that include caremore. announcer: building a better bay area, moving forward, finding solutions. this is abc7news. >> you are watching "getting answers." we talk with experts about issues important to the bay area and get you answers in real-time. we are going one-on-one with the san francisco mayor. she took on the national weather service after the new year's eve storm that flooded parts of the city. now she is facing criticism for how she handled things and we will give her a chance to respond. drug overdose deaths are on the rise in the u.s. but there is an innovative program in canada saving lives by giving users a safe place to get high. could it work in the bay area?

she traveled to vancouver to find out and will join us without look at the new documentary. first, the bay area is seeing significant damage after several days of strong storms. there are many road closures and the threat of flooding remains high. in santa cruz county, this area is already underwater. drone video shows the water level. more rain is on the way. let's get a check with meteorologist lisa argen for the latest on the forecast. you tell us the worst for now is over. lisa: that is right. you can see the rain swept out of here early this morning. certainly some problems from the santa cruz mountains. we are starting out with flood warnings around the bay area. i want to take you south of

gilroy. a flood warning in effect until 8:30 tonight around highway 101. this is a dangerous area. we will be looking at the floodwaters to continue to recede. that is the good news is this will be receding. right in here, we are looking at flooding. further to the north, hill road, the flood warning, just after midnight. the creek continues to recede, the river i should say. it will take another five to eight hours before we get below flood stage. you can see san luis obispo getting the brunt of the rain. they have had a lot of problems to the south of us. not used to getting five inches of rain. you can see how it is lit up here.

as we go back in the bay area, storm reports, 97 storm reports throughout the day-to-day. one debris flow. 71 flooding reports and 25 wind damage report. certainly some dry slot now. boulder creek, 5.6 is of rain. almost 5.0 in saratoga. redwood the north bay can take a little more. they are doing a little better. the break for everybody around the bay area today is that we have not had rain throughout the day. looking at below flood stage after 8:00 tonight. the river at santa cruz currently at 17 feet.

the river is falling. right around the expressway, 9.5 feet. it is seven feet, a little over. flood stage nine feet. by tonight, it is below nine feet. the russian river flood stage was at 32. just above at 5:00 a.m. because we are forecasting more heavy rain tonight. finally, at and tomorrow river -- navarro river, flood stage and cresting tomorrow. the next round of rain coming our way 10:00 tonight. 4:00 tomorrow. everyone is still under a flood watch through tomorrow afternoon. 58 in san francisco. 60 in san jose. lots of clouds but dry pavement. the surface winds are calm.

that will be changing by 7:00 as we bring in the moderate system tomorrow with showers. could even see a thunderstorm. after midnight, we get heavy rain as it pushes through the east bay. 6:00, tuesday morning commute, it is a mess. flooding into 7:30 in the morning. through the afternoon, it gets a little lighter. we are still looking at problems. wednesday brings more rain. between now and tomorrow a winter storm warning with high snow levels that will continue to drop through the day on tuesday. here is a look at wednesday's reign. the break thursday into friday. more rain saturday into sunday. the accuweather forecast is bringing in the heaviest rain overnight tonight. a level two system dropping off to level 1 with lighter rain on

wednesday. a break on friday. another round over the weekend. after that, i think we will be drying out. dion: many thanks. you can always track the rain on the abc 7 bay area streaming app. we have the latest forecast and doppler there for you. it is available on roku, apple tv, fire tv, and android tv devices. next, san francisco mayor london breed joins us. how she is responding to controversy involving the national weather service and how she is making sure the city is prepared for s

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dion: breed is facing criticism in the wake of the storm. as we first told you last week, the mayor was out of v where she that criticism now tat the national weather service. she says it did not give the city proper warning about the storm. we have invited the mayor onto the show to address the controversy. mayor breed, thanks for being here. mayor breed: thank you. i want to start by saying most of what you said is not entirely accurate. new year's eve, i was here in san francisco dealing with challenges as it relates to the storm. i had a chance to meet with our police officers and lineup because of the fireworks and all of the wonderful activities that happened in san francisco despite the challenges of the storm. there was never one instance or one time i was ever unavailable to deal with the challenges in san francisco.

as you can see, just to be clear, the national weather service provided us with information that was different from what happened. that is to be expected sometimes trying to project the weather forecast. we had experienced weather of that magnitude with 5.5 inches since 1994. the fact is it was a challenge. we rose to the occasion. we dealt with it. there is a lot of misinformation as it relates to not only my whereabouts but more importantly i was constantly in contact with many of my department heads, like i am even now today, to address the challenges our city faces. dion: with all the respect, to be clear, we want to be clear we did not say you were unavailable. we had a reporter on the show last week that did indicate there was a presence with you

and city workers. that did not happen to be documented online, so people automatically glommed onto the raiders game in las vegas. i do want to ask you -- mayor breed: i was not in vegas for the weekend. i only went for the day, for the game, for clarity. dion: that was clarified because there was indication of the new year's eve party that was attended. mayor breed: i attended it in san francisco, by the way. dion: that was cleared in our interview with the standard last week as well. i appreciate you bringing that up again. can we get back to the actual issue you had with the national weather service? i know you had some choice words for them last week in reference to the storm and how you were informed. however, the national weather service did fire back several days ago saying they were spot on with their forecast. what happened was there was that lull in the storm that confused a number of people. mayor breed: i don't really

think it was choice words. i think we were communicating based on the information we had. the national weather service felt the information i provided was not entirely accurate. we anticipated less than one inch of rain in san francisco. they projected it would be about two inches bay area-wide. i think there was a bit of a discrepancy here. at the end of the day, it was not about pointing fingers or trying to say someone did not do something. it was really to say this is the information we had. this is how we prepared. the national weather service says they had this particular information. but regardless, i think it is time to move forward. this is not about finger-pointing. this is about focusing on the fact we have issues and challenges around the weather. san francisco has rose to the occasion despite the fact we did not have the kind of information we could have -- that could have

helped us more, but we still rose to the occasion. we did what we needed to do to respond to it with sandbags and city services for people who had to work over the storm. we did see significant -- we did not see significant challenges in san francisco like we saw throughout the bay area. dion: i do want to talk about moving on and the current storms. however, i want to give you an opportunity to respond. obviously, youp to go t ge lidwhat was in your decision to still go? why did you still feel compelled to attend? at the end of the day, hapeople are at odds with in your decision. mayor breed: i think at the end of the day, i am the mayor whether i go to las vegas or

not, i am the mayor, whether i am in the middle of my vacation, i still have to answer the calls. i still have to be available. i still have to respond to any challenges of the city. around the covid pandemic, most of the time, i was working from home because we were in the midst of a pandemic and using technology and making myself available to respond to issues. i think as long as i'm doing job, as long as i'm focused on being available and responding to the challenges that exist, that should be at the height of what we do. dion: something we should mention also is that was touched upon in our interview last week that in this era of work from home, we are always available. i know you had other city leaders on-call and things were taking care of in san francisco, so that brings me to our next question of going forward and gearing up for what is to come. san francisco is under the state of emergency.

how long do you anticipate that lasting? mayor breed: i want to be clear the state of emergency, the governor issued one last week, the president issued one today. it has mostly to do with our ability to get reimbursed for a lot of the expenses related to our response. we have had to secure significant numbers of sandbags. we have had to call in staff to work overtime. it will be very costly because we had to respond to the storm and even the challenges of what we are dealing with even now. we have had to clean out debris from our sewers and fix roads and deal with trees. it is a lot of work and a lot of extra work that goes into dealing with the challenges of the storm. it will be pretty expensive. my hope is as a result of the declaring a state of emergency, we are able to get reimbursed for unanticipated responses. dion: something we also covered was the storm drain issue, especially in areas prone to

floods. how are those drains holding up this week? mayor breed: i don't know the specifics about the people who have adopted drains. i know we fortunately have a lot of great residents of san francisco takingd clearing out n regular basis, not just once when a big storm hits, but in general. we also have a lot of city workers, department of public works workers, and folks from the public utility commission, out there clearing out regu -- storm drains on regular basis. if anyone has any interest in joining us and adopting a drain, we could use your help. call 311 and we will get you signed up. dion: i want to get to this because i watched your press conference last week with city leaders and emergency management personnel. it was repeated ad nauseam to make sure to call 311, not 1911,

unless there is a life-threatening emergency. are people listening to that advice? mayor breed: i think so. we received about 3600 calls for service. over 1200 were tree related. i think for the most part, the public responded to that so we want to appreciate the public and the news outlets for getting the word out so 911 was used mostly for life-and-death emergency situations. we are chipping away dealing with those calls. we are grateful and hopeful we will continue to get through this storm. dion: any one las question of any messages for the upcoming storm and to the people of san francisco breaking for more rain? mayor breed: the good news is new year's eve was one of the most challenging. since then, we have seen about eight inches of rain. we are not out of the woods yet. we still have a lot of trees that have fallen. the ground is still saturated and wet. we can anticipate other

challenges in terms and sinkholes and things of that nature. i just ask people to be patient and be careful and to continue to use 311 to report i'm off the mesh non-lifethreatening calls. dion: many thanks to you for being here. next, injecting hope. we take a new look at the we take a new look at the life is uncertain. it's okay to feel stressed, anxious, worried or frustrated. calhope can help access, calhope free and secure mental health resources today. call our warm line at 833-317-4673 or livechat at calhope.org

- life is uncertain. with calhope's free and secure mental health resources, it's easy to get the help you and your loved ones need when you need it the most. call our warm line at (833) 317-4673 or live chat at calhope.org today. >> you are just another number now. >> these are people who not only struggle to access our medical medical care system, they also struggle to access recovery programs. >> one thing i am sure of is i am not going to quit trying. >> i had that hope inside that

we can change as people. hope is the anchor. if you don't have hope, you don't have anything. dion: powerful and eye-opening. those are the words that came to my mind on "injecting hope." it is an in-depth look at how vancouver is dealing with overdoses opening up the first safe injection site. i welcoming my colleague who produced, shot, wrote this documentary. i really commend you for this project. >> thank you. it was an opportunity of my career, the biggest so far, to be able to be on the streets speaking to people impacted by this drug overdose crisis every day. dion: i want to point out a lot of viewers may not know this but you are from vancouver and knew about the safe injection sites. why was it so important for you to tell the story and do it now? >> as we all know, the drug

overdose crisis is getting worse and worse across north america. certainly, in california, the bay area, san francisco specifically. the tenderloin district continues to be under siege. in vancouver, canada, there is a similar neighborhood to the tenderloin called the downtown eastside. it mirrors the tenderloin district in every way. i sent some footage back to the producer i'm working closely with and showed it to him. he was taken aback. you cannot even tell the difference. i could very well have been here. to get there and have this very similar city facing a very similar crisis, but they have a safe injection site. they have had it now for nearly 20 years. we are starting to see some of that impact. dion: as you were answering, we saw clips from the documentary.

i want people to know you were not only just a one-person force with this but you shot it with a cell phone. that is a monumental task. on the same token, that also helped you access to challenging situations. >> the iphone i have been shooting with going back to 2019 when i was reporting in nebraska with the historic flooding going on, so it is interesting this week with the flooding, it reminds me of that. the iphone does many things. one of the most notable, positive things about it is it breaks down the barrier between you and the person you are interviewing or having a conversation with. you don't have the intimidating camera person with you. you don't have an intimidating camera. often you will see in the documentary that i am in alleys with people. that is where i spent most of my time in vancouver, in alleys speaking with people, having

conversations with them. i had a backpack on and my phone in my pocket talking to them. as we would continue the conversation, i would ask, would you like to share this for a documentary? i would pull out my phone and say it is as easy as this. more often than not, they were willing to talk. it is that kind of access, that intimate look into these people's lives, that you see in this documentary. dion: that is what great journalism is, getting people to open up and be comfortable, especially for a situation so sensitive. to be in the thick of it and having that access makes the difference in your documentary. that brings me to the next question. here you are, by yourself. i am sure you have run into challenges shooting this. i can imagine when we are in the tenderloin on a daily basis, we are with a security guard, another camera person. you did this on your own. what are some of the challenges?

tara: in some ways, the iphone makes that even less challenging. i will answer the challenging part. that is also one of the positive things about the iphone. i was able to be in these areas where people often get upset if you come in with a large camera, so i was able to maneuver around those areas without drawing a lot of attention to myself which is a huge plus trying to do these types of stories. the challenging part is i am by myself, so it is very had on a swivel situation. i did a lot of research, a lot of speaking with people who work with drug users on a daily basis to know where to go and what to watch out for my own safety. it just came down to those conversations. i could feel if i was comfortable in a conversation with somebody, even then, i'm

very aware of what is going on around me. i cannot even count how many times i just left a scenario. just a hard turn right to get out of the situation. very much situational awareness. of course, there are challenges. with the fluidity of the phone, i was able to move through a lot of that. dion: really have about a minute left. i really want to get to this. you spent a week in vancouver. you were in the thick of the situation investigating the safe injection sites. do you think they work could these be implemented in san francisco successfully? tara: people ask me that all the time. at first, it makes me go, i don't want that question, good question, the question everybody is asked think so it is a great journalism question, but it does not matter what i think pit that

is what is powerful about this document repeat i just show people what is happening. i wanted the viewer to feel like they were with me in the mayor's office asking the question they wanted to ask. dion: i think the answer is we have to let the audience decide for themselves. thank you so much. i am looking forward to this. for all of you interested, you can see tara's incredible work on the app. " injecting

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experts across the bay area. world news tonight is next. i will see you for abc 7 news at 4:00. tonight, breaking news involving president biden reports that classified documents were discovered from president biden's time as vice president. where they were found the white house just releasing a statement. also tonight, the parade of dangerous storms slamming the u.s., 12 dead already here in california. ten states under alerts for heavy rain, snow, flooding and mudslides, winds gusting more than 80 miles per hour, evacuation orders outside los angeles tonight, another storm hitting this ebbing and another one midweek. rob marciano here to time this out. the stunning move today for buffalo bills star damar hamlin just one week ago collapsing on that field. tonight he's now left a cincinnati hospital flown to a buffalo hospital and the scene