>> building a better bay area. moving forward, finding solutions. this is abc 7 news. >> thank you for joining us. you are watching getting answers live on abc 7. every day, we talked with experts about issues important to the bay area and get answers for you in real time. today, we will talk about desktop with pg&e to see how things are going and what it will take to keep the air conditioning on. this is not just any heat. it is dangerous heat for many people. we will ask the doctor how these conditions are streaming our bodies and what we can do to protect ourselves. and, san francisco's commercial real estate market about to

crash? all the vacant buildings seem to point to a plunge. our media partner the san francisco standard will be here. but first, our continuing heat wave. our seventh day flex alerts where we are asked to conserve electricity. let's get to our meteorologist with the latest. it is stunning how many places are seeing triple digits. >> just about all neighborhoods until about an hour ago. the sea breeze has come -- return to some neighborhoods. san francisco 10° cooler. at that has just happened within the last 45 minutes or so. those temperatures are still extremely hot. but they are not as happy as they were an hour ago. upper 90 still in santa cruz and napa.

san mateo down to 88°. it has not reached any other neighborhoods yet. 97 in oakland. everybody else over 100. this morning we had record warm low temperatures in several neighborhoods. other temperatures, we were within a degree or two. here are the forecast tests. 116 in livermore yesterday was the hottest temperature ever in the bay area. not just livermore. everywhere. there were other areas like redwood city. they set their all-time september high.

some new advisories came out earlier today. you can see that coast under heat to advisories until 8:00 this evening. simkins until 8:00 tomorrow. -- san francisco until 8:00 tomorrow. we added the san francisco bay shoreline until 8:00 this evening. temperatures well into the 100s. kristen: thank you so much. we want to get some answers with regard to today's seven consecutive flex alert. joining us now is pg&e spokesperson deanna. thanks for coming on the show. >> thank you. kristen: cal iso is warning us to be prepared for possible outages this evening. what would trigger back? >> that is right, due to the possible shortfall, energy

call f thoseotinoutages.u it is when they call on the utilities to curtail. kristen: i understand there are three energy alert levels. explain them to us. >> those are cal iso's alert levels. they decide on those alert levels. they are in charge of balancing the great, supply versus demand versus the available resources. they have been calling for these flex alerts to conserve for all of californians to conserve energy to prevent those outages. so far, it has been working. we are doing a great job at conserving. this is another day of the flex alert from 4:00 p.m. until 9:00

p.m.. so do not use any of those large appliances. kristen: our conservation efforts collectively could influence our fate with regard to whether there will be outages. i want to point our viewers on the useful tools on your website. when you can look and put in your address. i think we cannot run our viewers through it. you can enter your address. it will pop up a blocked number. it is your own internal designation. explain to us how we look at that and determine whether our house or business may be subject to a rotating outage tonight. >> the website is pg

e.com/rotatingoutages. the block you are returning to is also on your utility bill. there is a blocked number on there and you can look it up to see if you are impacted. it depends on how much the state needs. kristen: so we put in kgo's address. for those who are listed in the potential outage blocks, what is about shut off time and the range and how long could they be out? >> so block 50 is the least likely to be affected by

rotating outage because we share with the fire department. for others, depends on when the state calls for those outages and how much they need utilities to shore up. that is when pg&e is waiting for them to make the call. so far, they have not made the call. kristen: but if somebody was to get shut down, he says we will keep it short and keep rotating so nobody will lose power for long. how long is the length? >> we really try to keep it to a couple of hours max and to keep rotating them quickly. and to make sure the same group of customers are not impacted again. kristen: did we get close yesterday? >> according to cal iso's press release, he says they did get very close. that resources were very tight

and for californians to prepare for possible outages. kristen: today is a little bit hotter, but hopefully we are used to conservation now we know what to do. you gave us a few ideas for how to prepare by pre-pulling the house, closing the windows and blinds. now we were only an hour away. once forklift comes, what should we start doing? -- once 4:00 comes, what should we start doing? >> hopefully you pre-cooled your house. try and keep the air conditioner at 78 or higher. unplug and the appliances that are not being used. do not use your washer and dryer your dishwasher.

try to unplug everything that you can. even if you are in an area where temperatures are not as hot, every little bit helps. kristen: the heat could affect your supply as well. is there a supply issue? >> we have seen some heat related outages. saw some in the east bay yesterday evening. we sell one here in santa rosa. when equipment is in triple digit, does not have time to block so you can get outages. kristen: where should people go to get conservation tips or if they need resources should they

be facing a power outages situation? >> pg&e does have some cooling centers around. as well as our survey and commies. -- counties. you can always go to pg&e.com for the locations and any tips. we want our customers to stay safe. check on your loved ones, especially the elderly. kristen: pg&e spokesperson, deanna, thank you so much for help us. coming up next, but he does not only uncomfortable, but it is also dangerous. a doctor will be here to explain how we can protect

♪ (don't stop me now) ♪ ♪♪ ♪ (don't stop me) ♪ ♪ 'cause i'm having a good time ♪ ♪ having a good time ♪ ♪ i'm a shooting star leaping through the sky like a tiger ♪ ♪ defying the laws of gravity ♪ ♪ (don't stop me now) ♪ ♪ 'cause i'm having a good time ♪ ♪ i don't wanna stop at all, yeah ♪ ♪ ah, da, da, da, da da, da, ah, ah ♪

♪ i don't wanna stop at all, yeah ♪ the human body, especially those not acclimated to conditions. joining us is ucsf infectious diseases expert. thank you for joining us. how did this extreme heat impact our bodies? >> it impacts our bodies in several ways. the mild ways people would notice his dehydration. your body has less fluid to go around and take the blood to transport it to vital organs. so some organs may suffer. in an extreme sense, the body diverts the blood away from the body -- the heart, the liver and

moves it to this end. -- to the skin. kristen: what are the signs you can watch for? >> some people may not always have the symptoms we expect. because they are elderly or newborns, for example. tiredness, dizziness, the skin may change. and i would come up that might look like flushing. -- in a light-colored princeton, that might look like flushing.

a high heartbeat or high respiratory rate. normal heart rate is 60. over 100 you start worrying. at the end of the day, if you have a good thermometer and it is going close to 40, some thermometers do not go back high. that might be another dangerous sign. have you seen any patients coming today with the mild there are more severe impact? >> talking with some of the clinicians in the emergency department, both here in san francisco and the central valley in fresno, i would say fresno is being hit hard right now. they talk about double digits of people coming in every day to the emergency room.

they have had to think about their protocols. what you do when somebody has heat stroke is you put them in a misting area or a cooling area and have the fans blowing around the mist. in the san francisco area, it is half the amount of fresno right now. kristen: could you replicate the mist at home? >> in terms of the mild version, but people can do is replicate with the spray messed. kind of what people used to spray their plants with.

and a fan to blow it around. also, cooling packs under the arms and other parts of the body could be helpful. you can take off as much clothing as possible. people do not open think about those early interventions that you can do at home. kristen: you had mentioned the elderly and babies. who are the more vulnerable people in this kind of heat? >> the most vulnerable are those who are pregnant because extreme heat can have impact on the newborn. the next group is newborns.

they do not have as well developed part of the bring to regulate temperature well. also, their body is smaller so they do not have much ability to cool down the body. also kids under four and the elderly. they have a small threshold. some medicines that people take commonly like diuretics make you urinate a lot. it may be counterintuitive some of the medicines we use. also, people with diseases that neh because your body may not

regulate in the same way because of the medicines we give you. kristen: we heard the school district shortened their school day for the rest of the week because they do not have air conditioning. >> totally a good idea. i want to make sure places kids are going to our set up in a way that cool. kristen: that is a good point. get to a library if your house is hot. you make two people with chronic illnesses. what about people with medical devices is? what should people do who are reliant on medicine or devices if they have a blackout? >> definitely make sure it is recharged. we have so many people who we

are able to take care of at home because of technology. making sure you have a backup plan with a backup battery may be. pg&e has a program for batteries that can be delivered. long-term batteries that can be installed in people's homes that can give you more than eight hours. kristen: should people put off getting their covid or flu shots this week due to the heat? >> absolutely not. when people get together in these cooling centers, they are

close together. kristen: thank you so much. coming up next, as offices remain empty, real estate experts say the downtown commercial market is poised for a collapse. i'm jonathan lawson here to tell you about life insurance through the colonial penn program. if you're age 50 to 85, and looking to buy life insurance on a fixed budget, remember the three ps. the three what? the three ps? what are the three ps? the three ps of life insurance on a fixed budget are price, price, and price. a price you can afford, a price that can't increase, and a price that fits your budget. i'm 54 and was a smoker, but quit. what's my price? you can get coverage for $9.95 a month. i'm 65, retired, and take medications. what's my price? also $9.95 a month.

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kristen: have you been to downtown san francisco lately? you may have noticed empty commercial space. the san francisco standard reports the situation is bad. then in commercial real estate is poised for a collapse. joining us right now is the editor. nice to have you on the show. he took a deep look at this. how high is the vacancy rate? >> according to the latest statistics, the official vacancy rate is 20%. when you account for space that

is also available for sublease, it is around 25 million square feet of space available in the city. this is something that there is a historic amount of space for lease on the market. kristen: when dictate -- when did things take a downturn like this? what happened? >> the pandemic happened. we have a very tech and software heavy economy. when the pandemic hit, a lot of those companies want remote. they dumped office space or left the city entirely. they switch to remote friendly or hybrid work schedules. far fewer people are coming into offices. about 30% of the people that were commuting before the

pandemic are not going to offices. if these trends continue, it could mean real problems. kristen: you sent us a graphic that was part of your story. looking at the other big cities in america as well in terms of how much valuations have gone down. walk us through where san francisco stands. >> san francisco was the worst city that this research team looked at. it looked at eight major cities. in a worst-case scenario, in the upper bound range, san francisco values could drop by as much as 43%. kristen: let's say i have a $100

million building and now it is worth 60 million billion -- 60 million. >> we are already seeing a lot more property asking for reassessments on property trying to cut their tax bills. we do have some protection from a seven wholesale collapse. prop 13 is in effect. it is a law that restricts how reassessments can happen. that offer some protection from a huge wholesale collapse in a downturn. it is not unusual to see these reassessment requests in a downturn. if we do see a dramatic fall however, that could mean a big hit to the cities property tax. and that is our number one source of revenue. any decline would be devastating. kristen: because it means less

money for all the services we provide, the agencies. that is fascinating stuff. i encourage people to read your full article on the standards website. thank you so much. you can check out more of the san francisco standards of their original reporting as well longer website. -- on their website. -- on their website. flex alert! flex alert! a power outage is looming. that's just alert, he's always getting worked up about something. flex alerts notify us of preventable power outages. that way we always know when to help stop one. okay, flex, just drop some knowledge on me again. oh okay, i will. i'll turn our thermostat to 78. i'll unplug the blender. the hair dryer. - my blankie? - yep! - let's taco 'bout it! - nope. ohh, we can save the laundry 'til the morning. yes please. oh, little things like this help save our power and help save us from outages. with flex alerts, the power is ours. learn more at powersaverrewards.org.

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us today on this interactive show, getting answers. we will be here every week day at 3:00. world news is coming up next and

i will be back here at 4:00. we will see you then. tonight, breaking news here in ukraine. a major turn in this counteroffensive against the russians tonight. what sources are now telling abc news. and back home tonight, the flooding threat in the east. and the deadly fires and record-breaking heat in the west. in parts of the northeast, heavy rains and flooding fears. a half foot of rain in some places. ginger zee tracking it into the night. and the deadly wildfires in the west, as millions are now in the second week of record-breaking heat. in some places, temperatures topping 115 degrees. here in ukraine, the new images coming in tonight in this fight to push the russians back. is it working? reports of fierce fighting. what sources are now telling us. and after the world witnessed the horror, the atrocities, we take you to bucha. what we had not seen before.