exclusive abc 7 storm impact scale. it is a level 5 severe storm the first level five we've had since the inception of our storing back scale seven years ago. i want to make it clear that we are expecting severe impacts from the storm. we don't mean to sound alarmist, but we want you to be prepared. for what's coming our way? emergency operations across the bay area on alert and standing by ahead of this level five storm tonight. we are tracking the storm timing it out and helping you prepare to keep your families and your communities safe. good evening. i'm amidates and i'm dan and ashley. thank you for joining us. we have abc 7 news team coverage with all of our crews all over the bay area tracking preparations ahead of the rain and the wind we begin with abc 7 news anchor spencer christian weather anchor to start us off with the timeline of the storm and well we can expect spencer. okay, i'mma this is going to be

a severe storm as we've been pointing out all day. here's a look at our satellite radar compositive and showing that storm intensifying out to see there's going to arrive here two waves. the first wave will come from our southwest bringing warm moist air into the area some of that moisture has arrived already as you can see a live doppler 7. most of it is right now evaporating before hitting the ground, but we have reports of some light showers already ahead of the main storm and that mainstorm as we pointed out is a severe level 5 on the abc 7 exclusive storm impact scale the first level five we've had since we introduced this storm scale impact scale seven years ago. it'll produce tomorrow heavy rain damaging wind very high flood threat mud and rock slides trees may be down as well start our forecast animation at 6 pm notice the storm will begin to arrive with great intensity just before the morning commit gets underway around four five am tomorrow. then that first wave will push through we'll have a little bit of a break just before noon, but it won't last very long maybe a couple of hours before that.

second wave that's stronger wave of associated with a cold front pushes in that's going to produce widespread and long periods of heavy downpours and strong gusty wind up to 60 miles per hour at times the storm will begin to lose some of its intensity tomorrow night, but it'll still be a pretty strong storm pushing into thursday now some of the effects of the storm. well, the rainfall totals will be impressive right around the base shoreline anywhere from 1.65 inches of rain here in san francisco to nearly two inches of rain and other locations up in the north bay. most locations will have anywhere from two to two and a half inches of rain and we expect down to ben lomond 2.77 inches of rain from this storm so you can see why we have a flood watch that will be in effect for the entire bay area from late tonight to thursday afternoon. also a high wind warning and effect for that same period of time for the entire region from coast to bay to inland. we'll see at times when gusts between 50 and 60 miles per hour and here are some of our main storm concerns flooding on roadways stream and creek flooding.

mud rocket landslides power outages down trees very high concerned for the first concern for those impacts and high concern for river flooding meanwhile in the sierra prepare for more snow which a storm warning in effect there from 7 am tomorrow to 4 am friday anywhere from six inches to about 36 inches of snow with this storm and again strong powerful wind gusts up to 65 miles per hour travel will be difficult to impossible either a full accuweather seven day forecast and a few minutes dan, okay. thanks very much in the north face some of the biggest areas of concern include parts of the russian river, of course mark west creek. mayakama creek and laguna de santa rosa abc 7 news. anchor liz kreitz is live in santa rosa tonight and has more on people getting ready liz. hi dan, that's right. in fact, we're at the maintenance yard right now in santa rosa people have been here all day putting together sandbags. you can see some people are who right now. making their sandbags getting ready for the potential of flooding a big concern as you

mentioned is the russian river and we have learned that there is a flood warning for the russian river by johnson's beach. i'm joined now by santa rosa fire marshal paul lowenthal paul. thanks for joining us. on saturday the north bay really was able to escape some of the worst of the storm on new year's eve. what are you expecting tomorrow? yeah, we did dodge a bullet last week. however, we are anticipating not only moderate and heavy rains but also significant winds to north bay sonoma county specifically so with that we do have some concerns about localized flooding pawning a rose roadways a lot of trees down power a lot power outages throughout not only santa rosa but really the north bay, it seems like the big difference here is going to be the wind. yeah, the winds are definitely a factor given how saturated the soils are following the last several storms that we've had and what we're expecting in the coming days 55 mile an hour gusts in the valley floors is definitely a concern of ours and we do anticipate a lot of trees and power lines down. all right, we're talking about flooding too. so, how are you guys preparing? yeah. so the santa rosa fire department really fire departments around sonoma county

or upstaffing our swiftwater rescue team, so we will have a couple boats staffed up for our department specifically additional chief officers. our department operations center will be staffed and if needed we have our cities emergency operations center staff on standby, so definitely taking this serious. hopefully, we don't have any significant issues, but we have to be prepared given what the forecast is. alright. 10 seconds, so you recommend people get a go bag. what do you tell people? yeah, so some of the residents that live in around the burnt scars. we're asking to have the same preparations. they would have for fire season being prepared to evacuate an event. there's any major mud slides or debris flow and utilize in the last couple hours of the day to clear any gutters of storage rain system so that the water flows where it needs to go. all right paul. thank you so much as always paul lowenthal with the santa rosa fire department here. again, you can come to the maintenance yard in santa rosa to get sandbags. people are here right now. there's other sandbag stations that up throughout the county people are also officials are also asking people to stay home if you can to make sure that first responders are able to access all the roads and get to the problematic areas tomorrow live here in santa rosa this croates abc 7 news.

good advice. thank you. liz some parts of contra costa county like walnut creek and danville saw massive flooding on saturday and those neighborhoods know they will likely be hit again tomorrow. so preparations are underway abc 7 news reporter on sir hudson joins us live from danville with more answer. our good evening. i'm on our capitan drive here in danville. you may remember on saturday. this area was flooded three to four feet of water. you can see the streets have been cleaned up, but still there's a lot of thick mud out here the concern now for neighborhoods like this one being saturated on saturday. how will they hold up against wednesday's downpour? for 20 minutes 45 minutes ago this line of cars in walnut creek is a people waiting for sandbags and then came an update from the county. i would say within the hour. they got lucky within the hour ray musket who lives in walnut creek picked up 15 bags in the morning. he's back for more that's pretty severe. so hopefully everybody gets

through it. okay, and i mean, it's it's it's scary for some people, but i got a generator and i think we'll be prepared. i think the best advice that i could give to the residents of contra costa county is to stay off the roads during these big storm events if you can brian bulbous is the public works directed for contra costa county along with keeping sandbag stations stock. he says the county is still working to clean up areas hit on saturday and now getting ready for wednesday. our biggest concerns are just to be able to prioritize where we are going to have problems and we understand that we will see some isolated localized flooding cruise continue to clean up the area around el capitan drive in danville on saturday. the area was flooded with several feet of water nelson brosim's family was one of the family's rescued on kayak by the fire department. we tried to get a hold of sandbags, but multiple locations were just completely out. so today they're improvising

rose from bought a pallet of soil to line this house. got lucky the water never made it in but he doesn't want to repeat if saturday. he knows the cleanup crews cleared the storm drains, but he's worried that won't be enough. i'm not sure that's gonna solve the problem either. i just don't know if they got enough of it out or if it's plugged, you know out of our sight so i'm pretty scared about what's happening next. now the county says based on what they saw on saturday. it will be all hands on deck through tomorrow the entire staff on call reporting live in danville unsad hussain. abc7 news. yeah all hands on deck hunter. thank you in san francisco city officials say they are ready for the storm but are warning people that the amount of rainay simple too much for cruise to handle abc 7 news reporter. land melendez is live at city hall with the very latest land. dan you stole that's exactly what san francisco is saying all hands on deck. but what is coming they say is

very severe and they're concerned now this afternoon at a press conference a city officials out loud outlined a few things that you can do to help. for a city with an amount of resources the cleanup from this weekend storm proved to be a challenge at a press conference with city agencies. san francisco. mayor london breed was blunt our hope is that why we are still recovering cleaning out storm drains and working really hard to get our city back on on track. the time is not going to be sufficient between now and the next storm to completely recover. that's because this is expect. to be one of the worst storms in san francisco's history where mother nature will have the upper hand. we do expect localized flooding and mudslides down trees and power lines to occur in san francisco. the city's emergency operations center will be functioning in shifts of 12 hours beginning tomorrow at 4 in the morning

through 4 pm on thursday most businesses on folsom street already had sandbags in place after experiencing major flooding over the weekend generally. just trying to cover as much as we come with handbags. and it's just all we can do the water went straight into our building the other day. so i hope to prevent that this time around this is video given to us from another business el tapa taqueria, which spent days cleaning up and today hopes sandbags will keep most of the water out sandbags proved to be a hot commodity 8500 have already been given out to san francisco residents until the department of public works ran out this morning. another shipment was expected this afternoon. i'm not complaining but i wish i would have known i have other things i can do as well if you have not experienced flooding in previous storm events. you're not likely to experience flooding. so please leave those sandbags for people who have had flooding issues in their home this morning. members of the san francisco home less outreach team.

we're offering shelter beds for those willing to leave their tents some refused others took their advice to seek refuge my brothers and my sisters they are dying and stuff. you know, i mean, yeah, i'm starving on the industries and they are cold city agencies are suggesting that residents. stay home if they can and limit their 911 calls only for emergencies. so a death situation. so the city is asking people not to call 911 instead call 311 if you have any problems and usually it works you can still pick up some sandbags until eight this evening and by the way in case you're wondering schools tomorrow will be open in san francisco leanne melendez abc 7 news. hey great information, leanne. thank you and be sure to watch us on air and online tomorrow morning starting at 4 am for the latest weather and road conditions near you our abc 7 morning team will be tracking

the storm closely including the forecast any possible damage and your morning commute. so tune in and join them at four o'clock in the morning still ahead. he's accused of killing at least 7 people in stockton and the bay area and today the suspected serial killer was back in court. we're going to tell you what happened plus a warning to the public after an inmate escapes in the north bay how he broke out of the sonoma county jail and what you need to know about this man. abc 7 news at five continues in a moment

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inmate to escape from sonoma county jail in santa rosa this morning the inmate ran from the jails loading dock located on ventura avenue at 8:40 this morning. john. avila is described as a white male weighing 210 pounds about five seven. he was wearing a gray sweatshirt with a blue undershirt and white pants over blue shorts. avila has been in custody for possession of a stolen vehicle since mid-november if you see him or know is whereabouts contact police immediately. all right still ahead here our team coverage of this incoming strong storm continues. we'll take you live to the south bay to show you the preparations being made there and abc 7 news weather anchor spencer christian will be back with a timeline of what we can expect stay with us.

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we are not expected to see the same high rainfall numbers as in other parts of the region, but there is still a risk of flooding abc 7 news reporter dustin dorsey is live in san jose with the warnings from officials, dustin.

yeah, not warning is simple get ready today, so you will be ready tomorrow and people have taken that message very seriously. you might be able to see behind me. this line has been consistently long. we've been here since 3:30 people come in and out about the most that we've ever seen at this location one of the valley water sandbag locations. people are getting ready for that storm tomorrow that is going to be very serious across the region. when it comes to storm protection, it could sometimes be too late by the time people respond to major rain and flooding, but just days after the south bay was pelted residents recognize the significance of preparing very important. now why so don't want any damage big ones coming in tomorrow, so i got to be prepared. well, i don't want to be caught with my pants down valley water has a similar message. they were happy to see people grabbing sandbags before the storm. but say it's also important for people to sign up for emergency alerts have a plan and know if

your home is at risk of flooding all those normal places that you know, those people who live in those neighborhoods know. hey when when the waters really come and they see those creeks rising, you know, we're asking those people to definitely be prepared that includes areas along the yuba's creek in south county and issue. we've seen before the upper penitentia creek and especially along the guadalupe river. there's a lot of people along these waterways and i don't know, you know how many we're actually going to be alerted to the fact that this atmospheric river is going to be you know coming in deep homes in the south bay clean creek coalition have been going up and down the rivers warning people to move out of the areas for their own safety. he also asks, they take all their belongings with them. so the cleanup after a storm like this isn't as much to with typically, it'll take about 10 cleanups to get in here and get all of the shredded plastic that you know, the aluminum the batteries all the harmful materials that were in those encampments that have sort of sort of been swept down with the storm waters along with trash people can get swept down the river as well. we were in this exact spot

november when a rescue had to happen to save someone living in an encampment along the river rain and wind events like this don't happen often and it's the work done ahead of time that could save lives when a storm like this comes like you saw on that last storm that came really flooding can happen anywhere. so you need to be prepared for the possibility that it could flood in your area. absolutely, and you know you could be prepared by coming to one of these sandbag locations that is put on by valley water there in alviso, morgan hill palo alto and two here in san jose. stay ready and be safe tomorrow everyone live in san jose dustin dorsey abc 7 news. alright, dustin. thanks very much. let's go back to time all of this out for you and get details that you need to know about this storm. abc 7 news weather. anchor spencer christian is back with those details spencer. okay. i'm a dad. we'll start with a look at our satellite radar composite image once again over the last 12 hours looping this to show you the approaching storm, which is

a big vigorous powerful storm. it'll come in two stages. the first stage will be this warm front comutest wilng wm air into the bay area that's happening right now actually some of that moisture has arrived already ahead of the of course the first wave of storms and we most of this is evaporating before it hits the ground right now, but we do have reports have a couple of locations that have had some sprinkles already now, you can see again the floor is from the south warmer air is coming in as a result the 24-hour temperature change shows that it's a few degrees warmer right now then at this time yesterday, let's take a live view from superstar tower looking out over san francisco. where right now, it's 52 degrees. also 52 palo alto 51 at oakland and mid 50s. is san jose santa clara and half moon bay looking at one. liver of sunset setting sunlight moving through the clouds here as we look westward from the east bay. it's 49 degrees right now at santa rosa 48 napa a little more 47 and mid 40s at novato fairfield and concord one more live view from emeryville. looking toward the golden gate and these are our forecast

features the storm's first wave arrives overnight in the early morning hours just before the commute begins flooding rain and strong damaging wind will accompany the storm tomorrow in both waves and the storm begins to weaken just a bit on thursday once again on the exclusive abc 7 storm impact scale. this is our first level five storm for tomorrow. we expect it to reuse heavy rainfall damaging winds with gusts up to 60 miles per hour possibly very high flood threat. they're all so threat of rock slides mudslides and down to trees. we'll start our forecast animation at 6pm this evening notice overnight. we'll see that storm beginning that first wave surging on shore just before the morning commute begins, which is usually around five o'clock or so. it's going to be what rainy stormy windy slippery morning commute? we'll get a little bit of a break in the midday hours maybe for a couple of hours before the second wave a cold front sweeps through that's going to intensify the storm bring even heavier and more widespread rain as indicated by these more vivid colors of orange and red. that'll continue through the evening community. so both the morning commute and

the evening commute will be challenging messy slippery stormy and the storm will just'l be more rain on thursday. in fact speaking of rain. rainfall totals for the two-day period to be over an inch and a half in san francisco and just under two inches in many other locations around the bay shoreline over two inches in san jose just under two inches in the end of these bay and above two and a half inches over much of the north bay as a result of flood watch will be in effect from late tonight to thursday afternoon for the entire bay area and i talked about the strong gusty wind. we have a high wind warning in effect for the entire region windsor gusts from 50 to 60 miles per hour over in the sierra went to storm warning in effect from early tomorrow morning to early friday morning up to three feet of snow may fall there and here's the accuweather seven day forecast. you can see even after the level five storm tomorrow begins to weekend. it'll still be a level three storm, which is a strong storm on thursday and every single day on the forecast period we expect some periods of rainfall on top

of saturated soil. that is not a pretty picture. yeah. all right. thank you spencer. well as we brace for the storm to arrive today cruise in the sierra conducted the first snow survey of the season. we'll tell you how the snowpack we'l(steven)ou how the snowpack lookevery time i come to see caremore, they go above and beyond to take care of me. i feel a lot better now. i'm taking medication for what i should have been taking years ago. (vo) call the number on your screen to learn more about medicare plans in your neighborhood that include caremore.

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abc 7 bay area streaming app on your roku apple tv fire tv and google tv devices. you can find the latest forecast and live doppler 7 anytime as well as live coverage of the impact as the storm moves through state water officials got some encouraging news from deep beneath the snow in south lake tahoe today officials from the department of water resources conducted the first no survey of the year at the phillips station snow course, they say water content level is at 177% of average and we're off to one of the snowiest starts in about 40 years, of course, the recent storms still are not enough to end drought conditions. no, single storm event will end the drought we'll need consecutive storms, you know month after month after month of above average rain snow and runoff. power off to a decent start, right the dwr measures the snow

pack at over 260 locations across the sierra to forecast the amount of snow that will melt and run off to state reservoirs. this approaching storm has led to a flurry of business today at local hardware stores property owners loading up on everything from rain boots to water pumps today at center hardware and supply company in san francisco by midday some of the store shelves were already empty. we've already got a lot of calls for sandbags today. we've only got a few left. we're totally out of sand. our wet patch supplies for roofing is fairly good. our tarpaulins are good, but i won't expect me to last before the end of the day. one hardware store staffer says clearing the storm drains around your home is an easy way to prevent flooding good thing to do. absolutely. all right. well world news tonight with david muir is next but our coverage of the impending storm continues. it does coming up right now at 5:30. we'll have a live report on the storm preparations underway in alameda county and more details of the storm timeline from spencer. yes. join us on the abc 7 app or head

to abc 7 news.com

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tonight, several breaking stories as we come on the air. the extraordinary and historic battle unfolding tonight on capitol hill. something not seen in a century. severe storms across several states. bracing for tornadoes tonight. and news on the buffalo bills star after that chilling scene on "monday night football." tonight, on the first day of the 118th congress, the first day of the house under republican control, republicans failing to elect a speaker. one round after another, kevin mccarthy failing to get the votes. rachel scott on what happens t. next. the horror during "monday night football." the buffalo bills' damar hamlin collapsing on the field, going into cardiac arrest, receiving cpr on the 50 yard line. players in tears, the stadium falling silent. tonight, we have news on the player and what au