announcer: building a better bay area -- moving forward in finding solutions. this is abc 7 news. kristen: thank you so much for watching. you are watching "getting answers." we are asking experts your questions everyday at 3:00 to get answers for you in real time. today, we are going to look at how the rain has impacted our drought conditions and reservoir levels. we will talk safety in a storm and crucial tips for what we can all do for the next one. also we found a jingle about safety that will be stuck in your head for the rest of the day. we will get the latest from pg nd and it comes to power outages and the damages the storm caused. before that, let's check in with spencer.

all you can say is wow. spencer: what a storm. it delivered a drenching to the entire bay. let's look at the storm totals. i don't think you will be shocked because we are family or with how wet this storm was. 5.5 inches of rain, nearly 5.6 inches. campfield had nearly 15 inches in the storm and san jose, which often does not get much rain from these storms, just under two inches. we have left just a little trail of light showers reaching from west to east from san rafael to antioch. you may see light and scattered showers going into the evening hours. it ranks only a one on our impact scale. that was a major storm. maybe a slight chance of sho sho and flooding possible as the

ground ised.e surf -- the stormp some rough surf along the coastal areas and we have a high surf warning in effect until 11:00 tomorrow morning. rakers could reach heights of 20 to 30 feet with a strength -- with a chance of strong recurrent. bear that in mind if you are along the coastline. along the sierra, a lot of snow is already fallen. you can see other one or two feet of snow as a winter storm warning remains in effect until 11:00 tonight. it has been quite a storm and it is not quite over yet. ama: i can't remember the last time we had any storm of that magnitude. anything that big coming our way in the future? spencer: not in the foreseeable future. the last time we had a number four was in 2017. we haven't seen a storm of this magnitude in october in a long time. for the next seven days, we are

looking at progressively call more weather certainly going through the weekend. we expect drier and a little warmer but we can't rule out as we get closer to winter and more storms like this developing, hopefully not this intense. it would be nice to get a series of ones and twos or twos and threes. when you get storms this intense that dump this much rainfall and bring this kind of strong, damaging wind, those are things we don't want, but we do want to see a den put in this drought. -- dent put in this drought. ama: i remember talking last week about possibly putting an end to fire season. did we get that? spencer: we hope so. we can't say conclusively but we are close to seeing the end of fire season. the concern is you get too complacent and think it's all over and all it takes is one of

those powerful offshore flows to just dry off the visitation all over again and we could be back to a high fire concern. no fire concern right now, so so may be looking at the end of the wildfire season. ama: that would be one relief for us. let's take a look at t t t t t t power outages map. you can see some yellows and greens, fortunately we don't see wet triangles, where 5000 or more customers are impacted. joining us to talk about the latest is our pg&e let's talk about the numbers. how many people are left without power at this point? >> pg&e are making good progress. we are down to 50,000 customers without power across the bay area, considering we were at about 60,000, we are making good

progress. ama: the weather is cooperatingg now. what's the biggest challenge for crews out there? is it the trees that are down? >> we see a lot of vegetation related outages. really wet and i and dry. we've been having this drought for so long, but we are seeing some access issues and flooding in some areas. once we do get past the access issues, they are finding more damage. that is why there are some power outages that remain today. we have crews available working around-the-clock to make sure everyone is safe as possible. ama: everyone without power is counting the seconds until a power comes back. i know some people -- my mom

lost power but she got hers back. any sort of timeline for them? >> we know these people who have been out for 24 hours, we know the impact going without power has. we have 3000 personnel, vegetation management crews, all working to restore power. the number of work locations is what is different. this is the biggest storm and the highest number of power outages we've seen because of the different locations of damage where we have to send crews and see what needs to be repaired and then contact customers to let them know how much time it might take to be repaired. so we will contact customers either via text message or phone call. to let them know the estimated time of restoration. we are also letting customers know that we have someone

looking at that damage and assessing the damage in your neighborhood and hopefully customers are receiving those alerts. ama: we took a quick look at the outage map, this tree that camee down near the stop sign. a lot of times we see the damage in the north bay. is that where it is mostly concentrated or is it pretty widespread? >> most of the outages are in the peninsula. the north day was pretty hard hit. maybe not as hard hit as the peninsula. we have about 7000 customers without power in sonoma county i am. we are restoring power to 7000 customers. ama: should there be any concerns about surges once people get their power back up and running? as soon as they get home, they will want to make sure they are back up and running in their

household. >> you can take a precaution and we ask people to turn off all of their appliances if you are without power. unplug everything if you can, may be leave a lamp on so you will know when the power is restored. there could be some concerns of surges. ama: is there anything that can be done to better prepare for storms like this? what are some things that can be done? >> pg&e have been tracking the storm. meteorologists have been on top of it well before wednesday, so we were pre-staging it, knowing where the hardest hit areas would be. we knew that was going to get hard. but california and other parts of our service area, we were staging crews to restore power

in the harder hit areas. we want our customers to be prepared. do you have a planning case power were to go out? medications, if you have medications that need to be refrigerated, do you have a backup battery? do you know how to work it and is it working properly? always take stock of what you are going to do if you lose power. ama: hopefully you can think to do that before you actually lose power. spencer was saying nothing in the foreseeable future this big but it was a four on our impact scale and we haven't had one of those in years. how does this rank for you among storm damage? >> 380,000 customers were without power at one point or another. obviously we were at the highest yesterday, but this is the

biggest storm we've seen this year. in terms of the numbers with power outages, this is the most customers we've had impacted. ama: you made the because we had fire danger. how easy is it for your crews to switch gears and get that going? >> pg&e sciences team will be looking at the burn scar areas because of the torrential rain we had been predicting. we want to make sure it is safe and the video you have been showing, it could impact electric and gas infrastructure. our crews have been very mindful of that. other than that, we've been safe with the trees coming down. trees are still coming down.

it's not safe to make those repairs, so we move the crews out of there, so we are seeing a lot of vegetation being leaked from the soggy ground. ama: at least you have a good day to get people restored. thank you for giving us an update on all the impacts of the storm. we appreciate it. he'sstio --hiid this to take a r look

ama: welcome back. the big question a lot of people are asking -- did this massive storm positively impact our

drought? doing this is the commute case and the manager at power and water. let's tack about -- -- -- -- -- about marin. eddie numbers and how many inches of rain? >> we saw 10 and a half inches of rain in the last 24 hours. for this whole storm system, we saw more than 17 inches, so we saw a huge amount of rain and our levels did go up. we saw about an 11% increase in our reservoir levels. while it didn't get is completely out of the drought, it is a step in the right direction. ama: so it is a good start? >> definitely. this time of year, we usually have 65% to 75% capacity in our reservoirs. we went from 32% to 43% just from this one storm, so it

definitely made a positive impact. ama: it sounds encouraging. rainfall total, how does it work? it's not we've got four inches of rain and the go up four inches. >> that's right. the water in marin comes from the watershed. so a couple of days where we had a few inches of rain before this big storm helped primus for runoff. so the waterfall on mount tan, much of it is usually absorbed into the soil. we have the storms of a couple of inches followed by a larger rainfall event. the rest of the rain becomes runoff into the reservoir. so it was a really great storm and the rest of the rainfall led into our reservoirs and that's where we saw the levels rising. ama: it's interesting to know to have a couple of days to get the

soil going. how dire is the situation? we had to really dry years. how much more rain do we need? >> this storm brought us up to 43%. we would need a handful more storms like this with this amount of rainfall to bring us back up to average. we wouldn't see 100% capacity, we would need a couple of more storms to get there. the drought is far from over and we need people to continue to conserve water. we need people to turn off the irrigation systems and focus on those good habits they built during the drought and continue that good work. we would love to see a couple of days of storm, couple -- we would like the rain to come through the watershed and into our reservoirs. but we can't predict what that

looks like. we've had these two very dry years in the rainfall in october is out of the ordinary for us. it is the most rainfall we've had in october since 1890. we had 26 inches, so there's still some time to meet or beat that record, but this is unusual in terms of volume. ama: besides the runoff,f,f, other ways to capture and save the storm water? >> we have a number of rebates available for folks. there are rain barrels that will capture the rain water coming off of your roof and you can use it on your irrigation outside. you can use the rainwater with one of our rain barrels. folks can do those water saving tips we have been talking about during the drought. use the bucket in your shower and take that outside.

anyway that you can use water wr from indoors, outdoors we recommend but using the habits we've established during the drought will help keep the demand for water down. it allows reservoir levels to continue to rise. ama: do marin residents seem to be responsive to conservation efforts? >> yes. i would say we have ramped up our conservation efforts very quickly. we've gotten to about 31% and we have a goal of 40, so we are approaching it that we haven't seen that mark hit yet. ama: you say we haven't seen rain like this in a long time, so feeling optimistic we can get out of this drought? >> we hope so. i would say does a step in the right direction but those two dry years and the big storm,

it's unpredictable. climate changes here now and so whether we have this kind of rain again or go into the dry pattern, the conservation efforts of our customers, it really is a new way of life. ama: i think people areeople ara to get wind of that. i have noticed since i'm from here, it's always about conserving water, so i'm never out of conservation mode. i think people are getting on board. >> that's exactly right. i know some customers across the area may have experienced a power outages with the storm and we would like to remind everyone if you have any irrigation controller, if the power goes out, it's possible it resets to factory settings. go and make sure that it is turned off and let the rain do the work for you and keep the systems off for the remainder of the winter season. ama: that is a good reminder.

thank you for joining us today. >> thank you for having me. ama: it's likely this isn't the last storm we will see since it is just october. up next, we will look at what we can do to stay

ama: it's been quite a while since we've seen a major storm, let alone a storm like this. for we can talk about how to prepare for the next storm, enjoy this jingle from the weather service. >> ♪ turnaround. don't risk your life, don't do it, turnaround. it might take a little time, turnaround. ♪

ama: you smile but it is serious. joining us now is brian garcia, a meteorologist for national weather service bay area and monterey. thank you for joining us. let's talk about what to do and maybe what not to do if you have to drive in a storm. >> the first thing is if you don't have to drive in the storm, don't. if you can postpone your travel, postpone it. that's the key to maintaining your safety. if you do have to drive in the storm, you should have some lead time ahead of the storm coming in. make sure you are prepared for it, make sure the tires in your car are good and properly inflated. make sure you have new windshield wipers. if you're wipers are on, your headlights are on.

it's all about those little safety precautions ahead of the storm if you have to go out in a storm. ama: even if you are just looking outside, it may not look too bad. but once you get on the roadways, i thought let's go to the grocery store and as soon as i got outside, i thought this was not the best idea. it was only a mild but you never know what could be up there. how can you tell if the po water is too deep? >> that's a good question. if you are ever questioning the water in front of you is too deep, the best course of action is to just not go through it. it's not even worth testing because you don't know if the roadway has given away underneath the pooling water or if it's only two inches deep. you might know your neighborhood well and you know where it floods.

but you can go and examine it and check it out. but especially around areas that you are not familiar with during the flood times, most of us in the bay area don't deal with floods, so it's us to turnaround, don't drown. ama: a lot of people seawater and think worst-case scenario, i'm just stuck in it, but not that the roadway could give way beneath it. >> that's right. i think back to my own story when i lived in houston, i ended up driving through floodwaters and i felt my car float and it was the strangest sensation. then you end up stuck in these waters and if the waters are moving, that's one issue. the key is to not get you can flood the engine really fast. ama: what happens if you do get

floodwater in your car? >> the key is to not get floodwater in your car, so don't drive on flooded roads and if you end up in a flooded area and the water isn't moving, you discern it could be moving due to the slope of the road. you may feel drifting off to the side of the road. at that point, don't even fight it. if you know you are going to come to a stationary rest, that is where you take it and end up in the flooded water and call for help. get some help and just wait for help to arrive. if you can safely evacuate out of your car, go for it. for the most part, these things inevitably happen in the middle of the night, so you can't tell

how deep the water is, so it's best to stay in your car and wait for someone to come and help. ama: what do you do if your hydroplaning besides don't panic? >> take your foot off the gas and coast. don't try to over correct because you will overcorrect right off the road. let it coast until you catch again and then ease back into the process. the process. ama: i saw you toss the kites on high... improved vision coverage. so you can focus on every little detail. one of many cost-saving medicare advantage benefits from scan health plan for 2022. call today or ask your agent about scan health plan. -hi mommy! -hi honey! call today or ask your agent oh i missed you! you just want to video call the kids. ok. hush little baby... don't say a word... but if slow upload speeds turns your goodnight call into an accidental horror movie... can you hear me? shut it down.

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♪ ♪ low maximum out-of-pocket costs. more saving. more spoiling. one of many cost-saving medicare advantage benefits from scan health plan for 2022. call today, or ask your agent about scan health plan. ama: thank you so much for joining us on this interactive show. we broke down the storm totals, talk to pg&e and received an update on outages. we got reservoir levels and

learn what not to do in a storm. much more at 4:00. the air. police on the scene of a shopping mall shooting in boyid. the shooting inside the mall. reports of several people shot. news on their conditions. police rushing to the scene. evacuating stores. what authorities are saying about the gunman. tracking dangerous storms with flooding rain and winds, a possible nor'easter and heavy rain from washington, d.c. to new york to boston and new snow and wind alerts from california to colorado, just 24 hours after the most powerful storm ever recorded off the pacific northwest. rob marciano timing it all out. the fda panel on the eve of its decision on the pfizer