>> building a better bay area, moving forward, finding solutions, this is abc 7 news. >> this is christmas we are supposed to be home, cook breakfast. just enjoy the day together. reporter: no such luck. for nearly 100 families in fremont after they were forced to evacuate their homes for more than eight hours today because of a fuel truck crash this build gallons of gasoline and shut down the freeway. you're watching abc 7 news at 5:00, live on abc seven, hulu live in wherever you stream. happening now, a partial reopening of interstate 680, 2 lanes back open nearly 12 hours after the early morning, --

crash. best news, the people who were evacuated because of the smell of gas have been allowed to return to their homes. zack pointed his is on the scene live and joins us with the latest. . reporter: it is been a long day, the southbound lanes, those having been lanes, if you are heading away from the south bay, you drove up to a traffic nightmare. amazingly, no one was seriously hurt, it still changed the course of what many expected to be a very different day. >> this is christmas eve, right? we are supposed to be home, cook breakfast. just enjoy the day together. reporter: instead, this fremont mom and her family were woken up early by police officers. >> i was scared, i don't know

what is going down. reporter: chp says heavy rain because the card to crash, the fuel tanker behind it tried to avoid the crash and overturned. the drivers had only minor injuries come up with the crash itself was what led to the evacuation in hours long road closure. 7900 gallons of fuel leaks from the tanker. we spoke to chp in early stages of the cleanup. >> opposes an inhalation danger. at is one of the -- it poses an inhalation danger. if to make sure all the flammable liquids have been properly handled before we begin the process of recovering. any residual gas could send it up in flames. reporter: department of fish and wildlife also reported to the scene to look into the environmental impacts. chp urged drivers to play safe

now that wet weather has returned. >> drive safe. when i everyone to enjoy a good holiday. i'm sure there are a lot of unhappy drivers, we want to avoid this type of incident. reporter: as to that mom and the family you heard from, they were able to return to their home earlier this afternoon. they were more than grateful. we'll reopening is expected around this time. there are some major traffic impacts, two lanes at this moment come up that full reopen expected anytime. it is starting this brengle, remember to state safe in this wet weather if you take to the roads. dan: as omicron searches across the globe, the highly contagious variant has played part in thousands of flight cancellations and delays. according to flay aware, nearly 10,000 lights today. more than 2400 have been canceled. our reporter is live sfo where

the staff says the worst is yet to come over the holiday weekend. reporter: i just got off the phone with united, delta and jetblue. all three airlines are being impacted the most. so far come up more than 100 flights of been. -- delayed sfo. dozens others canceled. those numbers continue rising by the hour. call it the nightmare before christmas as omicron fears jet into holiday panic. >> i keep seeing cancellations, keeping my finger across. reporter: she is fine to housto on united. how may flights been canceled so far? >> to my knowledge, 170. that number keeps going up. reporter: airline stranded, -- family stranded, airline staff sick. prompting airlines to cancel

flights nationwide and in the bay area. it happened to jack, he is worried he won't make it to seattle. >> we are on that 12:50 flight, it has trouble. we going at 2:18 now. >> we been constantly checking all sites. crossing our fingers, hoping we will be able to make this trip. reporter: do you have a backup plan? >> no, we don't. reporter: on the carnot makes up 50% to 70% of new covid cases in california. bay area travelers aimed -- armed in n95 masks. >> i'm sure there are people in the terminal and on the plane they're positive. >> we been thinking and rethinking this. reporter: as airline staff are stretched thin, others are keeping the holiday hope alive. >> hope for the best. reporter: at least until takeoff.

how may hours till takeoff? >> about two and a half. >> but we are still reporter: on the board to go. reporter:reporter: fingers crossed. >> fingers crossed, right. reporter: united has canceled the most flights across the country and here sfo. if you or a loved one is traveling this holiday weekend, triple check your flight status as a handful of these carriers have already canceled hundreds of flights for tomorrow, christmas day. dan: safe travels to every room. so far, united has canceled the most flights. make sure you check before you had today the airport. in the north bay, health care advocates are providing thousands of free rapid covid 19 tests to local nonprofits. the test can be pricey, loved ones were together safely. abc 7 news reporter found one community advocate donated his own time today as well as enough

-- his own driveway to help friends and neighbors get tested. reporter: mario pous-tio has big plans this christmas eve. he is helping friends and neighbors feel safer. >> reporter: he was holding a pop-up rapid test site at the foot of his driveway in sonoma, allowing people to self test inside their cars. jackie mendoza could not find an appointment anywhere. >> i'm going out of town, just to be safe, for my family, i want to make sure i don't have covid. >> he posted on facebook he was offering tests. we couldn't find another place christmas eve. we are very grateful to him. >> it is a matter of equity, right? reporter: mario is cofounder of food for all, his nonprofit acquired hundreds of rapid tests. those tests can be impossible to find an pricey, out of reach for

low income families. >> at the end of the day, that is what we need to do, take care of each other during these difficult times. that is what i'm trying to do. >> they are easy to use. reporter: the tests were originally provided by iso care network, which distributed more than 100,000 test kits to 35 nonprofits in sonoma county. at a time when omicron is spiking. >> what we've seen during this pandemic is that low income people of color have been disproportionately impacted by the virus. reporter: the hope is test kits will give families peace of mind this holiday. back at mario's folks were waiting 15 minutes for their results. reporter: >> there's just one line. reporter:reporter: mario had 80 tests available, two hours and come up more than 50 were given. >> a lot of people are wanting to get tested, that is

encouraging. dan: other covid headlines we are following: next friday, the united states will lift its travel ban on eight southern african countries. it has been in place about a month since the omicron variant was discovered. california surge continues, the state reported more than 20,000 new cases. one of the highest daily counts are seen in months. seven-day test positivity rate has shot up to 5.4%. it is a strong indicator of community spread and why everyone is so worried about my holiday surge. moving on, mostly dry, don't be full, we're still on storm watch. here's a live look for my camera on the golden gate bridge. the roads look a little slick out there, this is just the break before the next system move in. abc 7 meteorologist is here. reporter: we even saw a few

drops on that live camera shot. now by has had measurable rainfall, also richmond. we will see a few showers tonight, due to a system heading our way. live doppler 7, bringing showers over the next few hours, until midnight. our next storm arrives throughout the day. it is storm number two on our impact scale, it is a moderate storm, there could be brief downpours, it will be windy, especially during the morning hours. vocalized flooding possible. with the storm comes a possibility of thunderstorms and small nail. tonight, just a few showers. midnight, at start spring rain for ukiah. have your baby -- rain through the north bay, sweeping through the bay in the afternoon. more rain on the way, hopefully a break for new year's eve. that forecast coming up. the storm has turned the sierra into a skiers paradise. these photos were taken at

palisades tahoe, which cap 26 inches of new snow in the past 24 hours. it is not stopping at. more snow is falling. they have seven more feet of snow that had in the winter of 2019. very encouraging. if you're heading out that way, third train can -- chain controls for parts of 80 and 50. be prepared for delays. you can keep an eye on the weather a time you need to, you find on abc 7 bay area app. dan: coming up come up here in the making and billions of dollars, but tomorrow, the search for the history of the universe gets underway in a brand-new way. we are going to tell you about the historic lodge and the connection to the bay area. first, a deadly shark attack on the central coast. what we know about the efforts to save the victim and the wa

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dan: the blood being asked to stay out of the water in the section of san luis obispo county after server was killed by a shark today. it happened this morning off morro bay. a server spotted face down in the water. another server helped pull him to shore. when rescue crews arrived, the man was declared dead. they say his injuries were caused by a shark attack. beachgoers urge to stay out of the water for at least the next 24 hours. the last deadly shark attack in the area was in 2003. this shooting happened near that diablo road exit of northbound 680 as we reported during our 11:00 broadcast last night. officers say someone pulled up to a nissan the driver was shot and taken to the hospital in critical condition. a female passenger was not injured. the suspect vehicle for the same. a person was found dead inside a

car that drove into the street last night. that scares have not determined what caused the driver to go into that coldwater. it happened at the martinez marina at the end of tarantino drive. this is an area where people can drive right up to the water to launch boats. vehicle ended up 50 feet from the shore. a contra costa found -- county firefighter was able to reach the vehicle. >> the firefighter was able to wrap the cable around the car -- there was one victim in the vehicle, deceased. dan: the entire recovery effort lasted more than three hours, investigators looking into whether reduced visibility, caused by the rain and fog was a factor in this tragic accident. holiday tradition lived on today in san francisco, they served up there annual christmas eve feast, outdoors because of the pandemic. how's -- san francisco's home

prime rib provided me. there was ham and turkey for those who couldn't make it come up went out and delivered meals to those living out on the streets. it is been decades in the making, finally scientists at nasa ames are prepared for historic christmas day lift off. what they hope to discover with

dan: after weather delay earlier this week, hope is high that a multi-national mission to launch the largest ever telescope into space will be a go early tomorrow morning up the coast of south america. scientists at the bay area's nasa ames have been working on this project for over two decades. as a reporter explains, they expect to make what they call, some very weird discoveries. reporter: the christmas morning launch of the james webb telescope could yield the

greatest gift of all, data from light created nearly 14 billion years ago at the beginning of the universe. unlike previous space telescope such as hubble, ultrasensitive sensors will analyze ultraviolet light. the complex goldplated mirror will operate from in orbit a million miles up, giving a clearer view than on earth >>, due to air pollution. > we will be able to see highly red shifted objects, things formed near the beginning of the universe. reporter: thomas greene is an astrophysicist who has been working on this mission for 25 years. >> we expect to see where things we haven't seen before. it will probably be different molecules, different chemistry than we have seen in planets in our solar system. reporter: he will be looking for evidence of carbon, along with

ammonia and methane in the atmosphere of small, rocky planets that could indicate their harboring light. it will take 10 days for the large mirrors to unfold. the james webb telescope is a collaborative effort of the european and canadian space agency's nasa. >> we are going to hit the ground running, and try to analyze the data quickly come up with put a lot of effort into playing these programs. reporter: about 70 deep space planets will be targeted for research over the tenure lifespan. dan: that is going to be utterly fascinating. can't wait to see with. francis is here, we are dreaming of a white christmas. francis: we are definitely going to get it, might even be a white christmas. showing you the increase cloud cover, even spotty showers that will continue to the next few

hours, for christmas eve into tomorrow. current temperatures mostly in the low 50's, san francisco at 52, op p53, san jose, 54. -- oakland 53 2:00 this morning, we will start to see this line of heavy rain moving through ukiah. it is going to slide in the morning hours through the north bay. the areas of orange and red could be the brief, heavy downpours. the white and pink, that is no. we could get a bit of white christmas. notice how quickly the system moves through, by lunchtime, it slides towards the east bay and southbay. it tapers into showers, then turns into showers sunday, bringing more rain sunday evening in to the bay area. it is going to be a wet weekend. here are the rainfall amounts come up for tomorrow, expect anywhere from .3 inches to over

one inch in napa, generally around .5 inches around the bay area. by sunday evening, will range from point five inches in brentwood to 1.5 in napa, they be 1.25. quite a range of rainfall. here's a look at overnight lows, dropping into the 40's, it is going to be chilly through parts of the north bay, like santa rosa, 41, napa, 43. winds will be picking up overnight, highs tomorrow will generally be in the low 50's for almost everyone. 52 in san francisco, 53 in oakland, breezier in the afternoon. the winds will be strongest is the front moves through in the morning hours. close to 30 miles per hour. then it dies down. also, winter storm warning in effect all the way through tuesday morning. you do not want to be driving to and from the sierra, up to 12 feet of snow expected over the

peaks. a very challenging drive. he went to check out the forecasting plan accordingly if you're heading to or from tahoe. here's the accuweather seven-day forecast. heavy rain tomorrow morning, turning into showers. it is going to be chilly tuesday, wednesday and thursday. finally some sunshine and a dry day, for new year's eve. dan: that's nice. rudolph is ready to go tonight. francis:

dan: to the tamale factory in san jose. the line around the block. everpork, chicken, meat, cheese, even savory or sweet potato. it is a mexican family owned business that has been in the southbay for more than 25 years. home for the holidays, after nearly two years of not seeing family because of the pandemic restrictions, many people are finally getting a chance to see lebron's in person this holiday season. abc 7 news reporter was sfo to talk with happy travelers. >> we are visiting my brother.

reporter: they're changing up this year. what is normally a holiday spent in cleveland is now a trip to see other family in the bay area. >> we've never traveled for the holidays, without it is going to be packed, gotta be there early. we got a direct flight. reporter: they woke up in early morning hours, just make sure they don't have issues with the flights. this is their first trip traveling to see family since 2019. >> this year we will change it up and be with my family. it is nice to be with my brother and my parents. reporter: they weren't alone, other families took advantage of this time to go on holiday vacations. >> reporter: his family went north to seattle. he says his kids wanted to do something for christmas, he thought going north will be a good time to see a winter wonderland. >> the kids wanted a place that has no. we picked seattle.

we spent some time in seattle. reporter: despite the issues with the pandemic, both families say they feel safe to travel as long as they follow the safety rules and get vaccinated. >> i just want to be a b travel after long time. >> it is worth the trip, seeing family. we are probably going to get out, drive around, see how it is. reporter: all morning long, this air press been packed with families, loved ones reconnecting. many embracing each other. we cannot say how long each person went without seeing each other, we can say by the looks on their faces, our best guess is it's been a while for some. at sfo, abc 7 news. dan: we wish them happy reunions. we are tracking santa as he trip -- this is the 66th year nor in has been tracking santa. you can find the link on our website, abc7news.com.

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tonight, several developing stories as we come on the air. the holiday travel chaos on the roads and in the sky. hundreds of christmas eve and christmas day flights canceled. major airlines blaming staffing shortages due to omicron and bad weather. holiday plans across the country ruined. the tsa screening more than 2 million passengers today. more flight cancellations expected throughout the weekend, and as long as covid cases climb. the deadly winter storm striking the west tonight, bringing a relentless slam of snow and rain from western washington to southern california. amid the rain, this deadly pileup on i-5. california on alert tonight for possible flash flooding. authorities issuing evacuation orders there. in san bernardino, heavy rain triggering this mudslide. the threats continue right through christmas.

also breaking tonigh t