here is a look, see this open space right here, that is going to allow us to have some sunshine and with this extraordinarily cold air in the middle of the upper parts of the atmosphere, that is going to destabilize the atmosphere and that's why just about all of us have a chance of thunderstorms today, with torrential brief rains that will cause more flooding and even some hail. i'll show you future radar coming up. i want to show you my accuweather seven-day forecast, 2 today, 1 tomorrow, 1 early tomorrow and sunshine in the afternoon. some light rain possible saturday. most of sunday is dry, and sunday night, monday and tuesday, steady light rain. reggie, kumasi. now to ron marciano with a look at what's happening on "gma" starting at 7:00 this morning. hey, rob-ert. >> hey, good morning, reginald and kumasi. good to be with you. hope you were able to sleep through last night's storms. you had it rough in the bay area. that's not over yet.

that's our lead story on "gma," storms hitting california, the central u.s. and the northeast where we have a little bit of snow. as you know he this is probably the strongest storm we have seen in years, dealing with the blizzard, flooding potential and mudslides. we're live on the scene as thousands evacuate in california. also ahead, new -- the coronavirus vaccine giving some new hope this morning, president biden now announcing plans for the nation to buy 200 million more vaccine doses. enough to vaccinate 300 million americans. that's most of us, by the end of the summer. plus, the surprising new report on how safe schools really are for kids and teachers right now. dr. jha joins us live. plus, we're talking with the game changer, jennifer king, making history as the first black woman to be a full time nfl coach, she is live with us, a great interview, hoping you will tune in for, just a couple of weeks, actually less than two weeks before the super bowl. what do you think of this shot hint

behind me. couple of inches of know. >> gorgeous, the church behind you it a whole scene. people are playing and running around. >> you look like a lifetime movie special. >> he really does. >> the roads are another thing, that's for sure. since you mentioned it, i'll go in the church and say a prayer for you guys after this. >> please do. because if i walk in, you know, lightning might strike. robert marciano, thank

that was at 1:30 this morning. hopefully you were traveling across the bay bridge like this person was. it was coming down in buckets. look at the standing water on the bridge. it was breezy at that time. that's definitely one of the heaviest of the storm was rolling through. thankfully they got across it with no issues and provided us this wonderful video. what most of us hopefully slept through. all right, let's take a look at future radar.

you're going to see a lot of blobs of green with embedded yellow. that's those -- those are the waves of showers with embedded downpours. we have it all the way through the morning commute, up through lunch, during the evening commute, just going to be wave after wave. not a continuous rain, except for our southwest facing mountains, like marin county. you'll have more of a steady light rain than the rest of us with embedded showers. even tomorrow, in the afternoon hours, evening hours, we start to see a tapering, that's when the dryer air starts to move in for friday. rainfall amounts, you see, highs in marin county, santa cruz, the rest of us, rain as you head to the south bay, couple hundredths there, quarter to a third of an inch for the rest of us. a blizzard in the sierras has some rethinking their trips. the snow may be good news for the ski resorts, officiales say it is not worth not taking a risk. >> the storm is going to be intense, there is going to be high winds, lots of

precipitation is what is predicted. and those aren't conditions that you should be driving in. >> if you do end up making the trip, chain controls will be required for vehicles without four wheel drive and snow tires. officials also encourage a full tank of gas, warm clothing, and food. the winter storm that is drenching the bay area is bringing snow to the hills around napa valley. this video shows fresh powder in howell mountain. really windy when we got this video overnight. the ground covered in snow, so a beautiful sight, which happens from time to time in wine country, but isn't an everyday thing. youth poet, amanda gorman, has signed with one of the world's biggest modeling agencies after she stole the show at president joe biden's inauguration. the 22-year-old now has a deal with img models, which represents fashion stars like gisele and kate moss. gorman became a global sensation after reading her original work "the hill we climb" at

inauguration. the harvard grad has several upcoming books, best sellers on amazon, even though they're not due to be released for months. yes, amanda, yes. >> all right. >> do it all. >> collect that coin. cash in. >> i'm happy for her. >> she's put in the work. >> mm-hmm. coming up next, the local parks that are closed for the next few days because of the torrential rain. >> and a pg&e spokesperson joins us live to talk about the power outages that many people are experiencing this morning. >> as we head to break, let's look outside right now, it is 6:26. we'll be right back.

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building a better bay area, for a safe and secure future this is abc 7 news. now at 6:30, the strongest storm of the season passing through the bay area. take a look at this rainy dash cam video from highway 101 overnight. the worst of the storm may be over, but there is more rain on the way. live look outside this is our exploratorium camera from downtown san francisco. and there is a little bit of rate on the lens right there. you can see wet roads on the golden gate bridge and san jose 1 01 camera on the right, more on the slick conditions ahead. and it is a really busy morning for pg&e crews after tens of thousands of people lost

power overnight. this is video of a power line that is down in pleasant hill. a pg&e spokesperson will be joining us live later this half hour. good morning. wednesday, january 27th. we'll start by checking in with meteorologist mike nicco. >> thank you, reggie, kumasi, hi, everybody. thank you for joining us on this wet wednesday. damp morning. a downgraded the storm from a 3 strong to 2 moderate, the most intense and damaging part of the storm is going to hit the central coast in the lower san joaquin valley and will cause a lot of damage there. so we have waves of showers not only today, but also keep a 2 in the forecast for tomorrow. our best chance of lightning, though, is going to be today. when you get under some of the showers, there will be some real intense rains as you can see moving across 101 and that is going to continue heading off to the east. so there is definitely going to be some ponding on the roadways around mill valley, to richmond, hercules and vallejo. it will be there in the next few

minutes. expect some ponding possibly on the richmond sa rafael bridge. most of russ quiet right now. but we're going to have waves of showers throughout the day and tomorrow and it is going to be a cool day with temperatures in the mid-50s. so very humid for us, damp and keep the umbrella handy. you need it several times. >> thank you, mike. santa cruz county, 5,000 residents were ordered to evacuate ahead of the storm. and here is a look at that evacuation map. the areas that are highlighted in red are mandatory. and they stretch across both santa cruz and san mateo counties. want to check in with ansar hassan live at the center in scotts valley with more on the evacuations. ansar? >> reporter: good morning, kumasi. the scotts valley community center is one of three evacuation centers that have been set up, they're all open until tomorrow morning. the good news, they have power, and it has stopped raining.

because of covid-19, this is not set up as a shelter. here's how it works, those who show up are given a health screening. they can pick up supplies which includes food. the red cross is also on hand to help people get them into hotels. the big reason for the evacuations, of course, are the threats of flooding and potentially deadly mudslides along the hills that burned last fall in the czu lightning complex fire. county officials only expected about 25% of people to evacuate. those who did say it hasn't been easy. >> i'm worried about getting blocked in or power being out for, you know, days at a time. and being stranded in the mountains. that's my most -- that's my biggest concern. >> you think twice. you have to. we all live here in the mountains and we have seen things happen. >> reporter: cal fire has been tweeting this morning, their latest tweet reads we have been responding to reports of downed trees throughout the overnight hours. many hazards still remain on the roads. please continue to use extreme

caution. now, we know that chp and pg&e crews have been patrolling the areas, i've been told the county is supposed to give us an update around 8:00 a.m. reporting live, ansar hassan, abc 7 news. >> thank you. this morning, rain was pouring down at san jose international airport. streets are empty around the airport. we'll see later this morning if flights will be impacted by the storm. in the north bay, a large tree crashed down on to a mobile home in rhone ert park. initial reports is that a family was inside at the time. no one was seriously hurt. tens of thousands of people waking up in the dark this morning across the bay area, pg&e's outage website is lit up right now. there are pretty big clusters of homes without power in the east bay and the south bay. abc 7 reporter amy hollyfield is headed to el cerrito. amy? >> reporter: we're driving down the streets of downtown el cerrito, a welcome sight, lots of lights on here.

this area looks okay. a relief to see some lights after spending the morning in pleasant hill. look at this video we shot there. no lights in this neighborhood because of downed power lines. this is on keats cir park boulevard. a couple of lines down on that street. they had to block it off because cars drove through there, they would get tangled up in the wires. the area without lights all morning long, they're just waiting on pg&e crews to be able to make it out there to get that fixed. pg&e so busy this morning, dashing around from outage to outage. they haven't made it out there yet with more than 10,000 customers here in the east bay without power. we're driving around, looking for those outages, looking for people impacted. right now el cerrito, downtown, looking pretty good. live in el cerrito, amy hollyfield, abc 7 news. >> thank you, amy. on the peninsula, despite the stormy conditions, people were still taking to the streets, wanting to do some outdoor dining.

ricardo and mare beth milano lost power tuesday night in burlingame, so they decided to head out and brave the elements and they weren't the only ones. >> fireplace, and it was warm, and as soon as the lights went out, i think the house said, time for you to go walk. so the power went, so out we went. >> it is a little chilly. not bad. it is worth it. >> locked up all that time, it is good to be out. >> meantime, as the waves crashed in pacifica, in the early evening hours on tuesday, pg&e crews in daily city were making sure to make sure equipment was working properly before the storm. several parks in east bay will be closed through friday morning because of the extreme rain and wind conditions. and that includes about a dozen ridge line parks including claremont canyon, huckleberry regional preserve, kennedy grove, lake shah bow, reinhart red wood and wile cad canyon. park officials say the weather could cause hazardous conditions so they'll keep it closed until friday at 8:00 a.m. you can access live doppler

7 on demand, right on your tv. that's available for our app which is on apple tv, android tv, amazon fire tv and roku, just search for abc 7 bay area and download it to start streaming. all right, time now 6:36. we want to check in with mike for a look at our forecast. >> i'm looking at future radar here. you see it has some showers that are going to continue to develop over the next six hours. let me take a look at my concerns. and i downgraded quite a bit of them, and let's start with the lowest one. power outages, downed trees, small stream flooding, low to nonexistent now. what i am still worried about is debris flow and mudslides in the south bay on either side, whether the santa cruz mountains or diablo range and flooding on roads. everything is so damp now, we get one of these downpours, it is going to cause some ponding on the roadways and will cause some hydroplaning. let's talk about what's going on now. it is significantly quieter, winds gusting just about 22 at

sfo, 21 in san francisco. that's about as fast as they have been since we came on the air at 4:00 this morning. and up in the higher elevations, 31 in st. helenia, 37 at diablo. that's as fast as they have been over the last 2 1/2 hours or so. the wind advisory gone, the only place still in a high wind warning and that's because sacramento forecasts officially for solano county, while the national weather service in monterey forecasts for the rest of the bay area. they kept you in this high wind warning through 8:00 tomorrow -- this morning. you can still have a little bit of a crosswind -- cross 80, excuse me. been on the air and talking a lot this morning about 60 miles per hour. let's talk about the flash flood watch, and you can see the north bay out of it. the burn scars are going to be okay across the north bay. but still, east bay hills, diablo range, and santa cruz mountains, that atmospheric river will migrate back north and could clip the south bay and that's why we have an issue there. it is pretty quiet other than

light showers. in this area, our biggest showers are still right along highway 4 from hercules out towards antioch and snow across lake and mendocino counties and we'll stay in that winter storm warning through at least noon today with another three to six inches of snow there above 1500 feet. we're going to take a look at the morning commute, still a lot of issues out there, jobina? >> yes, mike. thankfully not as bad. so i want to start with a look at the map here, and a number of roadway flooding reports coming in from the chp. as we bring these up here, they're primarily focussed in the south bay. so roadway flooding reported on southbound 280, past saratoga avenue. also the northbound 280 ramp to guadalupe parkway and southbound 87 under west taylor street. we bring in our live cameras here, i want to point out emeryville, we watched a number of spinouts happen on 80. headlights making their way westbound this morning. if you're headed toward the bay bridge, there is a high wind

advisory there. as we bring in the san mateo bridge, live camera here, we have a high wind advisory issued by the chp here. also for the dumbarton bridge, richmond san rafael bridge and ant antioch bridge. and also we want to talk about that this morning. there was at least two crashes on the bay bridge overnight. you can see and hear the wind and rain. this one involved an suv, another involved a jackknifed big rig. and it happened on the lower deck around 10:30 last night. the chp says there was a small fuel leak. just be careful, everyone, because we are are continuing to watch these spinouts happen throughout the morning commute right now. reggie and kumasi? >> thank you. still ahead, we talk to pg&e spokesperson jeff smith about the power outages many people are experiencing this morning. plus, meet the real simba, the lion cub, the

all right, so we talked about temperatures going to be cool and damp today in the low to mid-50s. we don't cool much tonight, mid-40s to 50 degrees with more showers and downpours. look at all the yellow and orange out there. tomorrow's morning commute will be just as damp as this commute is. i want to head up to tahoe, even though technically we're not supposed to go there, people are going there. i want to talk to you specifically. thinking about going up there, don't. avalanche warning, up to 8 to 10 feet of snow blowing 50 to 100 miles per hour, zero visibility. it is too dangerous to be up there. i wouldn't be surprised if some places are closed, chains i heard required earlier this morning. but today, tomorrow, friday, heavier and heavier, the snow, so don't even think about it. you missed your window, you have to go after it and enjoy the powder that is up there. now to santa cruz mountains, more than 5,000 residents were ordered to evacuate because of the threat of mudslides.

abc news reporter will carr is there to show us the danger. >> reporter: thousands of people are being told to get out now after we had a historic fire season here in california. you can still see charred trucks here. let me show you what the big concern is as you cross this road. californians have been hoping for rain, but it is a double-edged sword. we're expecting up to 10 inches of rain in the coming hours. that's going to make these hillsides so slick that all of this mud could come flying down, carrying debris with it and potentially destroying some of the homes in this area. we're also expecting the potential for avalanches in the mountain sides and power outages across this area. add it all up and these are going to be some dangerous situations over the next 48 hours. in santa cruz, will carr, abc news. conditions in santa rosa are starting to look better after heavy rains and strong winds last night. fire crews say they're still keeping an eye on north bay burn scars. >> these winter storms is kind

of what we deal with during fire season. everything from the way that we're asking our community to prepare for the potential to evacuate because of a debris flow or mudslide, similar to the fire season they're doing now for the wet weather and much again like fire season here in california, we're supporting one another when those needs arise. so a lot of support that continues as the storms continue to roll through. and, again, just looking to see what the next round of rain brings. >> and we have been reporting on the power outages across the bay area, all morning, and this is what the pg&e outage map looks like right now. you can see we see a lot of outages now, north bay, novato, south bay, near santa clara county and in the east bay too. >> pg&e spokesperson jeff smith is joining us right now. jeff, thank you for being there. how many people are without power right now? >> right now, throughout the pg&e service territory, about 235,000 customers without power,

about 27,000 of those are in the greater bay area. >> and of those 27,000, where are you seeing the most people without power here? >> you know it kind of a mix. i would say up in the north bay, and some in the south bay are kind of the hardest hit areas now. it is really a mixed bag all throughout the bay area. and, you know, we have been able to restore some of our customers overnight. but we expect that we'll continue to see outages as well as the storm continues. >> so what is the plan as you work to address the outages? >> well, we have an in house meteorology team so what they were able to do over the course of the last -- of the prior couple of days is get a pretty good indication on where we expected most severely hit areas would be and we stationed crews in those areas so we can have them on double -- essentially on double shifts, crews set up so they can work 12 hours and another crew can come in and relieve them for another 12 hours to restore customers safely and as quickly as

possible. and so we're working on that and just kind of keeping an eye on the problematic areas, working to restore customers where we can, when the conditions allow and also one thing that we're able to do in some instances is reroute power through other circuits. that's called swishing. if there is a problem on one circuit, we can reroute customers through another one and get them restored that way. we're looking for opportunities to do that where we can and monitor our weather. our meteorologists are telling us this could be one of the most severe storms to hit california in several years. >> jeff, any indication of how long people will be waiting before they get their power back on? >> you know, it is -- it is going to vary in different cases. we always work to get customers restored safely and as quickly as we can. we do know from our experience last week you were talking about santa cruz earlier, for example, potentially there could be some

access issues, we're anticipating there could be some mudslide issues, so in areas that are hard to reach like that, the restoration time might take a little bit longer. in other areas, we'll work to get customers restored more quickly, like i say, some customers that experienced power outage overnight have already had their power restored. but, you know, the numbers will be in a state of flux for a while as we consider -- as we continue to see a lot of stormy weather continue to move through all throughout our service territory and particularly in the bay area. >> we're waiting to get some sunlight, but have your crews said anything about the kind of damage that they're seeing? we have seen downed lines. are you seeing a lot of that or what is the word on the ground? >> a lot of reports at this point are preliminary and kind of initial reports are that we are seeing some pretty significant damage. there was, you know, one thing we do know with the wind last week, there was already a lot of severe damage in certain parts of our service territory and as -- what you can -- what you

tend to see is the winds begin to pick up too. once the ground is saturated, we're going to continue to get that saturation of ground over the next 24 to 48 hours. and so when that ground gets saturated, the winds pick up, that has a tendency where heavy winds can blow trees into power lines and, you know, acrossroad ways and things of that nature. we anticipate we'll continue to see that as the ground gets more and more saturated over the next 24 to 48 hours. thank you for joining us. we wish all your crews luck out there as we get this power restored. have a good morning. >> thank you for having me this morning. let's go to mike now with a look at what's happening. >> current conditions and we'll move forward into the seven-day forecast. hi, everybody. thank you for joining us this morning. 6:48, here's the key moving forward. notice the clouds are opening. we are going to have sunshine. and we're going to have waves of showers, thunderstorms possible, rainbows also. we love to see them all #

now. marin county will have the steadiest rain the next 36 hours because you have the most southwest facing mountains. that naturally lifts the moisture and creates more rain. the rest of us are going to have on and off showers, like we're seeing in san jose. a little bit of blue breakthrough there. we have 5500ths as we look at 87 from the shark tank to manetta san jose international. we look south on 680, you h hh had .86 of an inch also. tomorrow we'll have more of the same, waves and showers and downpours. and also rainbows too. i downgraded us. 1 through the seven day forecast. i'm finding dry times to get you outside and shake the cabin fever. you can see shah band of showers stretching all the way across solano county, san pablo bay, northern contra costa county, marin county. that 2 with the atmospheric

river down to our south creating all sorts of trouble there. put the clouds on here, i want to show you how we have sunshine so you need the sunglasses and umbrella today and live doppler 7 on our app to make sure you see the showers. look at this, just about all of us have a chance of thunderstorms today with small hail. let's roll into future radar. what you're going to notice are green blobs. those are the showers with embedded yellow and orange. those are the heavier downpours that cause localized flooding and gusty winds. we're not expecting widespread flooding event or wind event outside of the potential burn scars in the south bay. you can see as we head through tonight, tomorrow morning, even into tomorrow evening we're going to have waves of showers. they will taper by friday morning, friday morning, increasing sunshine, dry weather, just some light rain saturday, sunday the rain comes in after the sun sets so enjoy sunday outside this weekend. kumasi, reggie? >> thank you. happening told, president biden expected to announce his plan for combatting climate change.

jobina fortson is looking at those details. >> thank you. yes, so president biden is turning his attention to climate change today according to the new york times. he is set to direct federal agencies to determine the extent of a ban on new oil and gas leasing on federal land. biden will also propose that the government can serve 30% of all federal land and water by 2030, create a task force with an action plan for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and issue memorandum elevating climate change to a national security priority. the president is expected to revive and strengthen president obama's memorandum in 2016. that elevated climate change to a national security priority. reggie? thank you, jobina. more from president biden who says there is going to be a lot of vaccine on the way. his administration is now promising to buy an extra 100 million doses of the pfizer and moderna vaccines for a total of 600 million. that means the u.s. would have

enough to vaccinate nearly all americans by the end of this summer. state governors are told they can expect a 16% increase in the vaccines they receive starting next week. new report from the centers for disease control finds new evidence that covid-19 will not spread in schools with proper safety precautions. the cdc studied 17 schools in wisconsin and found that schools were able to limit the spread of covid-19 by taking measures like wearing masks, social distancing and separating students into groups of 11 to 20. the cdc also found that indoor sports would likely cause the virus to spread because it lacks proper social distancing and other safety measures. there has been a 16% increase recently and children testing positive for covid-19. doctor ashish jha tells george stephanopoulos this morning on "gma" why he's not concerned about that recent uptick. >> what is happening basically is as we have seen large outbreaks in the country, the last month or so we have seen some very, very large numbers of

infections, kids have been getting more infected too. i don't think it is anything different, i don't think it is the new variant for instance playing a role, i just think it is the part of a broader pat everyone, more people getting infected. >> you can watch the entire interview with dr. jha coming up at 7:00 a.m. on "gma." now to your morning money report, walgreens tapped starbucks executive ross brewer as the new ceo, which makes her the only black woman currently leading a fortune 500 company. brewer currently serves as the chief operating officer at starbucks, and will remain in that role until the end of february. br brewer, who served as ceo six bk the ceo of sam's club. we're down significantly at this point by 580 points. new at 6:00, meet simba. he's the newest little lion at

the singapore zoo. simba is named after the star of disney' disney's lion king. this simba also lost his dad. his dad died before he had a chance to meet his son. simba is the first cub conceived at that zoo through assisted reproduction. that's what they're calling it. so in other words, they got a sample from dad before he passed away. the zoo says simba shares the same beautiful eyes as his late father. so i took you on a little journey there. >> that was a whole journey. >> recover from that. what kind of tea you sipping during tea time? >> i have my green tea, but i have a little lemon today. >> okay. >> what about you? >> i have the raspberry something something, a black tea, since i'm dressed in all black today, which is mourning the sunshine, rip, good weather. >> i know.

hopefully we'll be out of it soon and we can get back to outdoor dining, supporting our restaurants. >> right. >> just giving us some time to get everything in order and we'll be there to support them. >> the tea is we asked for rain, but we didn't ask for rain. yet that's what we got. >> we need to specify. >> much like simba, we just move on. we do what we can. >> he lives in you. >> coming up next, seven things you need to know today. >> abc 7 launched new streaming apps. you can get our live newscast, breaking news weather and more with our new abc 7 bay area app. find it on apple tv, android tv, fire tv and roku. go there and search abc 7 bay area and download it for free. a live look outside, we sure are. 6:55. there it is. see, it is not even raining hard anymore. >> see. >> there is some pretty clouds and a little light.

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6:58. if you're just joining us, seven things to know this morning. number one, we have a pretty heavy cell that will move across hercules, crockett, carquinez bridge over next half hour or so. ponding on the roadways possible. 2 today and tomorrow. showers and thunderstorms, downpours likely. >> number two, this morning more than 27,000 pg&e customers have lost electricity because of the storm. you can see the outages posted on this pg&e map. the largest in the south bay

nearly 11,000 customers lost power. and east bay, where more than 10,000 are in the dark. >> number three, the scotts valley community center is one of three evacuation centers set up in santa cruz county after 5,000 residents were ordered to evacuate. about 200 people refused to leave. >> number four, this winter storm is causing trouble for santa rosa restaurants that just opened for outdoor dining, sending tents flying into the street. >> number five, the storm is turning the sierra into a winter wonderland. some areas could get more than seven feet of snow. and that has skiers and snowboarders pretty excited, even though technically you should not be traveling more than 120 miles from home. >> number six, we're taking a live look at emeryville, showing you 80. we do have ponding and roadway flooding reported. so please be careful. >> and number seven, this dog not too happy about this raincoat. this is jasper. and wayne got him this new rain gear ahead of the storm in san

francisco. but wayne is laughing and jasper is not. >> jasper, keep your head up. >> good morning, america. triple threat. that trio of dangerous storms slamming millions coast to coast with blizzard conditions. the biggest storm in years hitting the west and this morning, fears of flooding and mudslides in california forcing 5,000 residents to evacuate. plus, new images of that path of destruction after a powerful tornado ripped through alabama leveling neighborhoods. we're tracking it all for you this morning. shot of hope. president biden now announcing plans for the nation to buy 200 million more vaccine doses, enough to vaccinate 300 million americans by the end of this summer as january is now the deadliest month since the beginning of the pandemic for the united states. plus, the new report on covid transmission in schools. how safe is it really for kids