>> building a better bay area. this is abc7 news. >> thanks for joining us on this interactive show, getting answers. we always tackle timely and important issues, but we are doing it a little differently today. because of a technical issue we are not doing live interviews on this show but we have a lot of interesting stories to bring you in this half-hour nonetheless and encourage you to still ask any questions on our facebook love stream. dramatic images from yellowstone national park, a mix of melting snow and four inches of rain in 24 hours and it closed water to overflow riverbanks and produce record flooding. the good news, dry weather is forecast for the next several days in the area.

alex stone has a look at the damage. alex: inside yellowstone national park, rivers are peaking right now, creating incredible scenes like this of homes washing away. while rain on sunday and monday in some areas of the rockies played a role, these scenes are the result of near record high temperatures over the weekend that melted upper elevation snow. the ground was frozen under the snow so the runoff had nowhere to go but down river. the yellowstone river raging. the iconic park popular for summer vacations is closed. all five park entrances are closed until at least midweek. >> we checked out of our hotel this morning and were going to head into yellowstone, so if you have not heard the news yet, he said you are not leaving anytime soon. alex: those who were already in the park are told they should try to get out if they can. that is tough to do with so many roads and bridges wiped out by

the raging waters and mudslides. the soil is so brutal, this shed collapsed in the current. in parts of montana people are told it is not safe to drink the tap water. the extreme weather goes beyond yellowstone. chicago last night had a supercell thunderstorm that tore through a large area in indiana. much of the country has been baking under extreme heat from coast to coast. alex stone, abc news, los angeles. kristen: those are some incredible images. i want to bring in meteorologist mike nicco to talk about why this is all happening. it's crazy to see that they got heavy rain and snow, what, two to three months worth of precipitation in three days? mike: no matter where that happens it will cause flooding, but because it happens in the mountains and you know that water runs into the valleys and streams, it does not have as flat an area to spread out, it has a much narrower area. that created the flooding.

a couple things. that atmospheric river that was bringing the flooding rains and record-setting rains to oregon and washington was also pummeling this area. it was also drawing in some warmer air at the higher elevations. here is the set up right now. we still have a few flood warnings until the overnight hours and early into tomorrow, depending on which side of the park you are. the rain does eventually in the water move all different areas depending on the elevation. here's what i want to show what is going on right now with live doppler 7. these are the components we were needing. one, record warmth. that caused a snowmelt. . we have high on snow it makes it melt. the kicker was the ground could not absorb this water because it is still frozen underneath all of that snow. by the time it got to the lower

elevations where it could be absorbed, it was already in the streams and valleys. you know they were just rising until places like that house washed away. so flooding is possible tomorrow. much later showers in much higher elevations -- lighter showers in much higher elevations. the worst of this flooding is well behind us, but the cleanup could take years. kristen: let's talk about the fact -- we said it will be drier weather, so that's good, however do they have hot days ahead? that could cause more snowmelt. some of that ground is still frozen, unable to absorb that melt, so are they looking at hot temperatures? mike: the good news is no, they

are not. all the hot weather is in the central part of the u.s. and spreading to the east now. we are talking record temperatures, 100s as possibly far north as st. louis and up into kentucky and charlotte, north carolina. that has not had a 100 degree high temperature in nearly seven years. thankfully we will have another low spinning off the oregon coast. it will be pulling in cooler air, more like what they should have this time of year. it will not happen to an atmospheric river this time. remember that big giant low spinning in the gulf of alaska? this one will be much smaller this week. it will be much cooler and will not have nearly the amount of rain. we will have several days of temperatures pretty close to average with some sunshine. when the rain does return into the weekend, it won't be that heavy. kristen: can we talk about

whether this is an isolated thing or part of a broader pattern that involves climate change? mike: it is part of a broader pattern. there is so many changes so rapidly taking place in our atmosphere that at times we are having a hard time keeping up with it. so much of our weather forecast models, the base of our forecasts, what do we expect this time of year? then what are we seeing in the atmosphere and how is that going to tweak what we would normally have? the computer models are going -- really, this is going to happen, because according to climatology this should not happen. at times us as meteorologists look at the data and go, that model, that can't be right. that is so extreme that this can't be it. trying to forecast something that far out is getting easier,

but it blows the mind and blows away normal perceived perceptions of what we should have during any time of year. this incident happens to be isolated to this area, but we are seeing these type of isolated incidents happen everywhere. i think spain is going through a heat wave where the temperature is could reach 109, 110. unprecedented heat on that side of the world also. kristen: a lot of misery right now, a lot of fires, power outages. i know you will have more for us at 4:00. and in just a few minutes you will have the warriors rest of the finals forecast. we look if you a few minutes to get that stuff together. we will be right back. we will take a look at wastewater research and how that can

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kristen: welcome back. wastewater research has become pivotal to detecting emissions across the country. luz pena is taking us behind the scenes to understand how this process works and the global science behind it. luz: silicon valley runs on data. when it comes to the next pandemic scientists are looking in a place where everything was once considered waste until now. we were walked through the palo alto regional water quality control plant. this facility serves over 200,000 people across the bay area, but since the pandemic they've been doing more than cleaning millions of gallons of wastewater a day, they are playing a key role in detecting covid. >> a lot of people are using rapid tests at home and those results are not reported to the local health department, so

there is no way of them knowing how many people have covid. the wastewater gives us a true picture. luz: according to the cdc, people infected with covid can shed the virus in their feces, even if they don't have symptoms. that is why this has become an effective indicator of covid transmission. there are 2 million copies of the virus in every gram of wastewater, but once it gets here, it's dead and no longer infectious. because covid is neutralized at this point, plant operators can collect samples without the need of ppp. around 3:00 p.m. the collection begins. the symbol is later sealed and placed in this fridge. in the meantime, a group of carriers are driving to wastewater plants to pick up samples throughout the state. one of them is saul hernandez. this is his route. >> the next planned on going to collect in is davis. luz: all the symbols and up here.

we got to see firsthand how the scientific process works. >> the first symbol will come in looking something like this, a mixture of liquid and solid. we then centrifuge it at a super high speed, many thousands of revolutions per minute. what we get left is the solid portion we will use for the testing. luz: bradley leads the team that processes over 30 samples a day from across the country, and 16 from california wastewater sites. inside this fridge they have samples from millions from across the bay area, stretching from gilroy to san francisco, here you see san jose, palo alto, over there stanford. the process to detect how much covid is in a community is meticulous. surprisingly it only requires one sample per plant and about 0.3 grams of solid from that sample. >> it makes a nice noise to let you know. luz: this data represents how many people? >> it depends on the sewer shed.

in los angeles there are 4 million people contributing to that sewer shed. we can gain information about everyone in that sewer shed from this small simple we take. luz: 4 million people? >> yes. luz: the next step is to detach the virus from everything else. >> the ball bearings disrupt the virus. that liquid we put in there breaks those encapsulation's and freezes the virus so we can detect it in the next step of the process. luz: these machines turn the symbols into liquid form. one of the final steps lights up one that has covid. >> if the virus is in their, the droplet will fluoresce. luz: this entire process in the lab takes about 10 hours, including sequencing for specific variants. a fast operation that this

operation's cofounder says is key to giving health departments enough time to respond before a surge. >> wastewater gives us an early warning signal. we don't want to wait until people get sick. they then become symptomatically and get tested. with wastewater you can get ahead of that, understanding which variants are most prevalent. >> all of the virus now is detached from the cell and now in the liquid portion. luz: years before wastewater samples were collected this scale, this professor had the vision. >> before the pandemic we started studying sars-cov-2 in wastewater. luz: a team of students started collecting samples from campus in early 2020. that now expanded to create into a project that releases data for 11 treatment plans in california. >> we develop the techniques and technology and we needed to scale it.

we talked to the public health department on a daily basis pretty much. luz: this is how they detected omicron more than a week before clinical samples confirmed this variant in the bay area. and now they are focused on the next one. >> we have started to see ba.4 coming up in the wastewater. so we will be watching that closely. luz: so next time you think about how covid data is collected, just know it is one flush away. >> it's ready to go. thank you, have a great day. luz: in san francisco, luz pena, abc7 news. kristen: when we come back, we'll take a closer look at the dixie fire, its history and the role of money in it and mike with a fire

kristen: it has been almost one year since the biggest single wildfire in state history started. the dixie fire burn from july to october last year.

whith abc station in sacramento showed you how pg&e started the dixie fire. >> we have become a society where we don't hold anybody accountable anymore. brendan: they had advanced warning red everyone in greenville survived, but their lives as shopkeepers, teachers, plumbers and artists? the dixie fire wiped those away with the town. >> i think that is the deepest trauma, who am i now? i think a lot of people are struggling with that. brendan: sue sees the struggle up close, working in the aftermath. >> a lot of our elderly are passing away. i think it's because, for them, it's overwhelming. brendan: the dixie fire destroyed an area the size of rhode island, almost one million acres. half of lassen volcanic national

park. but it was greenville that got the politicians spinning. >> we lost rainville tonight. -- lost greenville tonight. there is no words for how us in government have not been able to get the job done. brendan: that is a republican congressman. he pointed to poor forest management has the problem. governor gavin newsom, a democrat, pointed to something else. gov. newsom: these are climate induced wildfires. brendan: but neither politician pointed to what did cause this fire, a corporation that donated to both of their campaigns. did climate change start this fire? >> no. brendan: did forest management start this fire? >> no. brendan: what did? >> pg&e. ♪ >> a tree on the line. started a fire. brendan: this 65 foot tall douglas for should have been

discovered and removed -- fir should have been removed and discovered by pg&e. investigators sound the trunk was so rotten -- found the trunk was so rotten it could not support the tree's weight. butte county prosecutors say the problem was obvious. >> this is not far off from where the tree started the dixie fire. brendan: the trunk facing the powerlines lines had a big section of bark missing. it had been that way since 2008. pg&e had 13 years to catch this problem, but never did. >> why did you not see this tree? brendan: investigators say pg&e also acted with negligence the day the tree broke, failing to take the problem seriously. >> that tree was cooking and cooking for 10 hours. in a very dangerous area. brendan: pg&e's computers flagged trouble at 6:48 a.m., presumably the time the tree

fell, but it took almost 10 hours for a pg&e employee to finally get there. when scott campbell arrived, he said he noticed the tree and a small fire. the first flames of the dixie fire. the trouble meant's lawyers point out he risked his own safety trying to put it out. prosecutor did not charge campbell. they say pg&e set him up to fail. it took pg&e about four hours to even give the job to campbell. before that pg&e had assigned it to the wrong maintenance yard. >> they basically wasted about 3.5 hours doing nothing. brendan: others at pg&e could have prevented this fire that day. 94 miles away in this unmarked pg&e building, operators thought about turning off the power, but decided not to. >> if they would have gotten up there earlier, if they would have used any of the tools available to them or simply cutting off the power to that section of the line until they could get their. -- get there.

there would have been no fire. >> so how many times does it have to happen? brendan: the year before dixie, pg&e pleaded guilty to crimes for sparking the camp fire. pg&e's critical neglect of a power line killed people in and around paradise. >> camp fire, we put our foot down. people died. you can't just have a civil settlement. brendan: pg&e pleaded guilty to 84 manslaughters. >> making pg&e a felon, a kill er. brendan: the dixie fire sparked just up the highway in the same canyon. the butte county district attorney said his team could have proved pg&e guilty again. there is value in calling a crime a crime. that was what you had to give up this time. >> at this point, yes. brendan: he and other da's allowed pg&e to settle the dixie fire in civil court. in exchange, pg&e agreed to pay

damages more quickly to the people whose homes burned down. >> get money back into the community. brendan: the d.a.'s say they wanted to avoid a repeat of the camp fire, where pg&e's crime victims are still waiting for payment four years later. >> this is super cool. i'm super stoked for this. brendan: sue is glad for any money that will help greenville rebuild. the nonprofit she helps run got $3 million in the deal. but it still does not feel right. >> it's a game. for me it feels like just like a game. it is all about money and power. brendan: if they had convicted pg&e of crimes in the dixie fire, prosecutors say the punishment would have only been less than $330,000. after paradise, when pg&e paid a fine of only $10,000 per manslaughter victim, prosecutors called on state lawmakers to pass tougher penalties for companies. >> the ball is in their court at this point. brendan: the lead camp fire

prosecutor is not sure if bigger fines would be enough. he wants the ability to jail pg&e executives if they don't keep their safety promises. >> to me, that's the only real thing that is going to stop this, is if the people who are making the decisions in pg&e have consequences. brendan: but our investigation found the legislature passed laws to protect pg&e, not punished it. they created a multibillion-dollar insurance program which pg&e plans to use for the dixie fire. we revealed the bill to great that insurance was written by lawyers working for governor gavin newsom's office, a law firm that used to represent pg&e. >> the laws are not made for the average american. brendan: despite its 91 felonies and sparking more fires every year, pg&e remains free and it remains in power. >> if you don't hold somebody

accountable, they will never be accountable. they will think they can do whatever they want, and they are right, they can. ♪ kristen: a lot to think about. we want to turn things over to meter really just mike nicco and see if we have immediate fire danger. mike: we do tomorrow when temperatures are hottest and the breeze picks up. calfire is working at least eight fires, none larger than 1000 acres. we are looking at anywhere from 15% to 99% containment, so nothing big right now. let's look at the graphics.

as we look at 1:00 p.m. tomorrow, we are looking pretty good, low to moderate. then the heat of the day and winds pick up and you can see orange start to develop. that is mainly in the east in the ultimate pass -- the altamont pass. by 11:00 in the evening, the orange is gone. by thursday morning we are back where we started w

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you u mit bebe sprisised ♪ the barnes firm injury attorneys ♪ ♪ call one eight hundred, eight million ♪ kristen: welcome back. dub nation is counting down to game six at the nba finals on thursday. we can bring it home there. we will be on the road. if you will be wg atrive city, l the fans, mike has a sneak peek

at the weather forecast. mike: it was pretty comfortable last night but not as much as we get into thursday. this will be breezy at 61. that is at 5:00 as people gather around. by the time the game ends it will be breezy and cool with increasing clouds, 56. a quick look at boston if you are headed there tomorrow, 71. we warm up to 76 for thursday. friday the temperature is going to soar up to 87. it will be pretty warm there over the father's day weekend. hopefully we won't need that game seven, but if we have it back home temperatures will be cool on sunday also. kristen: thank you very much, mike. a reminder, abc7 is your exclusive home for the nba finals. we will have live coverage from boston thursday. you will want to keep it here on abc7 for after the game with larry beil. mike, are you still there? i want to know if you think we should win it seven.

i personally like winning at home because then you can have the confetti, the crowd going while. mike: tonight, the extreme weather gripping the nation. the boy swept away, two adults swept away trying to save him. also the emergency at yellowstone. the home into a river. and the record-breaking heat across this country. first, those new images coming in, the unprecedented flooding emergency and rock slides forcing yellowstone national park to close entrances. the house falling into a river. tonight, the new images of that home carried away. bridges and roads washed out. communities cut off. no power or safe drinking water. the rockslides that made travel treacherous. the severe storms across several states. the deadly flooding in milwaukee. that boy swept away. the two adults trying to save him then taken, too, into a drainage opportunity. and tonight, the record-breaking heat gripping the country.